It was supposed to be a nice relaxing evening. A lazy one, where I could just close my eyes and float without getting entangled in any otherworld politics or having unexpected guests drop by. So when I felt the first tugs from a place I had not visited in a long while, I was intrigued, but ultimately uninterested. My mistake was confirming a connection to that place. The tugs became a snare, and I was ripped from my incorporeal comfort into a harsh and unwelcoming reality.
My consciousness had been forced into a stupor for some time before I was able to regain a semblance of reasoning. I felt cold and damp stone under my bare knees. My arms were twisted back in an attempt to keep me compliant and unmoving from the painful kneeling position. I felt cuts all over my body, but the lack of sting from wounded flesh told me the cuts were more scratches than assaults.
Something squirmed between skin and muscle and I cried out from the alien sensation. The sensation counted ribs and vertebrae, made the sharp turn past the knees and coiled inside my arms, moved lazily in my throat and explored the unprotected stomach. The sensations were numerous and left an odd taste in my mouth.
It reminded me of venom.
But I could not make any voluntary movements except for crying out in discomfort and a small amount of fear. In answer, my arms were wrenched even further back and my head jerked up to make way for something thin and metallic to slice across it.
But I did not bleed. The wound was literally only skin deep.
“There! Another one! Take it and put it in the fresh cut! Let the [defiler] be destroyed from within!” I heard a hiss in answer that approached me quickly. It was silenced when the object making the sound was forced between skin and muscle in the still open wound on my neck.
“The [false priests] will see soon. They allowed this [defiler] to enter at will, to enter this sacred space, and foul it with her presence. See how [the gods] send snake after snake to show their displeasure! See how the snakes move within her body, completely free and unchecked. We will make a [slave] of her, and she will destroy the [false priests] that gave her refuge! [Shout of praise to a god.]”
The more snakes they forced into my body, the less I tasted venom on my tongue and the more I regained mental clarity. I still didn’t know what they were hoping the invasion of the snakes to accomplish, but it appeared to me they were devouring some kind of toxin as they roamed under my skin at will. I kept the appearance of being drugged and unresponsive, but allowed my eyes to open and “roll about” to observe my environment.
I recognized the place at once. A chamber of contradictions, it was nearly completely underground except for one small circular hole at the roof of the chamber’s dome. Everything within the chamber had been carved out of the bedrock and left in place. But for all the rock involved, the theme along the round chamber walls is that of a river, self-sourced and self-fed. Three immense cobras were also carved from the rock. Their hoods were spread and their mouths open, they stood erect from their coils where offerings would be laid.
I was in the Naga Temple in the Nagalands. I have not been here since Snake left, and it was a long time before that. With Snake gone, I no longer had the right to come here at will, a restriction I had abode in peace.
The Naga Temple is a place of peace. Though those that attended to the temple’s duties were more than capable of defending the structure if necessary, this was a place of calm reflection. Certainly not a place for militant cults. Certainly not a place for the gloating would-be high priest enjoying watching me continue to squirm in discomfort.
“So, you are awake. Not for long. See how the [gods of this place] continue to give me snakes to fill you with. Your will is strong, but they are greater. They will smother you, and make of you a [nagini]. Not one of the greater ones, not one of the children of the [gods]. But a servant to be commanded. I will tell you your first task once your conversion is complete. You will go amongst those that harbored you before, and you will rend them to pieces.”
I was no longer perturbed. Now that I knew where I was, I knew the outcome of this endeavor. The only thing I did not know was the manner of his downfall. If anything, his fanaticism calmed me. I noted he was no different from those in the Christian cults I was involved in. Everyone imagined himself to be the One True Priest, the paragon of humility and righteousness.
I knew the statues of the snakes were solid. But this is not a physical reality. Small snakes came from the mouth of the largest statue, which represented the greatest of the three chief [gods]. These snakes were quickly snatched up by the followers of the braggart and brought to me to be inserted into still open wounds on my skin.
So many years ago, I had presented to these same three idols the rod that was to be Snake’s entry into my life. And now I am held in a humiliating position before them, being prepared to be a living sacrifice.
