Chapter

By adventure whispering his name, the world meant a loud, obnoxious Helsket slapping him on the back and ripping him out of a strange dream where he was being chased by multi-colored orbs that assaulted him whenever he slowed down.

“Gods,” Mikel muttered as he sat up and shook his head. The strange lights danced behind his eyes and the memories of the night’s dreams began to fade as quickly as a hint of spring at the end of winter.

“Drink too much? I think you’ve got a problem, my boy,” Helsket said as he plopped down next to Mikel with a wide grin across his youthful face.

“Don’t start,” Mikel said, eyes unfocused as his mind tried to make sense of the jumble of images coalesced into a few, solid pictures.

His stomach dropped as one appeared of all.

“Celine,” He whispered, then glanced at Helsket.

The old warrior narrowed his eyes and looked down at Mikel with sharp suspicion, “What did you say, lad?”

Mikel gulped, “Celine - I…”

Had he dreamed of her? No - she was real. She’d woken him up from the Time Demon dream. She’d been real… Hadn’t she?

“I… Uh, thought of Celine. Are you going to try and see her today?”

Helsket regarded him for another moment before shaking his head with slow deliberateness. “No. I hadn’t thought of it. I think our time has passed. What we had… Well, it won’t work anymore.”

Mikel shivered as he remembered Celine’s similar statement. Although useless with romance, he thought the two belonged together more than most. Their mindsets were eerily familiar.

"So what are you going to do today?"

Helsket stretched again and shook his head; Mikel still felt a bit odd seeing Helsket so young but pushed the thought out of his head.

"Telgil said something about searching out some materials for his shop... And a few more scintillating diversions." Helsket winked and smiled.

“Alright,” Mikel said, “That’s a... plan.”

He wasn't sure what Helsket meant by scintillating, but an image of Celine popped into his head and he had to shake the image off before it left him alone.

“You alright Mikel - Sleep okay?” Telgil asked.

Helsket glanced at Telgil who’d re-entered the room with plates of steaming food.

“What did I miss?” Telgil asked as he deftly slipped a massive plate of eggs, meat, and toast in front of Helsket, Mikel, and finally himself. Mikel and his plate being only slightly less mountainesque.

“Mikel didn’t sleep well. Bad dreams?” Helsket turned back to Mikel for the last question.

Mikel’s skin ran cold.

How did he know?

Mikel played it as cool as he could, took a forkful of eggs, and chewed it methodically before turning to the two old adventurers.

“I slept fine. I usually have weird dreams.”

Mikel didn’t feel like adding he’d only started having weird dreams after acquiring The Jewel. There was no need to worry anyone - especially after Celine had shown him how he might exert some small modicum of control over The Jewel. He hoped that was how it was at least.

His mind turned towards the two Gates she had shown him - Nodd and Teff.

A tingle started in his chest and then shot up to the crown of his head and then to the middle of his stomach. A swirling, buzzing sensation thrummed to life and Mikel’s gaze briefly went double as nausea roiled up from within him.

“You look a bit green, Mikel,” Telgil said, eyes now narrowed in imitation of Helsket, “Strange dreams? What kind?”

The moment of strange power passed and Mikel shook his head, burying the ill feeling which had overcome him, “I… I dreamt of The Time Demon.”

The air in the room snapped to a crisp edge and The Callisto Jewel shivered in response to the creature’s name.

“The Time Demon. How’s that possible?” Helsket asked, eyes flicking between Mikel and Telgil.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Mikel felt as if he’d said something wrong and cleared his throat, then took another bite of eggs. They tasted different than chicken eggs, but they were still good. He was starving, as if he’d run a marathon the previous day.

“It’s… Dead, correct, Helsket?” Telgil asked, hesitant and quiet.

Helsket nodded as Mikel ate his food with a deep hunger the plate might not satiate.

“As far as I know, yes,” He said, turning to Mikel, “Take a breath and tell me what the dream was about.”

Mikel nodded, ate one more forkful of food, the plate now more than half gone, then swallowed.

He paused, considered, as the dream memory shivered in his mind. He looked down at the table in front of him, the spot the Time Demon had slammed him, and shook his head. After another moment he launched into the retelling, only pausing to catch his breath and at the end to make sure he made no more mention of Celine. It wasn't worth it the drama it might cause... Plus some small part of Mikel felt things would end very badly if he told the two older men about Celine showing up at the house unannounced - especially after the battle they'd had yesterday.

Several minutes later he finished his retelling. Helsket and Telgil hadn’t said a word during the telling and waited a full minute before speaking.

“Was there… Anything else? Another dream or something you’re not telling us?” Helsket’s eyes were full, sharp, and drilled into Mikel as if he were made of glass.

Mikel felt as if he couldn’t hide what happened and some part of him warned him not to tell Helsket about Celine - he’d seen how Helsket had reacted to her name. There was no telling what he might do if he mentioned the dream.

“Nothing.”

Helsket narrowed his eyes and then nodded. He gave Mikel one last look before turning to his food, shoveling it down in a few bites.

Mikel turned to Telgil who sat looking at him before turning to his plate.

Minutes later they all finished and Telgil looked at Mikel, “More food? You wolfed that down faster than our old friend.”

Mikel shook his head and slid his plate away, “I’m good. Very full. I figured I needed to eat for today. Helsket mentioned we were going out?”

