Heart of Dorkness

Monster One - Alive

I woke up with a deep intake of breath. Not a gasp filled with the cloying black tar that clung to my throat and clogged my airways, but pure, fresh air.

I was alive!

I was alive?

My eyes fluttered open, then squeezed shut. It was too bright. The ceiling above was made of some white stone that practically glowed in the sunlight pouring in from a floor-to-ceiling window to one side of the room.

The glimpse I’d gotten did reveal some things. I was in a bedroom, a very nice one. I... didn’t recall exactly how I’d known that it was a nice bedroom. Maybe it was the size of it? The pretty purple curtains next to the windows, or the dresser against the far wall, dark wood covered in careful, intricate carvings that I couldn’t quite make out in the little time I’d had.

I was alive, and not home.

Home.

Like cold water down a parched throat, my mind snapped to full wakefulness. The fog was washed away, but beneath it was nothing. Fragments and ideas, threads that were snipped and cut. Home was...

I frowned. Home was...

I started breathing faster. The memory was just there but it was still beyond reach, like trying to touch my own image in still water. It warped and rippled away as I reached it.

But I wasn’t a dumb girl. I could remember being praised for being clever. Not by whom, or why, but I knew that the right way to avoid panic was to think things through. “I’m aware that I’m confused,” I muttered. A mantra?

I had to break it down. That was a neat trick that always worked.

First, how did I feel?

Well, I was scared, and a little bit terrified, and very spooked. But those were all feeling-feels. I had physical-feels to look into too.

I wiggled my toes, waggled my fingers, and scooted my hips around. I felt fine! My tummy had a bit of emptiness to it, so maybe I was due for a snack.

After that was... seeing how things were around me? Then I could get rid of all the confusion! Perfect plan... me... whatever my name was.

Oh, that was probably bad.

I opened my eyes again, slower this time, to take in a ceiling that was made of stone with large wooden beams across it. A chandelier hung from above, all crystal with no lightbulbs within. I wasn’t entirely sure why that was important. Around me were posts reaching up, with curtains draped across them. A four-poster bed? That was more princess than I was used to. Probably.

Something else jumped out at me.

The words hovered there, perfectly in focus, the letters like those in some terribly old computer, all blocky and square.

I wiggled to the left, and the prompt wiggled with me. Interesting!

I wiggled to the right, and the same happened. Hypothesis confirmed!

“So cool,” I said as a hand slipped out of the covers and reached up towards the prompt.

“I would advise against that, child. Accepting a new fate so soon is only going to lead you down a path of tears and sorrow. Patience, for the right moment, for the right knowledge, and for the right circumstances, will often reward you far more than blindly charging ahead.”

[Congratulations!]

[Through your actions you have unlocked the potential to obtain the following classes:

Sleeper

Tar Drowned

Do you wish to learn more about these classes or accept them into yourself?]

The voice had come from inside the room. A rich, cultured voice. Slow and careful, but captivating, like the growl of a cat about to strike.

I slowly craned my neck around and found that I wasn’t alone in the room.

In the corner, not too far from the window, where the light from outside would splash against her, was a woman. Tall and lithe, with sharp features. White skin, bulging with veins that pulsed purple. Her dark eyes locked onto me like someone eyeing a choice of desserts before picking one out.

“Hi?” I tried.

“Hello, child,” the woman said. She gestured to the side, and the shadows shifted.

Not shadows, but a creature. Long and covered in segmented armour, with protruding spikes and flesh so dark it swallowed the light. Its mandibles were opened over the pages of a book which it slowly closed with knife-tipped feet.

“Oh wow, it’s so cute!” I said.

The woman blinked. “Pardon?”

“Um, it’s cute?” I repeated. I was talking about the giant centipede baby, of course. The big cutie pie, with its big mandibles and wee-widdle claw-feet.

“This is Milpiés, the Long Librarian,” the woman introduced. “It is a unique creature. In its past life it was a great hoarder of knowledge, powerful but greedy. Now it seeks knowledge eternally, tearing and consuming it out of the minds of men to grow its ever expanding library.”

“He likes books?” I asked. I liked books. I couldn’t remember any of them, but I liked the idea of books. I slid under the covers a little as the woman looked at me. The woman was very imposing, after all, and quite a bit taller than me.

