I leaned back in my seat and stretched, letting out a low groan.
“This sucks. College sucks. How many more chapters do we have to review?” I asked.
“Well, we’ve covered everything in sections 1 and 2 so it looks like there’s just 8 through 12 to go,” said David, a classmate from my bio 1B class, as he flipped through the massive textbook we were sharing.
David and I had staked out a table in the basement level of the university’s main library, prime real estate among the hoard of students who’d joined us in cramming for their last round of finals before winter break. It was covered with old coursework and composition books full of notes, empty coffee cups shoved towards the center.
I scrubbed at my tired eyes and glared down at my phone.
3:16 a.m.
“Ugh, why did Professor Kaufman have to make it cumulative,” I complained, “none of my other finals are!”
“Shh!” shushed the group nearest to us.
“Sorry!” David whispered back at them and turned to punch me lightly on the shoulder. “The more you whine the longer it’ll take, so let’s just get this over with.”
“Fine.”
I opened my computer and pulled up the presentations Kaufman had posted to his school site. Maybe reading them would help summarize the chapters we still needed to go over and save us some time. The exam was a couple hours away and I really wanted to get in a little shut eye before I had to take it.
In the end, we finished just before dawn. We gathered up our stuff only for another pair of late-night studiers to scuttle over and claim our table before we’d even made it to the elevator.
“Hey, your senior project’s deadline is today right?” I asked my study partner.
He was a couple years above me and was taking bio as one of his last few requirements before he could graduate, hence why he was so intense about studying for the exam. He had no choice but to pass if he wanted to graduate this year.
“Yeah, I turned that in weeks ago. It’s probably in some dark, dank corner of my advisor’s office right now,” he said.
“Well good luck anyways,” I said, “I’ll see you later.”
“Same to you, dude. Peace.”
I stumbled back across campus to the dorms, which were still busy even so late at night, or I guess so early in the morning, with kids celebrating an early end to exams or the poor suckers like me who still had more to go before they were free from the iron grip of academia. Well, at least until the end of winter break and the start of spring semester, that is.
Stifling a yawn, I buzzed myself into the building and trudged up to my room.
Greg, my roommate, was still awake when I got in, playing COD in his underwear on a denuded dorm mattress. He was one of the lucky ones who’d finished with classes last week and was packing up to go home later that morning, the absolute bastard.
He nodded at me in welcome without taking his eyes off the monitor and I lifted a hand to wave tiredly before flopping onto my bed.
I managed to slough off my backpack and kick off my shoes and socks without getting up, then wriggled under the covers. Distantly, I congratulated myself for having the foresight to wear sweatpants for the past several days: no changing meant less time wasted on unnecessary things which equaled maximum efficiency!
Or something.
It took herculean effort to unlock my phone and set an alarm, my eyelids like leaden weights, before I finally allowed myself to drift off.
***
At first, I thought I was dreaming.
The world around me was painted in shades of gray. I was in a round and featureless room, with a low ceiling and outwardly curved walls. The only other thing in the room aside from myself was a floating orb of light, which bobbed up and down at the room’s center.
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“Am I lucid dreaming right now?” I asked myself. I never had before, despite trying all those stupid meditation technics and listening to deep sleep hypnosis, so if this was my first time I was seriously unimpressed. The infinite possibilities of a dreamscape and I’m stuck in a room? Seriously?
“…chosen…”
“Ah!” I screamed, jumping in the air. The ghostly voice that had just spoken was still echoing throughout the empty chamber as I whirled around in search of its origin. “Who said that?”
“The Last Warden of Husk…stands before you…”
It wasn’t hard to track the sound to its origin, it’s just that it was…
“Wait, you? I asked incredulously, standing in front of the sphere at the center of the room.
“Be not afraid, chosen…we mean you no harm…”
My skin crawled listening to it speak. It was like several people were talking as one, each voice little stronger than a whisper but just loud enough to be heard. The effect coupled with the gloominess of the room was pretty freaking spooky.
“Oh shit, this is a nightmare, isn’t it? I’m stuck in a nightmare right before my bio final. This is so not how I wanted my first lucid dream to go.”
“We swear an oath…you shall come…to no harm…for now.”
“Yeah, that’s really not assuring. Who the hell are you, exactly? What are you?” I asked. “If you’re my subconscious or something, we got a lot to talk about, starting with why I was so into Power Rangers up until last year.”
