9.6 Come Back

General Summary

Day 92

Overnight, I awake in the Dreaming with Lyssa and Thalien.   Thalien has brought them here to help - Lyssa can provide rooftop support as we venture into the city in both the Dreaming and waking world. Although I’m glad to have Lyssa’s bow, I’m happy to see her.   Thalien leads us to a side gate into the city, covered in runes. The magic here creates a bridge between the waking and Dreaming world and also touches the spirit world and the land of the dead. I’m not as familiar with these places, though I know they exist. Mistress has told me about the spirit world how the people there are conscious and can learn and grow like any living person. Still, I have no strong desire to set foot in either place.   But I trust Thalien when he tells me that what comes next will have to happen in many worlds. The magic here in the Dreaming, which invokes time as a river to be travelled, is damaged and burned in a way that doesn’t feel like the Ingans. It has been slowly, actively burning for a very long time. I repair it here and carefully file away the knowledge for tomorrow in the waking world. The invocations scare me a little bit. The two worlds I walk in are already full of danger and creatures determined to kill me and my people. I’m sure the next worlds will be no different.   Before we part ways, Thalien tells me that Bran and Alder can’t join us - they need to stay behind and guard the gate in the waking world. If they come through, there’s a chance they won’t return. I recall Mistress telling me that there was always a risk that she’d leave a piece of herself behind in the spirit world when she was calling on them.   “I may die here. There is an inevitability here…” he says before I leave. The thought of facing something without Bran, Alder, and Thalien is just…not something I want to dwell on.  

Day 93

Bran apparently also had a visit from Thalien last night, and he’s not pleased that he and Alder will have to stay behind. I’m privately glad Thalien did the dirty work for me.   Together we head towards the same side gate in the waking world and find the same magic there, which I repair. When it is finished, it feels like it is intended to encourage impossibilities in all forms.   And then we step through, leaving Bran and Alder behind. Alder looks me in the eyes and tells me to come back to him, because he is not ready to stand without me. I promise him I’ll come back, but I don’t say that people learn to be ready out of necessity. No one is ever really ready to lose their family.   Through the gate, the sky is dark with deep, billowing smoke. The city looks new and I can smell the sea hidden behind the oppressive smoke and ash. The darkness here is not the Empress’ shade. Still more surprising is Kadia, standing on her own, separate from Hella. She’s enormous, of course.   But Camellia is blurry, struggling to form into herself in this world. She can hear so many different songs that she can’t quite grasp who she is. So I remind her - a healer, gentle, bright colours and flowers. She solidifies, but clad in plate armour with a sword at her hip along with her healer’s staff.   Grasping at the possibility of…wherever we are…Lyssa and I summon our weapons to us.   We don masks and Kadia pushes some air around us to make it easier to breathe, then we set off into the city itself. “This place is ours. Whatever this is…it’s not allowed,” she says firmly, leading us towards the cliff shore. Along the way we face several clusters of two-headed hounds, burning with evil fire. Each one that we destroy leaves behind a scorched ring of soot.   Amidst one such fight, Lyssa tries to shadow step onto a rooftop and screams in pain, the shadows hurting her instead of carrying her safely to the roof. It’s unfathomable, but we must grit our teeth and continue onwards without dwelling on it.   The closer we get to the cliffs, the more the flame and smoke seems to retreat from Kadia when she gets near to them. At the base, she stops in front of a small shop with the remembered sounds of laughter and children in the air. It was once a candy shop, where the children would come after school. Kadia reminisces about the shopkeep, Qi’mar, and how he would always hold back some candy for the others after some spoiled child tried to buy it all.   She manifests some salt water taffy for us - the taste is creamy and surprisingly sweet despite the salt. Hella retrieves a book from behind the counter and holds it out - a recipe book for a piece of home.