Chosen by the Fates

Late Night Coffee

Aisling~

"Holy cannoli-" Tiffa's eyes are wide as she looks between us, "-you're not kidding."

I am leaning against Ashleigh, Sionainn sits on the couch across from us, and Cian sits with him. Tiffa is perched on the arm of the couch beside Cian, coffee in hand. I sip at my own cup as she regards us.

After showering and changing into comfortable PJ's, we have all met downstairs to talk. There are still questions I need answered, and I wanted Tiffa's input on everything. Especially after whatever happened to the woods outside our house.

After sharing everything I know, Tiffa summarizes before asking questions. "So you guys can all intentionally jump into Aisling's head in her dreams?" 

We all nod.

Her eyes look to Cian, "So wait, are you a part of this witchery, too?"  

He shrugs, non-committal, "I suppose so."

Tiffa lets out a breath, "Wow. I mean, I've heard of lucid dreaming, but this sounds wild. And you guys have basically reincarnated like, a million lives here on earth?"

Ashleigh answers first, "Not just earth."

Tiffa frowns, "What do you mean not just earth?"

The brothers all exchange a look. Sionainn answers. "We exist in the dreaming, which is like a space between all the planes and times of existence. This place you know as Earth is just one reality. It's less like reincarnation, and more simultaneous. Who we are in the dreaming is tied to all of our lives and we can skip between these lives as needed from where we reside in the dreaming." 

I feel a dull pressure behind my temples, but nothing nearly as severe as when Ashleigh and I spoke about it. As I rub my temples, I catch Ashleigh watching me carefully with a worried expression. Offering him a reassuring smile, I take his hand with a free one. 

Tiffa looks to me, "You can confirm this insanity? You remember all of this?"

I shake my head, "Not all of it. But I they have been in my dreams. I've seen all of them in my dreams, and Ashleigh has confirmed things from the dreams that he had no way of knowing if it wasn’t true..." Heat rises up to my cheeks with a flush, and I cast a sidelong glance Ashleigh’s way. The tiniest of smirks pulls at the corner of his mouth, and I feel the blush darken. I continue on quickly, "I don't remember my other lives, though. I guess that's the main problem."

Tiffa shakes her head, "So was Delphi even a real person?"

The brothers all answer at once, their answers overlapping so it is hard to hear who said what. "It's complicated." "Sort of." "Of course."

Tiffa looks back to me.

I slowly try to answer more concisely for her, "They think I am Delphi."

"How can they know that? You don't even remember any of this." Tiffa gives them all the side eye as she drinks her coffee. She clearly is trusting the story because of my part in confirming it, but I can tell she is annoyed they hid all of this.

"Well, I remember... some things. It's hard to explain, more like impressions. And in the dreaming, I sometimes look like Delphi apparently?" Sionainn and Ashleigh both nod at that. "And the brothers do feel inexplicably familiar to me." I feel my blush darkening. Ashleigh squeezes my hand.

Tiffa scoffs, “And here I thought you gave them your number because of how good looking they all are.”

Cian blushes at that, Ashleigh arches one eyebrow at me, and Sionainn offers Tiffa his usual warm smile at the compliment.

Tiffa glares, “You can all stop it with that pretty boy charm. Being handsome doesn’t give you a free ticket to be creepers.

I’m definitely not happy to find out you all manipulated us to get to know us.” Tiffa heaves a long sigh, thinking before answering. "I am going to need more coffee to unpack all of this."

Cian has the expression of a hurt puppy, gaze following after Tiffa as she walks out. Frustrated clanking sounds can be heard in the kitchen. It’s also likely her irritability is, at least in part, fueled by riding a caffeine high for the last 21 hours. The hiss of the espresso machine startles Cian in his chair as if he hasn’t stopped paying attention to her even after she’s left. It’s sweet.

We all sit in silence, drinking our various drinks.  

