1st of Aldurmh, 1259th of the First Age.
The Ilius long turned to its silvery phase at the center of the infinite sky. Large particles drifted in the endless sea of darkness and bathed the world in their guiding light in the perilous hours of the night. On the cold snow of the north, they reflected and lit the regions near the foot of the mountain’s southern range.
Except for the Vesgeriath woodland where darkness had a life of its own. Light that entered snuffed out, animals and beasts retreated to the openness spreading far south at these hours, allowing death and worse to stalk freely in the vast woodland. A lone and towering hooded stranger glided across the snow in a slow pace draped in tattered robes and a crimson stole bearing strange runes.
The wicked revenants that stalked between the trees kept their unclosed eyes glowing with wicked blue lights. Their dry, frozen fingers gripped the trees, claws dug deep into the bark as they felt an uncanny fear they haven’t felt since their demises. They watched and followed as He stopped at the edge of the woodland and kept His prismatic slit eyes on Autharsovath.
The cacophony of festivities escaped its boundaries and the radiant ward that surrounded the small village at the edge of the hillside. Even the smells of roasted meat and the scent of various herbal mixtures used to amplify certain sensations wafted through the air and reached even their no longer existing nostrils.
He raised His left arm and shadows converged onto the village, suffocating the whiteness of the snow strengthened by the particles high in the sky. “How tiresome. They should learn not to meddle with my chosen.” The darkness crawled onto the walls and on the radiant ward it turned unseen as it entered within the boundaries of the village. A gravelly sigh escaped His unseen mouth before He vanished into the darkness, the revenants dispersed as dread seeped out from them and anger and envy filled them towards the living.
**
Sigiwaer twitched and rolled around beneath the warm embrace of furred sheets. While the festivities going still outside the confines of their homestead reached within the room, he shared with Amiriniel – it was not the reason for his dreamlessness.
“Are you awake?” He whispered to Amiriniel resting near the window itself, and her silence was his answer. He continued rolling back and forth, his eyes then stopped on the ceiling as he started slowing his breathing down as once his father said to him. Yet even that could not bring him to the realms of Oneiro. His previous excitement turned into sour frustration as he was awaiting to meet with Aurelithae once again.
While for the first few years since they met in the dream realm, they spent their time only exchanging questions. He knew that she lived in the capital of the Empire and he bombarded her with many questions about it. Mostly about the famed geometrical architecture, the bridges said to be built by artisans who were visited by the Deossos. And even about the dishes and bakeries that he only tasted once in his life when a small regiment of the 19th Legion stayed at their humble village.
On the other end, she asked about who he was not believing that he was just some village boy from the north, at least until their tenth or fifteenth time. Specially because of his dark eye that glowed with the emptiness of the starless midnight sky. Which made him feel a bit bad to this day even though she got used to it after the seventh time.
Around that time the feeling of her warming up to him started to plant its seeds within him that made going to bed a bit more bearable. Yet on this night, he could not fell into the deep abyss that acted as the boundary between the waking world and Oneiro.
He lifted his larger cushion a bit upwards and decided to start counting the clouds, the bushes, the trees, every single detail on the painting Priernuss made for him and Amiriniel years ago. While he reached the fifth and sixth cloud in the indigo sky, his attention diverted onto his aged up depiction staring right above his head with a proud expression as he stood beside the similarly older depiction of Amiriniel on his right.
Both were dressed in elegant, even almost regal appearing layered robes blown by the wind. For him the edges of the ebon robes were accented with snow silvery decorations most likely woven into the softly painted attire. His dark eye appeared even more prominent, the blackness of it penetrated through the fine velvety scarf that looped diagonally.
Contrasting him, Amiriniel was painted with layers of pristine white robes softly whirling as if a gentle breeze passed through them. The trims around the edges similarly were seemed to be laced, and were a deep ebony shade. Her mature aevhen visage resembled her mother’s if not even more regally striking with long hair sloping down onto her left shoulder with an alluring onyx luster.
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As his attention changed between the two of them, he continued counting and the already distant noises from outside dampened even more so. With lids unbearable heavy, his one remaining eye closed down as soft snuffles escaped his lump head in the embrace of dry, yet gentle cushions. He felt his body become weightless as it fell into the endless depths of Oneiro – his small lips bent into a smile as he was filled with excitement once again.
