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Uncertainty.
Fear.
Confusion.
Anxiety.
Horror.
RAGE.
Saiya bolted upright in her bed as she tried to calm her heart rate. She didn’t get nightmares often normally but this was the third morning in a row since they arrived in the city. She wasn’t sure if it was the unfamiliar room or the auras of those lesser trained staying in adjacent rooms in the building but it was making every morning awful.
Wally chirped up at her from his spot on her pillow. Seeing him curled up in a sleepy coil helped her body relax and she gave his head a soft pat with a single finger. He gave a wide yawn before curling back up and she softly chuckled.
She glanced at the dim clock nearby and realized she had only been asleep for about two hours now. With an annoyed huff, she fell back into her pillow and turned away from the disappointing clock. She should try to sleep some more, especially if they had to spend more time with those noble scions.
While some of them had been better than others, it was almost painful to feel their smug, envious, and often apathetic auras.
After Phoenix had freshened up that first day, since Saiya was able to keep her and Rayna fairly clean along the way, the first thing they did before chatting with the group of nobles again was find Knowledge Tomes for her and Rayna to learn the language. Normally, both of them were against using that kind of shortcut as they were raised to, but both of them realized the current necessity for them.
After Phoenix had helped reimburse them for what they had spent on the replacement vessel for Captain Clisson, they had both coughed up the few Crystal bits for the Tomes, grateful that they were in fact much cheaper here than in Tulimeir. Apparently, most residents of Serenydi were enthusiastic about sharing their culture with curious outsiders and having them speak their language was one of the things they strongly encouraged.
Saiya had gotten along fine in the shops. Most people’s emotions felt incredibly pleasant, with plenty of joy and relaxation all around them. The people here not only loved their city, they felt free in it. They were free to express themselves and follow their passions, whether it was creating things simply for the beauty of it or cultivating their power in the local Reality Rift.
While money seemed to be a necessity and status symbol, it also seemed to flow freely in Serenydi’s rather robust economy. People didn’t seem afraid to spend their Bits because they were confident they could always make even more.
For some reason, though, Saiya felt terrible during the morning hours when everyone was normally asleep. It seemed like her fears that she managed to push down while awake, would lunge at her as soon as her subconscious took over but today… she had never felt that kind of rage come from herself before. Was it from someone else’s dream bleeding into hers from an escaped aura? Perhaps Phoenix had stabbed a pillow again…
She rolled over again and saw the clock reading only three minutes after she had last checked. With a frustrated sigh, she bent over the edge of the bed to stick her hand into the backpack Phoenix had returned to her now that they were on dry land.
With a thought, she felt her goal materialize in her hand and she pulled out her blue kitsune plushie from the dimensional bag. She had missed Sky for the last few weeks of uncomfortable travel. Hoping to get back to sleep quickly, she started petting the enchanted plush, mentally repeating to herself that it was definitely different from drinking those sleep potions.
As she felt her mind slipping once more, she suddenly found herself standing on a dock staring out into the ocean. It was night already and tranquil, with the waves lazily rolling toward her, and the stars reflecting off them. It wasn’t cold like she thought it should be, and the salty sea spray tickled at her nose.
She glanced behind her, confused about how she had arrived here, but nobody seemed to pay her any attention as they milled about on their way to the various stairways leading to and from the towering city stretching toward the stars. How did she get here without remembering doing so? Did she end up sleepwalking somehow? She didn’t think she had ever done something like that before but Rayna had done it alot when they were younger.
Saiya looked back at the ocean. It felt like it was calling to her. Whispering something.
She strained her furry ears to hear it but couldn’t make it out.
When she moved closer to the end of the dock, she thought it got a little louder. When she looked down, she realized there was something under the water, just below the surface… something that shined like amethyst…
She knelt down on her hands and knees, trying to get a better look, and as another wave passed she saw him.
Dazien was chained and silenced and trapped below the water, struggling to get free and trying to call out to her.
Saiya stretched her arm down but couldn’t reach the water. Dazien had looked weak. He wasn’t strong enough to break the chains. He didn’t need to breathe as a Sapphire Caster, but he couldn’t free himself and escape the depths of the sea. He couldn’t come to her… so she jumped.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Rayna screamed in her ear, and she felt a pair of arms circling her waist.
“I need to save him!” she cried out, noticing that Dazien was sinking now, getting further from her. “I’m going to lose him again!”
“Saiya, we’re three stories up! I don’t care if you’re Sapphire, you’re gonna kill some random Mundane if you land on them!”
That was enough of a confusing statement that Saiya finally woke up.
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She blinked in confusion at her sister holding her while she stood in the large windowsill of their shared room. “What happened?” she asked as the only coherent thought she could form at the moment.
“I think you were dreaming and were walking in your sleep before trying to jump out the window,” Rayna answered, pulling her further back into the room and making her sit back on the bed. “I’m just glad the sounds from outside once the window was open woke me up in time.”
“I’ve never had a dream like that before…” she whispered with both awe and trepidation. “It felt so real… does everyone else normally dream like that?”
“I don’t think so, but most probably do,” her sister replied as she shut the window and moved to sit across from her. “Do you want to talk about what you thought you were actually doing?”
Saiya recounted the short but vivid dream and ended with asking, “Do you think it means anything? I know I told Phoenix one time that dreams are just thoughts being processed randomly, but that was only because she felt embarrassed by it.”
