Five

The carriage Anna was put in was more like a one person cart pulled by a pony. It was enclosed with slats over the windows, spaced to give a little light and air. She could see Adphon leading the pony at a walk through the streets. Taking a deep breath she tried to think about what this might mean as far as symbolism went.

She was kind of isolated and leaving a relatively safe area where she had been confined. No one, not even a driver was in or on the carriage with her. Maybe that was a reminder that she was the only real person in the dream? Whether they were real or not, if she was in control of a dream world she wanted to make things nice for the people inhabiting it. 

That she should be trying to focus more on herself and not everyone else was probably what this was telling her. Anna began to consider where she was going and what might be in store for her if the dream was putting her in close proximity to some unpleasant people.

“What even is an Exarch?” She murmured to herself. 

The head of something, maybe? She had a vague memory of hearing the term in school. It was the term for someone in charge of a province or some kind of military leader, right? If it involved a temple it was probably the head of whatever religion this was. There was at least one deity they worshiped and the priesthood had a lot of power if they were on par with lords so this Exarch person was probably on par with a prince or a duke or something if only the king could overrule him. Maybe like a Cardinal? Those used to have political and religious power, right?

Cardinal Richelieu came to mind and she felt certain that this person could be useful but would be an antagonist in whatever plot this was if not the main antagonist. Why her mind would pick religion to drive the plot of this dream she couldn't fathom. Even her father's family hadn’t been very religious.

Something one of her friends from high school had said about everyone having divinity inside them floated up in her memories and she nodded. Divinity needed rules and boundaries, that’s what religion was right? The way that people understood the world and the way that they defined the traits of divinity they valued.

It clicked in her head that this was going to be a test of who she was and what she valued. The question of who and what she was had been a central theme to the dream so far. She nodded to herself again.

Paying more attention to what she could see, it looked like people were giving the tiny carriage a wide berth. For a cursed city it certainly looked well populated, though, the clothes on these people were markedly different from what she’d seen so far. Men in wrapped toga-esque tops and long pants, women in surprisingly colorful dresses, all with a shawl in either grey or brown that seemed sometimes to be wrapped covering their hair like a makeshift hood.

It looked like her mind had pulled some styles from ancient Greece, maybe a pinch of India, and the generic middle ages and put them in a blender. Eventually the cart went into a gate flanked by more high walls and she sighed.

Adphon helped her out and escorted her up some stone stairs to what looked like a lavish living area. There was a fountain in the entranceway, polished marble floors, plants, and vases. Deeper in was a room with a sunken lounge area filled with cushions, and a few small tables some holding fruit. Past that was a sitting room with a large desk that opened onto a sundrenched balcony.

Anna was almost certain the city hadn’t been sundrenched when they’d gone through it so this was probably symbolic of something. Adphon was gesturing for her to take a seat with an amused look on his face.

“This is very pretty, more what I would expect from someone’s home than a temple.”

He gave a small laugh, “The Exarch lives within the Temple walls. This is his home.”

“My father would love this study. He loves balconies.”

“I would like to hear about him,” a red robed man who looked to be in his fifties said cheerfully as he came in through the balcony door. “But more pressingly I wish to have breakfast. Have you eaten, my dear?”

“No, I haven't.” Anna put on a pleasant smile despite the surety she was right about this man being some kind of Cardinal Richelieu figure, “Breakfast sounds fantastic.”

“You may go, Master Adphon. Your help is appreciated.”

Adphon offered a bow and slipped out.

Anna walked out onto the balcony and found that there was a short covered walkway going to more rooms it looked like and a staircase down. Down those stairs was a small courtyard where a table had been laid.

“Please be seated.” 

Sitting where he gestured she looked at him curiously as he began filling his own plate. He glanced at her and chuckled, “Please, help yourself. I rarely have company.”

“Thank you. It all looks delicious.” Holding a mild, pleasant expression she put a reasonable portion of some of the things she’d had with Bririah and Orilen, along with a few things she couldn't identify.

“Have you found any foods you have difficulty with?” He looked at her plate with a small smile.

“Not yet, but after the water made my mouth bleed I’m trying things a little more cautiously.”

He nodded. “I tend to prefer pure foods but I do enjoy meats, it seems you do as well.”

“Meat is considered impure?” She took a small delicate bite and chewed it while watching his face. 

“A creature had to die to provide it.” He resumed eating his own food.