“I suppose so, yes,” she said. “Focus upon Milpiés, will yourself to know who and what it is.”

I wasn’t sure if I ought to do that, but then, I was in a comfortable bed, in a nice room. The woman had been there for some time, quiet and likely watching me, which was admittedly a little strange. Doing what I was told to do was right, some of the time. I knew that much.

Still, focusing on something while willing myself to know something was very strange. I focused hard, nose scrunching and eyes squinting to better make out the dark form of Milpiés in the corner. The monster shifted, moving into the light so that he was more visible, so that I could better make out the battle-scarred surface of its millenia-old body.

I focused very hard, then let out a sigh. “I’m aware that I’m confused,” I muttered for the second time.

“Perhaps that is beyond you? How disappointing.”

I blinked, then blinked again. Disappointing? No, no that would not do.

Forcing myself to think, I looked at the monster and focused so hard my head hurt.

[Milpiés - The Long Librarian - Greater Servant of the Dark God]

Scourge of Deep Knowledge

I took a deep breath, then smiled over to the tall woman. “I got it!” I said.

It had felt very strange, like popping a zit, but in my head.

“Well done. And how many of its classes did you see?”

I glanced over to the creature again. “I see his name, and Greater Servant of the Dark God, which is very spooky, and Scourge of Deep Knowledge.”

“So, only to the first. I suppose that would suffice.” The woman walked over and sat upon the edge of the bed, one leg carefully crossing over the other at the knee. “Now tell me, child not of this world, who are you, and what were you offered to come into my land?”

I tugged the blankets up, or tried to, but the woman was sitting on them, and so I couldn’t shield myself away from her questioning gaze. My initial observation had been wrong. The woman did have an iris. It was a dark, dark purple that shone a little brighter as it caught the light.

“Um, ah,” I said.

“Do not waste my time, child.”

I flinched. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say, and I only had one trick at my disposal. I focused upon the woman.

[The Dark Goddess - God of Darkness - Servant of None]

God of Monsters

One of the woman’s eyebrows rose. “Truly?”

“Your name is The?” I asked.

The Dark Goddess tilted her head to the side, then she made a noise, a faint chuff at the back of her throat that coincided with the smallest twitch of her lips. “No, child. My name is not ‘The.’ I have decided to present myself to you with my title.”

“Oh,” I replied, not entirely certain I understood, but willing enough to go along. Being called ‘The’ would be pretty strange.

“You have failed to answer my question, though perhaps I was hoping for too much. Tell me, what do you last remember?”

“Ah, well, I was... drowning, I think, in black stuff?” I squirmed in her covers. They were quite nice, thick and plush. I wished the Dark God wasn’t sitting on the bed. “Before that... I remember... a car crash?”

The Dark God nodded slowly. “And did you hear anything? A voice, an offer?”

“Yes! Someone was talking, but it wasn’t to me.”

“Then to whom were they speaking?”

“I don’t remember,” I admitted. I was afraid that the Dark God would be angered by that, but the woman didn’t seem overly bothered.

She rose, carefully and with easy grace. “So, you are a mistake. A mistake he likely made.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be, child. If nothing else, your appearance marks you as one of mine. Time will tell if you’re worth being considered as such.”

“Wow, that was kind of scary sounding.”

The Dark God stared. “Yes, I think I’ve been told that I sound somewhat scary at times. Are you not scared yourself?”

“Nope,” I said. It was only a little bit of a lie. “You seem nice. I remember drowning in black stuff, and now I’m here. So you must have cared at least enough about me to let me use this nice bed, right? So you can’t be that scary. Besides, you’re the Goddess of Darkness and Monsters. Not scary things.”

She made that strange noise again. “An interesting way of seeing things.” Turning, the Dark God started towards a door at the far end of the room. “Milpiés will remain here, for the time being. Rest. I will have more questions later.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. I was feeling rather tired.

“Valeria.”

“Huh?”

“Your name. Seeing as how you don’t remember your own. It shall be Valeria.”

And just like that, the Dark God was gone.

I stared after her, wondering how she had known that my name was missing.

Before I could wonder too deeply, sleep snuck up on me.

***