Chosen by the Fates

The Tower

Aisling ~

I rejoin Cian and Tiffa after getting off the phone with Sol. My heart is a whirling mix of relief, hope, and exhaustion. Deeper still is the desire for something else, though.

Within me I feel that piece of me that keeps seeking Sol rushing through me, energizing me. I realize that part of me is filling me with newfound strength and resolve.

“I have a confession.” I swallow, meeting Cian’s eyes.

“Oh?” He glances from Tiffa to me inquisitively.

“I met a friend at the coffee shop. In my dreams I was certain they know something about the wolves, and I was apparently right.”

Cian’s eyebrows go up as he looks to Tiffa. She, after all, is the one who drove me there. “To be fair I didn’t know until I got into the car.”

“My friend was able to direct the pack to whatever void creature is near our house, and also has a plan to make it safe for me to sleep now.” Come to think of it, Sol had not told me what the plan was. But there has not been the time to, and he promised me answers later. I am about to put a lot of trust in him. If this goes awry…

The feeling within me assuages the worry. The memory of his scent washes over me, his eyes as he seriously regarded me even when I told him about my dreams. The feel of his arms, holding me tightly as if to drive away all of my troubles.

He had asked nothing in return and promised me answers once I’d slept.

Unlike his brothers, Cian remains quiet as I think. When he finally speaks, his question is simple. “You believe he is worthy of trust?”

“I do.” I answer without needing to think more on it, “But even so, I am at my limit. If I sit…”

Cian nods his understanding.

“I will not leave Tiffa alone. Should this not work…” He does not have to finish his thought. Tiffa and I have also had the same thought. Monsters could swarm through this tower.

“Don’t worry.” Tiffa interjects cheerfully, walking to the door to check that it is bolted closed. “We are 30 stories up, and I’ll call the police ASAP and tell them it’s a home invasion or something.” She gives her best absurdly bright smile.

Cian snorts, “It would certainly be a first for them.”

Tiffa shrugs, “Maybe they have some super top secret monster hunter unit or something we don’t know about?”

“My friend mentioned there are protections on the tower. I’m not sure what that means.”

Cian’s brows furrow together in thought, “There are some beings of magic capable of both opening or closing doorways to the dreaming. Magic as you know it, is a form of energy which flows from the dreaming, and through all life of any given world. It is in some ways, a source of life itself.

Imagine it like water flowing through a channel.

To protect from magic, implies the closing of that channel. Closing a door.”

I frown as the pieces all fall into place, “So I am an opened channel for the void?”

Cian tips his head in affirmation.

“Then doesn’t that mean it won’t matter? I am the open channel. They can’t close me, can they? Won’t the void simply be here, but trapped within the tower?”

Cian shakes his head at that, “You are now an open gate, but you are surrounded by closed ones. The void will need to break through those gates as well… Which it may still be able to do, but that will take time.”

“Time I could be sleeping?”

Cian nods, “So far, the void has been slow in its ability to manifest. For your sake, me must hope it is slow to do so again. Tiffa and I will keep watch. If Sionainn awakens, I will join your dreams to guard you.

Until then, you must find a way to escape that beach alone if Delphi calls for you again.” That’s right. It isn’t just the void we have to worry about.

Delphi is trying to kill me.     

That feeling within which is drawn to Sol as if with a life of its own, and which has also been instilling me with strength, surges at the thought of the threat Delphi poses.

It feels connected to the core of me, raw and powerful.  

We can do this.

I nod, “I understand.”

Tiffa watches me with worry writ across her features, “I wish there was more I can do.”

I shake my head thinking about what happened the last time Delphi caught me, “It will be okay.

I just need a nap. I could… set an alarm?”

Tiffa looks to Cian, “Will it be okay to wake her if something happens?”

Cian shakes his head, “I’m not certain. Her dream state has been volatile but regardless, if the void comes through, we may have to.” When his eyes meet mine, I know he is warning me of some kind of risk.

Sionainn said something similar before when he implied there was a risk in waking Ashleigh up from my dream as well. I’m not sure if I want to know, but Tiffa is already inquiring. “What happens if we wake her up when we shouldn’t have?”

Cian’s brow furrow deepens, “Unknown. It’s probably not good.”

I let out a sigh, deciding I’m glad to not know. If Sionainn had been here, the explanation would have been like the warning label on most medicines.

Insanity and mental breakdown seem to be the common theme to all these dream risks. The only good thing seems to be that since I’ve felt Delphi’s presence go, I haven’t noticed any headaches. To be fair we’ve also stopped talking about my missing memories.

One problem at a time.

Feeling my knees wobble with sleep, I wander to the couch. I’ll feel better if Tiffa and Cian can see me. “Well. On that exciting note… I think I’ll just sit down over here for-”

My last waking memory is of speaking as I sit.

***

The beach.

The night sky is an endless, starless void. The ocean mirrors the depths of darkness.

Dread fills me. I whip around, searching the endless expanse.

I stand alone.

Relief settles over me. In that quiet moment of safety, I feel the newfound strength within me stirring. It feels as if it’s always been there, but since feeling it awake, I recognize it now in my dream.

It was so subtle before.

I want to explore the feeling more, but I find myself looking around nervously. Not here.

I’m sick of this place. I can’t just stand here, waiting for Delphi, the void, or whatever else to come for me.

