“Cookie, cookie, cookie,” I said, holding out my bandaged right hand. No cookie. So much for controlling my dream. Wasn’t I supposed to be lucid dreaming? “Cheesecake, cheesecake, anything?”

“Lady Lorica,” Doctor Ochre said. “Please drink this phanella infused tea, it will help you relax.”

“Sure,” I said, taking the cup. It smelled like chamomile tea and had a faint taste of apples.

Besides the good doctor, four other people were in front of me. The woman with tattoos, the gigantic man with braided beard she seemed to be at odds with, a thin lanky man wearing oversized green robes and large round spectacles, and a short grandma weirdly wearing the same blue armor the knights in my earlier dream but squished to her size. More people were waiting outside. They could still fit inside my spacious tent, but hulk man shooed them away.

“Who else was present when this first happened?” hulk man said. “Maltho, Briar, and Pierce? They’re not here, right?”

“Maltho will take about two days to arrive here,” glasses guy said. “Briar is back at the castle. And Pierce is off recruiting mercenaries.”

“Five others aren’t with us anymore,” grandma said. “The last two years of war were unforgiving.” The others nodded gravely.

“So, who are you people?” I said.

They looked at each other with knowing faces. The tattooed woman balled her fists tightly, closed her eyes and bowed her head down. “I sincerely apologize,” she said. “If only I was able to arrive there sooner.”

“What’s done is done, and this is the situation we’re facing now,” hulk man said. He stepped forward, clasped his hands in front of him in some form of salute, and bowed, showing his bald head that was covered with redish gold geometric patterns. “Lady Lorica, I am Ravlar Remus, grandson of the great Dragon Slayer Rakius Remus who fought with your grandmother, the first Lorica. The house of Remus has pledged loyalty to the one who wears the mantle of the divine hero Lorica since the Great War. My soldiers are at your disposal.”

The bespectacled man stepped forward next and slightly bowed at the hips. “The scholar Rekku at your service. Although it is quite presumptuous of me to call myself a scholar, implying that I am quite knowledgeable in my field. How about a man who dabbles in magic who still has much to learn? I have served your ladyship as I believe that you will lead us to stand above all creatures.”

“I am Lydia Des Grammar, of the Grammar family of knights,” the amazon-like woman said. She knelt on one knee and stood back up. “Our banner flies with yours, as it had since the Great War. It greatly pains me that I have to introduce myself to you for the third time, even more so since this is my fault. If only I came to your aid sooner I –”

“Hush Lydia deary,” grandma said, cutting in. “No one could have known that Baramedes separated their summoners from their main army to ambush the young Lady.”

“They must have been surprised when Lady Lorica wiped them all out,” Rekku mused. “I wish I could have seen their faces.”

Lydia said, “Nonetheless, I could have –”

“But you didn’t,” Ravlar said.

“None of that,” grandma said as she waved at Ravlar. “Let us not fight in the young Lady’s presence.” Grandma walked to my bedside and held my right hand. “I am Derla, and I have been your nanny since you were a baby. Now that you have become a fine young lady off to war, I will fight by your side.”

“Oh, I guess I’m supposed to be this Lorica,” I said. Since I couldn’t control my dream, I figured that I should just play along and see where this goes. “What should I do then?”

“Young lady,” grandma Derla said, “you don’t remember any of us?”

“No. How should I know any of you? This is a dream, right?”

“You have lost your memories, deary,” Derla said gently. "And this is not a dream."

“What? Uh, okay then,” I said. “Not that I had any memories as Lorica in the first place.”

“It is similar to what has happened before,” Lydia said. “Any explanations for us, doctor?”

“Well, I am not certain as to what happened, but I would say that this case is similar to the Undying King Lraniel,” Doctor Ochre said.

“The one sealed by the First?”

