Gix - Mind Fingers

Gix the demon received the report from one of his monks, but no words were spoken. Instead the monk knelt beside the demon's makeshift throne, and the demon's elongated finger clasped the top of the monk's skull. The monk let out a low moan as the talons dug slightly into the skin and demon's claws connected with the nerves beneath the flesh.

It was a heady moment for Gix, slightly intoxicating.

These fleshy creatures were filled with sensation. Even the monks, whom Gix had learned possessed an existence that was removed from the experiences of others of their race, were a cornucopia of emotions, a pit of conflicting desires, a rich, breeding tidal pool of feelings. The electric thrill of touching those feelings, even vicariously, rushed through him like a shot.

The demon would be loathe to admit it, but he found the experience unlike any at home in Phyrexia. Delicious.

That was the word for it. The touch of the monk's nerves was delicious.

The emotions subsided—fear, anger, passion, concern, bliss—and Gix began to scan the monk's mind. The monks prided themselves on their machinelike organization, but Gix found their minds a tangle of clutter, a jungle of conflicting thoughts more impenetrable than his homeland's jungles. Slowly Gix extended his own consciousness, taming the wilderness and pulling the answers he needed from the living skull of his worshiper.

There had been those who had protested against his tender probings; they were buried in the sands outside, buried next to the weak, who collapsed in on themselves at the first gentle mental touch. Only the strong and the willing remained in the demon's service, which was as he thought it should be.

He had learned much of the world through the monks, much about a world so different from his own, as organized as a goblin parade and as structured as an overturned anthill. Even those words were looted from the monks' minds, for the pure chaos of the world did not connect in any way with his old life beneath the oily skies of Phyrexia.

***

The Brother's War, Chapter 19