Chapter 6 - A Droning Sound

The droning noise filled his head. It rang out in a constant buzz. Over and over it echoed throughout his mind until it became unbearable. Whatever poison he had been forced to consume had completely removed his capability for self governance. He couldn’t move, his only interaction with the outside world was sound. Useless as that was considering the only sounds he could hear was the distant buzzing and the ragged sound of his own breathing. Whatever he had been administered must have dulled his system inside and out. He could hear himself nearly choking on the saliva that had formed in his throat. Each breath sounded like it would be his last. It was a terrifying experience overall. Acutely aware of being on the verge of such a pathetic death with no ability to prevent it. He stayed like this for an hour, maybe two. The droning continued on and on.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz…

It never stopped. Unlike the other awful experiences he had gone through in the last twenty four hours, this was starting to simply piss him off.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz…

Silence! Shut up! As the noise continued for another hour the rage building inside him was growing unbearable. Pain, fear, annoyance. All of these emotions had been completely overtaken by true and primal rage. He shout the command to his body: MOVE! No response. RAGE! No response.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz…

He felt as though he could strangle someone with his bare hands. At first the perpetrator, then simply anyone in sight. He would wring their neck so tightly that their eyes would pop out of their head. Each reverberation of the buzzing sound he began to associate with and out burst of violence. Strangling, snapping, crushing. Gutting, slicing, biting. He roar and screamed within the silent confines of his mind. Man or god, innocent or guilty. No one deserved this torture. There was no law on heaven or in earth he would not defile gravely to escape this eternal hell. Even the fiery hell that Aelithae brought upon the earth had been merciful by comparison. An hour of fear, a moment of pain, then nothing. Oh sweet nothing. How gravely had I mistreated you? He saw now the futility of it all. How blind men must be to cling to immortality. To live is risk being trapped in this eternal torment, to die is bliss. Every man is blessed from the day of his birth with the ability to die. Only a fool would reject that give.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz…

Oh gods! It would be so easy to die! One quick fall, one fell of a blade, one sip of hemlock and a few moments more and you can be released from this mortal coil! The gods must truly be mad to live forever. It’s so obvious! This is the lesson there are seeking to instill in him.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz…

He was a fool to come here, to taste the curse they are forced to endure. The foolish man who coveted life when he was given the greatest gift of all: death! Release! Freedom! He wept, he screamed, he mourned. Yet no sound escaped his lips. Only the constant sound of the buzzing hell. After what seemed like an eternity, a true blessing fell upon him. He heard a noise, a new noise. Something he had not heard for a lifetime. It was sobbing. His own sobbing. Finally some layer of his conscious had broken through and regained a scrap of control. The sobbing was pitiful and quiet, intermittent between short gasps. But there nonetheless. He sob in pain, in sorrow, but too in joy. How lovely each sob was, for even just for a mere moment it drowned out the horrendous sound of the insidious buzzing. After some time, it seems his sobbing was noticed. He heard new sounds. Voices and footsteps. The strange language of the gods as they milled about around him. A man first, then a woman. The man’s voice was steady and straightforward, but the woman seemed to voice some level of concern. They conversed there for a while and Arwin rejoiced. He wished they would speak forever without cease, the diversity of sounds they made were to him as was water to a man dying of thirst. Their conversation carried on until at last the man seemed to resign himself and the woman let forth a satisfied hum. Arwin felt a quick sting on his inner arm, then his consciousness faded away again.

He was staring at a ceiling, that much was clear. Where it was or what it meant was a complete unknown. He sprang forward and sat up. He was sitting in a bed. It was a strange bed and a strange room. The whole of the room was covered in white tiles. The bed in which he sat was quite narrow. It was not uncomfortable but it was clearly not designed with comfort in mind. He lay on some manner of cot which had been placed over the metal base of the bed. The metal lay out like a web beneath it, giving some flexibility. The bed was sparsely equipped. A single thin white sheet and a single white pillow. He looked to his right. There was a window. It was open. The constantly pleasant warm air flowed in, billowing out the long while curtains as it did. At the foot of his bed there was a short metal bench which leaned against the wall. Leaning against it was a young woman, not far in age from himself in appearance. She wore her blonde hair in a short crop that ended around her neck, she seemed to have little care for styling. Her hair was very unkempt and messy, a far cry from the highly stylized hair Arwin had seen on the other gods. Her garb was similarly simple. She wore a very plain shirt made of white cotton. From her waist down was a pair of hearty looking trousers which were dyed a faded blue color. The knee on one pant leg had worn out, a symptom of overuse, Arwin thought. In her hand was a short knife. It did not seem very sharp at a glance. In her other hand was a bright red apple. She had been peeling the skin from the apple with the knife, as evident from the untangled peel which had draped over her wrist. Clearly Arwin’s awakening had startled her to some degree, as neither of them had moved a muscle since he had bolted upright. Arwin stared at her, mystified. Of all the gods he had encountered in the city, she seemed the most human of them all. She was incredibly short by their standards, just barely his height or slightly taller. She had yellow eyes. Arwin had never seen someone with yellow eyes. They mystified him. It reminded him of when his father, stricken by cold, had had his lips changed to a bright blue. It was impossible to look away. It was as if the sky was green or the sun blue. Such an exceedingly unnatural sight, Arwin found it impossible to look away.

