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You tense up, but hold still, and try not to squirm as Richard digs his fingernails into your skin. "Ow! Careful! I— OW!"
>[-1 ID: 6/15]
Sudden sharp pain, like Richard drove a nail into your neck, followed by a hum in your teeth. Your face twitches; your eyes blink; your fingers curl. You taste metal. "Sorry, Charlie," Richard says. "Won't be more than a minute."
A <span class="mu-i">minute?</span> You steady yourself against the cot. Your vision is garbling: floaters cloud it, colors flash in and out, your fingers triple. Richard says "Charlie."
"What?" you say desperately.
"What's that? I didn't say anything, primrose."
>[-1 ID: 5/15]
Richard says something else, incomprehensible, because Ellery's nasal voice is talking over him, and then somebody else over him, all in useless shredded snippets, and below you on the cot is the Herald figurine, the one on the Manager's desk, but your fifteen fingers go right through it when you reach, and the Richard-snake bares its fangs at you, wraps around the tortoiseshell knife, and it's all stained yellow-puce-magenta, and everyone's talking a million miles a minute, and you smell blood— are you bleeding? Did Richard really put a nail in your neck? You reach around, but your hand is grabbed.
"Wait. I'll eject it."
Richard's real solid hand squeezes your real solid hand, then reaches up to the nail in your neck. He presses it in— everything inside you wobbles— then slides it out— everything in you goes rigid. The voices clear. The colors clear. The snake isn't there. You don't smell blood, but you pat your neck to be sure. Not only is it clean, but the skin is unblemished.
"That should about do it. Are you well, Charlie?"
You turn around slowly. Richard is smiling. "...Yes," you say.
"I presume it was as unpleasant as anticipated. You look queasy, if you don't mind me saying. If it helps, nobody enjoys it." Richard crosses one leg over the other. "Did the information integrate itself correctly?"
Do you remember now? Wait, what are you supposed to be remembering? Everything? Because you sure don't remember everything— 3 years ago is a blank. Your father, outside of reconstructed recent memories, is a blank. God-damnit! Did the BrainWyrm lie!?
"...I'm sensing 'no'? Are you certain?"
You can't remember anything new. Nothing at all is sticking out as new. Damnit, damnit, damnit. You put yourself through that for nothing? No. No, there was the other stuff. The information. What did you ask it for? Stuff about the Herald? What do you know about the Herald?
...
(3/5)
