Obsidian Monarchy

Teach Me

That night, as she laid down to sleep but found her way back to that barn. She had hoped that she would find another place with her mentor there but instead, Adrain was waiting for her at the table with tea. Walking to him, she sat down across him. Meeting his amber eyes, she sighed. “Teach me.”

He smiled slightly back at Seraphina. “With one limitation.”

Reaching forward, she grabbed a cup of tea. “Go on.”

“You take it seriously. I need you to be alive when I find you. We can practice here but you will be safe out there.”

She paused, curious about what he would gain from this. “You don’t ask that I come back to that place?”

Adrian shook his head. “I won’t make that a requirement to keep yourself safe. I will bring you back when it is the right time.”

“Even if teaching me this keeps me away forever?”

He smiled at her then, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Then I would have taught you well, how could I be angry at that?”

She gave a few moments then breathed deeply, she reached over and offered her hand. It was still an unusual tradition to agree over shaking hands, but it was a custom that people did in a different universe and was adopted here in the recent years. “I can agree with that.”

He took her hand, holding for longer than she thought a shake would be. Adrian then stood and motioned her to follow him. He walked silently to the edges of the farm; it looked like it went forever. However, when Adrian suddenly stopped and reached back with a hand. “We need to avoid getting separated.”

She walked forward and grabbed his hand, he held it lightly, then walked forward with him. They walked through a clear wall of water then emerged into the manor; her heart was racing before she could see the sky was distorted. Something about what she was seeing felt like a dream.

“The easiest way of showing you what a dream space feels like and how to form it, is to show you a dream space. Each area is small, it holds the most important memories closest to the mind space. There is a difference between dream space and mind space. Where we were is the mind space, the most protected part of your consciousness, beyond that wall is the dream space. They hold your memories.” In front of them, little kids ran across their path. A boy and girl in typical village garb. The girl was chasing the boy through the twists and turns of the manor. “These are the memories that shaped us, the further you go the less the memories come to mind..”

“Who are they?”

As the kids ran around the corner, he looked back at her. “Jordan and I.”

They looked to be close in age, however Jordan was five years his senior. “Why is this such an important memory?”

He shook his head, pulling her down a different path. “It was the day that she was chosen as the successor Monarch.”

Though she knew that Jordan viewed this day as an important day too, the sadness in his eyes made her think there was more that happened than what Jordan had told her. She spoke of this day once, only mentioning the vivid memory she had of her predessors death. “What happened?”

He shook his head, pulling her down a different path until the world was warping again. They passed through another wall and it was the exact opposite as their first memory. They were on a ship that was rushing through the waters, there were no signs of land anywhere on the horizon. There was crew on the deck, many of them chatting and doing different jobs. She glanced a younger Adrian pulling at a rope.

A man walked up to him, decades his senior, and said something. She couldn’t understand the language but the intent was clear. He was enjoying the ride, joking with the boy and pointing off into the horizon. Adrian watched this with a small smile on his face, the young boy had an ear-to-ear smile while looking full of life. “This was from my first trip across the sea, he was the captain and a close friend of my uncle. I have been traveling ever since then because of the feeling of freedom I felt here.”

“Its unbelievable that your mother let you go.” Adrian looked down at her when she spoke, not angry.

“When you inherit the Monarchy part of you starts looking for a successor. Jordan knew that I was not that person. I was no longer needed at the Manor so my uncle managed to find a place for me to go until I grew.” They then walked to the edge of the ship, the ropes began to shimmer and they walked through to another memory.

This continued on for a while until they crossed a boundary that felt different, duller. Adrian watched her as she sensed it. “Good, remember that feeling. The tone of the walls changes as you pass deeper. The memories get hazier. However, for tonight this is the last. It is almost dawn.”

Seraphina looked around, wondering how he could know that. “I don’t understand.”

He nodded. “The more you travel the more you will have control over the time here. For now, I can only slow time so much. Tomorrow.” He then let go of her hand and that cord jerked her back to her body.

She didn’t jerk as much this time, though the feeling of being pulled away like that was uncomfortable, she was learning to manage it. Again, she felt rested as she watched the sun rise. Though she felt like she slept for a matter of minutes, she was refreshed and ready for another day of hard riding.

Standing, Seraphina walked around the small clearing while stretching her legs. They were stiff from riding through the woods two days straight. They would need to stop a few times so she would still have the ability to move her legs.