The woman seemed suddenly aware of the situation and recovered from her shock. She stood up right away. Her first action was to turn her gaze from his, was it embarrassment he wondered? She shot a glance back over at him. Her face had flushed quite red. The woman cleared her throat dramatically and set the apple down on the bench behind her. She neatly wiped the backside of her hand which has been moistened by the touch of the peel and stormed out of the room. Arwin felt very awkward, as he was suddenly alone in the room. Looking back out the window, he wondered how many days had passed since he arrived here. Judging by the longing in his stomach, they had not fed him. Outside the window, there was a yard. Off in the distance he could see what appeared to be the city center where he had explored on the first day. They must have hauled him here in one of the strange creatures with which they commuted from place to place, it was too far of a distance to walk or even travel by carriage. In the yard just outside the open window, a number of gods milled about. After a while of observing them, it seemed as though they were paired up quite purposefully. Each man or woman was paired with a woman in a simple white gown. They were all in pairs of two of this nature. Each gowned woman accompanied a god with some varying degree of maladaptation. One stumbled as he walked, another seemed very slow to process what was happening around them. Each was attended to gingerly by the gowned women. They reminded him of women who would attend to the village girls during pregnancy, very patient calm caring women who devoted the whole of their day to the care taking of another. This was another level however, given the state of the facility and the uniform they each bore, it seemed this was a fully fledged profession. Arwin tried to examine them to see if he could spot between the journeyman and apprentices, but they all seemed of an equal charge.

The door opened, and the golden eyed woman from before returned. Followed in toe by a god who could only possibly have been the equivalent of a physician. Arwin knew the look well, straight laced, piercing eyes and a strange desire to cut and poke and prod at him. It was unmistakable. The physician and the woman entered the room and looked Arwin in the eye. The physician said a few words to the woman, then both turned back as he spoke some words address at Arwin.

“Coothe sahl dae reneath lo coempae?” The question seemed as though it was supposed to be disarming, but having no idea what the physician had said to him, Arwin could only stare in response. The physician sighed and produced a small metal tray. Arwin had seen them in the cities, though he could not guess their usage. They had been displayed in the windows of the expensive looking shops in a great multitude, each sporting different styles and shapes. The physician swiveled his finger across its width, as if making a note of something. With that, he said a few short words to the woman and stepped outside. The woman stood quietly, but did not make eye contact with Arwin. The air in the room was very awkward once again. It was so uncomfortable he had nearly forgotten that these were likely the people that kidnapped, drugged and then tortured him under those excruciating circumstances just before he awoke. He did not forget however and turned back to examine the woman more closely. Neither she nor the physician seemed like they meant him any harm, so what was the deal with the drugging and kidnapping? Whats more, the woman’s gaze, however fleeting, reminded him somewhat of his sisters. Caring and warm but silently scolding. He had given his sisters plenty of reason to scold him over the years, but this woman was a complete unknown. Arwin noticed he was thinking of the inhabitants of the city less and less as gods, and more as people. They did not quite live up to his measure of gods. Aside from their great creations and power, they seemed quite base in their behaviors and desires. Even the men of the village would not have been caught dead berating a shopkeep or their wife in the street, but the gods of the city seemed more than content to. Whats more, even if he had been an intruder, a mere mortal, what almighty beings would subject him to such cold stares for simply existing in their presence? If they had the powers he thought they must to have created such a world, would such contempt really be necessary for a being so far below you? Arwin had never stared contemptuously at an ant beneath his feet, and to these gods he must seem even less than that.

The physician entered the room again, this time he carried with him a small metal box. He made some comment to the woman, and then shook the box against his ear in an exaggerated manner. The woman giggled slightly, then noticing Arwin’s eyes upon her cleared her throat again and regained her serious expression. The physician walked to Arwin’s bedside, then sat down at the foot. Instinctively Arwin retreated from the man, still unsure of what this situation entailed. Noticing his reaction, the physician gave a reassuring smile. He pointed a the box then at Arwin. Then he pointed between him and the woman before finally raising his hand and flapping his fingers open and shut, as if to mimicked the appearance of speaking. Hungry and mentally exhausted, Arwin decided to quit his resistance. Relaxing his posture, he resumed his original sitting position upon the bed. The physician opened the box, then handed the contents to the woman. She made sure Arwin was watching her closely, and brushed her hair aside, exposing her ear. She then mimicked the act of placing the strangely shaped clear object into her ear. Reaching forth, she placed her hand upon his and opened it gently with her fingers. She then placed the object in his palm. Arwin stared at the pair, who looked back at him expectantly. They want him to shove this thing in his ear? Did they not realize the torture his ears had just been subjected too? The last thing he wanted to do was risk anything that put him through that situation again. Arwin scanned the eyes of pair, but saw no malice within them.

