A Fractured Land (Working Title)

Part 6

I knew that I was in a cave, but I wasn't sure how I knew that. I was surrounded by swirling colors exhibiting heat and cold intertwined, and a hollow buzzing sound accompanied the area. As the colors battled, they ran along huge surfaces that surrounded my immediacy. If I focused hard enough, I could make out a series of enormous stone walls with long stalactites grasping toward the cool, yet fiery ground upon which I was sitting. Standing?

I took a step, realizing that I was, indeed, standing, and shifted my attention to the substance in which my feet were being planted as it molded to my shoes. My shoes were the faded brown color I remembered them to be, but the cave continued to shift and continuously mold itself into new hues, though the cavern I believed myself to be present in continued to hold its shape, regardless of the morphing colors.

It was solid ground, I was sure of it, but the eye would not have perceived it to be so.

Where was I?

"Who are you?" A soft but raspy voice seemed distant yet uncomfortably close. I attempted to whirl around to where the voice came from, only to realize that I had no idea where it had originated. "You cannot see me."

"Where am I?" I asked the voice, and found my own voice to hold the same faraway yet intimate feel I had heard from the disembodied echo.

"A better question is 'how did you get here?'"

A mirror was in front of me. No, three mirrors. One in front of me, two on either side. They were not here at first, yet, now here they were. I could not see behind me but I knew there was no mirror. How? As I gazed into the mirror, I expected to see something that meant to frighten me, but saw only myself.

"You see yourself." The voice was suddenly behind me. Instinctively, I flashed my eyes to a space directly above my right shoulder in the mirror, and--

"Close." The voice was in my left ear.

As if a large insect had landed where the voice had sounded, startling me as it beat its wings against my bare flesh, I recoiled suddenly, waving the voice away with both of my hands.

"Who are you?" I asked the voice, hearing my own voice exhibiting an unwanted apprehension.

"I did beg the question of you, first." It was a man's voice, the fact was nearly indisputable, and it had taken a new approach, echoing through the chaotic chamber with no real place of origin.

I found myself hesitating. "My name is Drevyn."

"Drevyn?"

"Drevyn of Wendwater."

"Wendwater..." The voice handled the name with care, as if tasting a familiar food for the first time since childhood.

I attempted to muster my courage, "What do you want from me?"

"Want from you?" Motion caught my eye, and I noticed a cloud of red and black mist descending from the high ceiling, emerging from a cluster of morphing purple and magenta stalactites, "You assume that I want something from you."

The voice was coming from the small cloud as it came to rest several feet from the ground. It had no eyes, no mouth. It was simply a ball of burbling mists, pulsing inward and outward of itself with red and black colors.

"I do." I continued to focus on keeping my voice level, "Why am I here?"

"A question I have no answer to." The orb stayed level, but continued reshaping itself, "I was hoping you'd have such an answer."

I changed my tactic. "Who are you?"

The cloud moved suddenly to my left, where the mirrors still floated in a wedge, holding itself directly before them, giving the appearance of four distinct entities.