Kre held his breath and tried to place which part of his brain the voice came from.
‘You think so incredibly much and all of it is perfectly worthless. It’s so painful,’ the voice muttered in his mind. ‘I’ve only been awake for a few hours yet, and already I’m at my limit of what I can stand.’
Even in a mental conversation, Kre seemed to be at a loss for words. Luckily, the fact that his mind was racing was more than enough to keep the discussion alive.
‘Just… just think of nothing for a moment or ten while I gather my own thoughts. Your incessant dancing between self-pity and confusion are wreaking havoc on my ability to figure out what’s going on here.’
With nothing else to go on, Kre tried to do as he was bid. He tried to center his thoughts on… well, on nothing. Unfortunately, there’s nothing quite as difficult as thinking about nothing. Random stray thoughts continued to rise up on his mental periphery and he tried to bat them down as swiftly as possible or to recenter his mind’s eye when that seemed to fail, but he couldn’t seem to keep up with his cognitive ramblings.
Just as a child can feel the stare of their parent when they’re doing something they shouldn’t, Kre could feel the other voice glaring at him, though no words echoed in his mind.
‘Look, I’m trying here,’ he muttered to himself, feeling incredibly stupid in the process. ‘I’ve never been great at meditation and being in this situation where I don’t know what’s going on is only amplifying my stress. Can you at least tell me who… or what you are?’
He could tell that the other psyche was considering the question with sincere thoughtfulness, so he waited as patiently as he could.
‘I don’t know who I am,’ it finally answered. ‘Not exactly. What I mean…’
Kre could tell that the other mind was growing increasingly frustrated, but he didn’t know what to do about it. This was certainly not something he knew how to deal with, even had the circumstances been more normal.
‘I’m Kre,’ he offered finally, hoping that he could help deescalate the awkwardness of the situation a bit. ‘I’m a Tehynshin from Mintas, up in the Milo region.’
‘None of those words make any sense to me,’ the voice responded. ‘You speak in strange riddles.’ The voice pushed against Kre’s mind, causing him to set aside the words he was preparing to think, ‘Keep silent, please. Things come to me fleetingly the more I consider the question and I don’t want to lose out on the opportunity to recall something significant.’
Kre nodded and immediately felt foolish for the physical action while conversing with something in his head. The voice came back sounding calmer and more self-assured, ‘I am… Tral…’ it paused, as if trying to sound out the rest of the name. ‘…gar? Hrm, close. Tral… la… la… la gar… Yes, that feels right. Tralagar.’
‘Tralagar,’ repeated Kre, testing the name out for himself. ‘That’s a nice name. It’s a pleasure to meet…’
‘You should address me as Lord Tralagar though,’ the voice commanded. ‘I recall now that your race is significantly inferior to mine own, and it would be proper for you to address me in this manner.’