“True. I’ve met people who find that part distasteful, but animals eat each other and there’s no moral significance to it, why would it be different for people? That said, I prefer not to eat things that still have faces.”

Chuckling, he shook his head. “Understandable.”

They finished eating in silence and he beckoned for her to follow him back up the stairs and into a bedroom as lavish as the rest of the house with a sitting area outside on a small balcony. She settled onto a chair and studied him the same way he seemed to be studying her.

“Tell me about when you woke in the cell?”

“I was at a party, a kegger, and I wasn’t supposed to be there. It was… not what I expected and I walked away from the party to sit by myself.”

“Simply sitting? Were there animals or…” His brow furrowed.

“Not that I saw. I sat on a cracked cement cover on an old well. My phone buzzed in my pocket and when I leaned back to pull it out I felt the cover shift under me. That’s when I woke up in the cell.”

“Ah. It may comfort you somewhat to know that the one you traded places with will heal you.”

Anna frowned and tilted her head, “Say again? Traded-”

The man chuckled. “Each time one of them goes elsewhere to learn and grow it is through a crack created by the near death of the one they trade places with.”

“That’s a new layer of crazy to this dream, okay, I’ll bite. Them who?”

He leaned back in his seat and pulled a cord that was nearly hidden in the drapes. The girl from her room hurried in.

“Exarch?”

“Have the mirror fetched.”

Morcaryn dipped into a curtsy and left as quickly as she’d arrived.

“Your name is Annabella Isabeau?”

“Fitzroy-Grenfell yes. Who are you?”

“I am Osros.” He chuckled again.

“Osros? I thought that was the god they worship. I’ve heard ‘Osros be merciful’ several times.”

Osros barked a laugh. “And because you’re sitting with me you believe I’m not?”

“Gods-” she stopped as Morcaryn came back holding a well wrapped hand mirror.

Taking it he gestured and the girl left.

“Gods aren’t real. There’s, I always thought that there’s like a spark of divinity or something that gets called the soul and religion is just people's way of making sense of the world and shaping that within themselves.”

“That is a very interesting view of it.”

“So if you’re a god, were you born? Did you sprout from nothing? What’s the deal with that?”

He blinked at her.

“I know you’re not real, you’re a character in my dream but I’m curious about what you’ll say.”

His eyes sparkled and he uncovered the mirror, handing it to her shiny side down. Turning it she looked and then quickly turned it away again. 

“That was not my face.” Anna peeked again and shivered.

“This is not a dream, my dear girl. And to satisfy your curiosity, I was born mortal.”

“So gods aren’t immortal?” She looked at him curiously and he laughed.

“I am.”

“And you dip out of here and into other places?”

“No.” Osros smiled smugly, “They do, I don’t.”

“Why? And even if that’s a goddess’ face in the mirror, why did I wake up in a cell?”

“You may understand that it is dangerous to have gods leaving their bodies and allowing others to inhabit them. The body still retains some of its power and the ones who they trade places with are… not always decent people like yourself. You are nobility in your world?”

“No, my family was at one point, I tried to explain that. Some of them still are but not my branch of the family tree. We are technically descended from royalty too but on the wrong side of the sheets. The son was acknowledged and it’s a point of pride in the family but…” She trailed off and looked in the mirror again. “She’s pretty whoever she is. I hope she can play the harp really well or she’s going to screw up my finals.”

“She was known to be gifted with all instruments.” Osros smiled warmly. 

“So, these gods or whatever are swapping places with people and these people are being locked in cells? Naked, terrified, and alone? Is that the gist of it? All to keep them from doing something bad with powers they don’t even know they have?”

“You sound disapproving.” His eyes were sparkling again.

“I woke up naked in a cell. I thought I’d been kidnapped from the party by a serial killer or something. It was terrifying.”

“How did you get the door open?”

“Someone opened it.” Anna shrugged, “They had a lamp, I honestly couldn't tell you if it was a man or a woman, the lamp light was flickering and I was terrified. They tried to shut the door as I came closer trying to assure them that I wouldn’t say a word if they’d just let me go, I’d go home and tell them I got drunk or lost or something.”

“But you were faster?” Osros asked curiously.

“No, the door was hard for them to open and they couldn't get it pulled all the way back into the frame. I pulled on the part of the door that was sticking out until it came free. The light vanished down the corridor and I went the other way because I could feel a breeze.”

“Ah. No one is supposed to open the doors. I will find out who did so.”