**
To this day I think back fondly of the momentary experience of weightlessness as I fell in the infinite tunnels that connect all the realms together. Even on that night, my soft face curved into the largest smile that faded the moment I arrived amongst long forgotten legionaries and the brave natives of the south fighting for their sovereignty.
Yet in that moment little old me went through a swathe of feelings in a mere blink of an eye – maybe even shorter than that. I do recall father saying that it was quite common to feel fear when thrusted into battle for the first time. Although I was aware of the land of Oneiro – thanks to his blessing – chill shook my animus. Evident from my legs both in the dream and waking world trembled so much I could feel the sheets rustling over my sleeping body.
But now I knew the danger didn’t came from the phantasms of a distant past, but from what lurks in the lands of Oneiro, waiting to claim their way into the mortal realm. Thanks to facing death a few years prior, I managed to calm myself down within a few moments – minutes if I recall it correctly. Deep in my heart I knew my Pale Orchid was the reason I arrived into the heart of the battle and like any foolish boy greatly in love – followed the path set by my heart and shown by my blessed eye.
To this day I thank the Nightscale and all the Envoys of Dusk for no one seeing as I moved between the legionaries and brave warriors of the south even as I experienced them passing through me like shackled spirits of the dead numerous time. As I felt her presence closer and closer, I wiped the ethereal snot and tears that welled up on my face and put on a brave expression the moment I noticed her down on the ground with mild fear in her once prismatic eyes.
“Leave her alone!” While my Pale Orchid reassured me numerous times that her pounding heart eased hearing my voice, seeing me rushing to stand between her and the Umvraoth – to this day I feel shame a bit uttering those words. And that in the heat of the moment I simply tried to impale it with conjured earth shaped into spikes.
“Can you fight?” While I don’t fully remember, according to her I did turn around and asked. I guess in that moment I accidentally fired off another spell while I kept my eyes on the weird amalgamation of writhing, spiraling mass of dark muscle collapsing into itself in the shape of a dancing star. What appeared to be deep mauve spheres casting their wicked eldritch light upon us seemed to be its eyes. A beak appeared at the center that opened akin to blossoming flowers and sang a weird tune.
“I can. Just took me by surprise.” Her soft voice freed me from whatever stupor that tune forced me into and without further communication we both raised our arms and channeled our mana and will into a joint spell as if we did this hundreds of times.
I remember still the sourness of her anger seeping into me as the onyx golden flames filled the sky where it hovered showering the phantasms that blurred as the particles collided. Without saying – we both turned our attention towards the east where it appeared, and I saw as the matter making up the reality of dreams moved according to its will.
Where we stood moments before the impact, reality caved in and a gaping darkness started swallowing all around us. Yet we had no time to care about it as it relentlessly bombarded it us and destroyed more and more of the small plane of Oneiro. I sensed her thoughts, her desire to rush into the warp which she came here for in the first place – or so I thought at the time.
For the first time, her perfect mask drilled into her since her birth fell off and she looked at me with worry while also clearly pondering whether to leave me or take down the Umvraoth together. A short moment passed and, in the end, she decided to remain behind. Just when I erected a ward around myself as I felt uncertainty. The moment she touched my back was also the first time I felt the intense euphoria of teleportation. The tickle that permeated every fiber of my being made me focus on perfecting this piece of arkhaine art.
I’m uncertain of this too, but maybe because experiencing teleportation in the immaterial realm of dreams, my blessed eye showed me the notes of Gauress. I heard the disjointed song calling out to me, to master it. As I reached out to them, these notes flew into the particles surrounding us and devoured the incoming strikes of the Umvraoth.
The phantasms around us dissipated into pure maghia matter of myriad different hues that turned into an ever swallowing darker shade of themselves. Its fear manifested in a cacophony of thrumming clamors while backing away further into the infinite sky. Yet no distance could have saved him as it dissipated and its shriek echoed through eternities while the world around us faded into the sea of nothingness with only the warp remaining.
“How did you do that?” To this day I am thankful for being raised as a child of the realms, because while she voiced that question in the calmest possible tone and expression – her heart once again pounded with the madness born of utter dread.
“I… am not sure.” I said as unlike with normal sorcery, I felt devoid of all feelings. Even the warmth of love died in my heart the moment the spell unraveled. And the connection we had up to that point faded as I looked at her with a face she doesn’t want to see even after the end of time.