Tiffa comes back, her cup full, and with an expression of deep thought knitting her eyebrows together. "Okay, so first of all. Thank you for letting me have my fun today and this evening at that amazing masquerade before letting me know you are absolutely bonkers." She shakes her head, but her tone is more relaxed and teasing now.

After taking a sip of her fresh cup of coffee, she begins pacing and continues. "Arguably it would have sounded nuts to show up as strangers saying you think Aisling is your long-lost dream warrior friend, Delphi. I get that. It still sounds nuts now, too…”  Tiffa sighs, “BUT I trust Aisling completely. I have known Aisling for most of our adult life, and she has clearly experienced at least something she feels supports a little of what you’re saying.

I’d ask if you’ve all tried drugs together, but I know Aisling wouldn’t.” Tiffa stops up short, looking at me with wide eyes. “You were having these dreams before we drank at the house, right?”

Various expressions of hurt draw across Sionainn and Cian’s features. Ashleigh looks apathetically offended somehow. I’m actually quite impressed at that feat. I sigh and nod reassuringly. “Yes. Like a week ago.”

Tiffa nods, “Okay then. Just making sure.” She spins on the brothers. “So out with it. I want to know everything you haven’t told us. Starting with why you didn’t explain everything to Aisling when you did know and were able to confirm she is this friend of yours?” Her words are filled with an admonishment akin to parental authority.

Sionainn gives Tiffa a friendly but nervous smile, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly. “We can’t share everything, for Aisling’s sake.”

She snorts, “Oh give me a break with that big machismo energy.”

Tiffa is startled when Cian’s baritone exclaims, “He’s right, Tiffany.”

She examines Cian’s genuinely concerned features before her voice softens, “Please explain?”

Cian’s words are hushed but clear, “In every life we are trained from childhood. Our minds have to develop alongside our lucid abilities to connect with the dreaming, otherwise it could…” His voice trails off, looking uneasily toward me.

I had so many nightmares as a child. It is how I first learned to lucid dream. I was always all alone, but I used to know all the different types dreams I could experience inside and out. Is this somehow related to what Cian is saying about Lucids?  

Tiffa’s voice breaks through my own thoughts. “It could what?” She looks between the brothers, perturbed.

Ashleigh’s bright eyes have darkened, his lips drawn into a grim line, “There’s no way to know for sure. We don’t know why Aisling doesn’t remember being Delphi, or if her mind was trained properly in this life. It could break them or kill them.” His tenor carries a tone of finality, his gaze holding mine. “We won’t let that happen to Delphi, or their incarnation as Aisling in this life.”

Tiffa looks worriedly to me, in unspoken question. I know what she wants to ask, whether I’ve noticed any evidence of their claim. “I’ve been getting headaches since Ashleigh started talking to me about the dreams.” My own voice is quiet. Ashleigh squeezes my hand. His touch is warm and reassuring.

Sionainn’s own voice is solemn. “The fact is, we know very little of what has transpired. However, we love Delphi deeply. More than is comprehensible to a single life, and we will do everything in our power to protect them.” He levels his gaze at me, and I see a love so deep and painful within his eyes that it moves me. It’s as if the mask of charm and warmth has fallen away to reveal his own raw emotions for me. He wears his smile in the same way that Ashleigh wears his walls of cool apathy.

Tiffa quips, “You shouldn’t underestimate the bonds of BFF roommates either.” But her expression is drawn in an uncharacteristic look of serious concern. “Okay, so you don’t know enough about how Aisling lost her memories. And you can’t safely just start telling her about Delphi?” The brothers nod, “So what about that lightning strike by our house in the middle of winter?”

Ashleigh answers. “Aisling and I went for a walk to talk about our dreams. She seemed convinced the dreams couldn’t be real-“

“As any normal person should be.” Tiffa interjects.

