Fate of deception

Chapter 27 - Z

In the depths of the night, Amir found himself drifting into a sleep that was far heavier than usual. His thoughts, once sharp and anxious, now grew dull and clouded as a thick fog of exhaustion rolled over him. The darkness behind his closed eyelids was vast and consuming, a void where even the faintest ticker of thought struggled to survive.

Yet, within that void, a faint glow began to take shape. It started as a pinprick of light, distant and flickering like a lone candle in a storm, but soon it grew, expanding into a pulsating sphere that filled the darkness with a cold, unearthly light.

Amir felt himself being drawn towards it, pulled by an invisible force that he was powerless to resist. He was no longer in control; the dream had taken hold of him.

As the light enveloped him, the world around Amir shifted. He was no longer lying in his bed; he was standing on a vast, endless plain of black glass. The sky above him was a swirling mass of dark clouds, shot through with streaks and crimson lightening that cracked and rumbled ominously.

The ground beneath his feet was smooth and cold, reflecting the stormy sky in perfect detail, as if he were walking on the surface of a vast, bottomless mirror.

I let my voice—low and echoing, to be slithering into Amir's head, a sound that sent chills down his spine. The last time I entered Amir's dream, commanding him to create the recent potion, I whispered darkly into his head. However, this time, I was more insistent, more commanding.

"Amir..." my voice drawled, it's tone like velvet draped over steel. "The time has come for you to prove your loyalty. To take the final step. The potion, Amir... the potion you have crafted with such care— now is the moment to use it."

Amir's heart thudded in his chest as he listened, the words wrapping around his mind like chains. He tried to speak, to protest, but his mouth would not form the words.

I continued, ignoring his silent struggle. "You must use it on Umaizah. Do not hesitate, do not doubt. You must subdue her, take her to the place where you made the potion. The hidden lair, deep within the heart of the forest. There, she will belong to us."

Images began to flood his mind, vivid and terrifying. He saw Umaizah, her eyes wide with fear and confusion as she drank the potion, her body going limp in his arms. He saw himself carrying her through the darkened woods, following a path that seemed to twist and turn in impossible directions.

The trees around them were gnarled and twisted, their branches reaching out like skeletal fingers, they were thick with the scent of decay and earth.

Amir saw the hidden lair, a place that seemed to be carved out of the earth itself. The entrance was a yawning maw, a dark and foreboding cave that seemed to swallow all light that dared to approach it.

Inside, the air was cold and damp, the walls slick with moisture and covered in strange, pulsating veins that glowed with an eerie light. The deeper they went, the more the air seemed to thrum with energy, a low, resonant him that made Amir's bones ache.

Then, in the deepest chamber of the lair, he saw a stone altar, ancient and worn, with symbols carved into its surface that gnarled with a sickly green light. There, I promised, Umaizah would be bound, her life force drained and twisted, until she became one with darkness, her soul a mere echo in the void.

"No." Amir tried to scream, but the word was swallowed by the darkness around him. I laughed out, a cold and mirthless sound that echoed through the endless plain.

"You cannot resist, Amir. This is your destiny. You have been chosen. You will do as you are commanded."

The ground beneath him trembled, the glassy surface cracking and splintering like ice under pressure. The cracks spread, racing towards him, with a shuddering jolt, the ground gave way. Amir fell into the darkness below, the light from above fading as he plunged deeper and deeper into the void.

As he fell, my voice grew distant, my final words barely a whisper in his ears. "Sleep now, Amir. When you wake, the path will be clear..."

There was nothing but darkness. Amir's body went limp, his mind sinking into a deep, dreamless sleep that held him captive. The morning light began to creep through the window of his room.

When Amir finally awoke, the remnants of the dream clung to him like a heavy shroud. He could still feel the coldness of the glassy pain, the oppressive weight of the darkness recesses of his mind. My command was clear, though he wished to deny it, he knew that I would follow him, gnawing at his thoughts until he had no choice but to obey.