Ficlet: Infinite Shores
Title: Infinite Shores
Summary: Quirinus discovers an unexpected sanctuary in Nagini. Inspired by the one word prompt "woods", and set in the background story for Quirinus that's more fleshed out here at ffnet.
Characters/Pairings: Quirinus Quirrell, Nagini, Voldemort (in the background)
Genre: general
Rating/Warnings: PG
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 590
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Sure
If yes, your Tumblr username: N/A
My thoughts wandered like fever dreams, emotions bleeding synaesthetic colors and dubious trains of logic. My limbic system was going, and there was only so much that unicorn blood could do.
Our Lord’s essence was hibernating deep within my neural structures, down in the basal ganglia where the degeneration was slowest. He would emerge when required and not before. And only for one last time.
I rocked back and forth on the chair in my quarters, with Nagini wrapped in a familiar coil around my torso like a muscular blanket. This was the price of the bleeding edge of dark magic...well, the cosmetic damages were nothing at this point. It was my mind, enmeshed as it was in the liquefying neural tissue, that terrified me. Traitorous, uncontrollable emotions slid through me like venom, and I felt tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
Quirinus, no. Nagini licked the tears as she always did these days. Don’t give up hope.
What hope is there really? A long shot at best. And we know how practical our Lord is. He doesn’t really need two familiars.
You are not expendable.
Aren’t I?
Not to me. Come, my love. Let’s try again. Ride with me. The golden braid between us pulled on me in a silken rush.
My perception slid down that braid, my consciousness following the tangled weave of it, searching for those bits of space in the pattern where I could rest a bit of myself. There would never be enough space - it was a finite thing, our familiar connection, sown by our Lord to make our unholy union. But it was the only place I could try to be when my body gave out. At least we knew the original connection could hold one consciousness. It had held one in Albania.
Though, I admit, I did sometimes wonder how much of our Lord’s self was lost, trying to distribute his essence into Nagini. We’d never really know, I suppose. And if some of one mind was lost, was there even a prayer that two could be held? We all knew what would happen once space ran out.
I tried very hard not to think about that as I zoomed in closer than ever along the coils of the golden braid. Strangely, they started to look less smooth and more like...feathers almost, no, snowflakes, yes, a continuous fractal snowflake curve of infinite length...Oh Nagini, what wonder is this...
Come to me, Quirinus.
I cast my consciousness like so many glittering grains of sand, distributing myself along those infinite snowflake shorelines in a superimposed wave until I fit just so. Settling in felt like coming home. Nagini, I love you. This is beyond words.
Good. You always did talk too much. Love wrapped the sands of me in a muscular coil, thick and warm, as our physical body rippled along the smooth floor of my quarters. Feel up for a little extracurricular activity while our Lord rests? There’s a lovely little bowtruckle nest I know in the Forbidden Forest.
I felt so much better, nestled into the sharp hollows of Nagini’s self. The clarity of my thinking was like a cold mountain stream, unchained at last from the fetid swamp of my neural tissue. I feel up for anything. Hell, I may never go back.
Her amusement caressed me in a luxurious wave as we escaped into the forest. We were silent, undulating death, bound together.
Bound isn’t so bad, is it?
Not at all. Not to you.
Good.
~~~
Author’s note: The shape Quirinus discovers in Nagini is called a Koch’s snowflake, in case you’re curious. There are lovely pictures of it that are easily google-able and Wikipedia-able.
Summary: Quirinus discovers an unexpected sanctuary in Nagini. Inspired by the one word prompt "woods", and set in the background story for Quirinus that's more fleshed out here at ffnet.
Characters/Pairings: Quirinus Quirrell, Nagini, Voldemort (in the background)
Genre: general
Rating/Warnings: PG
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 590
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Sure
If yes, your Tumblr username: N/A
My thoughts wandered like fever dreams, emotions bleeding synaesthetic colors and dubious trains of logic. My limbic system was going, and there was only so much that unicorn blood could do.
Our Lord’s essence was hibernating deep within my neural structures, down in the basal ganglia where the degeneration was slowest. He would emerge when required and not before. And only for one last time.
I rocked back and forth on the chair in my quarters, with Nagini wrapped in a familiar coil around my torso like a muscular blanket. This was the price of the bleeding edge of dark magic...well, the cosmetic damages were nothing at this point. It was my mind, enmeshed as it was in the liquefying neural tissue, that terrified me. Traitorous, uncontrollable emotions slid through me like venom, and I felt tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
Quirinus, no. Nagini licked the tears as she always did these days. Don’t give up hope.
What hope is there really? A long shot at best. And we know how practical our Lord is. He doesn’t really need two familiars.
You are not expendable.
Aren’t I?
Not to me. Come, my love. Let’s try again. Ride with me. The golden braid between us pulled on me in a silken rush.
My perception slid down that braid, my consciousness following the tangled weave of it, searching for those bits of space in the pattern where I could rest a bit of myself. There would never be enough space - it was a finite thing, our familiar connection, sown by our Lord to make our unholy union. But it was the only place I could try to be when my body gave out. At least we knew the original connection could hold one consciousness. It had held one in Albania.
Though, I admit, I did sometimes wonder how much of our Lord’s self was lost, trying to distribute his essence into Nagini. We’d never really know, I suppose. And if some of one mind was lost, was there even a prayer that two could be held? We all knew what would happen once space ran out.
I tried very hard not to think about that as I zoomed in closer than ever along the coils of the golden braid. Strangely, they started to look less smooth and more like...feathers almost, no, snowflakes, yes, a continuous fractal snowflake curve of infinite length...Oh Nagini, what wonder is this...
Come to me, Quirinus.
I cast my consciousness like so many glittering grains of sand, distributing myself along those infinite snowflake shorelines in a superimposed wave until I fit just so. Settling in felt like coming home. Nagini, I love you. This is beyond words.
Good. You always did talk too much. Love wrapped the sands of me in a muscular coil, thick and warm, as our physical body rippled along the smooth floor of my quarters. Feel up for a little extracurricular activity while our Lord rests? There’s a lovely little bowtruckle nest I know in the Forbidden Forest.
I felt so much better, nestled into the sharp hollows of Nagini’s self. The clarity of my thinking was like a cold mountain stream, unchained at last from the fetid swamp of my neural tissue. I feel up for anything. Hell, I may never go back.
Her amusement caressed me in a luxurious wave as we escaped into the forest. We were silent, undulating death, bound together.
Bound isn’t so bad, is it?
Not at all. Not to you.
Good.
~~~
Author’s note: The shape Quirinus discovers in Nagini is called a Koch’s snowflake, in case you’re curious. There are lovely pictures of it that are easily google-able and Wikipedia-able.