Reforged!

Dreamscape - Andrea’s Soul Cage

Andrea was walking in darkness, she felt her feet on the ground, felt like dirt. She always came here between dreaming and the nightmare, she was not for sure which was which anymore. She could hear movement, scuttling on the edges around her. She heard footprints and growling sounds. In the distance, she could also hear the scraping of chains, low and very distant. “Arcana: Light.” Andrea cast her basic light spell on herself, an area around her became illuminated with a soft white light. She could only see a few dozen feet, She could see a figure at the edge of her light. The figure turned around, it was Oliver. “Oliver!” she cried out to him.

“Andrea? Where are we.” He moved closer to her, she could see his eyes, they were solid black. “If you were not an infernal that would scare me.”

“What would?” he asked.

“The eyes,” she replied.

“Oh yeah, the dark vision spell works best when used with the infernal magic. But that does not work well here. So where are we?”

“I call this in-between. This is where I am when you are not here with me. It’s dark and frightening. Usually, you are never here.” Both of them could hear the scuffling sounds in the distance, an occasional growl and scream, sometimes male other times a female.

“Andrea, It’s taken me time, You are not part of my imagination.”

Andrea reached out and grabbed hold of him, “I am dreaming, I know, because this is not my nightmare when I am awake. I hope you are real. I am lost when I am not with you.”

“We are sharing this dream. Let me take us someplace else.” he hugged her. Oliver had good control over his subconscious dreamscape, he could manipulate this arena well.

The landscape changed around them, they were now sitting at a cozy little table outside of a small tavern. The small wood and stone building had the red clay-tiled roofs common in Cormanworth. Andrea could see the sign above the door labeling the establishment “Wyverns Tail.” She was happy to be out of the dark place, she was relieved that she was with Oliver. “You did this?”

“This is one of my favorite restaurants, I like eating outside at this time of day, just before the sun goes down. You can see the sun sphere drop right below the Temple of Toluene at this time.” He pointed to the four square buildings just off in the distance. “I am an expert at controlling my dreams, for the most part, they are boring, predictable. That was one of the reasons I got into trouble with Heather. I craved something that was forbidden, I got burned.”

"Heather?"

"I used demons to make a quick buck, one bit me in the ass and if it was not for my friends, I would be her thrall to this day."

"She is a succubus."

"Poor thing, I am glad you escaped!"

Andrea looked down at the table, it was full of food, she was hungry, she was always hungry. She nibbled on a piece of bread and a cooked bird leg. She was still feeling hungry. She got up and gave Oliver a quick kiss, her hunger went away. “I don’t know why but you satisfy me. It is strange, I don’t know why. I feel I would starve without you.” Andrea sat back down on her chair.

“I don’t see how you eat so much,” he added.

“So what did you want with Heather, I know this is a touchy subject,” she asked him.

“I am attracted to other infernal types, you being the exception. I like the wings, the horns, and the twisted tails. But with that came a price, they are demons a lesson I learned the hard way. The creatures twist your mind around, it’s not a safe place to be.”

Then for a brief moment, he imagined Andrea as a succubus, black curly rams horns, a set of red leathery wings, and a heart-shaped tail, and shook his head. How could he still get excited about that form of thinking?

Andrea chewed on a piece of cooked bird flesh, she was not for sure what kind of meat this was, she felt that it was undercooked and almost raw. “This tastes bad, it’s too chewy.” she swallowed hard.

Oliver looked into her blue eyes, “Andrea, I am sorry.”

Andrea stopped gilded down the food. “For what?”

“For what I have done to you in the past, in this dreaming world.”

Andrea grinned her face turned red, “Don’t be. I like the way you touch me. Yes, you are a bit a deviant. I also made you happy, you don’t have to worry about me.”

She noticed a few individuals approaching, they wore the brown robes of the Bhuul. They were more than a few, a dozen or so came out of the doors of various nearby buildings, she had seen them before. This is something she wanted not to remember.

“Oliver, make them go away.” She was starting to panic. There was one that she was especially afraid of, a grey-robed one. He was known as the High Inquisitor, he was responsible for determining and justice within the religion of Bhuul.

“No problem.” He got up to face the priests, he waved his hands and spoke in a haughty commanding voice, “Hello, and goodbye!”

The area changed around the two. The landscape changed and now Andrea was horrified, she was back in the Temple of Bhuul. Why would Oliver bring her here? She was being held down to a chair by two priests. One held her arms behind her and the other was forcing her head to face Oliver, he was chained to a wall. The chains forced him up off the ground, he had been stripped of his clothing.