“Exaclty. Impressive regenerative abilities and could seemingly come back from the dead, as he actually did after the First destroyed him in the battle of Sangryn. He was undying, as his title suggests, because he drew lis from the earth itself, and not any specific Forebearer. An actual child of the earth, so to speak. As long as he stood on earth, he will not die.

“His head was blown off by the First, yet he was able to regenerate his head. Curiously, he lost all of his memories. I surmise that he lost his memories as although he has regenerated his brain, he could not regenerate his memories.”

“Are you saying that we have lost Lady Lorica?” Lydia said, her voice cracking a bit with desperation. “Isn’t that what essentially happened?”

“Lydia, Lady Lorica is right here with us,” Derla said. “All we need to do is to get her back to the castle.”

“Yes, the Lady is in one piece, and that is what’s important,” Rekku said. “Incidentally, doctor, how is the Hand of the Pacifist?”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

All of them turned to Doctor Ochre. He took my hand from Derla and slowly unwrapped my bandages. I stopped breathing, anxious as to what I might find. This dream could suddenly turn into a nightmare, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

It turned out, it was just my normal right hand. I thought at the least I would have scars or wounds on my right arm because my left hand was unbandaged. However, everyone in the room looked disappointed. Lydia in particular appeared to be especially sad.

“What’s the big deal?” I said.

Doctor Ochre took out a blue vial from the inside of his rob. A small puff of glittering smoke came out of the vial as he pulled out the golden stopper. “This is an extract of azurebane mixed with powdered lasstone. One drop would elevate the lis levels of an ordinary human for a few seconds to the point where he could probably use magic. Please drink the entire bottle, my lady.”

“Okay, nothing like drinking suspicious liquids,” I said sarcastically. I downed it in one go and immediately felt power surging through me. My entire body was tingling with energy that I felt that I could probably knock down the huge Ravlar in one punch.

“Kindly concentrate your lis to you right hand,” Ochre said.

“My what to my hand?”

“You lis, your magical energy, part of the life force of the creator of humanity,” Rekku said. He adjusted his glasses as he examined me intently. “Imagine the energy flowing through you right now is water. Gushing water. Redirect all that flow to your right hand.”

I furrowed my brows, staring with focus at my right hand, pushing away the thoughts saying ‘this is stupid.’ My hand started to glow and it felt warm. Slowly, my fingertips turned white and shiny like carved marble. “I’m turning into a statue,” I exclaimed, breaking my concentration. The glow faded and the plaster-like covering of my fingers flaked away.

“We have much work to do,” Ravlar said.

“Since the last incident two year ago,” Rekku said, “she was able to maintain the Hand of the Pacifist up to her wrist.”

"And we need it now more than ever."

“I will help her train,” Lydia said. “This is my responsibility.”

“Uh, guys,” I said. “I still don’t know what’s going on. I mean I know this is a dream and all, but what’s the point?”

Grandma Derla said, “Master Rekku, if you please.”

“I have powers, right?” I said.

“I’m sure you are feeling confused right now, my lady,” Rekku said. “But don’t fret, the scholar Rekku is here. There I go calling myself scholar again.”

“This might take some time,” Ravlar said. “I’ll tell the others outside that the lady is not yet ready to have many visitors.” He walked out of the tent.

Rekku held out his hands, making circular motions in the air. The air shimmered like there was concrete giving off heat on a scorching hot day. Butterflies made out of light flew out from Rekku’s palms, bunching up together forming something. The light slowly faded, leaving behind a thick book with metal covers and bound closed by a chain. Rekku caught it as it fell from the air.

“Teach me that,” I said. “I could do that right?” Cookie, cookie, cookie, tadaa! Still nothing. My hands were still empty.

“This is my personal Memory Tome, as any respected scholar should have, or rather a respected dabbler of the arcane,” Rekku said. “Here I record all sorts of information I come across so that I may preserve it for future generations.”