“Why would you keep people, potentially innocent people, like myself, in those kinds of conditions?”

Smiling wryly, Osros rubbed his hands together. “That… They didn’t want these people wreaking havoc, so they chose to have this prison built. They are safe within and they return when the person in their body dies here. Keeping them as I do prevents them from spending years elsewhere.”

“That door didn’t seem like it had opened in years. Do the gods not need to be let out? It seems like, maybe if they have a way in and out that it wouldn’t be a very effective prison if these people have access to god-like powers or something.”

Osros gave her an amused look. “They cannot escape either. I hold them in place and, as I was delegated to do, I use the power fed to me through this,” he showed a large filigree pendant with a large opal set in the center around his neck on a thick chain, “for the good of the people. I became a god. I did not stamp out their worship, that is how they sustain themselves, but it is also how I sustain myself as well. I can always tell when they’re traveling so to speak, because more power is channeled to me.”

“That is insane. You can become a god if enough people believe you are one? Wow.” She shook her head and leaned back in her seat slightly. “And you said the person who belongs in this body will have miraculously healed my body, I just need to die here to go home?”

“Yes.” Something in the smugness of his smile told her he was lying but she nodded her head as if she believed him.

“So what happens now? I’m not sure how I feel about trying to kill myself and I definitely want to be clear that I feel like putting me in a cell when I haven't done anything wrong is not the right move either. Do I hang around here, do I-”

“Yes. Yvenalyn was a lovely and gentle goddess and unlike some of the others she looks very much human.” 

Anna tilted her head. His lips and the word human hadn’t lined up. 

“You look baffled.”

Swallowing, she shook her head, “You said some of them don’t look human? What would they look like if not-”

“They look monstrous. Those gods were gathered forcibly by the ones like Yvenalyn who chose to enter the prison. They are not all good.”

“Okay.” She nodded slowly.

“You will remain here with me until she returns. My rooms are luxurious but not expansive, unfortunately, and we will be in tight quarters.”

Deliberately, crossing her legs and shifting her weight toward him as if interested, she caught the way his brows rose as he glanced toward her ankles.

“Oh, is that a no-no here? My grandmother always scolded me for sitting this way but everyone else I’ve ever met does it too.” She changed her position back to the duchess’ slant. “Sorry. So many things are the same and so many are different here. I’m lucky that everyone I’ve met has been kind and thoughtful.”

“It is difficult to be unkind to a woman of your loveliness especially when she is so gentle. I was told that you play the harp?”

“I can play most things with strings, my mother was a gifted musician and I inherited that. The harp is my preferred instrument but I enjoy playing the violin, the guitar-”

“Perhaps you’ll play for me to ease my boredom. Living for so long… I begin to understand why the gods choose to leave so often.”

“I love to play, I’d be happy to. Any stringed instrument you like, I’ll give it a go.” She put on as warm a smile as she could summon, “I’m curious, how is it people can come from all different places, other worlds, but we all speak the same language? I know I would be hard pressed to go to another country in my world and get around as well as I have here.”

“Ah.” Osros chuckled, “We are not speaking the same language. The gods have a gift, their words can be understood by anyone who hears them and they can understand in turn. In Yvenalyn’s body you also share in that gift.”

“That is fascinating.” Anna nodded and then peeked at the mirror again. “I wasn’t bad looking, but she really is pretty. It’s just… disturbing to see someone else’s face looking back at you. Is there a reason that mirrors aren’t a big thing around here?”

“The expense and superstitions.” He gestured outward, off of the balcony. “Many think that they are some sort of portal and that something may come out of the mirror.”

“Silver mirrors like this one are expensive, yes, but we learned how to turn glass into a mirror with a thin coating of metal foil. You find them in bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways, as decoration in living rooms, even hotel lobbies and businesses will have a mirror that takes up half of a wall, or more. Mirror walls make a place look much larger.”

She handed him the mirror as he held out his hand for it.

“That seems,” he paused and then gave her a wry smile, “terrifying.”

“It’s not. Once you get used to them you start to take them for granted. You don’t even really see them anymore. It’s the lack of mirrors here that I find unsettling.”

It was quiet for a long moment and she asked curiously, “What is it gods do? Like, do you answer prayers like correspondence? Do you perform miracles?”

“I set my will to a certain outcome and the word responds to my desires.”

“So generally just sort of wishing for a better world? And you don’t have to actually put forth any effort? That seems… I don’t know, anticlimactic. I would probably be bored if that was all that was required of me too.”

