Act 2

Part 1 – A New Dawn, A New Self

We awoke in a place I didn’t recognised; sunlight shone in from the windows, painting the room in a painfully bright hue. White walls, white floors, white curtains and white beds… ‘Are we in a hospital? But… how did we get here?’ I wondered in my head. ‘I’m not sure.’ Another splinter of my – or was it our? – mind replied, just as confused as myself.

‘Who… who are you? Who are we? Are you me or am I me? Are we one or two? How do I not know?’

‘I’m… not sure.’ The other me seemed troubled. ‘There are two names in our memories.. but not one seems to fit…’

‘What about the third? The one that is not from our memories but still rings true?’

‘Ali’ce Desra… is that who we are?’

‘I… guess?’

‘Let us be that then!’

‘Agreed!’

Happy about having a name I relaxed a bit. As long as we knew who we were everything was fine. Slowly unsure about this situation we just looked around the room more. There were many curtains in here… two to our sides and more which we could just make out further away. I would have liked to look at them closer but our body seemed to be… restrained?

‘Why do you think we are bound to this bed?’

‘Who knows? Maybe that is common here? Hmmm…’ Other me sounded contemplative.

‘But our memories don’t have a lot of moments with us being restrained. Well, there is that one…’ I couldn’t help but blush. ‘But that seems to be different from now!’

‘Yeah…’ Good to know that other me was just as embarrassed about that memory as me, at least I think she was.

‘Let’s just call for help!’ I exclaimed.

‘Okay! Perhaps Lyn will come!’

We opened our mouth to speak but all that came out was a weak wheezing caw. We tried again for a few times but the result was always the same.

‘I think our throat is broken…’

‘That is fine, we don’t need it.’

‘You think so?’

‘Of course silly! We don’t need words for Ithelyn to understand us!’

‘But I really want to get these things off!’

‘Fine…’Other me didn’t really seem to care about it.

“Craw! Raw, CAW!” We sounded just like a bird! A very sick and beaten bird… it was a bit sad really but there was nothing either of me could do about it, so we didn’t bother and just kept calling out! A minute or two went by before we finally heard somebody approaching.

“By the gods! What is going on here! Who is making this infernal noise!?”

A woman in white clothes walked by and we immediately cawed again! We also tried waving but, well… our arms were still restrained. Something must have spoked the woman because has soon as she saw us, she paled and ran of, screaming at the top of her lungs!

“Doctor! Doctor! The girl! The conduit girl! She- She is awake!”

“Craw?”

‘Where is she going? I just wanted her to undo my bindings!’

‘Maybe she saw a ghost or something scary?’

‘Oh… ye that would be scary…’

We had to wait another minute until she finally came back, this time with an older looking man in tow. He didn’t seem quite as terrified as the woman though, in fact he seemed almost relieved. His smile seemed like a heavy weight had fallen of his soul. And when we looked at him something strange happened, we could hear his voice but his mouth wasn’t moving!

:Thank the gods! I wasn’t sure she would make it! Little Lyn can finally stop worrying…:

Then suddenly he talked again but this time his mouth was moving… humans were starting to confuse me.

“Miss Dutrar! You are finally awake! My name is Doctor Shapur. Can you tell me how you feel?”

“Caw…”

“Hmm… this is strange. It seems the damage to your vocal cords is more severe than expected. Okay, let’s try it this way, I’ll as you some questions and you just have to nod or shake your head, alright?”

We nodded.

“Very good!” He smiled in relive. “Now do you remember your name?”

Another nod.

“Okay, that is good! Do you remember what happened before you fell unconscious?”

We shook our head.

“I see… this is troubling. Perhabs your memories will return later. Suffice to say, you were in an incident and got exposed too high levels of miasma. There will be differences to how you remember your body and it may be be hard to adjust at first. But know that demonic corruption is not a death sentence and as long as you distance your self from further sources of miasma it shouldn’t get any worse. Nurse would you…” He turned towards the woman and she gave him a large hand mirror. “Now Miss Dutrar, I always think it best for my patients to confront their new self as early as possible. Please remember, that his doesn’t make you any less human, yes?”

I cawed once more in agreement and the nice doctor handed the mirror over to us. We just looked at him in confusion; how were we supposed to pick that up while being restrained?

“Oh! I am terribly sorry, Miss Dutrar! Leslie, would you please remove the young woman’s shackles?”

“But… Doctor, I was specifically instructed to not free her until the board had decided if she is a threat!”

“So? I am your boss and I’m telling you to take them off! She is a friend of Lyn! I know that doesn’t mean anything to you but that girl is like a daughter to many of us here. So unshackle her already!”

‘He said her name again! Our happy word!’

‘I wonder how she is doing? Ithelyn is the only thing that we should care about…’

‘Yeah! I really want to meet her! I love her!’

“Doctor please…”

“For the Gods’ sake! She is a young innocent woman that is smiling at us! What horrible things could she possibly do!?”

