Dilation

Orion gripped his head with sluggish movements. The pounding continued to worsen. It felt like getting periodically stabbed with swords in seven different places. The swords were laced with poison and their tips dull.

'how long has it been?' His thoughts were a mess. 'Has it been three months? No, that was last week. It should be eight then. Or was that tomorrow?' The words jumped around like a bouncing ball, never resting on a topic for too long.

'Since it doesn't matter, I'll go with five months.' A satisfied grin grew on his otherwise expressionless face. Orion lacked any need to show emotion, only doing it out of instinct. Something he ought to lose with due time as well.

'fifth month's research log. The whispers vanished.' He took note of his recent findings. Some time ago, the devilish whisperings didn't ring in his ears anymore. 'They got louder and are not whispers anymore.' Orion wrote his musings down on imaginative paper.

Previously, his ears were trapped in a library full of obnoxious children. Now, a festival packed to the brim with people who lacked any self-awareness took its place.

'fourth month? Wait no. Fifth month's research log. The chill in my bones got colder.' He scribed another point of interest. If memory served him well, he used to feel like being submerged beneath a mound of snow. Instead, a block of ice encased him, stiffening his figure. The lack of pain, however, remained.

'The voices got louder and the chill colder, so they should not be detected. Connected. No, they should be connected. Or was it detected?' He knew what he said, but it refused to make sense. Like a blank jigsaw puzzle with most pieces missing, he often couldn't form a cohesive sentence.

The surrounding voices ripped him out of his inner monologue, merging with his thoughts. Somehow, their language made more sense than his own. Contradicting, since he couldn't understand a thing they said.

'fifth month's research log. Something's watching me.' Orion turned in a certain direction. He couldn't see that it was the right one. He felt it. In the distance, something looked back at him. Its gaze filled him with dread, making him shiver with far greater intensity than the low temperatures did. 'I could swear I saw an eye. Crimson red pupils spewing flames like a raging dragon.'

When he first noticed its presence, Orion didn't dare look away from it anymore. Like a shiny piece of gold attracted Brax's attention, the unknown entity clawed at his. And it refused to let go of its grasp.

He knew he wasn't alone. Since his arrival, the creature that brought him here lived rent-free in his head. Its existence was like an everlasting rain cloud with no forecast. No one knew if it would ever pour its might. Besides revealing its gaze, nothing happened.

'Fifth month's research hog. Cog. Dog. Dog? Log. The bubble popped.' The only streak of color within the surrounding void disappeared. Before, like waves, ripples of vibrancy coursed its surface. Without a warning, the surface vanished, leaving nothing behind but a fleeting memory.

"Was there something else?" Orion asked into the darkness, unable to hear his own thoughts. After pondering for a moment, he answered in a voice devoid of feelings, "What about the strange sting?" But Orion didn't get what he talked about. "The sting? You mean the string?" He questioned.

One time, he bit the nails of his frigid fingers. The shaking gave him a difficult time, but he got them between his teeth with patience. Too late, noticed that he chipped one of them.

It worried him since he didn't know how it would affect his current body. Could the mysterious energy stimulate regrowth? Could it be that it would stay like that forever? On the off-chance that neither of them happened, what else?

Orion watched in trepidation as a string of blue energy stretched between the wound and his belly button. Slowly, a mesh of translucent strings shaped the missing piece. Soon, the fingernail returned to its original appearance, leaving no trace of it ever having broken off.

"Could it be possible to use magic here?" He wondered, wrapping his shivering hand around his chin. "I don't know if it's magic that heals me." There was something magical about it. He just couldn't tie it together with the kind he used.

Healing magic, part of the aquilis element, couldn't be used 'just like that'. It needed something in exchange for it to work its wonders. Someone with that kind of power would use their own vitality for the sake of others. Of course, those same people possessed a tremendous amount of it, not infinite though. This led to groups of adventurers always having two healers, one to help the other.