Osros pulled the cord again and Morcaryn came rushing back in. “Put this away and have a selection of stringed instruments brought to my living area. A harp among them.”

“I’m actually looking forward to finding out if you have different instruments here.”

Chuckling, he shook his head. “Come, play something cheerful.”

°°°°°°°°°°°

Anna looked up at the prettily painted ceiling bearing an image of naked dancing women in a place filled with flowers. She was absolutely certain she’d seen something like that in her art appreciation class but on a smaller canvas. If this was a different place with different history, the art should be different. None of the instruments had seemed out of the ordinary either and she’d played for hours without once having any kind of discomfort. 

This was a dream, undeniably and indisputably. Osros was clearly some kind of representation of an untrustworthy person in a position of power but the plot he’d advanced, people trapped against their will, people who’d trusted him being farmed for mana so to speak felt important.

Whether or not she was actually going to wake up at some point, resolving things here felt right. Maybe all of this was just a way to give what life she’d had meaning, a task, a quest, something that she could say she’d accomplished. Maybe this dream was something like a purgatory for getting yourself sorted out so you could move on? 

Either way she needed to get more information about Osros and how he’d managed all of this. Anna jerked in surprise as Osros leaned over the edge of the sunken seating she was given to sleep in.

“Sorry, I didn’t even notice you there.” She sat up and shook her head.

“You looked lost in unpleasant thoughts. Are you having trouble sleeping? I came to ask if you were comfortable.”

She huffed a laugh, “Yeah, you could say that. My mind doesn’t want to be quiet.”

“Tell me about your thoughts.” With an amused look he settled into the conversation area with her.

Tilting her head, she shrugged and hedged her answer, “Like… you said the other person, Yvenalyn, would be coming back when I die here. But I’m not wholly certain that this isn’t a dream. I’ve always heard it said that if you die in a dream you die for real.” Anna studied his slightly shadowed face as best she could, “What happens when I die? Like, I remember we talked about philosophy in one class I had and some people have the idea that we came out of just, like, black water, the unknown, or a-a soul soup-”

Osros barked a laugh.

“And when we die it’s like we wade back into it and the you that exists is gone forever, the soul gets mixed and mingled in the soup and then a new person kind of gets poured into the next baby born. That always made more sense to me than, you know, heaven and hell.”

“How would that make more sense than a place of reward or a place of punishment?” He sounded amused.

“Look at what happens to the body when you die. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, right? After anything dies its body decays and gets recycled. The meat would get eaten either by other animals or by bacteria, the nutrients released go back into the soil or get passed on to other animals. It’s a cycle, you get death from life but also life from death.

“No matter what intervention people make, the cycle continues unbroken. So it stands to reason, by my thoughts anyway, that something similar would happen with a soul. Maybe gods are like farmers raising rabbits, they get something from looking after the animals but it doesn’t change things fundamentally for the animal. It will live, procreate, die, and then be eaten. Right?”

Nodding slowly, Osros waved his hand, “And this is what’s keeping you awake?”

“What happens in the transition? Why are people and animals for that matter afraid to die? Is it just the thought of losing the current you or is it something more?”

“Animals don’t think the way people do,” Osros offered pensively.

“They’re aware enough to know life from death. And some animals have been proven to be as intelligent as human children, they recognize themselves in mirrors, use tools, they exhibit social behaviors.” With a sigh she deliberately flopped back. “It’s a never ending thread of thought that’s winding itself into a ball and I don’t know what to do with it all. My mind just won’t shut up.”

Anna felt a hand on her leg and sat up again.

“Perhaps you need something else to focus on.”

“Oh?” She put on the most baffled look she could summon but she already had an inkling of what he was going to suggest. Her knowledge of Cardinal Richelieu was spotty at best and her idea of the man was largely formed by a movie she’d seen with some of her cousins whose mom suggested they might like it. In the movie he’d been lecherous.

“My bed is large and-” He stopped as she pulled her leg away. “You have no interest in sharing a bed with a god?”

“What would a god get from sharing a bed with anyone, wouldn’t it be easier to just, you know, do that magically or something? And, like, how old are you? However old this person was, I’m twenty two. If you’re way, way older wouldn’t that be like pedophilia almost?”

