There's a pressure holding my chin. "That's unusual." a deep and somehow accentless voice remarks. I open my eyes in surprise, only to find a dark haired woman staring back at me. I let out a small gasp and lift my head out of her grip.
Stupidly, all I can manage is "What?"
The same voice comes from the mysterious woman's mouth. Not that there's anything womanly about it. "You made the mark but you had no reason to do so." I can barely muster the focus to clearly hear what she said. I begin to stand. I don't know what she could mean by mark. I have made no mark anywhere that I can immediately recall. My mind is drawn away from what she said however. I notice that the room I'm in has no discernable end in any direction. Instinctually I try to assign a color to the floor, but my mind recoils from the attempt. I can't come up with a name for the color of the floor. My most immediate go-to is white, but it's almost certainly not white, though I can't say definitively that it isn't white.
I'm mercifully freed from that train of thought by that same deep voice, "You don't have the right organs to understand that... color. Thinking about where you are is both a futile question and a wasted effort. Because you haven't physically moved." I haven't moved? She now has my full attention, what does that mean? Did she take me somewhere? Is she saying that I'm in a place that I didn't move to on my own?
"Voices and thoughts are the same thing here, but I can tell that you don't necessarily mean to ask me these questions directly." She says, her expression amused.
I become flustered, "Why did you take me?"
Her slight grin turns indifferent at the accusation. "I haven't taken you, though
you've
inconvenienced
me
, intent is a powerful thing. Especially when one knows what symbols to use,
and where.
"
"You aren't really making any sense. I think you're mentally ill. If you let me go, I promise not to go to the police." I say, voice breaking slightly, refusing to believe in her nonsense. Her voice is too strange to not be deliberate.
A gentler voice suddenly replies, "Ah, so more like this. Would a more accurate representation of female vocalizations make this whole situation run more smoothly?" She stands to meet my gaze, only slightly shorter than I am. "I finally arrive after the requisite three moons, and you have no reason for summoning me?"
Three moons
rings a bell. Its significance hits me all at once. The mark on my desk! I was feeling somewhat mystical, and thought I might try creating some symbols that I thought would look cool as charms or curses. The only one that I thought turned out well was a design that incorporated three crossed crescent-moons. They were surrounded by all the other stages of the moon in a circle. No one but I should know about that. It's on my desk, scrawled under my keyboard.
"Who are you?" It seems the most appropriate question for this strange being.
"There are more answers to this question than I feel like reciting. Especially since none of them would make this situation any clearer to you." She says, grin returning to her face.
"Do--" My voice dries up, my attempt at speech becomes labored and near impossible.
"I'm going to explain as best I can, because I could leave you here clueless, but I think if I do that... You'll probably end up attracting someone less kind, the next time." She steps back and I feel the muscles in my throat loosen. "The closest approximation to where we are, that you would understand, is a dream. A place within your mind and your control. I only have this appearance as a result of your mind attempting to make you feel more comfortable."
A detail rushes to the front of my mind. Her power over me is real enough so I play along, "Then why doesn't the
color
of this room make sense? This is my mind, surely I wouldn't create something beyond my own comprehension."
"You would, and you have. You are trying to
see
it, but you aren't using your eyes right now. You're asleep." It makes sense, you don't really see things in a dream. The images are all created within your mind.
"Exactly." Her response to my thoughts startles me, I don't think I like being completely exposed like this. "I can comprehend every layer in space, my physical body has the requisite parts. You, on the other hand, are human. Only one layer of space is visible, and only five senses are available to you within that space. I can't imagine being so limited." She seems to take on a look of melancholy at that last statement. Does she pity me?
For some reason I feel I need to reassure her, "I've only ever known what it's like to be human. I can still experience joy in my limited senses. I've never longed for more."
She glides towards me, only stopping about half a foot from my face. "It appears that you aren't lying, which is odd. You are unique. Every other life form that has requested my presence did so to broaden their mind. To comprehend as I do." Her nose scrunches up, in either disgust or confusion. "You seem... content. No one has ever let me experience being content." She chuckles at something, "Those who summon me, do so because they are not content in their being."
I swallow, she has a very strong presence. Its overwhelming when she's this close. "Well, I think I summoned you by mistake. What do you mean by
no one let's you
?"