The Ring of Memories
Posted
Trevor felt a sinking emptiness in his stomach as Michael ushered them out of the room. They walked down the hallway. It looked unfamiliar. The turns they took back to their room seemed entirely different from those they had traversed on the way to breakfast. Tall doors ornamented with angular designs stood where none had been a moment before, and turns appeared where tall echoing hallways had been.
“It is glamour, Sidhe magic,” said Michael when Trevor noted the phenomenon. “Jacob is sidhe, and the forge is his domain. It is not as it seems.”
“It seems rather plain for magic. Is Faye as well, or at least, is she magical?”
“She is from a hill, and does have magic. That is true enough.”
“And the Ghost Lady too? You talked about fires and stuff with her. And you too?”
“Her name is Diana.” Michael paused. “We are different. The words could be applied, but would fit poorly. There are… subtleties.”
Michael was visibly distracted, staring off into the middle distance, but Trevor tried for another question. “So what would fit better?”
“Now isn’t the proper time for a history lesson, particularly one that I find distasteful. I must prepare for our departure.” With that he closed his eyes, but his posture was more suggestive of alertness than rest.
Trevor watched for several minutes for any evidence of ‘preparing for departure.’ When it was not forthcoming, he began putting his own gear in order.
By and by, Jacob came to the room to retrieve them. He led the way through the shifted, but vaguely familiar corridors until they arrived at a larger, circular room. It was geometrical like the other rooms in the forge, but in a different way. The ceiling, while high, did not soar. It did not have the feeling of uplifting nobility, and it was cool and dim. Before them were a number of platforms, each large enough for Faye to lounge on if she curled up.
They continued on to the center of the room, and Trevor could see that there were five of the platforms arranged in a circle. They appeared to be made of some dark metal, the surfaces etched with silvery circles and ovals, the corners curved up into four points.
Passing between two of the platforms, he saw silver tracings on the floor, thicker than those on the platforms. One set made a great circle around the platforms. Trevor realized with a shock that other tracings completed a pentagram with the platforms at the points of the circumscribed star. He glanced over at Michael, and saw that he wore an expression of distaste, but seemed otherwise unshaken.
The three arrived at the center of the room, and Jacob chanted something softly. A pale blue light ran across the silver tracings leading to one of the platforms. The arm of the star formed itself into a ramp.
“Trevor, you first,” Michael said.
They proceeded up to the platform. At the top he could see the platform was square, with a great circle in the center, and four smaller circles near the corners. The finer tracings were prevalent throughout. Jacob continued to chant, and the blue light played along some of the finer tracings in the design. Michael had him put his belongings into two of the smaller circles, and set him in the center.
“What is this?” he asked.
“One of the five portals,” Michael informed him. “It will allow us to travel a great distance very quickly. Now is the last chance for you to change your mind.”
“I am ready,” Trevor affirmed.
Jacob had already started chanting his way back down to the ramp, having made the blue lights dance to his specifications.
“I will see you later, or something very like you…” Then Michael began walking back down the ramp.
“Wait, what?” Trevor took a step towards the ramp and the retreating Michael. Suddenly the material inside a circular trace sprang up before him. All around him, perhaps a dozen or so palm-sized rings had popped up. Trevor had just begun to marvel at this when he realized that the great circle had also separated from the platform and floated above the scene like a halo.
The smaller rings began spinning, faster and faster, until they appeared as solid spheres, glowing various colors. Suddenly Trevor had the sensation of something drawing him up to the center of the large ring. It too began to spin slowly, then faster, until Trevor was surrounded in a sea of light.
Trevor supposed he must be traveling now, though he had no sensation of motion. Only odd waves of pressure that gave the impression of a school of fish darting about on his insides, here up his neck and through his head and scalp, now down through his torso into a limb. This unsettled him, but he supposed it must be part of the process.
Suddenly the “fish” began biting, or prodding, or something. “Ow! Hey!” he exclaimed, to no one in particular. Something seemed to be seriously wrong. Trevor tried to grab at them, trap them in his arm, something, but it was no use. The hand that he used to feel for them could sense no motion that the afflicted body parts plainly sensed. The discomfort intensified and spread, as though the school was constantly recruiting new members.
To his dismay his other senses began to suffer as well. A nauseating cacophony of light, sound, and smell assaulted him. He supposed from the acid taste in his mouth that he had vomited, but had no way to tell for certain. He clawed at his eyes, or thought he did, but the chaos kept pouring in.
By and by Trevor began to sense familiar shapes and sensations. The smell of salty mist brought the view of waves crashing against the reef at the mouth of the bay; then plunging into the cool depths in search of fish, then a dark night lit dimly by the light of a crescent moon, then a fillet knife preparing an afternoon catch, then the taste of iodine on his tongue from fresh shellfish, then people he knew talking to him around a fire. On and on the scenes washed over him, a stream of consciousness branching out into his past. Trevor supposed this must be his life flashing before his eyes.
This final experience waxed slowly, agonizingly, into a great crescendo, then tapered off quickly, the last few experiences things he hadn’t realized he had forgotten.
All was dark and quiet, except for an odd sound that came periodically. With a start, Trevor realized he was screaming, over and over again. It was peaceful compared with his previous state. He stopped and closed his dry mouth. He could feel a trickle of liquid down his raw throat. Also down his face. It occurred to him that his eyes hurt, but not badly by comparison. He reached up with oddly sticky hands, and felt roughness where he expected smooth skin. He felt the world spin, and he heaved his empty stomach.
Trevor had just decided the state he was in was not so bad when he was engulfed in a searing heat.
End Part 1
(I am taking a couple weeks off. The next chapter will be posted June 6, 2026!)