it to send him in another direction.
He caught the rock… and was sent spinning away madly, his arm twisted back and wracked with mind- piercing pain. The rock continued on its oblivious way.
Despite the agony, the calculating portion of Dru’s mind knew what had happened. He had assumed, because it seemed to float so serenely, that the massive stone had been moving slowly. Not so. The Void had played him for a fool. Perhaps the rock had been falling when it entered this place; he could not be certain. Dru only knew that what he had tried to catch had been moving faster than the swiftest steed, so fast, in fact, that it had broken his arm.
It was an arm that would remain broken, too, for he had no sorcery with which to repair it.
With deliberate effort, he forced himself to put the broken limb back in place. It was a difficult enough task, what with the unceasing spin. Dru screamed readily, unashamed to do so since no one would hear him. Pain gripped him without pause. Once he had the arm back the way it should have been, he pulled off his cloak and turned it into a sling of sorts.
The pain still rocked him, but Dru knew he would have to live with that. His next quest was to cease his twirling before he grew too dizzy. The arm was draining his strength too much already.
How could he stop himself? Dru reached into his pocket, but the angle at which he was spinning made it an awkward movement that in turn put pressure on his broken limb. The Vraad screamed again and nearly passed out.
“It does! It makes sounds! Loud ones!”
The voice seemed to boom within his head. Through tear-drenched eyes, Dru hurriedly scanned his vicinity. More nothing, yet… he had heard a voice. Felt was perhaps just as good a description, but the point was that he was not alone.
So where was the other?
“Hello, little one! Do you talk? I am coming to you!”
“Where?” the sorcerer managed to choke out. His arm was on fire now; at least, that was how it felt.
“You do talk! Patience, patience! This is one is not far!”
Dru screamed once more, but not because of pain. He screamed now because the emptiness to his right had suddenly burst into a huge, ever-shifting field of darkness. His first thought was that it was the point of intersection and he had somehow been drawn back to it. Then it shifted form, as if an inky liquid. It was no liquid, however; Dru, staring at it, felt himself seem to fall toward the thing, as if it were a bottomless pit and he had been thrown into it. Fear battled with pain.
The massive blot changed form again, solidifying a bit. The falling sensation passed.
“There! That is better!”
“What-what’s better?” He could still see no sign of the newcomer. Was the blot his method of travel? Is that why Dru had felt he could fall into it? Hope for an escape from the Void stimulated him. “Where are you?”
“Here! Where else is there, little voice?”
“But…” The sorcerer’s gaze narrowed on the inky darkness through which he had expected the other to enter. “Are you… is that…”
This time, he saw the darkness quiver. “You are a funny thing! I will not have you join with me yet!”
The blot was no path, save perhaps to death. It was, despite Dru’s inner protest, a living thing. It was the voice he had heard in his head.
“What do you mean about ‘joining with you’?”
The sensation of falling into the darkness overwhelmed him once more. It lasted only a moment, however. That was far and away more than enough for Dru. It was all he could do to keep from passing out.
“I have not taken from you, have I? You seem to be less than whole.” The thing sounded annoyed, as if it had underestimated itself.
“My arm… this”-he indicated the broken appendage-“I injured it badly.”
“Injured?”
Did this monstrosity not comprehend pain? the sorcerer wondered. Perhaps not. How could one harm a blot?
“It does not work properly.”
“Silly little voice! Take it in and make another!”
Now it was Dru who did not comprehend again. “Take it in?”
“As I.” A crude limb formed, little more than a narrow bit of darkness. It stretched forth for nearly a yard, then slowly sank back into the primary mass of the blot. “How else?”
Dru shook his head, partly in response and partly because it kept him conscious. “I cannot do what you do and the way I heal does not work here.”
“Too bad! Would you prefer I take you now? You will no longer know pain.”
“No!”
“Your voice grows! I must try that!” The blot commenced with a variety of sounds, some higher and some lower than what so far had passed for its voice. Dru did not interrupt; if such entertainment took the creature’s mind from the prospect of devouring him, then so much the better. As it was, the agony continually raking through his system was making it impossible to think of any other way to save himself.
The ever-shifting creature’s interest in the noises it was making soon waned. “Not so much fun after all! Tell me, one of many voices, why you cannot do like I do?”
It took Dru a moment to realize his unnerving companion was speaking of the broken arm again. “I am a man. A Vraad. We can shift our forms, but not like you and not without sorcery.”
“What is sorcery?”
This creature did not know what sorcery was? The Vraad was astonished. Based on what little he had already seen, Dru was certain that the entity was part inherent magic itself. How else to explain its existence and its method of travel?
If he could somehow get it to take him back to Nimth…
“It’s…” Pain made him grimace. “It’s an ability that allows one to change things about them.”
“What is there to change? With the exception of curious little entertainments-like you-all is as it always is.”
Dru shook his head. “Not where I come from. If I was there, for instance, I could make this arm work properly again. I could make the hair on my head”-he indicated each part of his body that he spoke of in case the creature did not understand-“so long that it would go down to my knees.”
“Is that all? I know this ‘sorcery’!”
“So I thought. Tell me-do you have a name?”
“Name?”
“I am Dru. Dru is my name. If we had a third voice with us and he wanted to speak to me but not you, he would say something like ‘I will speak with Dru.’” The explanation sounded weak to the sorcerer, but it was the best he could do. Unconsciousness was becoming more and more inviting and he did not dare let that happen until he was certain he would wake up again.
The mass of darkness grew and shrunk, twisted and reshaped itself. Several breaths passed before it finally replied. “I am ‘I’ or ‘Other.’”
“No…” Dru held his forehead as he tried to think. “That’s not what… not what…”
“Come! This is too interesting! Do not fade away!”
The Vraad shrieked as raw power filled his being. He felt both omnipotent and helpless. The world was at his beck and call, yet he was the lowest form of existence. Pain and rapture tossed him from one to another like a rag doll.
He was suddenly himself again and the initial sensation was like striking the earth after falling from the highest peak. When that had passed, Dru found himself feeling stronger and more alive than he had ever felt before. The amazed spellcaster undid the makeshift sling; his arm was whole again!
“You were saying I could not be called ‘I’! Why is that?”
Dru flexed the arm. It was perfect. “You did this?”
“You did not finish explaining this thing about names and I thought I would help if I gave to you a little of I!”
