The Stargazer - chapter 8

Willow woke to a complete darkness.  She waited for some time for her eyes to adjust, but it just didn’t happen. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash, and two white cats’ eyes appeared. “Gremlin?” she whispered. Her throat was parched. “No. I am not gremlin. I’m called Sanar. I am a faerie Godmother.” 1

This was just too much. Questions flooded to willows mouth. “Faeries exist?! Why are you here? Where am I? What happened? Where’s gremlin? Where’s Jupiter?” 2

The faery sighed calmly and replied “faeries exist, yes. I am here because I am your fairy godmother and you need my help. You are in the chamber. You were caught by the villagers and are in a slave train. Gremlin is inside you. He’s sleeping. They don’t know you have a familiar-you are not known to be a witch. Yet. Jupiter is in a wagon somewhere in the slave train. Savvy?”3

“um, yes. Hang on. Did you say gremlin is inside me?”4

“you heard”5

“what!? Explain”6

“you and gremlin are tied to eachother forever.”7

“yes I know that. But why is he inside me?!”8

“patience my dear. Im coming to that bit”9

willow stayed silent. The only light came from Sanar’s eyes.10

“he had to transport his spirit into your body, so your spirits are fused together.”11

Willow suddenly gasped. A searing pain cut through her head like a cold blade. She fell to the floor, writhing in agony. Above her, she heard Sanar noted calmly “ah yes, looks like hes beginning to wake up now.”12

She couldn’t breath. it felt like her head was being cut into and something was being stuffed into the space it left behind. Then, her mind began to shrink smaller and smaller until it was tiny, and all she could think about was breathing and staying alive. Willow forgot who she was, where, what was happening. All she was permitted by her brain capacity to do was fight for her breath. willow lay, feeling claustrophobic and panicky.  Suddenly, her mind expanded, and the pain expanded with it. A searing head rendering white light shone, blinding and dazing her. She clutched her head and screamed for all she was worth, but it didn’t make any difference. She had never known pain in the mind was possible, and now she knew that the legends were true---it was the most painful experience ever known to humanity. She had heard when she was younger that the Xavien peoples sometimes fused gremlins together with humans to make them talk. Brave warriors had died because of a gremlin fusion. And it was one of the tests for an assassin which had to be passed before they could begin the training---you had to be able to withstand the cruellest torture lest the enemy access your mind and discover the assassinations secrets.13