The young man laughed. "Why do you say that? Come on, sit down. Aldis outdid himself today, which means it’s almost edible. Hey, is your hair a bit longer?"
I did not reply as I sat down on a crate beside the fire. Even if I wanted to reply, I could not tell the previous length of my hair; everything seemed so blurry, but the warmth of the flames felt good against my face.
The young man, whose name I thought was Bari, maybe, handed me a bowl of porridge, and I took it. The smell was not unpleasant, and I ate a few spoonfuls. It was bland, but it was warm.
A girl with dark hair and steady eyes sat across from me. She was watching me with an expression I could not read. "Elric," she said. "You look pale. Are you feeling well?"
I shook my head. "I have a headache. I don’t remember... I don’t remember a lot, actually."
The girl’s expression flickered, but she did not say anything. She just nodded, as if she understood something I did not.
A third figure approached the fire. He was a young man with perfectly arranged hair and a haughty bearing, and he moved through the camp as if he owned it. I felt a surge of dislike and, oddly, a bit of pity as I looked at him, but I did not know why.
"Voss," he said, his voice cold. "You’re up late. The expedition does not wait for stragglers."
"Hey, come off his back," Bari said as he frowned at the haughty Acolyte, "We are already at our destination, and for the past two weeks, he was the first to wake, and not you."
"I had a headache," I spoke out. The words came out flat, and I did not know why, and the haughty young man’s eyes narrowed as he turned towards me and looked away from Bari. "A headache. How convenient. Perhaps you should see an Adept for that, and get an excuse for you to leave."
I stared at him for a moment, and I saw my hand raise up to stop Bari, who was about to stand up. I had done this unconsciously as if I knew that he was going to become heated.
"Elric, let me get the brat. What the hell is wrong with you, Rex? Your panties are getting tied around your tiny balls?"
The noble brat... Rex looked at Bari and snorted before he walked away.
"Yeah, that’s right, walk away. Hey, I can see the line of your red panties on those tight trousers, Rex."
Smirking like a fox, Bari turned towards me, and his face became pained, "Ow, ow, Elric, what the hell do you want to crush my shoulder?"
I looked at my right hand that was on the shoulder of Bari, although I was barely using any force, his body was bent to the side, and I felt that if I placed a bit more force in my hand, I would crush him to paste.
I pulled back my hand in horror, and Bari must have seen something in my face, and he smiled, "Hey, it’s all good, I did not know that the bastard got under your skin so much. Next time, leave him for me to handle."
Nodding at him, I settled down beside him at the fire, my mind whirling around in a frenzy. Something was wrong, and this damned headache was not allowing me to think.
The morning passed in a blur. I ate the porridge, talked with Bari and the girl... Dara, I learned her name, and avoided the haughty young man. The pyramid loomed in the background, and I could not stop staring at it. It felt important, as if it were the key to everything I had forgotten.
I noted that the morning remained the same even after the fires were dying down, but I could not be sure if my observation meant anything.
At some point, I walked toward the pyramid. I did not know why. My feet carried me there as if they had done it a hundred times before. I passed several Adepts, and the rest of the camp, everyone was busy, and I was mostly ignored, except for a female Adept who looked at me with piercing eyes before she looked away.
I stopped at the base and looked up at the black surface. It was smooth, seamless, and it drank the light of the grey sky without giving anything back.
A man in a scholar’s robe was standing near the pyramid’s base, his instrument pressed against the black surface. He was old, thin, with white hair pulled back and a leather satchel at his hip. He did not look at me as I approached.
Why do I feel like I know every layer of this old man’s soul?
"Scholar Orath," I said. The name came out automatically.
The scholar turned. His face was kind and lined, but his eyes were wrong. Too bright, and a bit too still, as if I was looking at faded green glass. He smiled, and I noticed that the smile did not reach his eyes.
"Ah, Acolyte Elric?" he said. "You are curious about the pyramid? It is a fascinating structure, isn’t it? Ten thousand years old, and we still do not know what it is made of."
I nodded, and not knowing what to say, I just said. "It feels... important."
"It is," Orath said. "More important than you know."
I... did not like the way he said that.
He turned back to his instrument, and I stood there for a moment, watching him. There was something about the scholar that I did not trust, but I could not say why. I shook my head and walked back toward the camp, as other Adepts were coming closer to Scholar Orath, and I did not want them to be annoyed with me being where I should not be.
The headache was getting worse. I stumbled back to my tent, ignoring the calls of Bari, I collapsed onto the cot, and closed my eyes. Sleep came quickly, dragging me into a darkness that was not empty.
I woke to screaming.