Osros blinked and then broke into laughter. “If you wish to compare ages, I am still a child compared to the other gods at perhaps two hundred years old. I still remember the pleasure of a woman and I enjoy it when I can. Even they indulged, but I will grant you it was usually only with each other.”

He rose from the sunken area and offered her his hand, “Come, I think we will both sleep better.”

Taking it she asked curiously, “Do you need to sleep? And you were eating earlier do you need-”

He broke into a grin and shook his head. “Forgive me. I wanted you to be forthcoming with your thoughts and I pressed with my will. I had not realized that you have such a curious mind and that it was boiling with every possible question.”

“I want to understand where I am, whether this is a dream or not that seems pretty necessary.” Anna let him pull her along to the bedroom. “And I mean, didn’t your head fill with hundreds of questions when you met the original gods? You had the advantage of knowing the basics about the religion here, I don’t even have that.”

Osros chuckled, “I barely remember what went through my mind when I met them. I was in awe, certainly, but they seemed… very human. I do remember that I made cautious advances, the thought of bedding a god thrilled me.”

“Somehow I would have expected gods and priests to be chaste, isn’t that something expected here?”

“Yvenalyn was not concerned with such-”

“I’m not her.” Anna frowned at him as he pushed her to sit on his bed. “I’m not comfortable with the thought of doing things that may be wholly inappropriate with someone else’s body and I would hope-”

“Enough.” Osros smiled wryly. “I will take the time to answer your questions in the daylight. You may not be Yvenalyn but you’re in her body and she would not begrudge you an evening of pleasure.”

Donning a pensive expression in an attempt to conceal her disgust, Anna shook her head slowly. “I wouldn’t want her doing things with my body. I was raised-”

He sighed heavily and grabbed her by the back of the neck attempting to kiss her forcefully. She bit his lip and tasted blood. Like a flash of lightning came the thought, if it can bleed it can be killed. That had been a recurring theme in a few pieces of media she’d consumed hadn’t it?

As Osros pulled back with a furious expression on his face she caught a glint from the necklace he was wearing and an idea sprang to mind. Coming off of the bed she put a concerned expression on her face reaching out as if to touch his lip.

The man shoved her violently onto the bed and she scrambled back against the headboard, forcing him to pursue her on his hands and knees. The heavy necklace dangled falling outside of his nightshirt and she flopped over as if she intended to try to go off of the side of the bed. He grabbed her by the waist and in her sideways position with his hands occupied she had the opening she’d imagined she would.

Anna shoved one arm into the loop of the necklace as if she were flailing and he shoved her arm over his head, stopping in shock as the necklace went over his head as well.

“You-” 

“Immortal gods don’t bleed.” With all her strength she swung the necklace at the nearby side table and the stone shattered.

His eyes bulged and he opened his mouth but no sound came out as the man withered and crumbled as horrifyingly as she remembered another evil character from an old movie doing.

To herself she muttered, “And so ends Cardinal Richelieu. It would have been nice if he’d given me more information about this dream but c'est la vie. Maybe the people he said were trapped below will be able to enlighten me. I just need to figure out how to get to them.”

Looking around, she gathered up the pieces of stone she could find and then located a handkerchief. Anna put all the pieces and what was left of the necklace in it and then began raiding the old man’s closet looking for any kind of clothing that she might be able to do something with.

“You-” A timid voice came from the balcony and Anna’s head snapped in that direction. The girl, Morcaryn, crept in with wide eyes.

“Hi. I need some clothes and I need to go down and see the state of the innocent people trapped in those horrible cells.” 

Morcaryn looked from her to the bed and swallowed.

“I don’t know how he treated you, if he tried to force himself on you the way he did me, but where I’m from women are allowed to defend themselves from bad men.”

“He-he was a-a god…”

“No. If he were a god whatever just happened wouldn’t have happened and he said himself that he was a mortal using stolen power. I don’t know who he took it from and I don’t know how to help them but I do know that he talked about people like me, people who found themselves through no fault of their own in a dark, damp cell and don’t know why they’re there. Whoever peeked into that cell and inadvertently helped me escape, I’m deeply grateful for them. Do you think you can help me help those innocent people?”

The girl nodded slowly. “Are you-are you Yvenalyn?”

“He said this was her body and that she’s in mine. I’m Annabella Isabeau Fitzroy-Grenfell.” She paused, “You’re Morcaryn, right? Will you help me?”

“Y-yes, my lady.”

“Thank you. I need some kind of clothing and I need someone to take me down to those awful cells.”