Chapter 55 - The Captive

Smiling under my hood I looked up at the sky ‘Was that too much?’

‘Your penchant for theatrics is quite entertaining.’

‘At least we had some fun, I doubt what is coming next will be as entertaining.’

‘Interrogation never is if what I see in your memories is real.’

He was referring to the memories from my past life and the many movies about war and captives. I remembered watching a movie named ‘Inglourious Basterds’ that impressed me by its humor and brutality. It later served me for a Spy series that was moderately successful. Apparently, my other self enjoyed watching movies in my head, despite the missing parts and somewhat altered scenes (I never could help changing what I didn’t like about the stories I saw or read).

I walked directly to the man tied to a post and squatted in front of him. He was filthy, with long black hair matted with blood and dust and rests of spittle around his mouth, yet he didn’t appear malnourished… yet.

My staring didn’t go unnoticed and soon his eyes met mine, and he glared at me.

“Nothing you do to me will stop my brethren! They will kill all of you and offer your bodies to the gods of the hunt!”

“Tell me more about these gods of the hunt.”

My question startled the man and he started before frowning. “You speak our language? Who are you?”

I blinked in surprise… Was I speaking another language? I didn’t think so.

‘Our spirits have a connection to these people, that is why we can understand them.’

‘What do you mean by connection?’

‘They worship the Dragon, us, as the main figure of their pantheon.’

‘But we aren’t gods!’

‘Yet. We aren’t gods, yet. As soon as we ascend, all prayers to Dragon deities will fall to us, because we will be the first.’

‘Wait a goddamn second! Are you telling me that they are worshipping a god that doesn’t exist yet, but that we will become that god and thus assume the form of their deity?’

‘Yes and no… time in the Heavenly Realm flows differently than here. It’s almost as if the Heavenly Realm existed in the past of the world, for everything that happens in their present becomes the past, present, and future of this world. In your time, there was no cult for the dragons for some reason… it means that we will ascend, but at some point, disappear from the mind of the mortals.’

‘That-’ I had no words to express the confusion inside my mind. I simply couldn’t wrap it about the concept that time flowed differently and yet both realms were connected somehow.

My mind went numb for a moment as I watched the prisoner glare and curse at me… and while he did, I didn’t understand what he was saying. Clarity, however, returned as soon as I felt the presence of my other self inside my mind.

‘Peace, young-one. Don’t concern yourself with the matters of the gods just yet. Wait until we’re closer to the Pearly Gates. Right now, they are just images in the back of your mind. A problem for another day.’

I thanked it and peace did indeed return to my mind.

“…not going to get anything from me, Infidel!” The man was raving again, apparently, my abstraction had lasted quite a while.

“You believe in the Dragon God. It is through him that I can understand your speech.”

He fell silent before his lips pronounced a name that echoed in my heart and spirit “Tngri.” His eyes were wide as he stared at me with something akin to awe. “How do you know of the god of the Sky?”

A thought occurred to me then, a crazy idea that might just help end the war. I smiled under the hood and called forth my other self.

‘Can you show yourself to this man?’

‘Yes, why?’

‘You will see.’

I stood up and took a step back, while I felt as if my mind was divided in two and, suddenly, I was watching the man from two different perspectives. My own, and one a few feet taller, whose eyes saw the world in a different color. My other self didn’t see men for the individuals they were, he simply saw them as concentrations of energy, like a cloud of sparkles taking the form of a person.

For the first time in my life, I was seeing the spirit world as it really was.

I smiled and looked down at the man with both my gazes, watching how his eyes grew as big as saucers.

“Because it lives in me.”

‘Simba!’

‘What?!’

‘Never mind.’