Halisayan, Mother of Compassion wept before me. Oh, my child, she asked, why have you gone beyond my reach? The great river of the dead stretched out before me, the damned and nameless choked its sunless banks. My father was there, screaming as he rotted, and Halisayan screamed as she rotted and everything screamed and everything was a scream and the scream burned in my mouth.
I realized where I was, the Darkness Woman had poured a blast of gin in my mouth. It stained my mouth and the stench of it had pulled me from my slumber. The shadows moved strangely in the half light of the stars and the red moon. She was caring, and offered me another jigger from her flask. She rubbed my back as I downed it.
It was only at that moment that the uproarious laughter of my guide registered to me. I could see him now, almost doubled over in laughter with some of the porters. The Darkness Woman left me with her flask and stalked off in a rage. She walloped my guide, who fell to the ground, still laughing. “Why didn’t you warn him, you jackass!” she barked, kicking him. She stomped him one last time for good measure, spat on the ground beside him, and walked back to my side. My guide, still laughing, slowly came back to himself, and followed her to me. He reached into a pocket in the lining of his robe and pulled a small bone amulet out and threw it to me.
“What you caught there, that was a little fright. They fall upon folks who are bad at dreaming, you know, outsiders and the like. Give them awful nightmares. Put this under your pillow and it’ll scare them off. Well, not the big frights, but the little ones for sure.”
“You should have given it to him when we left Baihu,” the Darkness Woman said.
“Maybe, but now, our friend won’t forget to use it.”
- From My Travels in Chen Durel, an account of a travelogue by a Kralorelan trader of Chen Durel extraction returning to his ancestral home. Large sections are missing from the common editions, for reasons that are not easily understood from the surviving material.
I realized where I was, the Darkness Woman had poured a blast of gin in my mouth. It stained my mouth and the stench of it had pulled me from my slumber. The shadows moved strangely in the half light of the stars and the red moon. She was caring, and offered me another jigger from her flask. She rubbed my back as I downed it.
It was only at that moment that the uproarious laughter of my guide registered to me. I could see him now, almost doubled over in laughter with some of the porters. The Darkness Woman left me with her flask and stalked off in a rage. She walloped my guide, who fell to the ground, still laughing. “Why didn’t you warn him, you jackass!” she barked, kicking him. She stomped him one last time for good measure, spat on the ground beside him, and walked back to my side. My guide, still laughing, slowly came back to himself, and followed her to me. He reached into a pocket in the lining of his robe and pulled a small bone amulet out and threw it to me.
“What you caught there, that was a little fright. They fall upon folks who are bad at dreaming, you know, outsiders and the like. Give them awful nightmares. Put this under your pillow and it’ll scare them off. Well, not the big frights, but the little ones for sure.”
“You should have given it to him when we left Baihu,” the Darkness Woman said.
“Maybe, but now, our friend won’t forget to use it.”
- From My Travels in Chen Durel, an account of a travelogue by a Kralorelan trader of Chen Durel extraction returning to his ancestral home. Large sections are missing from the common editions, for reasons that are not easily understood from the surviving material.
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