55.6 Little Dreamer

General Summary

Day 1109

Persfaia is particularly happy to be hosting Starfield and I in particular as true dragons — she says it is like being visited by grandparents: celebrated visitors who will go home at the end and not rule over them. Considering how the progenitor dragons have behaved towards their children compared to the Treeborn, I think it’s quite an apt metaphor.   Over dinner, she regals us with the stories the Returned have of their history. It began with the ‘growing fae’ who lost their Grove to some unknown cataclysm. They lost their sacred trees, gave up their wings, and wandered the world as lost ones for a time until dragons took them in and nurtured them. But only a chose few could be truly saved by bonding with a true dragon; most were left to cast their songs in stone and hope for a better future.   The oldest of their songs say that a few of those chosen ones established a way to merge their bloodline with dragons to become Kindred to true dragons. She tells us that these people are the ones she considers most lost — they sacrificed so much of who they were as fae and elves to become a small imitation of dragons. Many traditions were lost, though new ones were acquired. Further South, she says Kindred still remain in the mountains and live similarly to true dragons.   And then there were Kindred who left their lives amongst true dragons and sought to go back to the old ways, carrying a few truly ancient relics with them to help grow these new trees. The trees planted here, she says, will only grow here due to a natural eddy of energy in the Barrier. As the trees grew, I can see that they regulated the current further much like any vegetation in a flow of wind or water. I can see that the conditions could be replicated if they wanted, but I keep that to myself for now.   These Returned…they do cycle like fae…but they move in sets of five: Darkness, Sky, Fire, Earth, Ocean. Andstella and I take a while to understand this…five just seems like such an odd number for a cycle.   But no, they are closer to the Fae of Drifting Seeds than the other cycles. It seems like each cycle strengthens a part of their bloodline. The most recent cycle is always most accessible. And they actually don’t know how long they will live — apparently few of them have died over the thousand years they have been here.   And the Returned are able to traverse the Barrier, but why would they? When they do exit, they take the guise of other races…lately it has been elves. It has been about 10 years since anyone has returned.   They also have some dealings with demons to the South, but have steadfastly rejected any romantic overtures. And they have not gone to the spirit lands to the South, but have apparently visited spirits to the North…2 days’ flight from here is an ‘empire’ led by the Obsidian Night Scorpion Emperor. Persfaia tells me they are good neighbours, buffering the Returned from threats from the North including the ‘storm-tossed’…whatever that means.   Cousin Soo, of course, is curious about the strength of their personal magic. Persfaia says that the Returned could easily win a battle against ten demon sorcerers, and only spirits who can take on humanoid form would threaten them.   It does seem that all the Returned are interested in magic, so Persfaia shows me their academy. Five trees planted in a ring, each one deeply connected to one of the five dragon progenitors, growing and entwining together into a mighty tower that grows its levels organically. It feels chaotically fae to me, but as powerful as a dragon and organic and harmonious as any elvish space. It is absolutely flooded with dragon magic. Whatever cycle they are in, there is always wizard or mystic present in the Returned. Of course they have such priority awarded to magic.   The tree itself sings lectures to the students, and any researcher here can contribute part of their own song to the tree so it preserves their knowledge in the next cycle. Visiting dragons, mainly from Sky’s bloodline, have also contributed knowledge. Of course, Starfield and I will both offer a lecture as well.   A few elvish students join our lecture as well, and they remind me very much of Alder’s shadow magic. One, a girl with particularly interesting darkness magic, approaches at the end of my lecture.  

Is it true that you’re the sister of the Empress?

  She wants to be taken to speak with the Empress because there’s something she wants to know. As she spreads her arms, she conjures a shadowy illusion of the inner Imperial gardens where the Empress meets with her closest advisors. It is a place that the girl has dreamed of. And sometimes in her most troubled moments, she hears advice from the Empress in this place.   She is all caught up in feeling presumptuous and uncertain if it’s real. But the illusion she shows me is as detailed and familiar as any illusion I would conjure of the same space. She has clearly visited the real space in the Dreaming, and Kaide must certainly have spoken to her; I can feel the thread that connects the two of them.   Of all the elves, she is the one who feels most sheltered under the tree of Darkness. Persfaia tells me that Taproot is one of their best students.   It seems like Taproot is already an accomplished Dreamer, but the order of mystics here who take a very hands-off approach to dreaming and avoid influencing others. The Returned feel that it is almost a curse to see fate that way. But it sounds like Taproot is not necessarily seeing fate so much as just wandering through the Dreaming. When I ask her to show me what else she has seen, she shows me Drakken and describes him as using the Dream to do something evil.   Then she shows me ‘kin to the Empress’ — Osyr far to the West. She describes the Crystal Spires as it once was, in flames with a sad-looking elven man watching over it.   It’s just her here — no family. So of course she will come with us when we return to Dreamfall.   I have to smile when she asks where I am from. It turns out that she, too, is from the Frontier.