Chapter 5
The Dreamwalker
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Veltis Diliague stumbled out of the house of haunted memories. His thick midnight cloak billowing out around him as he swept through the rippling field and toward the forest. He extended a wrist as he entered the forest, two spiraling rectangular pendants hanging from strings woven through the skin of his lower arm circled each other as they glowed a dark purple. Fog billowed out from within his cloak as the two shades flew forth from within their holding pendants. The shades coalesced from dark mist into two slight pale humanoid forms draped in black silks, one female and the other male, they glided along beside Veltis as he swept through the forest.
“A drunken harvest?” asked the female shade Lunis, the question a gusty whisper.
“A masked necessity?” pondered the male shade Lixul.
“A foretold excursion,” clarified Veltis as they moved through the forest and toward their distant destination.
Move with haste! Move with purpose! Whispered the voices in Veltis’s head as his masters pulled the strings within his mind just as he did with his shadelings. A visitor from another world! Astral energies provided to be extracted! Retrieve and provide!
He moved toward the destination placed within his mind’s eye, his shadelings ghosting along beside him. As the night began to waiver before the oncoming day, Veltis and his shadelings took refuge within a barrow beneath an old oak tree. The werewolves who inhabited the barrow didn’t mind, their minds heavy as they slept along with the dreamwalker and his shadelings.
As his body slept, Veltis’s mind returned to the house of haunted memories. He was a young dreamwalker, still relatively low in the hierarchy of his master, Lord Solice, the dream crafter. His Lord ruled over an entire hallway on the first floor of the house, as well as seven passageways and small rooms. His influence even crept through a trap door and down a ladder toward the lower floors. Veltis couldn’t remember how he had come to serve his lord, in fact he had no memory of anything before the house where he had sworn himself to Solice.
He flew through the dreams of lesser shades and remnants before arriving within the room where Lord Solice sat upon his dream throne. It was formed from a multitude of pure silver stars and moons connecting to form the dream crafter’s seat. Other figures glided through the surroundings, they were senior remnants and dream walkers sworn to Solice. Though it was Veltis to whom the dream crafter’s attention was focused.
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“I send you forth to collect and retrieve the summons from across the stars. I send you forth with trust and certainty. This task will take you away from the house for days during which you will be weakened as you are deprived of my dream, but you must remain steadfast in completing your mission and returning to me.”
Veltis bowed his metaphysical head. “Yes my Lord,” but even as he spoke he was already flying away from the house and back into the burrow. He opened his eyes, jolting awake and sitting up suddenly as if from a decade of slumber. His shadelings lay beside him, as did the werewolves intrapped within dreams they would only awaken from once he’d taken his leave of the burrow. Sensing his state of consciousness, his shadelings rose with him.
“I feel, peculiar,” pondered Lixul.
Veltis rose, stretching to distract himself from the unpleasant ideas suddenly coursing through his mind. He was out of the house! He was free! No. No, he had a mission to accomplish, then he must return to the house and to his master. His master who had trusted him with this mission. How long had it been though? Since he’d first entered the house? He couldn’t remember. He opened his status, studying it with clarity for what felt like the first time:
NAME: Veltis Diliague, RACE: Human, CLASS: Dream Walker. LEVEL 5, EXPERIENCE: 1,350, Subclass: Shade Summoner. BOONS: SOLICE’S BLESSING. HP 120/120, MP 140/140. STATS: Strength 8, Constitution 12, Dexterity 10, Intelligence 7, Wisdom 14. Skills: Dream Drift - Rare, Haunted Aura - Uncommon. Abilities: Dream Decent - Uncommon. Spells: Dream Walk - Rare, Slumber - Uncommon, Summon Shadeling - Uncommon.
“Is something wrong?” asked Lunis.
“I…No,” said Veltis as he dismissed his status. “Let us take our leave. We have two nights of travel ahead of us before we shall arrive at the town Hiddleton.”
The three figures emerged from the burrow and into the night, continuing toward their destination with haste. The following day they slept within a small crevice at the base of a rocky hill. Though just before shutting his eyes, a strange and horrid thought crossed Veltis’s mind. The thought was gone in an instant, but the horror of it remained. He had felt his own feelings and thought his own thoughts while walking that night. Did he truly wish to return to a state of servitude?
He shut his eyes. He was loyal to his master, and besides, what would he be without the gifts given to him by Lord Solice?
Though for the first time in his recollection, his dreaming mind did not find itself within the corridors and passageways within the house of haunted memories, instead he found himself wandering through the minds of his shadelings. Lunis dreamt of a frozen forest and Lixul of a tall treehouse. Though even as Veltis stood within Lunis’s forest staring up at Lixul’s treehouse, he felt a horrid tugging at his shoulder, he could sense the house looming in the distance behind him, but he didn’t turn around. He would complete his mission, and he would return to his master, but for now he was simply dreaming within the minds of his shadelings.