“Yes,” Telgil said, “If you’re up to it we need to find some things. It won’t take long, then we’ll send you on your way. I don’t want to keep you. My assistance is small but hopefully helpful.”

“All of it is great,” Mikel said, “I… Well, I feel bad I broke your box. It looked expensive and rare. I’d like to replace it if I could.”

“Oh no,” Telgil said with a laugh and a wave of his hand, “It’s not broken. I don’t… Think so at least. Either way, you couldn’t afford it.” He gave Mikel a beaming smile before grabbing all three plates and hustling them back to what Mikel guessed was the kitchen.

He wondered how much the box cost, but, like the dreams from the night before, tried to put the thought from his mind. There would be time to reflect on all of that later - but now, he had much work to do.

***

Telgil and Helsket left for several hours. They tried to get Mikel to come with them, but he had other things in mind. Plus, he was still hungover… Which seemed to be a normal thing around the two old adventurers.

Although they’d found it curious he’d rather stay in than sample the wonder that was The Market of Dreams, Mikel brushed it off, and soon as they sauntered out the door, both promising “NOT” to go to any whore houses (Mikel was man enough to admit the idea of going to one of those establishments did sound intoxicating, especially in The Market!!) he set to his tasks. His time was limited and time, both here and back home, was racing forward and every minute he spent messing around was a minute closer his dad was to death.

No, Mikel had things to do that outshone the allure of a whorehouse.

He’d asked Telgil if there was a library in the estate, and he wasn’t surprised when the smith showed him to yet another room larger on the inside than out. He’d expected something grand and he was not disappointed.

Telgil had told him to go in and search for whatever he was after - and to start at the automated help desk in the front center of the library.

Row upon row of books shot into the distance, so far that Mikel couldn’t make out the ends. The cases were stacked on top of one another four or in some cases of shorter structures, five or six.

The Raithson estate had a magnificent library with a nearly innumerable number of books on every topic imaginable. He’d spent much of his childhood within the stacks but had only sampled a fraction of what it had to offer and had come away with multiple lifetimes of condensed information.

This place put that effort to shame.

Mikel tried to calculate how many books there might be in the place, just judging from the bookcases he could see and the books contained in them. The number he got was preposterous in the extreme and instead of wasting more time, he dashed the idea from his mind and walked to the automated book catalog near the front of the stacks Telgil had told him about.

Azure fires burnt merrily in sconces stationed evenly around the room, providing both a pleasant level of light to read and work by and a pleasant rose-tinted scent that complimented the glorious smell of old books.

For a moment Mikel thought The Reverie might be overtaking him again, but pushed the thought away. This wasn’t anything like that. This was bliss of an entirely different, and more mortal persuasion.

The automated catalog was a desk with a chair behind it, a tremendous leather-bound book in the center of the desk, and a careful arrangement of pens and papers for note-taking stacked in neat piles all around the center.

He knew what automated meant, but wondered -

His musings were cut off as a dulcet female voice seemed to emerge from the air around him. Mikel flashed back to the night before, with Celine, and it was all he could do to control his emotions and flaring passion burning within him.

He’d taken some time to understand what had happened, partially at least, and it was obvious Celine had awoken some deep part of himself he’d never guessed existed. Now, it was awake and on the hunt. He'd had to work to keep it on a short leash.

“How can I help you Master Raithson?” The voice asked in an even tone.

Mikel felt unnerved at the voice knowing who he was but chalked it up to Telgil mentioning it or even doing something to alert the system to his presence.

Mikel cleared his throat, “Yes. I’m Mikel… You can just call me that… If you want. What can I call you?”

“Librarian will suffice, Mikel. Thank you for letting me use your first name. I rarely get polite visitors outside of Telgil or his friends.”

Something ticked in Mikel’s mind and he cocked his head, “Do you mean that other people have access to this library?”

“Affirmative, Mikel. This is the Great Library Within the Dream. Here, you’ll find ten thousand years of compounded knowledge from ten thousand and ten thousand writers, poets, and chroniclers. Within, any burning question can be answered. Any avenue of investigation may be pursued. Any dark knowledge you seek is at your disposal.”

“That seems… Unsafe,” Mikel said, thinking of all the diabolical things he could think of doing. He was sure his tepid thoughts of what “evil” constituted paled in comparison to the real thing. He thought having access to something like that would not be good for most people.

“Rest assured, Mikel, safeguards do exist. If a person tries to leave with information they are 1. Either not ready for, or 2. Unable to handle safely, the information will be locked within their minds.”

The ramifications of the idea that this place could erase whole tracts of his mind unsettled him further.

When he’d set out to find Helsket, what had he hoped to find? Nothing approaching this, for sure.

“Before I read something, can I ask if it’ll be blocked before I leave? It seems rather… Not very useful to run the risk of reading about something at length, only to have it erased when I leave. Is that a big obstacle for many people?”

“Only the people seeking things beyond their means.”

“Great,” Mikel said, thinking of how far beyond his means pretty much everything was at this point. His combat capabilities were dismal at best, and his non-existent Essentia abilities spoke volumes about his promise. Celine had offered some small token of respite from that ailment, but only a token. He was still trying to figure out what to do with the information she’d been able to give him before their time ran out.