Raven sat down at the conference table with Dominic beside her. The room was loud and full. Loud described a great many things within the room right now. The volume of everyone’s voices, the colors of most of everything within the room, and the demeanors of the people. It seemed that was a telltale sign of most of the Dreamers. They were creative and expressive. Which made Raven uncomfortable and concerned about herself. Because if she was anything, she was nothing like them. If she was anything, Raven was the reverse of all of them. Their mirror image. Had she been so screwed up that she’d not grown into her own? Now she felt somehow, she’d had her potential stolen from her and she wondered what that would have looked like. “Raven, hey Raven. Earth to Raven. Hello! What’s got you woolgathering?” Ellie Jenkins waved a hand over the table trying to gain Raven’s attention and pull her from her thoughts. Her orange and purple streaked hair bobbed as sh
“Someone, pinch me and tell me I’m not dreaming we really made it here.” Leisha, a tiny mage who came with her ‘talentless’ sister Dreamer said as she poked at things. Before this the closest she’d ever come to the Dream Realm in her life was a trip through a Mage Portal. Which was closer to tiptoeing along the doorjamb rather than entering the portal or skimming between two realms. A mage before this would never dare to enter this space in their physical state. That would stay to a spirit type or Dream State like the shifters. It had to do with who set up the realm as a hub to travel, and that was the Fae. They’d used it when they were active in this Realm. To move between places, but as their slaves’ travel was limited so the Fae could pull their slaves along if they wished, but the only ones who could use the realm were the early species. The ones made before the Fae learned their lesson. The Dragons and the mages. Each successive species their control of magic changed,
It took time to get there, but in this realm, time was not, and space wasn’t the same. It was all jumbled as if the people that created it didn’t understand the concept of linear time and the idea that only one thing could occupy one space at a time. This realm looked eerily like their realm but frightfully off. New buildings stood beside crumbling old ones. Only the new buildings hadn’t existed for decades, and the crumbling ones were now just being built. There were no insects or small animals moving about. No birds singing, just eerie silence broken up by a nightmarish scream or howl. The sky too was off. The fog lingered there too in streaks of gray-black sprinkled with patches of stars. But what made the sky noticeably different was the lack of a sun or moon. This realm had no day and no moon. The light came from a glow that emitted somehow from everything. From the flora to the structures. Even the very dirt that made up the ground itself. It was like a low level of
They weren’t far from the ornate gates. Welcoming as they looked, there always appeared to be an imposing and even menacing appearance to them. Raven could see the stone appeared slick, wet with something. The Princess Gates she knew were white or light grey, and ever present. The angel is a guardian for veterans and a monument to the human military. She didn’t claim to understand the backstory, but she knew this place carried a lot of the city’s, province’s, and country’s early history. Innovation, progression, creativity, and social change have been, are, and will be showcased here all in a curious atmosphere of celebration and fun. The perfect place to attract the Fae. A breeding ground for wild magic. What better place to base the restoration of this place from? So close to where the damage was done and such a powerful center. “I think we found the most likely location where they are basing the rebuilding from.” Raven said. As her eyes caught sh
“So, at some time they did the same thing in here as the humans did in our realm, but for the purpose of gathering wild magic. Like nine-day battery recharge or something?”Tom asked as we looked about the ruin. Like everywhere else the place was ruined and quiet. Until it wasn’t, Raven didn’t know how it happened or why, but the lighting, music, and a jarring number of sounds commenced at once. Like the others her senses were overloaded, and they were forced back into the now bright corridor. Stumbling over the mess they moved on through the building as the sounds settled into a steady more even pattern and the lighting dimmed to a more manageable level. “What is going on here? I don’t get this place. It looked dead like everywhere else. No plants or bugs. But that thing must have lived at one time.” Luke pointed back the way they’d come. With the lights on they now saw the remains of the displays. Dominic shifted then back to his flesh
Raven felt more like herself outside the building. She didn’t understand why they would set such a trap like that. But she had to be more careful. A thought struck her then was that what happened to her mother? Had she found one of these traps or a different type of trap? Had the trap killed her mother? Or was she still in here somewhere? Old, but alive and lost in some mental train of thought. “This way I believe it’s in the ride area and not the buildings. Come on this way. We can’t hang around like this. Things will be on us at any moment.” Raven went off at a brisk jog pulling Dominic along with her after he’s placed her on the ground. “Raven where in the ride area are you taking us? Do you know where you are going?” Dominic wanted to know. He couldn’t figure out what they were doing right then. What would they have to do in the ride area? “What would they find there that would charge this battery you think this place charges?”
Raven stepped away from the others without a word. The males debated what they found lying on the ground, but they found nothing long or strong enough to work as the tools they needed. Luke went through his pack searching for anything. “Need out strips want. Function and form are one. Take from the scrap and bring it value, beauty, use, and form.” Raven said half to herself. She muttered under her breath as she stared at her hands as if the debris in her hands was an object to study. Her hands moved over it. Pressing, pushing, and pulling at it as she tweaked the object. The object glowed with a faint light that pulsed with each movement of her hands. “This should work to pop the hinges out.” Raven returned to Dominic’s side, and in her hands lay a thick rod and a heavy mallet. She offered them to Tom who hesitated to take them. “Uh, thanks.” When he did take them, his features changed to show a look of surprise. He felt the weight of the mallet and
One cage was left up on a high column with a lone occupant. Raven gasped when she saw the being move. “They’re alive up there Dominic. She’s up there. That’s her. I know it. I don’t know how, but they won’t let us use our abilities here. So, she can’t rescue herself. They’re practically tapping her of everything she has because they’ve used up or killed all the others.” “These were the others I assume.” “Yes, I think so. At least, most of them.” “Looks like someone was angry. How are we going to reach her? They shattered all the other columns.” Tom asked. He tried to work out a way to get to her, but like everyone there it was one of those monumental tasks. “We don’t have climbing equipment, and the column is solid stone. I don’t see any cracks or veins. It would take days or weeks to work our way up making footholds if we had the gear. That’s if anyone knew how to use it. I’ve only gone to a rock-climbing gym a few times.” “