He sighed and resigned himself before moving the strange object up to the opening of his ear. Once it reached the entrance, he rotated it a few times until it fit snugly against the opening. It was not so bad, in fact. The device was neither cold nor hot and it was quite soft to the touch. Whats more is it seemed it was fit perfectly to conjoin to one’s ear. Once the device was firmly inserted, the physician retrieved another small object from the box. He raised three fingers before slowly lowering each. A countdown? Arwin had little time to guess, once the last finger was lowered the physician pressed against the little device in his hand and a sudden rush of water liquid protruded from the device in Arwin’s ear. The feeling was not unpleasant, but it was surely peculiar. Back in the village there was a popular custom among the women to take their husbands to get done which involved the pouring of warm water through the ear canal to clean up all the buildup of wax inside. The women got it done mostly for cosmetic reasons, and they only dragged their husbands along once the men had thoroughly become half deaf. Incredibly, the procedure worked quite well, and most of the men who had trouble hearing quickly regained a notable portion of their ability to process sound once the wax was expunged.

Arwin figured this must be how those men felt, the warm sensation rushed up his ear and deep in the recesses of his head. It wasn’t quite like water, it felt very thick, like the long strands of saliva that would drip from the maw of a hunting hound. The warm sensation pushed deeper and deeper, until it felt that it was enveloping his very brain. There was no pain, only a slight sensation of pressure. As quickly as it had begun, it was over. Arwin raised his hand to his ear to catch any liquid that was prepared to run out, but none ever came. When he prodded the opening of his ear, he was shocked to find that the opening was in fact completely clear. The device itself had melted away into nothing.

“What a peculiar feeling” Arwin said aloud. He tilted his head over and lightly tapped on the opposite ear, trying again to expel any of the liquid which had flooded into him in vain.

“There is really no need, I assure you.” The doctor said calmly. “Once the nanomachines pierce the blood-brain barrier, the operation is complete. You should have no problems or discomfort, at the most perhaps a feeling of being waterlogged but I assure you this will pass within the next thirty minutes or so.”

“Operation?” Arwin asked “It surely didn’t seem like a-” Immediately he clasp his hand over his mouth. Operation? Doctor? Nanomachines? What were these words? Furthermore, why could he suddenly understand be understood by the physician? No, no. He was not a physician. He was a doctor. There was no such word in Gaelmarkian common. Doctor. Physician yes, even apothecarian… but doctor?

“Oh dear,” the woman giggled “finally feeling talkative? I was worried all you were going to do was stare at me all day. I’m not that kind of girl, you know.”

“What in the world is going on?” Arwin inquired “Is this some manner of magic?” The doctor laughed as Arwin said this, setting the small box down to his side upon the open window sill.

“It may seem that way, but I assure you it is just some very clever science.”

“Science?” Arwin parroted, much less assuredly than the doctor had said the word.

“My, my” The woman chided “What ever awful place were you held in that they didn’t even teach you something simple as that? Those slavers ought to be ashamed of themselves, for more reasons than the obvious.”

“Slavers?” Arwin could do nothing but blankly repeat the words around him, their context was equally as confusing as his ability to understand them.

“Well of course,” the woman continued “Who else would leave some poor malnourished soul like yourself in the that backalley without a zip to your name and not a word of Danican upon your tongue?”

Arwins thoughts swirled for a moment. This was all happening so fast. What had begun as a nightmare was quickly blossoming into something greater. His five year plan had nearly found completion in a single day. All that was left was the final two steps. “Aelithae!” He burst out suddenly. “Do you know the goddess Aelithae? I must speak with her urgently.”

The woman and the doctor turned and looked at each other with a quizzical face.

“Goddess?” The woman said, her playful tone had been replaced with one of confused pity.

“Yes, Aelithae. A fellow goddess. I need to speak to her immediately, I’m a human whose come from the future.” Arwin stared at the doctor’s face, he had a straight expression. “I know its all a bit soon but I promise its of the utmost importance, where can I find her?”

“I’m sorry son” The doctor replied. “But I think I’ll need to ask you a few questions. Firstly, where you you think we are?”

“Well, I, um…” Arwin trailed off, not entirely sure how to answer. “Well I’m not sure the proper name, but this is the city of the gods sometime in antiquity!” His excitement faded as he watched the expression of the man and the doctor. “It is, is it not? I can’t say the year for sure but sometime far before the year 403, at the very least.”

The woman took Arwin’s hand between hers and gave him a reassuring squeeze. “Dear, the year is 3,113. And we are just normal people. You’re in a hospital just outside Midnavik in the country of Greenland.”