But I since finding this beach, I haven’t been able to leave it. I remember how Delphi thought of my life and my dreamscape as a prison. Recalling what it was to feel like Delphi here sends a shiver down my spine.

Something I remember from being a child and learning on my own to lucid dream, is that thoughts have power. So I push down any thoughts or feelings associated with that name.

One thing at a time.

So how to I break out of this space?

I look thoughtfully around, then consider where the sands meet the trees of the woods. That’s where Sol had come from. I still don’t feel as though I have complete control of my dream anymore, but Sol had to get into my dream somehow. So maybe it can also be a way out for me.  

The shadows of the trees stretch out like claws grasping for me. I feel uneasy, but set my jaw, steeling my nerves. My inner strength stirs, and I think of the tools I do have at my disposal as I push forward into the woods.

I know this is a dream within my own mind, the hero incantation worked before, thoughts have power, some impressions of the dreaming from my lost memories, and a handful of self-taught lucid dream skills from my own childhood.

As I list these things, I come upon a clearing in the forest. It feels as if I have only been walking for a few minutes, but when I look back the beach is gone.

Well that’s something.

I hear a howl in the distance, and the sound rings through every bone in my body. That part within me which recognizes Sol resonates, filling me.

Wind rushes from all directions, whipping the treetops wildly. The wind caresses my skin, standing small hairs on end in goosebumps everywhere I am touched by it. Clouds drift apart, and with their parting the clearing is flooded in moonlight.

There is an alter at the center of the clearing, a stone within it gleaming in the light of a full moon. Looking around, I realize the clearing itself is surrounded by stone arches, and I am standing under one.

Each arch blazes to life with white flames, progressing toward the one I am standing beneath.

Quickly I step forward into the clearing, driven involuntarily by instinct.

The arch I was just under ignites, and I am surrounded by the fire. Within the darkness of the woods, shapes move and crawl. I can’t make them out, but in my peripheral vision, I see hundreds of eyes watching me.

My skin crawls, fear gnawing at me. The void?

As if it has become a clash of wills, the wind and ringing howling is amplified within the clearing I stand in. I feel that resonating part of myself rushing through my body, as if willing itself forward to join the battle cry of the elements.

The darkness beyond the white arches of fire builds

As I watch something tugs at the back of my mind, urging me to pay closer attention.

I don’t recognize these woods. The trees are tall and ancient, like photos I’ve seen of giant sequoia’s. The stone arches are completely unfamiliar in their pattern and structure, although they remind me a little of an ancient ruin of the world. These things don’t leave me with an impression the way my lost knowledge or memories do.

These things are entirely new to me.

Every part of me, recognizes this place as new.

I’ve never been to these places.

Which means…

In a fervor of realization, one of my first conversations with Ashleigh comes to the forefront of my mind. My heart aches as I hear his voice in my thoughts.

"More specifically this is your dream."

…"So, none of this is real?" I had asked this, still not knowing about the Lucids.

"Well, that's not exactly right. It's all real. You've been, or will be everywhere you see here. But it's all blended together to suit what your mind and lucid form needs or wants in each moment."

The dawning of one singular thing is confirmed when a huff sounds behind me. I turn slowly, finding myself at eye level with a massive fair colored wolf. The wolf is long and thin, a scar over one side of its long snout. It shows no sign of aggression and sniffs at the air around me.

The wolf reminds me of Sol in my dreams, and the pack near our house. But in this dream it seems larger than anything I’ve seen before, easily the size of a horse.

A low growl rumbles from its chest, shuddering through my body. The wolf’s hackles rise.

I know Sol is safe, but is this one?

What had Sionainn said about the nature of magical creatures? Some of them are slaves to primal urges? Or something?

My mind is a tangle of thoughts as I prepare to say the incantation.

The wolf springs. A gasp escapes my lips and impulsively I drop into a duck and cover with no time to defend myself.

Nothing strikes me. When I look, I realize the wolf leapt over me, and bounded through one of the arches of fire. Alit by the white flames of the arch, the fire has become an extension of that fur. The light is like a beacon in the night.

Then the wolf dives into the void. I hear shrieking, snarling, snapping, and rending sounds. The light of the wolf and the black of the shadows dancing together in a disorienting and blinding display, my eyes unable to adjust.

Looking around me I can now see the fire of the arches is dimming, the shadows are threatening to break through.

Are these the wards? Is this what Cian had been explaining to me?

If so that would mean… I feel the pull of the shining stone in the alter at the center of the clearing. I reach for it, and when my hand makes contact I feel heat flow from the stone into my skin.

… This is the dreaming. And I am in the tower.

I am certain now. This place feels boundless and different to me than the beach, or any dream I had as a child.

What I am seeing is a representation of what I expect.

As my awareness clears, so does my vision.

The trees shoot even further upwards, then melt away to reveal arched ceilings and an empty suite that mirrors the one I am asleep in.

Where the alter and the stone was, is my own body.

And the walls? The walls are a framework of white fire. But that fire is flickering weakly now.

Howling and shrieking can be heard outside.

The wolf is protecting the circle. It can’t fight a battle on all fronts like this.

I don’t know how long I have been asleep, but I know that if I wake up, the wolf will no longer need to fight to protect the circle. It’s the void using me, and consuming the energy of whatever this protection is.

I don’t know why I know that.

But for now just knowing is enough. I’ve rested enough.

Instinctively, I reach for my body.

***

My eyes flutter open.

The sun outside is setting, and Sionainn sits beside me with a worried expression.