Blink found himself standing amongst the caravans of his dreams again. They were brightly coloured with arrayments of chimes, totems, herbs, and other odds and ends hanging from their thatched roofs. He stood in an open field under the light of the sun that blazed above. He didn’t recognise the countryside, but then he had never left Bonny until recently. On all sides were sprawling hills and snow-capped mountains. Beneath the mountains were densely packed dark, though not sinister looking, fir tree forests that seemed to cup the mountains, as if they were the lush green hands of a giant. Blink looked around but there were no people in sight, he was alone where he stood. He realised now that he was still holding the bone white sword, the sword that a voice inside his mind called Brandúlf’s Hackle. The transformation that had taken him was gone and he appeared as his usual self. The heat and anger were also subdued.

What was that thing in my head? Was it the sword talking to me, or something else? Maybe I’ve completely lost my mind. He stared at the sword as if it might bite him at any moment. You’re being foolish. This sword has saved you and your friends over and over. He put aside the nagging feeling that there was more to be concerned with and focussed on the place in which he found himself.

‘This is just like my dreams,’ he said softly to himself.

‘This is no dream, it is a memory, buried deepest of all those in your mind,’ said a familiar silken voice. Blink whirled around searching for its owner. It seemed to echo through everything and nothing all at once.

‘Where are you hiding Jadissa?’ he called with sword raised preparing for another bolt of arcane energy.

‘You will not find me here in this place. Not so long as I have the power to enter your memories,’ she said triumphantly.

‘What is this place?’ he asked, still searching for her. If only he could keep her distracted, maybe then he could find her and break free of this place.

‘You do not know do you?’ she said smugly.

‘No games Jadissa… you know as well as I do that this is my dream and nothing else,’ he said.

‘I assure you it is no dream. Let me show you,’ her voice slithered with intent. As she spoke the dream world began to change, Blink saw figures appear standing still at first and then milling about with whatever tasks they had to do. A stabbing pain jarred at his head as the figures drew form and shape. Blink winced at the pain and fell to his knees, dropping the sword and holding his head.

‘Argggh… stop this!’ he managed through gritted teeth. As quickly as it began it stopped and Blink opened his eyes. The people were whole, and the pain was gone. They moved through him like ghosts and spoke of the warmth of the day and the festival to come. Children ran about playing with wooden swords, and games with ribbons and ropes. The people looked much like him, tanned, dark haired, lean but strong. They worked clothing with elaborately embroidered patterns and designs. Some depicted floral motifs, stars, suns, all manner of animals. There was one motif that persisted among them, and that was the embroidered design of wolves in various positions and actions. Blink searched the peoples looking for the woman and man from his dreams… my mother and father.

‘It is just a dream. They aren’t real,’ he said softly to himself. It was then that he saw her, the beautiful woman from his dream. She seemed shorter in this world, although he remembered that he had seen her from the eyes of a child in his dreams. She walked with a small boy, scruffy haired and holding her hand as he tried to keep up with her step. She smiled sweetly and knelt to the boy. She pointed to the large bon-fire they were building in the centre of the caravan circle. The boy smiled broadly, his face alight with excitement. Blink saw the man there now, lifting wood and placing it on the pile. He was strong looking, muscular, board shouldered, his hair hanging freely down his back. Blink felt his chest tighten as something tried to force its way up and into his throat.

‘No… You aren’t my parents,’ he said looking at them. He was holding back the tide of feelings within.

‘Why do you struggle so against this?’ came the sound of Jadissa’s voice from all around.

‘They aren’t real. You’re just making this happen!’ he snapped back searching the air for her. ‘Stop hiding and let us end this!’

‘Hmmm, that dwarf never told you of them, did he?’ was her reply musingly.

‘Shut up!’ he yelled. ‘Get out of my head!’ Blink sliced at the air with his sword hoping to cut through to her. He was met with nothing but air.

‘Is this the thing you fear,’ she said, and Blink felt the agonising pain in his head again as the images around him changed. It was night and the caravan were burning, the people he had seen joyously working were now strewn on the grass dead.

‘No! Stop this Jadissa!’ he demanded.

‘There…’ she said, and Blink felt where she was indicating. He was standing before the man, father, who held Brandúlf’s Hackle and was transformed as Blink had been. The man stood before Horrog, Izek, and Demera. He could see them speaking but couldn’t hear the words. He saw now that there were other bodies strewn about with those of the caravans. They wore the seven stars of Horrog’s company emblazoned on their armour. They would have easily overrun these people that seemed so gentle and free. Blink looked back to Horrog and the man, father, a voice called in his mind. He shoved it down and watched as they fought, the man racking his claw across the face of Demera leaving bloody gashes. But the man could not fight them all, and Blink now saw that he was wounded, deep red blood stains growing in his side. The beautify of the white and lavender of his festival garments forever tarnished. He saw Horrog say something and then the three of them fled leaving the man with his people, bloodied, massacred. Blink felt his heart tearing into pieces, it seemed as if his very soul might be torn to such frail fragments that the wind might take it away. He did his best to hold onto himself as the man limped to one of the caravans. Inside was the woman, mother, holding the child. She held the child tightly willing it to stop crying. Seeing the man, she placed the child down to attend to his wounds, however there was nothing she could do for him now. He pointed and indicated a pack on the walls. The woman began to fill it with whatever she could find. They argued for a time after that, it seemed she wanted him to come with her. No matter what she said, he refused. Blink followed them outside. The woman and the man embraced one last time, tears streaming down their faces. The woman with the child ran for the woods, alone, the man went to the sprawling fields and hills carrying the sword. He was limping and Blink did not think he would make it far. He must be trying to lead them away from her, he thought.

