Another confusion spell hurtled at
me, and I dissipated it yet again. Stalemate, for now. Which was good, since
the goal was to slow him down until Rhoda could bring the big demon, but Maybe
I could blow the fog away? I started gathering together wind magic.
“It must be getting very hard
to think by now,” Brochen said from somewhere in the fog. “The only
clear thing in your head is my words.” He hurled another confusion spell,
and I barely countered it in time before it hit.
“Harder and harder to think
anything other than what I say,” he continued.
Wait. Is he actually..? He is! He’s
trying to use confusion to make me think what he wants me to… oh no. Oh no!
I let the wind magic explode
outward, hoping to clear enough fog to see him. No luck, so I just had to
guess, fire a spread of weaker fireballs in what I hoped was his general
direction.
It wasn’t.
“Wow, you really are
something!” he shouted. “Still fighting back?”
I felt the confusion spell as it
approached. I had plenty of time to stop it. It would be easy! Except for the
slight problem that it was impossible.
He’s trying to control my mind. I
can’t resist. All I can do is… uh… the… thing with the…
Another confusion spell hit my mind
before the first could fade. What was I..? Trying to remember…
something… about..?
Another spell. Another. Another. I
couldn’t count anymore. The world around me was blank and white and nothing
made sense, little snippets of thought tumbling around in my head unable to
connect to anything. tangling and clogging, stuck. I stopped moving, couldn’t
really remember how. I just stared ahead, mouth agape, struggling to make sense
of… well, anything. But it was impossible, everything was too jumbled, too
confused–
“The only clear thing in your
head is my words.”
The only clear thing in my head is
his words. A thought. A whole thought, solid
and real. Something made sense! The only clear thing in my head is his words.
Clear, comprehendible, and obviously true.
“Can’t think of anything but
what I say.”
Can’t think of anything but what he
says. Another thought! True and real. The
only clear thing in my head is his words. Can’t think of anything but what he
says. An island of stability in a sea of chaos, and I clung to it
desperately.
“My words echo in your head,
over and over again.”
His words echo in my head, over and
over again. The island was a little bigger! The
only clear thing in my head is his words. Can’t think of anything but what he
says. His words echo in my head, over and over again. Three clear, solid
thoughts bouncing around in the empty fog that filled my head, back and forth,
echoing off the walls, becoming a chorus, a fugue.
“No thoughts but what I tell
you.”
No thoughts but what he tells me. Echoing through my head. And it was true, the fog was
lifting. I… I can think ag–no thoughts but what he tells me. But I
can–the only clear thing in my head is his words. I’m not confused
anym–can’t think of anything but what he says.
“Relax.”
The fog was lifting from around me
as well as inside me. I could see him now. Now’s my chance, I can–relax.
To–relax. Have to–relax.
“Relax.”
It echoed through my head, doubled
now, building on itself, getting louder than the other words.
“Relax.”
Maybe there was a reason not to
relax, but I couldn’t think of it. The only voice in my head was his, telling
me to relax.
“Obey me. Obey me. Obey me.
Obey me.”
The word echoed in my relaxed, empty
head. Simple, clear, everywhere. Obey him. Obey him. Obey him.
Obey him.
“And now you can feel your own
thoughts returning, but my words still echo.”
I furrowed my brow. That was
complicated. I can feel my own thoughts returning, but his words still echo.
Obey him. It’s true obey him. I’m able to think obey him again. But obey him
it’s hard obey him and confusing obey him.
“Hard to think thoughts that go
against my echoing words, but so easy to think thoughts that go along with
them…”
That makes sense. I can think about
obeying him. I can imagine what he’ll make me do. But I can’t think about
disob–obey him obey him obey him obey him. Yes, I’ll just think about obeying
him, it’s much easier…
To be continued…
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