ᴅᴇꜰɪᴀɴᴄᴇ - ɴᴀɴᴏᴡʀɪᴍᴏ 2019

04

With a gasp I opened my eyes to the interior of the infirmary. Taking several deep breaths, I realised, that something not only felt extremely different, but also that I was still alive. My one eye also didn't want to open up, as if it were glued shut.

"Oh, you're earlier awake than I thought. I jut finished doing your eye, so you will be conscious whilst I insert the ink into your skin, but that isn't nearly as bad as the rest, eh?"

Basgorn said from the corner of the infirmary. I sat up and looked at him. He was concentrating on filling a needle with a glowing fluid. Was it all a dream? I looked down at my stomach, to see an intricate replica of the eye on my forehead in a slightly sore looking scar-format. There was no sign of the straight gash across the entire area, that I remembered.

"You seem extremely irritated. Was your dream rather lifelike?"

He asked whilst sitting down on a chair next to the bed, the syringe in one hand. I nodded, gulping down the lump in my throat.

"That's stupid. Do you want to talk about it or rather get distracted from it?"

He asked, softly taking my arm and spreading an area of skin to inject the needle better.

"Wait a sec, this will just hurt a tiny bit."

He then quickly added, piercing my skin only slightly with the needle and emptying everything it contained into that one spot of skin. I was irritated at first, before I watched several larger, glowing dots whizzing below my skin to different areas.

"Magical tattoos are indeed fascinating, aren't they?"

Basgorn said calmly lifting my arm into my sight, showing me how the dots formed several lines around my wrist, like bracelets, before turning a lighter tone of a dull blue.

For a few seconds I just looked at the marks on my wrist, forgetting everything that happened just a few seconds before. Basgorn quickly wiped with a cloth over the area he pierced me skin at, before starting to tidy up a few things on the table next to the bed.

So, it was indeed just a dream. Everything went the way it was supposed to, and I was just overly scared. I looked at the scars on my stomach again, they were already looking quite a bit less irritated. This wasn't natural, but he said, that he'd use some magical cream to make it heal faster.

"Echadben paid me a visit, whilst I was doing your eye. He said, that we should meet him at the temple as soon as we're done here, so that you two can talk about all the details again."

Basgorn then broke the silence, after closing a cupboard door.

I nearly forgot about the actual ritual. All the weight of the past day pressed down on my shoulders again. Right. I still need to die. I looked up to see him already standing at the door. I quickly stood up and followed him, as he led the way back to the temple.

Everything seemed so different with my limited eyesight. I also had to constantly move my head around to see what normally would be visible with both eyes. Breathing felt different too. As if I were under water all my life and now I was able to breathe air. I could feel my heart constantly beating and I just felt overall lighter.

I still was fascinated by the ease of breathing, when Basgorn opened the temple door to let me enter.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye from me then. It was a pleasure to meet you and see you grow up. Maybe we'll see us in the afterlife sometime."

He said, as I walked past. I turned around, wanting to say something in reply, but he was already walking down the corridor again and the door was closing.