Adeliza Awoke atop a pile of colorful people in varying ranges of transparency some in the pile appeared as just skeletons. The morning headache was brutal the pain keeping her awake and dulling her movements. She crawled off the pile onto the floor her purple hair a matted mess.

She pulled a random discarded cloth over her bare shoulders and propped herself up against the nearby door frame. she stood still a moment for her legs to adjust to bearing her weight again this morning.

Through one eye she could see what the bird on Drika's shoulder was seeing and through the other her own surroundings though recently it had been flickering towards an image of Mia and what she was doing.

With a tired sigh, she dragged herself out and began looking for the kitchen. She left soon after with a mug of coffee in her hand. Raising a hand to her forehead and muttering quietly to herself her movements became less forced and her vision seemed to clear some.

She stepped outside and was met with a couple of familiar daemons dressed in their military garb and wearing ceremonial weapons. Striking herself in the head a few times her vision became a threefold split screen with one dedicated to each fragment of her mind reaching out to speak to a girl in need of her guidance, for whenever they might call, and one for her own view of things.

One of them handed her a robe and she took it in place of the garb she'd taken which on closer inspection was a pair of tattered jeans. They gestured for her to follow them with the tilt of their heads and she did donning the robe as she walked.

Closer towards the center of the city they arrived at a teleportation gate and walked through. On the other side of the wall of light was an industrious city on the beach with pale white almost ashen sands the rolling waves stained green with an overabundance of algae and kelp.

"You still want to get that peace treaty signed?"

"Might as well while I'm here."

She produced the scroll from her ring and began tossing it about in boredom. The walk through the capital city was fairly silent as she was speaking to her daughter most of the way and trying to answer to Mia who kept trying to get her to solve all her problems for her.

She'd hardly noticed when they arrived.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. has your elder woken up yet?"

"Not for the past few centuries, we were hoping you could wake him. His depression seems greater than usual."

She smiled but her eyes weren't smiling.

"I can certainly try."

She was led to a guarded door and made to pass through it on her own. When she entered all light died and she seemed trapped in an empty room filled with nothing but darkness.

Sighing to herself she walked forward a stone passageway materializing beneath her feet as she continued forward. a faint light as though through the crack underneath a door appeared in the corner of her eye and she took a left turn to seek it out.

Coming up to where the light was coming from she turned and looked around. to the right of the door was an altar obscured by the darkness and to the left was a window. She left the treaty on the altar and looked through the window.

As she grew closer the window opened and she crawled through. She collapsed onto a soft floor that felt as though it was made of hair or fur of some kind, loose threads far too long to go without being tangled. The floor rose and fell rhythmically. A light breeze flowed back and forth through the room.

She walked towards the source of the wind and found his colossal nose. She walked in and yanked a fistful of nose hairs out. The floor beneath her feet shifted and she fell out. The giant man looked down on her a faint glint of agitation in his eyes but then he noticed the purple hair on the barely dressed woman and his gaze softened.

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"Old friend, why must you always wake me with such violence, You know how much I loathe pain."

"Everyone loathes pain when it is done to them... well... most sane people do."

"What brings you here? How long have I slept?"

As he spoke he shrunk down to the height of a normal person and the room began to fill with a dim light. They were surrounded on all sides with books. At their feet was a bear skin rug and also the man's beard flowing out into the hallway. He walked around, found his chair took a seat, and had himself a glass of bourbon.

"Only a few centuries, or so your people say. They seem worried about you. Is something the matter?"

"My years have caught up to me. As I grow older it becomes harder to remember the good I've done and my mind fills with only my ills the sorry things I did to grant the requests of my father, what I did to those poor misguided souls that thought their sacrifice was for the betterment of our kingdom only for us all to be tossed out."

"My friend if there's one thing I know about you, it's that none of the misdeeds you did were by your own choice. Throughout all time the greatest of us are forced to work for the betterment of evil men If you don't break their shackles they break you and while you did choose the easy way and didn't resist I don't think your choice to protect yourself was wrong and now that you have your own people to look after don't you think you should be there to give them advice on how to deal with the minor problems they face before they become major political problems down the line?"

"You may be right but what wisdom could I offer when I've done so much wrong."

"You have lived longer than any of us there is no one wiser than you, you can tell them the wrongs you've done and why those paths lead only to sorrow and heartache because you've experienced it from beginning to end."

"But few will listen when your case is, 'Don't do what I did it only ends poorly' They'll just say, 'Well how come you got to do it' and after they see where that road leads blame you for it saying, 'Well why didn't you warn me?' It's all just a tiring affair, no one ever listens and they all only ever hear what they want to hear."

"So you'll run and hide into a dream without end just to avoid the world instead?"

"Just as you do only what you want whenever you want I've also made my choice not to act at all. Did you come here just to lecture me or did you have something else you needed of me?"

"I left a peace treaty on your altar no doubt the humans I took charge of thought I would fail to get it signed again this century but I've managed to wake you this time."

Adeliza brought a cup of liquor to her lips as she smiled. He exhaled an almost laugh and grabbed a pen from the table. the treaty came in through the window on the wind and he looked it over.

"Your people are as crafty and legalistic as ever."

"They were once your people weren't they?"

"Not for many millennia."

His form shifted from that of a daemon to that of a man with long black hair and sad eyes for only a moment before reverting to the white-haired pale grey-skinned man he appeared to be.

he drew a swift stroke of the pen horizontally across the signature line of the treaty and the ink left formed his signature while the letters on the page danced and caveats were left on the less favorable portions of the agreement the humans drafted to make the treaty exclusively beneficial to the daemons.

"If that's all you wanted old friend I suggest you leave and let me return to my sleep."

"I'll go but do make sure to go and see your people every now and then, you worry them in your absence."

a deep sigh escaped his lips. "I'll take it under consideration."