Someone noted that the priests had stopped trying to force their way into the chamber. The cult leader took this to mean the priests had accepted his mastery over them and was now bewailing their inevitable downfall. I wanted to laugh, but the snakes had stopped roaming under my skin and was now trying to burrow deeper. Not into my body, though. They were trying to pierce the boundary between flesh and spirit.
I wondered if this was how an ovum felt, being assaulted by a hundred sperm at once, each one trying to find a spot thinner than all the rest. I should have been horrified. I should have been crying. I wanted to laugh, instead.
I was not aware of the microsecond of union. Only that I suddenly pulled myself out of my captors’ grip with strength I should not have had as an instinct completely mine yet not me took over my consciousness. They tried to recapture me at first but as my body started transforming from the influence of the dozens and dozens of snakes, they backed away in their first and last act of survival instinct.
The transformation from bipedal human to frenzied nagini was quick. The would-be priest shouted in joy at seeing what the [gods of this place] had made of me. He was quick to command me.
“Go out this chamber and destroy the false priests! Tear them apart! Destroy those that brought defilers into this holy place!”
“No.” It felt good to tower over him.
“You serve me! Obey!”
“No.” It felt good to smile.
I watched his men start to scramble for the door, not to grant me access to their enemies, but to make their escape.
“I created you to serve me! OBEY YOUR MASTER!”
“You did not create me. You do not own me. You have changed nothing about me, nor have you my leash.” I turned to the largest of the idols and bowed. It was clear my next words were to the [god]. “What would you have me do?”
There was no light nor sound nor rumble. No conscious means of communication. But I understood anyway. Before the would-be priest realized how dangerous it was to be so near to me, I turned and seized him.
“Well, you had one thing right. The defilers have to go. So out with you!” I threw him into the barricade blocking the door. I’m sure several bones were broken as the force of my throw collapsed the barricade and sent the remaining men fleeing away from the debris.
Quick as I could, I seized all those that followed the usurper and threw them out the chamber as well. It did not take long, but it was long enough to work up a desire for more destruction. I wanted to continue the lesson and made for the only doorway into the chamber to chase the cultists down.
Before I made it to the doorway, I could see the proper priests had already taken the cultists into custody. They were never in any danger, and was only remaining without the chamber by command of their [gods]. I still wanted to use my form’s strength to “teach them a lesson”.
I put my hand on the door in instinct, and stopped myself from passing. My bloodlust pushed me forward but my caution held me fast. I heard myself screaming in hungering outrage and I knew I was under risk of a frenzy. If I left this chamber, and the immediate influence of the [gods], I would lose conscious control and slaughter everyone. It took beer to stop Sekhmet. I have no idea what would stop me.
I turned away and moved quickly to [one of the smaller idols]. Grasping the stone coils, I asked for the nagini form to be taken from me. The chamber had been cleared of cultists as was requested of me, and I was now at risk of causing unnecessary bloodshed. I did not want to betray those that had given me shelter.
From the mouth of the solid stone statue, milk poured out over me in large quantities. The cool liquid soothed the heat of my fervor as it flowed over me to collect in the basin made by the coils. I yielded to my instinct and leaned down to drink greedily of the sweet offering. I drank until I was forced to stop to lift my head and take a breath. I was unconscious before the intake was complete.
When next I awoke, I found myself clothed in a loose gown made of unbleached linen. A separate swatch of dingy hued cloth covered my head. I was human again, and curled up in the now dry basin of the same idol that poured milk on me.
Completely exhausted, I meant to mumble an apology and a farewell, then attempting to leave. I moved my head to start to look up when a very human voice caught me.
“You are safe here. And invited. She will watch over you until you are strong enough to leave on your own. You are not trespassing where you are. If She did not want you here, you would not be here. You earned the right to come here without [Snake] many years ago. Lower your head and rest in Her coils. Leave only when you are fully rested.”
I nodded weakly and yielded once again to the coils of a snake. I heard myself breathing, the priest breathing, and the faint hissing of the multitude of oil lamps in the chamber. The portal at the roof betrayed it was now night.
I closed my eyes and slept.