His mind was empty - the world was smoke.
All smoke, it had always been smoke, total and swirling and hot.
It stung his eyes, his lips - his throat as he gasped it in.
The world was nothing but smoke, within him was nothing but smoke. Smoke in his lungs, in his veins and in his mind.
Smoke. It had always been smoke.
It cloaked all distance, outside and in. No object, no wisp and no phenomena was placable in some metric against any other. Everything was close. Everything was far. Everything was smoke. No memory or consideration was graspable. No thought arose from stimulus nor led to further contemplation. Everything was fleeting. Everything was now. Everything was smoke.
The noise came first, the noise was not smoke. Shrill and panicked, but undeniably jubilant. He did not know the voices, his mind was empty.
The shouting grew louder, it lasted a second, it lasted centuries.
Arms were on him now, arms and hands. They grabbed and yanked at armpits and chest. The shouting grew louder, the smoke grew thinner.
In some instant, distinct amongst the others, he was free of the smoke. He tumbled to the ground, the hands still dragged him. The sky was dark - the stars invisible. He was being dragged away from a great fire, away from the smoke and into the cold. He realised he was naked, he looked to the men dragging him across the grass - he did not know their faces, his mind was empty.
With each passing instant sense returned. He realised he was gasping, desperately sucking in the crisp night air, exhaling the heat and confusion.
He remembered he had words. “Wwwwhhu-” he slurred, his tongue ashy and swollen, “Whuh- Aaaahhh-” He knew the words, but hadn’t the sense to form a question. The dragging men responded, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying.
In the next moment he was against a tree, hunched with his head dangling, tongue hanging loose. Someone pushed him gently to a more comfortable position, his head pitched upwards to the ink black sky. They left with some parting words, but all he heard were grunts.
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He stayed like that for centuries, or perhaps it was only seconds. He blinked hard to soothe his stinging eyes.
The world was a great expanse of woodland. The treeline dove and rose across the terrain - two huge mountains loomed in front, clawing at the sky. Faint outlines of more distant peaks stood between them, they were taller still.
Locally, he was sitting now within a clearing, his tree one amongst the borderline. In the centre was the colossal fire. It stretched from treeline to treeline, the very Earth itself razed around it, scarred by whatever God’s wrath had produced the inferno. The smoke billowed out in monstrous, twisting towers of grey. Climbing to the sky like a dozen-fingered hand - grasping towards the heavens.
Hundreds of people were standing around the flames, all naked, hollering and screaming. He watched as one-by-one they took a last look at their peers, then jogged merrily into the smoke, vanishing into the turbulent flow of the plumes.
Propped up against trees or just splayed out on the grass, hundreds of others were staring motionless at the scene, mouths agape and eyes blank. He looked desperately between them all, to the faces, to the fire, to the surrounding terrain. Nothing was familiar, his mind was empty.
He traced the rising smoke to the overcasting blackness, staring again at the shifting mess of black and grey. There were grand shapes writhing and flapping within the void. The view entranced him for years, or maybe it was just weeks, and then she came.
She found him, and seemed happy. She dropped to the grass and took his head in her hands, her eyes were streaming and her smile was pure ecstasy.
“Memory is sin.” She said, the words suddenly had form, had meaning. “All that exists is now, the world beyond is naught but smoke. Remember, memory is sin, all that exists is now, the world beyond is naught but smoke.” He tried to respond, verbally or otherwise, all he could do was blow air from his mouth.
Her smile widened. “You are pure now! You understand? Pure!” She ran her hand through his hair, “The Gods have cleansed you of sin, of memory. It’s a beautiful thing! You will feel confused, unsteady, but you have been touched by our Lord - wiped clean!” Her hands started to shake with excitement. “The confusion will pass, you will persevere… After all, this is the sixth time now. You will find your name, and the other constants - along with whatever else the grace of the divine will see fit for you to recall.” Her face suddenly saddened, her eyes darted around, to his eyes, lips and some distant nothing. Suddenly she seized his head and pulled him into a kiss. Her lips knotted with his and a muffled whine sounded from her throat. They were there for millenia.
As she withdrew, she lightly clasped his lower lip between her teeth. She pulled at it to the point of resistance, then released it away with a sigh.
“I pray I am among what the Gods allow you to recall.” She said with a solemn smile. She rose to her feet, she was naked too - and beautiful. He did not know her, his mind was empty.
She spun away and started briskly towards the flames, her auburn hair catching the vivid orange of the inferno. She stopped a few paces from the smoke’s edge and turned around. He could not make out her expression, her face was dark against the fire’s glare. The silhouette swayed slightly for a second, then vanished into the smoke.