Only at the stage of elemental recreation, where one melded their body with magical energy, would it be possible to mediate one's own condition. Since Orion could count the number of people at that level on one hand, he knew that wasn't the case. Other ways of magic appeared in the studies he read, none of which fit his case. Leaving the only remaining conclusion that it was something else.

"Could I use it? The strange energy rummaging inside." Orion asked himself. It carried dangers, but just as many rewards. If he could, a lot of previously closed doors would open up. "Dry it. Try. No, don't. Do. Unsure." Orion tripped over his words when answering his question. Too many variables collided.

"Let's go through this. If it's like the system I know..."

"I'll be able to cast spells like normal..."

"Unless I don't have an elemental root..."

"In which case I would die trying..."

"Of course, only if I can die..."

Back and forth, Orion talked to himself, never closing in on a decision. Instead, he strove as far as possible from the subject at hand.

"Is the void black or colorless?"

"Would colorless be a color?"

"Color is in the name."

Somehow, through pure coincidence, he got back on track again.

"If I probed for an elemental root..."

"I could be sure that at least that part is the same..."

"And if not, I would simply avoid drying. Trying,"

They, or rather, he decided. Since the core of all things magic manipulation was the elemental root, its presence would speak volumes about his constitution. If this aspect was the same, others may be too. Thinking along this line, Orion set his sight on figuring it out.

He closed his eyes, tuning out the world around him. With deep breaths, Orion fell deeper into his own little bubble. Before he managed to focus, though, it popped.

After a twitch of an eyebrow, he tried again, resulting in the same outcome. The voices didn't leave him any rest. Their relentless echo refused to let him go, always pulling him back into their realm.

Not caring in the slightest about the resistance, Orion continued to try. With each attempt, his goal gained clarity. Within grasping distance, he gave one last arduous breath and submerged himself within.

Orion inspected his body, feeling the tiniest changes that happened. The expansions of his lungs with every deep breath. Every hair, shaking at his motions. The neurons in his brain, transporting packets of information.

Strings of blue energy coursed through his insides, bending and twisting, tossing and turning, filling him with vitality. After swimming through every nook and cranny, they returned to their origin beneath his belly button. If he possessed an elemental root, it would be there.

Inspecting the supposed spot, Orion noticed another thorn in his eye. A mist encased his destination, refusing to let any light shine through. An impenetrable wall stood in his way, leaving him with no straightforward path.

His attempts to pass through only exhausted him, without working toward its center. Imminently, he needed to retract his focus to rest.

"Something is there."

"It's blocking me."

"Not letting me see if I have one," Orion replied to himself, his voice lacking emotion. As always, he took note of his discoveries.

"Sixth mo-"

"Fifth month's research log."

"Magic may be possible."

"No further progress made."

"Strange haze stopped me. I couldn't pass," Orion and himself scribbled on their mental parchment. He exhausted his energy for the day, unable to go on any longer. Another look at the persistent void revealed nothing that needed his attention, letting him rest for the time being.

Before his eyes fell shut, a blinding flash of light appeared in front of him. With a wave of brilliance, the surrounding void lost all luster, turning bleak and grey. The latter marked the only noticeable difference.

Without knowing the cause, Orion's breathing turned rough. Something inside of him screamed, far louder than the voices around. It begged him to run, no matter where, as long as it was away from here.

Vivid memories occupied his mind, returning him to a place long pushed to the furthest corner of his head. His wrists tightened and knees hurt. Sweat dripped down his face, falling into endless blackness. Gigantic structures flashed before his eyes, forcing him to shut them. Even through closed lids, their appearance prevailed. Accompanying the loud mumblings in his ears, a dreadful hymn of windy whistles resounded, shaking his core.

"We meet again, boy," A voice, soft as a spring breeze appeared, washed away the tapestry of terror Orion painted himself. Its comforting tune invoked a light at the end of the tunnel, signaling salvation's arrival.