Helping

"What? Are you alright, and is the demon still sealed?" Lord Miach comes over and starts putting his hand on my forehead like a worried mother.

"Yes the demon is still sealed nothing to worry about there just let me explain what happened." A short explanation later and Lord Miach manages to calm down.

"So this demon can attack you in your dreams now? That is very dangerous; are you sure you're alright. That headache could be a symptom of much worse problems."

"I'm alright. In fact I may be better than alright. You see I believe that defeating Shendu in my dream weakened him. If so I may now have a way to steal his powers permanently. Also the headache was because I tried to absorb too many memories at once."

"What's this about memories?"

"Ah, you see as the dream fight was basically a mind battle so I took the chance to try to access Shendu's memories. I mean he's basically a couple centuries old magician so there's no telling what I could learn from him. There was also the chance I could find his weaknesses or even how he got stuck inside me. Oh, and I didn't take his memories directly. I'm not that crazy. I made copies of what memories I could before he showed up. Even then I had him cornered or at least contained. Unfortunately he jumped out of the dream along with his memories before I could copy too many of them." I try to explain myself as best I can with a little stumbling. Lord Miach meanwhile just sits there staring at me trying to take this all in before answering.

"Well I can see you've made the best of a sudden situation, but tell me exactly about these memories." Seeing Lord Miach's seriousness I gather myself before explaining.

"Most of the memories are useless. Stuff about what he did with this person or that devil. What amounts to daily living for him. Fortunately I was able to steal some memories related to magic research. It's all dark magic and curses of course, but what I'm interested is the basics involved. You see even though the memories contain what amounts to advanced spells I can't hope to try now, the basis of those spells is in the memory and that's what I want to learn. Without a proper teacher I think its the best way to improve my basics right now. Of course there's the side benefit of learning what exactly he's capable of and preparing for it. Know your enemy and yourself and always be victorious after all. The only downsides I've found are two. The first is simply that learning all this through what amounts to shoving it into my head leads to a massive headache. Honestly not much of a problem given the alternatives. The second however is serious. You see the memories contain not just knowledge but emotions too. I don't think I need to explain, but having to experience the emotions of such a twisted individual is sickening to say the least. If I'm going to keep doing this I'm either going to have to find a way to separate the emotions and knowledge or go much slower in order not to be twisted by the memories." I take a swig of water to sooth my throat. Dang that was long winded. Just hope I got the point across. Lord Miach keeps his head down while thinking about everything.

"I'm glad you understand the risks involved. Knowledge is always valuable, but this kind could potentially turn you into something horrible. As a god of medicine I understand that one man's poison could be another's cure, and it is up to the doctor to figure out which is right. You will need to treat these memories as such. A small amount could make you much stronger, but too much could kill you or worse. I just wish there was some way I could help you with this." He gives me a small tired smile. It's pretty obvious he is frustrated with not even being able to help me, or can he?

"Lord Miach there might actually be a way you can help."

*Oh* " I can't really see a way I could help with these dreams of yours. It's not like keeping you awake all the time will help, and I can't brew up a medicine to help you in your dreams."

"You see it was the sheep talisman which allowed me to connect my dream to Shendu. Since it worked for the two of us it should let me connect me and you." I can see Lord Miach brighten up at this.

"Yes, there's no sense why it shouldn't work. Of course there is the fact that I am a god so that might get in the way. Still, Naaza should be able to help you even if I can't. Yes, this is a great idea!"

"Not to bring you down or anything, but I don't know if it will work. After all Shendu seemed to have some control over the talismans and the sheep talisman might not be strong enough yet."

"Don't worry. I'm just glad you won't have to face it alone. Besides if I can join you in your dream Shendu will have to face the mind of a god."

*Haha* "Yeah that might really freak him out." Now I can't wait to see if this works. Just imagining Shendu facing the full might of an actual god has me smiling.

"Still we should talk to Naaza about this and see if we can get her to watch as we sleep."

"You're right. Still if I get good at this I might be able to help with her trauma. What do you think Lord Miach."

"That's brilliant! If you can really work with memories in dreams then there is indeed a chance that you can help people with trauma. I'm glad that despite all the darkness you've seen you can still think of helping others with your skills." Lord Miach gives me a giant grin and I can see the pride in his eyes as he looks at me.

"It's nothing. I was just taught to help others when I can. You know support good stop evil. Besides I think helping others like this helps me deal with all the bad things that happen."

*Haha* "It looks like it really was fate for you to join my familia after all."