Eye of the storm

Vel found himself in a storm. There was no other way to describe it. He was floating, much like in the dreamscape, but this didn’t look like the dreamscape. At least not the dreamscape as he usually knew it. There was no sign of Adi either. He looked down to see his familiar dreamscape robes, then took in his strange surroundings again. He was surrounded by a storm for sure. There were clouds of swirling grey and blue across which lightning constantly flickered, but it was like it curved around him. Like he was in a completely transparent orb.

He was still looking around, trying to understand this part of the dreamscape, because he assumed that was what it had to be, when an eye opened right in front of him. It really was just an eye in the middle of nothing. Like reality itself was the eyelid, and the eye was a tear in it. It was huge, and while the shape appeared slightly feline to him, this was definitely the eye of a reptile. He had grown up on an estate full of stone buildings, he’d seen his fair share of lizards and snakes basking in the sun or desperately trying to escape from the clutches of child Adi. He knew a reptilian eye when he saw one. It looked around briefly before focusing on him. He hovered in silence, looking back at it. It was almost entirely crimson, but with a black pupil and black streaks that looked like lightning arcing out from it.

The eye spoke. Not visibly of course, it didn’t have a mouth, it was just an eye. But the voice came from all around him, and the lightning pulsed with it. The voice was like roaring thunder and cracking lighting all in one. “So, you have come, it is as I feared. I so hoped I was wrong.” What in the shit did that mean? “Come where? Who or what are you?” There was heavy sigh, it sounded a bit like steam escaping a kettle. “You have come back to the world, and you will plunge it into war. Have I not lost enough children to your folly and arrogance? How many more of my brood must die for you?” No one had died for Vel as far as he knew. “No one has died for me, nor have I ever asked anyone to. I doubt I ever would ask anyone to.” The voice turned sad, and Vel thought it sounded tired too. Weary. “You will not ask, you will demand, and my children will answer. I had hoped it would take longer, or that it would end at last. It was foolish of me, there is no excuse for such folly, not at my age.” She, Vel got the distinct impression this was a she, managed to convey so much grief with just her voice. He felt for her, he really did, but he had not done anything for her to be sad about, he was sure of it.

“If you have lost children, I truly am sorry for your loss, but I have no designs on your living progeny. I know not who or what you are, or who or what your children are.” The eye slowly blinked, it felt like a sad gesture to him. “You will know, and you will come. My brood are not as old and weary as I, they will feel your power, and they will follow. Not all will return.” Vel shrugged. “If it is so inevitable, what do you want me to do about it?” They eye moved back and forth, as if an invisible head it was attached to was being shaken. It looked incredibly strange. “There is nothing to be done about it. It will play out again, a new battle in an old war. Woe be to those caught in its middle.” He was getting a bit tired of the floating storm eye, she was a real downer. “Well, I’m terribly sorry about whatever I am going to do, but maybe you could tell me who you are?” Another slow blink. “I am the first storm and the first born, mother of many and wife of none.” That told Vel very little. “I assume you know who I am, from the way you spoke about me.” The thunder rumbled louder around him. “I know not your name or where you dwell, but I know what you are. You are the vessel that carries vengeance. You are the last spiteful act of a wronged god. You are a scourge upon this world.” That sounded both cool and harsh. He found he liked it. “You know, I think you’re at least right about some of those.” She sounded sad again. “Goodbye, bringer of sorrow, may we not meet again for a long time.”

Vel woke up drenched in sweat. There was a thunderstorm raging outside.