Amos rose from the enforced slumber slowly. There is something to be said about waking up in an unfamiliar place - a feeling of peace followed by immediate panic.
Heavy remembrance came as Amos opened his eyes, heat of the bright sun blasting down upon him. With it, came the pain. Throbbing, aching pain.
His lungs burned and he coughed. His throat was raw. His cheeks stung and his nose sent shooting pain across his entire body whenever he moved. His knuckles were split and bloodied.
Ink was right. That place isn't safe.
If I want to return there, I have to get stronger.
The only reason I survived was because of Amos' soul taking control of my body. I won't be able to speak to it again if Darian and that man come back.
And did he control the unbreakable obsidian? He must be the true Lord of the Infinite Lake!
Amos lay on his back, groaning softly in the field where the portal had dumped him. He tried opening his eyes, but it hurt too much. A combination of the beating he had taken and the brightness of the sun.
The wheat swayed gently, tickling his exposed skin and sticking to the blood where it still dried.
Leila's gonna kill me if she sees me like this. Kien might actually die from shock.
I have to get cleaned up...
Coincidentally, at that moment, Amos heard a gasp from his side. There was the soft whoosh and thud of a tool being dropped in the wheat.
"Amos!" Leila exclaimed with worry, "What happened?"
Damn it.
"Who hurt you?"
When Amos elected not to respond, Leila began crying.
"What is wrong with you lately? Say something, Amos, anything!" She thumped his chest with a gentle fist. Salty tears dripped from her cheeks, washing away little lines of blood on Amos' face.
"Sorry..." was all he could manage.
"Just stop, Amos. You need to take better care of yourself. You never used to be like this. Are you using drugs? Is that Ink influencing you in some way? Your father-" her voice hitched, "Your father and I are worried about you."
Amos' heart dropped. "No... Just dumb," he spluttered.
Leila leaned in to hug him, not moving her son from where he lay. Now there were two injured men on the farm, leaving herself and the newcomer to work and earn their wages. Amos didn't know if they could do it.
He pushed Leila off, gently, and tried sitting up. He slipped in the soil a little, but managed to prop himself up on one of his arms. He opened his mouth to speak, but frowned when he felt the temperature drop decidedly.
His heavy breath came out misty, visible. Leila looked around, just as confused as the man in her son's body.
"What?" Amos grunted dumbly.
Leila saw something in the distance that made her eyes widen. Fear written on her face. Wordlessly, she hooked one of Amos' arms around her shoulder and heaved him into a standing position.
"Head down," she said, "keep your eyes closed. Do not look up."
Leila half supported, half dragged Amos through the fields. The temperature was strange, so strange. He kept his eyes at the ground - not only because Leila had told him to, but also because he needed to watch where he was going or he would certainly fall.
It was bright when Amos exited the Infinite Lake. His vision began to darken now - not the bleariness of waning consciousness, but the fading of the light with stunning alacrity. Something was wrong.
Leila was puffing hard with the effort of carrying her son's muscular body and its new inhabitant. She was none the wiser to Bailey taking Amos' place - and why should she be? It would be ridiculous to attribute strange behaviour and forgetfulness to the expulsion and replacement of a soul.
Clearly, she thinks something else is going on.
Madness... Insanity...
Drai...
Leila must think my strange behaviour is due to becoming Drai!
But Amos' parents think the Drai are dangerous... Just where is she taking me?
Amos panicked and pushed away from Leila. The light was fading faster. She looked back at him with hurt in her eyes. He stumbled. Fell.
"Amos," she said "Just wait."
Amos' tongue was too heavy to say anything complex. He just gave her a meaningful look.
Then, the sunlight disappeared entirely. Leila and Amos were plunged into darkness - night come to swallow day before its time.
"Please, Amos. Let's go home. Come inside with your father and I." Leila was ignoring the absence of light. She kept her head bent, never looking up, not even to meet Amos' eyes.
"I don't know how to fix this, but I have to try."
"I'm here to protect you."
"...Power. Real power."
"Watch for the eclipse..."
Amos looked up.
The sky was dark as night, despite it being afternoon at most. There was a smattering of stars, technicoloured. Faint lines connected them, appearing like a low opacity overlay bridging between bright points. The lines denoted the zodiac constellations. Cancer, the portal.
And there, in the centre of it all, was the dark sun. What Bailey/Amos and many other learned astrologers knew to be the moon passing in front of the sun, but the masses ascribed to myth and legend. There was a bright ring around its edges, light spilling over. Pink flares of solar activity lashed out like tentacles in space.
It was the source of the Drai: An eclipse.
A Total Solar Eclipse.