06. Coming together

The maelstrom swirled around her, but she could not feel its violent flow in the slightest. Tendrils lashed furiously at her but their efforts barely registered as a caress for all the pain they intended to cause. Strong arms wrapped around her as a caloused hand gently brushed her hair down her neck. She hoisted a light up to her chest. Its glow intense, but gentle, warm, and pure. A smile spread across her face as the caloused hand reached for the light. She could just make out the tiniest hand reaching out to grab a rough finger... a metallic tinkling sound echoed around the trio.

Her eyes fluttered open. A glowing crystal orb flickered above her. She stared into its blue-white glow.

"I'm sorry Liliya, did I wake you?"

She laid inert and unresponsive for a few seconds, staring into the light and trying to process what she just dreamt.

"No, its ok, I'm just trying to piece myself together... not physically of course."

The caretaker scoffs. The door closes shut and he walks into view. He is grinning slightly, quite clean, and his long hair tied back. He was much more presentable now, wearing a white shirt with a frilled collar. His sleeves were rolled back, arms ready to work, but he made himself overly handsome for the task he was about to perform...

"Arent you afraid to get those clothes dirty?"

The mans smile spreads a bit further. "I thought something a bit less utilitarian would be more appealing... to help you readjust."

The heat rose to her face immediately. "I'm adjusting fine!". She turned her face up and focused on looking anywhere except the mans face.

"Of course you are."

The bowl of metal tools tinkled around as they were shuffled back and forth. When he found what he was looking for, he also procured a bony plate and a scalp, with long curly red hair flowing down. She looked with grim curiosity as the man set these things on the table behind the top of her exposed brain. He held up what looked like a giant clawed tweezer, but instead of grasping anything with it, he held it up so the points each barely touched the edges of her skull where the brain poked out. He moved the tool to the bony plate, what she presumed to be skull bone. Evidently, he was satisfied. he shuffled for another tool, a set of thick needles on hinges mounted onto a rod, which itself was mounted on a thick disk. He set the disk down and positioned the needles to hold the bone plate.

"Sir... who... are you?"

The man stopped for a brief moment, then continued setting up his apparatus. "So you havent remembered yet? Sometimes it takes a while for memories to resurface. Especially if youve been passed a long time. Hold still."

She could hear the disk sliding across the table, bone slid on bone, and an even pressure pressed on the exposed edges of her skull. The man tightened a few knobs to hold the skull plate in position. A slight brief breeze brushed her forehead as a white light ignited just out of her vision, and a burning sensation flared up at a point where the two skull bones met. She held still as the man slowly guided the light around the seam, knitting the bone together. A minute later, and her head was fully enclosed. The needles were pulled loose from the dome and the apparatus was closed up and stored away. The scalp was next. The man slid the hair out neatly and positioned the scalp right at the base of her skull. A muttered incantation and a rough hand gesture later, and she had the most unsettling feeling of worms crawling across her exposed bone. It felt like each percieved worm was slowly securing the scalp by biting and dragging it into position. Once the scalp was magically wrapped around the bone, the sensation disappeared, followed by a familiar searing sensation that followed the edge of the skin.

"There... how does that look?"

The man gently worked his hand under her hair and lifted her head. She sat up, careful not to disturb too much of her exposed midriff. The red hair fell and draped over her shoulder in thick curls, the light playing off them as though alight with a shimmering flame, faint blue over vibrant flames of red.

"I... look beautiful."

She said the words, she definitely felt impressed by the results, but saying such a phrase out loud felt like she were simply being a braggard. She smiled and looked down awkwardly, not sure what else to say, but the caretaker took the hint in stride. He eased her back into the table to continue his work.

The next few hours of waiting was spent in silence, atleast it felt like hours. There were no signs or clues as to what time of day it was, or even if the sun was out. All she could do was let her caretaker work. One by one he placed an organ, or fed in another foot or two of fleshy tube, periodically she would feel a sharp shock preceding a wave of new sensation as newly functioning organs were pushed around in ways she knew they werent intended to move. mostly aches and pains were felt thereafter, as though rocks or needles were stuck in various places. After gods knows how many times this process repeated, a shock led way to ravenous crippling hunger. Her newly connected stomach immediately began to rumble and convulse, trying to digest contents that were not there... her first instinct was to contract her abdominal muscles, but as they were sliced open and flayed out like an open vest, she could only squirm and struggle with her arms and legs. The man stepped back calmly, giving her a few seconds to stop groaning and recompose herself.

"The hunger will subside by itself eventually, but it would be bad to start ingesting food so soon after healing your stomach... you will have to wait for your body to fully acclimate"

She swallowed. Her mouth was salivating, but she was concentrating only on calming her breathing and suppressing her hunger pangs. She turned her head towards the mirror in frustration, away from the man in a futile attempt to maintain composure "A warning next time would be nice..."

"Well, if it makes that much of a difference, the next one is going to be interesting."

He brought another organ out of the bowl and dropped it into her abdominal cavity. She looked back at him inquisitively "What does that mean?"

He remained concentrated on the task at hand, and as his fingers slid down and grasped at yet another connection point, it dawned on her exactly what he meant.

"No, wait-"

A sharp burning sensation threw her back into an arch, violently lifting as her arms and legs squirmed. she moaned in pain, words choked her throat unable to work their way out from the shock. A hand braced against her hip and forced her back onto the table as the other hand continued to work, the pain subsided only briefly as he adjusted, and started again, contorting her body once more. For a minute, her mind was a complex mix of euphoria, rage, confusion, and embarassment. The pain subsided, followed by a massive shock that turned all of her mind to the former. Her mind went blank from the overload, so intense she couldnt breathe, permeating to the very tips of her curling fingers and toes.

What felt like hours in her mind was probably closer to minutes. Slowly, her seizure wore off, allowing her to gasp greedilly for air. Her limbs went slack, sweat dripping from every pore.

"Are you ok?"

She didnt even want to look at his face. Now her mind was all three of the latter.

"Go to hell."

"Theres a few more things yet to be done. The rest shouldnt be anymore stressful than that..."

She turned her face to his, eyes locked in fury.

"Who the hell are you?!"

The mans sweaty eyebrows raised on his shocked face. He stared silently back for a moment before taking a seat in a nearby stool in shocked silence.

"I apologize for failing to foresee this problem. I didnt realise what this confusion could cause."

He clasped his two gore soaked hands in front of himself on the table.

"My name is Vexas, I discarded my last name long ago... and I am your husband."