The sphere flickered, the strange lights cycling at its nucleus flashing and swirling faster.
“We are…what…remains…” it spoke, again with that same weird echoey effect. Almost like it was forcing the words out.
I tugged at my ear and frowned at it.
“That doesn’t really answer my question, but okay.” I’d calmed down a little after the initial surprise. If I really was dreaming, better to just roll with it. No matter how creepy this all was, I’d wake up eventually.
In theory, at last.
But what was the thing from that one movie? If you die in the dream, you die in real life? Something along those lines. But, hold up, if this is all a dream, then I can just-
A bright flash and the discordant hum of a thousand whispers broke my train of thought.
“Chosen…there is not much time…we grow weary with each new arrival…and we must prepare you for the road ahead…”
Nervously, I noticed that the curved black walls of the chamber were wavering on the edges of the pool of light cast by the sphere. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t want to find out what happened when the energy fueling the sphere ran out.
“You shall encounter many hardships along your path…take these three gifts to aid you on your journey…
“First…a haven for the lost…”
[DING-]
[RECEIVED: Lord of Nerqesh (Title)]
A bell chime followed by a disembodied voice that rang out in my head. I jumped a little and looked around the dark room, only to find it empty. Well, aside from the floating ball of light talking to me.
“Second…a companion…for it is dangerous to go alone…”
[DING-]
I jumped again and cursed under my breath. Seriously, all the jump scares were enough to give someone a heart attack!
[RECEIVED: Cyprianus (Familiar)]
“Third…a boon…the final blessing of the fading divines…”
[DING-]
I didn’t flinch this time. Progress!
Except there wasn’t any voice after the chime. Instead, a glowing display unfurled in the air before me. It listed several options but I hesitated to press any of them after reading the main heading.
[BOON SELECTION: Please select one of the following boons. Note, once selected a boon cannot be returned or traded for another, all effects are permanent. Choose wisely.]
There were a bunch of different options on the page, but it only stated the name of the boon without actually describing what each of them did. How was I supposed to blindly choose one? There wasn’t even anyway to guess at what they did from their names since they were all called flowery things like ‘[Allora’s Grace]’ and ‘[Favor of Urgaal]’.
“Chosen…you must hurry…we can feel our strength waning…” said the orb almost…irritably?
“Alright, alright! Gimme a sec!”
Light coalesced at the orb’s center and formed numbers that started slowing ticking towards zero. 30, 29, 28…
Damn, I’d have to move fast before whatever happened happened.
If these were all tied to different gods, maybe the names could give me a hint at what they were the god of. Allora sounded pretty feminine and ‘grace’ suggested holiness so maybe a goddess of life or whatever. Urgaal sounded kind of dark and evil, maybe a god of war?
The others listed were similarly anonymous or just plain confusing; [Luck of Ezgan], [Bright Blessing of the Mother], [Dark Mandate of the Father], [Benediction of the Veiled One], [Orison of Nebjet], [Echo of Eladhos], [Patronage of Euryale], [Auspice of Lotan] and [Aegis of Cernunnos]. Some of the names sounded distantly familiar but I couldn’t place them and besides, I was racing against the clock.
‘Dark Mandate’ sounded, well, dark and ‘luck’ seemed like it might be lower tier based on the other titles. ‘Aegis’ meant protection right? Damn damn damn, too many to choose from and too little time. I flicked a glance back at the sphere.
…15,14,13,12…
“Screw it,” I said and closed my eyes. I knew myself too well, and given the choice I would probably let the clock run down before I came to anything close to a decision. So the only other option was this. Blindly, I reached forward with my hand, feeling it brush against the screen-
[DING-]
[RECEIVED: Benediction of the Veiled One (boon)]
There was no further explanation. I blinked a few times.
“Okay, so what does it do?”
The orb ignored my question.
“Chosen…it is time…”
Its light faded and the gloom pressed down on us in that unplace. I realized that my body was fading along with the light and started to panic.
“He- hey wait! What’s gonna happen to me! Am I dead?” I shouted. I could see the last faint glow of the sphere through my transparent hand as I reached towards it. It ignored my questions again. Its voice was small, soft as a whisper now, but I could hear it clearly enough as I felt myself slip into darkness.
“…go forth…and save our world…”