“But how? You didn’t learn anything useful yesterday?”
“Ngh, it was from saying the name that wasn’t Andras.” She didn’t need to explain more, since Hyde would understand.
Now that she was more calmed down, she could think clearly. “That confirms something. The place where the chained man is can be traveled to. It is a physical location.”
Lucid dreaming, that was the word the fake Udulluay had used to explain Velvet’s actions in the dream.
Since that dream was probably a fabrication of Lothrigern, whether that was true or fake was dubious, but investigating lucid dreaming was a step in the right direction.
Lothrigern… Velvet remembered the person in her dream, and the sensation she felt looking at Him, her chest fluttering.
Is this how female mantis catch and eat male mantis? She compared the feeling to a book that Celia liked to read, where it was explained how mantis devoured their partner after mating.
The genders were reversed in her case, but the word ‘Mantis’ described Lothrigern to perfection.
Velvet shuddered, realizing how close she got to being devoured.
Morpheus, that was the shop that Udulluay recommended her for dream related stuff.
Today was also the gathering of the Devil’s Taste members, but Velvet prioritized her dream safety, picking Morpheus without doubt.
If she had time, she would do both.
…
Morpheus’ shop looked like how a circus fortune-teller's tent would look. Lit purple candles decorated the floor, a thin smoke trail coming off them. Colorful fabrics with star and smoke patterns formed the walls that separated the shop from the rest of the market.
The candles were scented, a sweet smell that made Velvet drowsy coming from them.
Candles and fabric together… Looks like a fire hazard. She tried to contain the need of moving the candles away from the fabrics, not wanting to annoy the owner before meeting them.
Lifting the piece of cloth replacing a door, she entered, a charlatan's voice welcoming her. "My, I can feel you are having problems, lost one." Laying on top of colorful and ornamented to the extremes cushions, a cloaked figurine was inside.
Refraining from commenting, she decided to play along. "H-How do you know? Is that so obvious?"
Her experiences with C had taught her how mages could guess when someone was pretending to be knowledgeable. So she pretended to be the opposite, at least to win some experience.
The charlatan smoked, exhaling a gray mist from their nose, with a sweet, drowsy smell similar to the candles. "Indeed. Your way of moving, breathing, and the order in which you looked at the fabrics tells me all I need to know."
"The order...?" She knew which ones she looked at, but pretended not to. First, one with a dark blue starry sky, second, one green with golden thorny branches, and third, a soft pink one with birds. “Like… the first three? Or all of them?”
The charlatan chuckled, not explaining anything.
It means nothing, doesn’t it? You’re lucky Udulluay recommended you…
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Which one attracts you the most?”
The cheapest… She tried to comply, after all, she actually had a problem, not being here for laughs. “Hm… That one.” She picked a cloth depicting an inverted crown, that was on top of a broken fountain, a cloudy water spilling on the latter half of the tapestry.
The charlatan chucked, turning his laying position to a sitting one. “A big problem indeed, you should tell me the full history.”
“Big problem? Can you be more specific?”
At least before starting to ask me for money!
“That tapestry symbolizes two titles of the same entity.” Taking some sweet time to smoke and blow it all again inside the tiny tent, while Velvet coughed, the mage hummed.
“The Mist of Eternal Beauty, the Sovereign of the Ungovernable. Those are titles used for Lothrigern.” They smacked the pipe a few times. “So, what did you do?”
Velvet laughed. “I called for Him in a dream a few nights ago. A lucid dream.”
“Hm… And what was the reason for such action?”
“I wanted to see if something happened… I-I mean, it was a dream! It’s like thinking of someone’s name in your mind, right? I didn’t even use bells…” That answer was partly true.
Exhaling a breath of smoke, they continued. “In dreams, a name doesn’t matter, but lucid dreams aren’t exactly dreams.”
“Meaning?”
The figure kept silent, sliding a paper towards her. Written in an exaggerated cursive, a few options were offered, with different plans and prices.
Velvet picked the middle option, worth 50 auris. She paid first, sliding the money towards them.
“Do you know the term ‘collective consciousness’?”
“I do not.”
“It’s related to the unconscious mind, and the concept of all minds being connected. It’s been used to explain how different societies could end up making similar things, even without having communicated or met previously.”
“Lucid dreaming serves as a bridge, from the unconscious mind, to the collective consciousness.”
“Is the collective consciousness a place that can be traveled to?” Velvet listened with attention.
“That’s impossible. For normal humans, or anything that isn’t made to travel.”
“So it’s not impossible for Lothrigern.”
“Nothing is really impossible for one of Them. As I was saying, the ability to travel the collective consciousness while sleeping is both a blessing and a curse.”
Velvet didn’t exactly travel it, being restricted to where the chained man was, but she refrained from correcting the figure.
“One can access amazing ideas, learning skills that would not be possible to learn awake, but one can also meet disturbed individuals, getting their minds tampered with.”
“That’s one of the reasons mages from the sloth or dreamer paradigm can succumb to various mental illnesses in their career.”
Velvet pretended to be interested, even when that information was useless to her. “So, about Lothrigern? How can I get rid of Him?”
“You have two options. Option one, He just reacted to you saying His name, but once you are out of His immediate, let me reiterate, immediate reach, like now, His interest is gone, and, unless you say His name again, your problems are gone with him.”
“Option two, He is feeling mischievous, you called Him while in a bad mood, or He wants something from you. If that’s the case, I recommend you to leave the market, enough to get out of the concealment spell, write a letter to your loved ones, and fulfill any wish you have.”
“Because if He wants you dead, you are already dead.” The figure finished, and went back to smoke, waiting for Velvet’s reaction.
“Oh.” She pondered. “But He didn’t kill me yesterday, right?”
“He also waited a few days after you called Him to appear, right?” They answered in the same tone. “Wait a week, if you are alive after that, you can feel safe. You won’t have to worry if it’s the other answer.”
“Even then, you’ve paid for more than what I’ve told you, so I’ll give you some protection charms for lucid dreaming. They won’t really work against Him, but, in case Lothrigern isn’t feeling vindictive, they will protect you from lesser threats while you sleep.”
… My other threat comes from using Andras name, surely they also won’t work there.
Even then, she took the charms, saying goodbye to Morpheus’ owner. She still had time to attend the Devil’s Taste gathering.
After all, if she only had a week to live, why not?