Instead of the Inquisitor that should have been doing the torture, it was the demon, the one Oliver had called Heather. She was dressed very conservatively in the robes of Bhuul, she did not have the wings, horns, or other demonic traits. Heather was part of Oliver’s nightmares, not hers. She also could see the High Inquisitor standing next to her, he had no emotion on his scarred face. She could not read him, he terrified her, she was part of hers.

Heather was whipping Oliver relentlessly, over and over. His back was bruised and bloody, She sadistically reminded him of whom he served,

Oliver had been holding his breath, brokenly breathed out, “You are my master, Heather.”

“Not good enough, you are here to confess your sins. Each one of them. Admit that you conspired with insurgent Bartholone and his men to steal temple funds.” She struck him again, the whip cracked against his back. He turned his head back towards Andrea. His face was swollen, his lips were red with blood and his left eye had swollen shut. Andrea tried to turn her head, but the priest holding her kept her face forward.

Andrea’s mind raced, god’s no. Not again, She did not want to see this again, her brother’s hand been beaten like this, just like this. She started crying.

The High Inquisitor finally spoke, “Yes, just like your brother. This man will pay for your family’s sins unless you want to take his place. If you want to save him, accept the Ritual of Bhuuls Acceptance and become one of Bhuul's brides in the afterlife, so you may be reincarnated as a true believer. Only then can your family be spared. Take his place.” Heather cracked her whip against Oliver's back again, he was only moaning now, barely hanging on to consciousness.

She looked at his broken body, her heart dropped. This is as it was last time, “Yes, I will take his place.”

A smile crossed High Inquisitor’s lips. “Praise is Bhuul.” He reached out his open hand towards Heather. She bowed her head and handed him the whip. And he pointed to the other set of shackles on the wall. The two priests drug her over to the wall, placing Andreas’s wrists into the shackles. She knew what was about to happen. She was going to be purified, which meant being beaten, tortured each day. She would be healed by the priests of Bhuul for seven days. “The Seven Days of Purification” was called for before the sacrifice could be done.

Andrea looked down at Oliver’s broken body, “Oliver it’s going to be alright, I did this before. I will do it again for the ones I love,” tears fell from her face. “Remember me, when I am gone.”

Andrea had forgotten she was in a dream, she was reliving the experiences she had, she was in one of her nightmares and dragging Oliver with it.

Oliver had woken to sweat. He checked his body, with no wounds or bruises. The nightmare was so real, he could still feel the lashes. The beating was just as he remembered when he was Heather’s captive. She would torture him nightly, with physical and then mental pain, when she was satisfied she would reward him with her desires. This time he could not break the dream’s narrative. He looked around and tested his wards again still in place. This dream was turning into a nightmare.

He was hoping Andrea was alright, this dream girl. He quickly dressed, raced downstairs to insure the main door was locked, and then headed down to the workshop below. He quickly gathered some ingredients off the shelf, mixed them into a bowl. Pulled his dagger and sliced his palm to drop some blood into the bowl. He wrapped his hand in bandages. He spoke an incantation “Arcana Divination: Location Andrea Wellington”, he placed the mental image of Andrea in his head, all the details of his dream companion. He then looked into the bowl, the image was greyed out, blocked. This meant that she was real, but could not be found via his scrying spells.

He then went to his selection of a private collection of scrolls and books in the various places of the workshop. He spent about an hour going over the misplaced books and scrolls until he found the one with the Basic Rituals of Bhuul. He had known of the “Seven Days of Purification” ritual, he had avoided capture from Bhuul priests when he was traveling in the kingdom Blackthorn. They did not take too kindly to infernals, ones whose bloodline was mixed with demons and devils. They had a tendency to view all such as tainted and the only way to purify the taint was to beat the taint out of you. The priest would heal you and constantly clean your wounds with holy water.

He found notes on the “Ritual of Bhuul's Acceptance.” Since this was just an overview, not all the details were involved. It was designed to take the soul of the sacrifice and place the soul into a newborn son or daughter of a priest of Bhuul and provide the new child as a blessing to Bhuul. Most of the time. The term bride of Bhuul was generic, could be either male or female. Bhuul did not seem to have a preference. He looked in horror. He remembered the last thing she said, I will do it again for the one I love. Again? You don’t survive this ritual.