The Fated One

Chapter 5 - History lesson

Rex held her face as he kissed her forehead. He remembered how he had held this face over hundreds of years. How each time she had been torn away from him and he had grieved. Oh, how he had grieved. The pain took its toll on Rex, made him bitter and reclusive. Over the thousands of years that he ruled over the dream realm he became more and more disenchanted with the prospect of happiness and hid in his castle. Isolating himself more and more each time he lost her. This time felt different, she was angrier than she had been before, more reluctant to him. The confusion plagued him as he paced the long corridors of his dark castle. The more he got lost in his thoughts, the darker the castle became, clouds settling inside the walls, reducing it to a gloomy box rather than the bright and beautiful space it had once been.

“I don’t know who you are” She murmured, almost too quiet to hear.

“If you don’t know who I am, then you surely don’t know who you are” he responded, trying to remain calmer as his previous tones had gone so unwelcomed.

He pulled away, looking at her face one more time. Her raven hair, still curled in the way it had done before. Her eyes, bold and brown, the kind of eyes you can get lost in. He had always been mesmerised by her features. Her nose that sat so perfectly in the middle of her face. Slightly pointed at the end. Her lips, rosy, red naturally which contrasted so beautifully against her pale skin. She looked like a doll to him, while she looked delicate, he knew her true power and strength as over the many lifetimes they had lived together, she had shown what she was truly capable of in the face of adversity.

Rex took a sigh of despair. This second meeting wasn’t going as he had planned, although he wasn’t as charming as he one was. He recognised this in himself but felt unable to change these habits that grief had caused him. He stepped back, fully allowing her to be in her own space in the sand she had created.

“Will you walk with me?” he asked tenderly, feeling a tinge of worry from potential rejection. He had started to pine for her more than ever before. But how he thought, could you pine for somebody who doesn’t even know who you are?

“I will” she replied, he smiled, for the first time in years, he smiled, and he meant it. They started to walk along the glistening sands, the sounds of the waves, the wind soaring through the trees, it was a truly magical and impressive dream. They walked side by side; Rex kept his hands behind his back whilst Caraxyes looked up at him curiously.

“So, you’re Rex? I’m Caraxyes”

“Yes, I know” he said

“You keep saying you know, but how do you know, what do you know, what are you on about? I’m really sorry if you think I’m somebody else but I honestly haven’t ever seen you before”

This stung him right in the chest, a true admission of being completely unimportant to somebody who is the most important to himself. He sighed, wondering where to start. Distressed at the idea that it may be too much for her to comprehend, but also quietly confident that he knew her well enough already to know she could take the information.

“My full name is Rex Somniorum. It’s my Latin name, but I’ve gone by many as I’ve said. It means the king of dreams. I am exactly that, the king of the dream realm, I watch over it, keep it safe and balanced”

“Ok” Caraxyes wondered if she should curtsey to a king but felt that maybe they were passed that.

“Next question, what are you doing in my dream”

“I wanted to see you again, I haven’t always done this alone”

“Hold up there, are you kidnapping me? Because I would be a terrible prisoner. Honest”

He laughed, a sound he himself hadn’t heard in such a long time.

“No, you are not a prisoner here, I want to explain to you, but I’m not sure you’re ready”

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be” she quipped. Finding her feet within the conversation with this truly remarkable man.

“So be it”

They stopped in motion as he waved his hand in a semi-circle motion in front of them both, the sands started to rumble as the whole image ahead turned into a spiral, whilst the beautiful beach disappeared into the small circle ahead, a vision of an old medieval library started to appear, brick by brick, book by book the pieces of the library came together until they were both firmly stood within it. The stone floors cold beneath Caraxyes bare feet which had been buried in warm sand only moments ago. Caraxyes smiled as she marvelled at the high ceilings and impressive stain glass windows in front of her, she loved books, just as a child she had been lost in actual worlds of her mind books enabled her to do the same. She looked up to him and he looked down on her, sharing a moment that electrified them both.

“This is my library, here I have every person, every dream, every life. Here is you” He reached out his hand in front of him and commanded the book to move closer. The book flew towards him and reached his hand. It was old, leather bound with a slight cover of dust on the top. It was obvious this book had not been touched in a very long time. The front of the book had “Caraxyes” engraved in gold letters. It was truly a stunning book. He leant over to give the book to her, as she took it, she felt chills all over. The book was hers and she knew it. She wasn’t sure how, but she did. The first page opened it was blank. The whole book appeared blank. As she flicked through the pages, pictures and ink started to appear. Forming beautifully cursive words.

“Please, sit” Rex gestured his hand to an old red chair by the window. Caraxyes moved over and made herself comfortable. Intrigued by the book’s contents. The first page was ready for her, a picture had formed of a woman, looking exactly like her but the clothes were ancient, Egyptian looking, the woman sat proudly on a gold throne with sphynx’s next to her. A man dressed all in black stood behind her. It was Rex. The next page, again it was undeniably her, but in Roman clothes, each photo a snippet of time and history with alterations of the mood, the clothes, the setting but the two people remained the same.

“What is this? Why does this woman look like me?” Rex could sense the unsettlement in her voice.

“It’s ok, I knew this would be a lot to take in. I have been king for thousands of years since dreams began. As a gift I was allowed to love. I was allowed to have a love of my choosing. I searched the dream realm of the different dreams until I found you and you found me. We met, our love grew and then the day came where you were taken from me”

“Why” Caraxyes was hanging on every word of this tragedy not quite realising that it was a very true tragedy, settling more to believe it as a story.

“Because I was being punished. They were angered by my happiness, I became so devoted to you that my responsibilities as the king of dreams started to wane, I told them I didn’t want to be the king anymore, I wanted to live my days with you in peace. The realm had started to take a toll on you, and I couldn’t bare it. As punishment for my words, they took you from me. But to make the punishment as grievous as could be they kept you in person, forcing me to watch you live a witch life over and over again, always being close enough for me to see but never remembering who I was”

“That’s so terrible, evil”

“quite”

“So, you’ve just been watching me?”

“Not quite. Over the thousands of years, there’s been times where you came back to me, you remembered, you loved me again and we were happy. We tried many times to hide you, fight them whatever it was we tried it just so we could live in peace together. But each time they fought back and took you, forcing you to be reborn again as a witch. The last time, in the 1856 you pleaded with me, you couldn’t do it again not anymore. So, I stopped finding you. I stopped looking, I just stayed here, sitting in my own grief and misery”

Caraxyes looked around at her surroundings properly. She moved the clouds to see that these walls had once been happy walls, where there was dark there used to be light, where it was dull it used to be colour. The tale Rex had told felt like home, she couldn’t deny these feelings inside of her that it was somehow, all true.

“But this time, I found you”

Rex smiled, leaning in to touch her again, something he couldn’t stop himself doing. This time, she seemed comforted by it.

“That you did” She leant her cheek into his hand, feeling every finger against her skin, taking in everything from this moment.

Caraxyes felt a sudden realisation that she had forgotten. This was a dream, she needed to get back to reality, she couldn’t let her mother know that she had been in this realm again.

“I have to leave”

“I know, its ok, this has been more than enough for me, for now. To see you, to speak to you, to touch you” he looked down bashfully. Caraxyes knew that she could feel something growing between them, almost like a small light that had always been aflame suddenly bursting into a roaring fire. Part of her wanted to stay, maybe that was the part of her that had been lost for so many years. Questions started to fly around her mind, but it would have to wait. She was already risking so much. She closed her eyes and closed her mind’s eye. Waking up back in her small single bed, chilled once again.