‘I am the god of the moribund,’ they said, apparently unphased. Iseult rolled her eyes, she really needed to suggest to Orikka another method of introduction. However this did seem to satisfy Noctua to some degree, and he bowed slightly, his eyes flickering to Tva. ‘Are you a friend of Tva’s?’ he asked in a more respectful tone. Tva lay back into the fluffy grass, lolling casually, ‘a new friend, they wanted to speak with you’ he murmured sleepily. Noctua looked at him fondly, a small smile on his lips. ‘So you had Tva call me?’ he turned to Orikka, suspicious, ‘how astute. I’m not sure I appreciate your using Tva in such a way,’ he said with a frosty hostility. Orikka nodded, apparently approving of Noctua’s protectiveness of the mourning god. ‘I wouldn’t have if not for the importance of the information we seek.’ Noctua raised an eyebrow at the use of ‘we’, but made no other indication he was moved by their plight. ‘We are seeking your help in locating the eversleeping gods, in order to alleviate their suffering. It is not an exaggeration to say the world will not survive otherwise.’

Noctua, folded his hands behind his back, stepping toward them across the water, moon beams rippling across the surface of the water under his steps. He tilted his head, his eyes catlike. ‘You want me to locate them by their dreamings then, correct?’ He stopped at the edge of the water, among the reeds, unable or unwilling to continue on to land. The moonlight shone down, turning his dark hair inky blue. The pair of them, Noctua and Tva, were shades of melancholy, Iseult thought. ‘That is correct,’ Orikka nodded, ‘we have limited options, you are the most suited.’ Noctua gave a smile, a smile that set a shiver down Iseult’s spine. ‘Oh? And what will you give me, in return?’ he asked, apparently unmoved. Orikka paused, surprised by the causal calculation of the younger god. ‘A way to alleviate Tva’s suffering,’ Iseult whispered to Orikka, after it became clear Orikka had no idea about how to proceed. ‘I come with a way to help Tva, along with the other gods, I hope you will choose to help us, and them in turn,’ Orikka expanded on Iseult’s suggestion, framing it in a more appealing manner. Noctua’s eyes narrowed once more, gauging their sincerity, his eyes flickering to the one who held his heart. Tva was curled up asleep once more, his nose tucked cutely under his tail. ‘I will help you,’ he said finally.

Noctua disappeared, reappearing with a jar of dream wine, a porcelain jug with a salamander mask on the cap. He undid the top, removing the mask carefully, using a ladle to portion out an amount for Orikka to drink, pouring it into their cupped hands. Wine dripped through their fingers and down their throat as they sipped, glistening rivulets in the moonlight. Would she be able to join, Iseult worried. Orikka lay down to sleep, hands folded on their chest neatly. Iseult lay beside them, head curled on their shoulder, willing herself to fall asleep quickly without the assistance of the wine.

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‘Wake up beloved, it’s time to wake up,’ Orikka’s dream self shook her shoulder gently. Iseult woke with a start, jolting upright, separating as a sliver from her ghostly body, similar to her soul self, but also different, a shifting over her ghost-skin. She had done it! She had fallen asleep, even without the wine! She stood up, looking down at her sleeping form. This must be the dream realm. Interesting, an entirely different realm than either the living or the soul realm. This was the first time she had gone to sleep as a ghost, was it possible for all ghosts to enter the world of dreams so easily? It seemed unlikely. Was it accessible to any that drank the dream wine? She shook her head, she’d investigate later, right now she needed to focus on the task at hand.

‘A ghost?’ Noctua queried, curious. Oh! It seemed even pure souls were visible here. She shivered, uncomfortable with Noctua knowing anything about her. He apparently had no knowledge of pure souls, and Iseult would rather keep it that way. She knew she was an anomaly among pure souls, most would have dissipated many many years before, while she had chosen to remain, working towards her and Orikka’s goal. ‘Yes,’ she answered, before Orikka could reveal her. ‘Hmm,’ Noctua seemed suspicious, his cat-like eyes narrowing imperceptibly, but didn’t press the issue. ‘Come,’ he summoned the pair impetuously, turning to walk among the dreamscape. Iseult took the opportunity to look around. This was Noctua’s domain. It wasn’t what she expected. Everything was rather ethereal, wispy whispers of a forest rather than tangible trees. The entire landscape was all silk, thin thread wrapped round and round everything visible in sight, much like the silk trees she had seen made by ermine caterpillars. A luna moth fluttered over a single exposed tree, strands of silk trailing behind her. ‘My acolyte daughters wrap the dreamscape prior to harvesting, so that the dream fruit matures for the wine,’ Noctua said, waving his hand casually towards the busy moth. They walked on, soon seeing less processed lands, while dreamers wandered, unseeing beyond their own dreams. ‘Please, please release me,’ a coherent dreamer, her eyes wild, approached the god, kneeling at his feet, hands grasping at the hems of his clothing. The god looked down at her prostate form, ‘as my devotee, your dead soul is mine for as long as I deem it to be so, dreamer,’ he stepped around the hysteric woman without a further glance, despite the woman’s bereft tears, her mouth continuing to move without words in fruitless prayer to an indifferent god. Orikka followed, Iseult hesitantly trailing behind. The gods could be so cruel.

They continued on. On and on and on. More dreamers wandered, occupying the dreaming, their dreams a mirage around them, faintly visible to Iseult. Wild whirls of color, shapes of giant beasts, family dramas, nightmares and sweet dreams alike aflutter around them. Something in the distance moved, a giant beast on the horizon. ‘A god,’ Noctua said, pointing it out to his company. A positively monolithic whale, larger than any she had ever seen by an order of magnitude, lionfish spines and fins lacing down its length swam in an ocean of clouds, their frothing white foam parting as it sailed through. A massive dreaming, fitting for an eversleeping god. Whale song echoed, an eerie longing thing, heartfelt, Noctua closed his eyes, a small smile on his lips as he listened to the song. A giant of the seas that dreamed for the sky.