Shake your Head
When you shake your head, too stunned and overwhelmed to lie, she smiles. You see something in her eye for a moment. Maybe a flicker of sorrow, of regret. But she hides it well, and you have no idea how you would begin to ask her why she looked that way for even a moment, considering all the other hundreds upon hundreds of questions flooding your head in that instant.
“Then... it has happened again.”
She steps closer to you, and moves as though to reach out and take your hand. When you do not reciprocate her gesture however, she seems to think better of it, withdrawing and giving another momentary glimpse into that more sorrowful, frustrated mindset lying deep within her.
She smiles.
“I am Lira. And this... this is a place where stories tell that our world overlaps with others. It acts as a source of magical ability for our people. A place where one can come to study, to learn, to untangle the secrets of reality itself. Sometimes objects are left here, gifts from other worlds. Sometimes knowledge is imparted to those studying here. And occasionally... the mind, the essence of a person from another world enters the body of one studying here.”
Your head spins, but you try to wrap it around what she is saying. In a voice deeper than you remember, a rumbling purr behind every word, you speak to her.
“So... i-if what you're saying is true, then... the name you said was mine? Serrin?”
You touch a hand to your chest. Strong, firm. Clad in what you look down and realise is the same white robing covering the wolf.
The woman nods.
“The body you now inhabit... it is his. Or, it was. And, it may be again. There are rules. Precepts that we have heard come from the mouths of others who have been transported and transformed over the years and centuries. You are bound to this form for at least two of our weeks. Twenty days. After that, there are... there are ways that you can move on. Other worlds you can explore, if you find another version of whatever it was that led you here.”
Written by Jeeves on 06 September 2017