Mason dreamed of a red, swirling sky. He stepped out from the safety of his forest, seeing nothing but desert into the horizon.
A hot wind howled ahead. The blurry mirage of heat and sand curved forever in endless dunes like waves in a dry sea. It felt lifeless and desolate. Unwelcoming. And also important.
He knew he had to go forward. That something waited for him there that would change everything.
The dry heat bothered Mason as little as the cold of the north. He walked through hot sand with bare feet, glancing back to see faceless, shadowy allies behind him matching step for step. They went on and on until tall structures rose in the distance.
The description of the ‘Nexus’ from Kiaan soon made the nature of the thing obvious. As he got closer he saw exactly what was described: structures in a circular pattern like stonehenge, but with far more design and complexity.
In the center was a pyramid, stone cut steps running up all three sides to a huge, square platform at the top. The other structures were varied in shape and style—a small, white tower; a barren tree maybe fifteen feet high; a WWII style bunker; a giant glass cube.
Mason walked towards it, hearing strange, animalistic noises all around him without understanding from what or why. Every step carried him a hundred yards until he stood at the edge of the Nexus. But for some reason he couldn’t go in.
An old man with a cane pointed a bony hand from atop the pyramid, speaking in a voice that boomed like thunder.
“Have you come to save the Nephalai?”
Mason blinked, then the roiling red sky lightened until he saw men with wings battling flying…demons. All around him the sand disappeared and turned green and brown and filled with life. The ‘Nexus’ was suddenly in the middle of a jungle, with two rivers running ahead and behind where Mason stood.
He looked back at the pyramid. The old man was gone, replaced by young, scantily clad women bound and terrified at the top. They screamed for help as more of the demonic creatures dragged one towards an altar.
A demon in robes lifted a knife in the air, ripping the dress from the woman to expose her chest, then aimed the blade at her heart. As he struck, the light faded from the sky.
The winged men dropped lifeless to shatter on the ground as the demons howled in victory.
Then it all vanished. Mason was alone again in the familiar darkness of his ‘dream’ cave, a pleasant fire cracking in the middle. He felt a sense of loss, and defeat, and a desire for revenge.
“Well. That was particularly terrible. Even for you.”
Mason flinched and let out a held breath at Blake’s voice, and his brother sat beside him and grinned. Apex Predator was flashing a warning about mental interference but he swiped it away.
“Wasn’t my dream,” he said with a shrug. “Now get back to Nassau because we have to march into that desert and deal with whatever the hell we just saw.”
“Not the greatest offer I’ve ever heard.”
Mason snorted. “If it helps, we have about forty elves with us now, and most of them are hot women.”
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“Of course they are.” Blake grinned and gave Mason an accusing look, which— considering he was technically going to marry one—felt…a bit too accurate.
“Anyway,” Mason said for a quick topic change, “we’ll deal with the goblins later. I need you home. I think I can just get to the Nexus myself and technically warp a group of players with my new teleportation beacon. But I should really test it, or get people like you to…I don’t know, inspect it. But you all need to be here at the…whatever the hell it’s called. God I hate all this. Device thing.”
Blake snorted, but also looked vaguely uncomfortable. Discomfort in Blake was a tell-tale sign that he was about to tell Mason something he really didn’t want to, but felt he couldn’t avoid.
“Oh hell what is it? Did you mind control someone again? Explode half the mountain from tinkering with goblin bombs? Is Seul-ki OK? What?”
Blake took on a reflexive ‘how dare you!’ kind of mock offense, then dropped it and seemed to shrink a little. Mason felt his eyes getting wider.
“It’s worse than blowing up a mountain?”
“First of all,” Blake said, “I’m glad you had that dream. It really puts things into perspective, you know? It reminds us not to focus on the little things. The pesky details and differences. To get too myopic. Because, here’s the thing...”
“Oh Christ just spit out. I’m with my girls and I’m ready to wake up.”
“As you like.” Blake sat forward and tented his fingers as he looked into the fire. “I’ve made a deal with the leaders of the goblins. And I’ve taken them to the orcs for safety. They’re not as bad as you think, and pretty useful little things. So don’t worry, I have a plan. Also I took Seul-ki and Annie with me.”
Mason’s brain couldn’t keep up to all that. He mostly just stared at Blake with his mouth slightly open, wondering what the actual hell.
“So…wait. You…took them. As in, you convinced them, I assume with mind magic, to leave the mountain, and…march, I guess? For days. To the other group of green skinned creatures trying to murder us? Is that right?”
He heard his own voice rising slightly throughout. Blake pursed his lips as he considered.
“Dramatic, and not entirely correct. And I wouldn’t quite put it in those words. But, yeah, pretty much.”
Mason took a few calming breaths and sat in silence. Annoyingly, Blake was right about the dream and perspective. He had bigger problems than orcs and goblins and whatever nonsense his brother was up to.
“At least when I want to kill them they’ll all be in the same place,” he said with a sigh.
“That’s the spirit!” Blake made a fist and gave an encouraging swing. “But, also, please don’t do that. And…things are a little chaotic right now. So…I don’t think I can join you in Nassau for your dream…thing. But you’ve got plenty of players.”
“Jesus, Blake.” Mason’s barely contained anger flared and he had the urge to throw the stupid bastard across the room. “This is maybe the most important thing we’ve done yet. It’s the ‘Central Hub’, it might link us too all humanity. And you didn’t just leave, you took two of my fucking players.”
“And I trust you completely to overcome all obstacles.” Blake smiled with obvious guilt. “Meanwhile, I’ll be making sure we’re actually positioned to utilize and defend such a thing. The orcs have a great deal of resources, Mason. And the goblin magic and technology is…advanced, and no doubt extremely useful, and…”
Mason shook his head and vaguely tuned his brother out. There wasn’t much point in arguing with Blake when he was like this—his head full of grand plans. If his wild schemes started coming apart he’d come crawling back for help. But until then he was unstoppable. Mason did his best not to hope it all went disastrously wrong.
“Since this is clearly not a conversation,” he eventually interrupted, “I assume you’re finished telling me what you wanted to tell me?”
Blake glanced back and forth and clucked his tongue. “Yes. Though I can certainly stay for a brotherly heart to heart. Or a game of checkers. I can probably create some with my mind here though I haven’t…oh that’s rude.”
Mason mentally smashed his Apex Predator button until Blake vanished like a puff of smoke. His dream got fuzzier and further away, until he could feel the warmth of the girls in his bed, his body reacting before he’d even opened his eyes.
If Blake could do whatever the hell he wanted all the time, then Mason could at least have a morning to himself and do the same.
He opened his eyes to find all three of his girls in a tangle of limbs and sheets, their eyes closed and bodies pressed against him. He sighed as he drifted his fingers over little patches of exposed skin, getting hard before he’d even decided who to start with.
Alphabetical order, this time, he decided, waking Becky with a hand between her legs…