The chains binding the book loosened and disappeared. Rekku opened the book, turning it to me and holding it like a parent telling a child a story with a picture book. But the pages of the book were empty. Or they were until Rekku started using magic again. Black ink bled through the pages and formed into the drawing of a beautiful and fierce woman with wavy hair flowing as if blown by the wind, raising a large sword above her.

“The Lorica the First,” Rekku said. “Your grandmother. The embodiment of the majority of the lis of the Forebearer of mankind. Or the god of mankind, for the more religious minded. It’s admittedly hard to be religious if one is serving the child of the god in the flesh, so to speak.

“Perhaps I should also discuss lis for a bit. Lis is the power of the Forebearers, or the ancient gods. They divided their powers among their creations. The more powerful the god, the more powerful their creations became. Take the dragons for example.”

“There are dragons in this world?” I said. The pictures on the book of Rekku transformed to illustrate his words, and now it turned into a dragon. I hardly read any fantasy books, but I knew what dragons were. Still, I never would have thought that my dream world would have dragons.

“Pitifully few left, after their war with the Old Giants,” Lydia said.

“Few, but powerful,” Rekku said. “And that was because the dragon god was the most powerful of all the Forebearers. The god that made humans was not powerful, to say the least. However, he had a plan. He did not distribute his lis to his creations. Only a few sprinkle here and there, which was why there are a few humans who could use magic. What happened to most of humanity’s lis, you may ask?”

“It became me, Lorica,” I said.

“Correct. Or, to be more accurate, it became your grandmother. Lorica, the heroine of mankind. The one who will lead us puny humans against all the other races. The one who will unite us all. Just imagine how much progress humanity can make. We can match the magecraft civilization of the Old Giants.”

“Fine, so my grandmother was the First Lorica? Who’s the second?”

“Your mother. It appears that the mantle of Lorica is passed down mother to daughter, I suppose. When your grandmother passed away, your mother became the Lorica. And when your mother passed away thirteen years ago, you became the Lorica, even though you were only a child.”

“Thirteen years ago?” I whispered to myself. My mother died thirteen years ago. I was actually having a dream about her? I barely knew her and she chose to leave me and my father, overdosing on those fucking sleeping pills. Such a stupid thing to dream about.

“Is everything alright, deary?” Derla said.

“I’m fine,” I said a bit curtly. “Rekku, thanks for the explanation. But as you can see, I lost my memories as Lorica, so what’s next in my quest as the champion of humanity?”

“Well, we have to get the book first,” Rekku said.

“What book?”

“It’s the book kept safely at Castle Glaivefall. A book containing spells and incantations pertaining to your memory. You have two important instructions to us, your retainers. One, never let you sleep when you are dying because you will lose all your memories. Two, if you indeed lost your memories, we should give the book to you.”

Don’t sleep if I’m dying? Gavin said that to me during my previous dream. This was really a continuing dream. Was this even possible? Apparently, I died back then. Surviving being skewered by a gigantic magical barbecue stick would be stupid. Internal dream logic then.

Rekku closed his magical picture book. “I myself am curious as to the contents of the book your ladyship wrote. What spells are inside it? Perhaps I could take a peek after you have used it?”

“That is most likely the most important book to humanity, right now,” Lydia said. “Don’t experiment with it.”

Rekku held his hands up to show that he was giving up asking for the book, but he has a mischievous expression that I wasn’t so sure I could trust him. Pause, why was I thinking of whether I could trust someone in a dream or not?

My thoughts were interrupted as Ravlar went back inside the tent. “My lady, everyone wants to see you,” he said. “For their morale, I also advise that you go out and meet them. Though, they should never know that you lost your memories.”

Rekku piped up, “May I suggest that Doctor Ochre can bandage her head. Then we can say that her head injury is making her mind fuzzy. We will have to stay by her side to parry prying questions.”

“That would work,” Ravlar said.

"We should fix the young lady's appearance first," Derla said. "It is unbecoming for her to meet the troops with her bed hair. "