Rayna raised an eyebrow at her, “Do I want to ask what kind of dream made her embarrassed?”
“No, probably not,” she admitted but redirected, “But what about this one? Was it actually some kind of vision?”
“Your powers don’t work like that Sai,” Rayna said with a roll of her eyes, “Unless you randomly cultivated some sort of Time magic future-sight Natural Talent in your sleep, I think it was just a different kind of nightmare brought on from your suppressed anxiety over our missing companion.”
Saiya stared at her sister in surprise for a long moment before Rayna gave an annoyed huff and said, “What? I do read things, you know. I get enough of that look from the others, I don’t need it from you, too.”
“Sorry,” Saiya said with a tired sigh and rubbed a palm over her eyes, “I think you’re probably right. I’m just trying to keep it together when it feels like there’s nothing more we can do aside from wait for information to somehow reach us.”
“Hey, that’s why we’re spending time telling stories to those scions, remember? They’ve got people asking around for us, and when we’re not talking with them we’ve been looking into other options. You know I couldn’t just sit still and do nothing when someone is missing and we’re not this time.”
Saiya gave a weary smile, “I know. I’m just…”
“You’re just worried. I know, I get it,” her sister said, obviously trying to reassure her, “We’re going to go check out the temples tomorrow, right? You said Traveler told you everyone was heading here, but maybe the Cultivator or one of the other Luxury Pantheon deities will trade for the information.”
Saiya nodded, picking up Sky from the floor when she realized the plush had fallen off the bed. “I just… I really wish they would all be here with us already. Even if they’re all alive and heading here… I miss them.”
----------------------------------------
Phoenix jerked awake and Tala gave her the stinkiest eye as the bird grumbled, “Are we never going to sleep without nightmares again? Who died this time?”
She rubbed her face, destroying the evidence of her tears as she replied with a trembling voice, “Everyone… it kept cycling through people. They’d be chained up and hanging over the ocean filled with shark monsters… it felt like we were outside, though, so I have no idea what they were actually being held up from… it was like those bad tarzan or spider-man shots were I’m just wondering what the vine they’re swinging from is actually attached to…”
“You’re tangenting again,” Tala pointed out, hopping over slightly to land in her lap for some pets.
Phoenix gave a weak chuckle, “I don’t think that’s a word.”
“I heard the loud one use it so it’s definitely a word. Did they all get dropped into the monsters?”
Phoenix nodded, “Yeah. Dazien, then Ren, then Saiya and Rayna, then Camilla, then—” her voice caught as it felt like her heart climbed into her throat and firmly lodged itself there so she couldn’t say the name.
“The warm one?” Tala supplied and Phoenix simply nodded again. “Is that when you woke up?”
She nodded, and as she felt her tears well up again, she muttered, “I hate this… I hate not knowing what happened to them. I hate all this… fear just because I can’t find the answers.”
Tala didn’t reply, just snuggling into her more while listening.
“I hate feeling so… ignorant of everything.”
“Well that part you know can be solved.”
“What do you mean?”
Tala peeked a silver eye up at her, “You’ve already learned so much since you’ve arrived in this world. You keep learning every day and destroy more and more of that ignorance. If you keep doing that, keep seeking more answers, then I’m sure the fear of what you don’t understand will lessen.”
After a moment of contemplation, Tala offered, “We can go learn something new now if you want to help get your mind off that terrible dream and feel less ignorant. I think this answer will also give you a better sense of… agency while in this strange place.”
Phoenix tilted her head in question. “It sounds like you already have something in mind. Is there an answer you’ve been looking for too?”
“I really want to know what all those colors around their necks mean,” Tala admitted looking up with large begging eyes that reminded Phoenix of Bliss trying to get more treats. “It’s like everyone is shouting to each other in a language you can’t translate. I know you’ve been curious about it too.”
Phoenix chuckled but conceded, “You’re right. But it feels weird to just walk up to someone and ask them to explain their culture to me. I know it felt awkward to me back in the hospital when some new nurse or patient learned I was trans and started asking a bunch of super invasive questions.”
Tala tilted her head that time and asked, “Invasive? Like what?”
“Like what my body was actually like under my clothes,” she said in a huff of annoyance, “If I was going to take hormones or get surgery to change it. It was like suddenly my body wasn’t just another body, it was some sort of weird specimen to be analyzed. Normally, you don’t just walk up to a person and ask for details about what’s between their legs or if they want to grow boobs.”
“Yikes.”
“I know, right? Or it would get weirdly political, like suddenly I’m single-handedly the one destroying women’s sports. I was ten! All I wanted was to wear a dress and be called ‘she,’ and suddenly they think I hate all women and will be the downfall of society?”
“How can wanting to be a woman possibly mean you want to ruin women?”
“I have no idea!”
“Well, let’s leave that craziness firmly in your past on Earth, go downstairs, and ask that nice receptionist where you can learn more about the sparkly torcs.”
Phoenix paused for a moment, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at her Familiar as she asked, “Are you just interested because they’re shiny?”
Tala’s eyes went innocently wide as she said, “Noooo, of course not… I just need to know if I should update my own necklace with the right colors.” She shifted into her larger form and puffed up her feathery chest to show off the sparkly silver star with tiny blue and purple gemstones embedded in it.
Chuckling at the showing off, Phoenix moved to do as her Familiar suggested and got out of the bed to leave.