Ashleigh sighs and nods, “I think I shared too much, though. That’s when her headache worsened, and she lost consciousness. We were almost immediately attacked from the woods, and I believe she was the target. The thing felt void touched. We only made it back to the cabin because the wolves intervened. By the looks of it as we left that morning, the wolves defeated the thing. I also suspect they were not natural wolves.” This is what Sionainn and Ashleigh were talking about in our dream on the plane. Ashleigh’s words spin in my mind. We were saved by wolves.    

“Excuse me what? What does it mean to be void touched? And you were saved by wolves??” Tiffa looks between them, as if unable to believe that things keep getting weirder. I drink the last of my coffee. I have always admired Tiffa’s tenacity, and tonight is no exception. As she asks questions, pieces I had been missing are falling into place for me as well. She is asking all the things I haven’t had the time or known how to ask. I’ve never been so thankful in my life to know I always have her on my side.

Sionainn leans back on the couch as he considers his words. “Just as the life energy of the dreaming fills the space between the planes and times of existence. The void is everything that does not exist. The void is a lack of life. Yet, it has a sort of sentience, corrupting all it touches. For lack of a better word, it devours the matter and energy of life. Whole worlds and timelines have fallen into nothingness because of it, and more still exist as battlegrounds to fend against it.

As for the wolves. Well, it is surprising. Midgard, or Earth as you call it now, is a world without magic. It is thought that humans hunted all of the creatures with ties to magic to extinction long ago.” As he says this, I feel my heart ache.

I’ve always thought of this as a world without miracles. Thinking of my dreams as a liberation from the mundane, hoping to find magic elsewhere by learning to explore them. Has some part of me always known about Midgard? That the only way to find magic again was to escape this plane?

Tiffa’s expression contorts into a strange mix of horror, disbelief, and sadness. “Magic was real?? And it’s our fault it is gone?” Her words hang in the air. Tiffa has always been an optimist and believed in hidden magic in the world. Sionainn may as well have just told her humans killed Santa, and Christmas is gone forever.

We share a long moment of silence as Sionainn sips his tea. Cian pulls Tiffa in, hugging around her waist. She leans into him for the comfort. I can feel the pressure in my temples building into an ache, but still tolerable. I resist the urge to rub my temples again. I want to know more, and don’t want the brothers to be too worried to speak.

Sionainn finally continues, “There are many different magical creatures the wolves could have been. Some of them are peaceful beings meant to restore balance as guardians of a sort. Others have violent compulsions they are slaves to. Still others are trickster beings. Regardless, because this is Midgard they shouldn’t even be here. It is extremely fortunate the wolves arrived when they did.” I can feel the weight of his last words, as if he has left something unsaid.

Tiffa picks up on it as well, following the trail like a scent hound. “Before I ask my next question I want to be clear. I wouldn’t want any of you dead because as a normie human you’d be gone forever for me. And I absolutely do not buy enough of this to stake anyone's life on it. 

But if I am understanding this correctly, you all are immortal. Your bodies here could die, and you would continue to exist in the dreaming or whatever as if nothing happened." Cian frowns at this line of thinking, shaking his head at her. I don't like it much either. 

Tiffa ignores us to continue on with her point, though. "So, what are you not saying about what could have gone wrong if the wolves hadn't saved them?”

As usual, Cian’s deep voice is quiet as he answers, “First. We live these lives for a reason. Each is as important who we are within dreaming.” He squeezes Tiffa’s waist, looking into her eyes as if willing her to understand something important. 

Then he looks between us, “Second, Delphi isn’t anywhere we can find in the dreaming. With Aisling being the only remaining connection to them, we don’t know what would happen if Aisling died here.”

Suddenly it’s as if Cian is speaking through miles of rushing air. The pain in my temple’s spikes, my vision narrows to a tunnel. I close my eyes, taking in slow deep breaths trying to will the pain and disorientation away.

My mind makes the jump, putting together the implication of Cian’s words even as I feel my consciousness slip away. If Delphi isn’t in the dreaming, and I am all that is left of them…

…Delphi could die if I die here.