“If you say so… I still don’t trust her…” :Those damn creepy eyes… so unnerving…:

Despite her words she still bend down to remove the restraints, we gave her a happy caw in thanks. But despite the bindings being gone, sitting up was hard; our legs wouldn’t move no matter how hard either of us tried. So we had to get into a sitting position using only our arms, sadly our nails got caught in the bedding and it got ripped apart in the process. We were really embarrassed about that but the doctor said it was okay and gently helped us sit on the bedside. I really wanted to thank him and so I put all of my effort into speaking, other me didn’t see the need though… which mad it really hard.

“Thawnk! Crou!” The words didn’t sound right coming from our mouth… but I didn’t know what I had done wrong.

“It’s okay, Alice.” The doctor sounded sad. “You lost a lot of blood… and with the effect of the Miasma and your… well, it is wonderful to see that your giving your best!” Once more he turned towards the nurse. “Leslie, would you be so kind to go and get a demonology teacher? I think she was trying to speak Infernal.”

“I… okay, Doctor. I’ll see what I can do.” :I just hope she doesn’t trash around again… those claws are vicious…:

“Craws?” I exclaimed in surprise. Looking down I could see what she meant. On the inner three fingers of each hand we had grown long black claws, which explained why sitting up had ripped the bed sheets. I was just about to touch them when the doctor stopped me.

“Don’t worry Alice. If they upset you we can easily trim them down to a more manageable size. Just… don’t try to rip them off, okay? They are a part of you just like your eyes and hair, so it would hurt if you tried to remove them. You understand, right?”

I nodded again even though I was a bit confused. Why would I want to remove them? Even if I would have wanted that other me was really against it. So I guess she would have stopped me…

I was starting not to like the other me; she was trying to tell me what to do and how to react… as I I was nothing but her puppet.

‘You shouldn’t think like that. I am part of you. I am only here to protect you.’

‘You say that but all you care about is Lyn! You don’t care about me at all!’

‘I… I’m sorry. I will leave you alone for now…’

Suddenly my mind felt a lot clearer than before, as if a veil had been lifted I saw the reality with different eye. My memories slowly began to filter back into a semblance of order… still many things I still wasn’t sure about. Confused I looked around the room and than back at the doctor. I pointed at him with one claw and then back at myself.

“Cra- Ali- Alice?”

“Yes! Yes, you’re Alice. Your name is Alice Dutrar!”

I shook my head before pointing at myself again.

“Ali’ce Desra. Not Alice. Not Dutrar.” Speaking was still difficult and painful but with the other me gone it was easier to form full sentences.

“Oh…” The doctor looked at me unsure. “I’m sorry Alice, I… don’t speak Infernal. Do you remember how to speak English?”

I could only look at him in confusion, why would I need to know any other language? After all I could understand every human just fine no matter what they spoke. What should I care for if they didn’t understand me?

“English? No? Nothing?”

I shook my head, this time a little annoyed.

“Dumb human. Learn Infernal. I’m Ali’ce Desra. Not Alice Dutrar. Never was.”

“Uhm… so there is something about your name that upsets you? Did I get that right? I’m sorry, I’ll go look for the teacher. I’ll leave the mirror with you so you can look at your face… just please don’t get upset, okay?”

I watched in silence as the Doctor ran off. The mirror he had left was actually rather pretty, silver and very shiny. ‘I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look into it? Not like I know what I am actually supposed to look like anyway. Not with most of my memories in a jumble…’

Giving my self a look over in the mirror I wasn’t actually sure why the doctor was worried I was going to freak out. There weren’t any heavy scars or burns or anything really out of the ordinary. Just a normal face with normal features. Sure it wasn’t like a humans but that was about to be expected. All in all I was totally fine with my looks.

Two pointy ears hid behind a few feathers that framed my face and three yellow eyes were looking critically at the sight of my sharp teeth. After I was sure that I wasn’t going to find anything weird about myself, I made a little rift in space and slipped the mirror into it. I was happy to see that what little power I had seemed to be working fine. Sure the nurse had called me a conduit, but that was so silly. After all everyone knew that using magic was almost impossible for demons!

I was already wondering as to where the doctor had disappeared to for so long when the door to the infirmary crashed open. There wasn’t even time to get up or ask what was going on, before a tall woman stormed towards me and quite literally tackled me onto the bed.

“By the Gods! Alice! I thought I had lost you! I am so happy that you are awake!”

I remember her… fractals of her came up again and again in my mind… but with the other me pushed away and the false me gone I wasn’t sure how to react. I wasn’t Alice anymore… nor was the shard left of Ithelyn’s familiar still Hugin. I… we weren’t either of those two… no, I was Ali’ce Desra… I was a demon. And there was on sure way to stay fed in this world… a way to nourish my soul. I smiled at the woman before me.

“Hello Ithelyn… my name is Ali’ce Desra, a Grimspawn … do you wish to make contract?