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‘They find her you know. In the woods that is. They leave her there to die and take you with them,’ said the voice of Jadissa. There was no malevolence in her voice. Somehow, she truly did make it sound as if she cared.

‘Why do you care Jadissa?’ he said tears wetting his cheeks. It took all he had within him to hold back wave of emotions he felt.

‘We may be enemies and have different designs for this world you and I… but one thing I cannot abide is the senseless wasting of life,’ she said not unkindly.

‘Do you know who they were?’ he said.

‘Not personally, no. I learned of what Horrog had done much later. He had his own plans for power by taking that sword. He didn’t know it would be useless to him. At least it would be without you,’ as she spoke, she began to take form in the memory. She stood a sword’s length from him and appeared as a spectral figure.

‘Your people were known as the Kaninrites. They worshiped one of the oldest of the Gods; the Great Wolf, The Hungry One, He Who Would Swallow the Sun and Moon, Toothless One to those that despised him,’ she said indicating the sky above her.

‘Unlike the Gods that took part in the games of the numina board he gave freely of his knowledge to mortals… and was punished for it,’ she seemed to muse over these words as she spoke. ‘But I will speak no more of that betrayer,’ she added.

‘What do you want with me here then Jadissa?’

‘Want from you?’ she questioned with the slightest curving of her mouth. ‘You stabbed me my dear boy,’ she added.

‘You were trying to kill us and everyone else in the city,’ Blink retorted.

‘You have it all so wrong. So, so wrong,’ she said shaking her head. The silver hair bounced as she did. ‘I told you I cannot abide such senseless deaths. I seek to end all loss and death with His help. If you help me get the raven piece I can free him from his prison, he will end all life and death, he could bring back all your people, your father… your dear lovely mother,’ there was something of a truth in the way she spoke to Blink. He was sure she would not care either way so long as she got what she wanted. Yet at the same time Blink felt her sincerity at the loss of life and grief in his heart. If she and whomever her master is can end all death in this world… Blink couldn’t bring himself to finish the thought. Guilt clawing at his heart for wanting it to be so. How many would have to be hurt in the process? What if it didn’t really work? I could have a mother and father for real. I could have back what Horrog took from me. The desires to have a family and to know the touch of his mother and father pained him. Blink thought of all the games he and Ra’Handa had played as children. They had imagined their parents in so many ways, great heroes, adventurers, people that loved them dearly and would return one day. Those fantasies had kept them both going, giving them something more to hold onto than the lives they had been dealt on the streets and servitude. Damn you Jadissa for taking that away from me! Damn you Horrog for taking their lives. And damn you for taking my life from me!

‘What do you say? Shall we be partners in this endeavour? Shall you and I end all this suffering for the rest of time immemorable?’ said Jadissa crooning.

‘I… what…,’ Blink tried to get the words out. His mind told him to say no and strike Jadissa down, but his heart would not let him say the words. No matter the cost… his heart wanted the life and family that had been taken from him.

‘I SMELL YOUR STENCH IN MY DOMAIN DEATH WALKER,’ came the growling bellowing voice Blink had heard earlier when he had summoned the sword. Blink looked to the sword in his hand, his face marked with surprise. I hadn’t imagined it earlier! Jadissa merely smiled at the sound of the voice.

‘You do not frighten me Toothless One on your leash like a dog,’ she said.

‘LEASHED DOG!’ The wrath in that voice heated the air around them and wind seemed to stir from nowhere. ‘YOU FORGET YOURSELF KEEPER REBIRTH! THOUGH KEEPER YOU NO LONGER ARE,’ as the voice roared around them the heat continued to rise. Jadissa lost her nerve in the raging winds, and it seemed that she tried to make herself disappear again. She could not. The wind rushed around them and searing wrathful energy burned at her so that she took more solid form in the memory.

‘How have you done this? You who were bound in chains by the Numinia should not have this power!’ she exclaimed panic setting in.

‘WELP PUP!’ Blink knew the voice was speaking to him. He shuddered at the thought. ‘SHE SEEKS TO END THE CYCLE. THE SOULS WILL ROT LIKE WASTED DEER FLESH IN THE SUN! SHE HAS FORGOTTEN HER DUTY. END HER WORLD OF MEMORIES WELP OR BURN WITH THEM!’ the searing that had before not affected Blink at all now began to burn his skin as it did to Jadissa. They both gasped at the pain and in doing so realised that the heat was so strong it made it difficult to breath. In the swirling heat of the wind storm an immense figure took form. It was that of a great dire wolf the size of the manors Blink had known in Bonny. The wolf’s eyes burned like hot coals and his fur a dazzling silver that was striking in the whirling red haze of the wind. The dire wolf was bound all around in chains and it opened its maw in snarl baring its teeth. Blink noticed that one of its canines was missing. Looking at those eyes Blink knew that this figure of an Old God spoke truth about ending his life here with Jadissa. He must act on those words or die. Blink moved with all the strength remaining in his body as the heat burned and sapped at him. Raising the sword, he let out a yell and swung it with all his force. Jadissa instinctively raised her arms above her exposing the three-headed owl figurine. The sword met with the small statue and in a blinding blast of energy they were both thrown back from one another leaving the world of memories behind.