by Lilly Pink
“Those are questions I do not believe anyone knows the answers to. The Dreaming is another plane of existence, but it exists solely in the realm of spirit and magic, rather than physical. I suspect that simply the fact that the Kumari are a naturally magical people is what makes the Dreaming more real for us. However, you are correct in stating that it makes little sense otherwise. Perhaps both of our worlds originated from the Dreaming.”
They got down to work, skimming the titles that looked interesting and stacking the most relevant books on the table for later perusal. After about an hour of this, Kian broke their companionable silence. “Here is something of interest,” he said, gesturing to something in the large, leather-bound tomb in his hands. “According to this book, it is rumored that the most fearsome beasts of the Dreaming dwell closest to the center.
Tales tell us that something is hidden in the deepest regions, but Mehr always told me it was superstition. This book not only implies that the tales are true, but that the most dangerous creatures of the Dreaming exist to guard that central mystery. It references another book as well. See if you can find something titled The Myth of the World Tree.”
Zoe nodded, moving to the next bookcase and leaning over to peer at the titles, bracing her hand on the wood to look at the bottom shelf. To her surprise, she felt it move, the entire bookshelf sliding backward a bit with a quiet scraping noise.
Instinct had led her to jump back, but now that she knew she wasn’t about to send the whole shelf falling over, she pushed against the shelf again. It moved, rotating inward without very much effort. “Kian, look at this,” she said, standing back so he could see the passageway she had revealed.
He looked at her and nearly dropped the book he was holding in his hurry to look at her discovery. “I have been coming to this library my entire life, and I had no idea this tunnel existed,” he said as he ran his hands around the entrance. “It was warded and carefully concealed, but undoubtedly created by Mehr. How did you open it?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. I just put my hand on the shelf and it moved.”
“Strange,” he said, frowning. “Mehr left the library to me when he died, and it was not sudden. I assumed he told me all the secrets that remained. Either he forgot about this one, which would be unlike him, or he warded it specifically so that you would find it.”
“How could he leave something for me to find if we never met?” Zoe asked with a frown.
“Well, not you specifically,” Kian amended. “At least, I do not believe so, but Mehr did tell me that I would find my mate in the human world, and that is why he focused my training in traveling the Dreaming. He was always so sure of it, I never thought to question why.
But it is possible he keyed the mechanism of this doorway to open only for someone from your world, knowing that once you arrived, we would need to come here. Whatever the case, I think it will be safe to explore what you have discovered. Cautiously, of course.”
They clasped hands, the touch reassuring to them both, and made their way down the sloping passage. Kian cast a little wisp to light their way, and Zoe did the same, mostly because she needed the practice. It was a short way through the stone tunnel, and then they found themselves in a rough-hewn circular chamber, much smaller than the one they had left. Shelves lined the walls here too, filled mostly with rolled scrolls and sheaves of parchment bound with cord. In the center was a table, tilted toward them like the drafting table that Zoe sometimes used for larger projects.
On it, a large, aged sheet of vellum was spread out and clipped in place. It looked a bit like a map, or some kind of magical sigil. Kian had told her about them; they were complicated magical diagrams used to enchant objects and areas, for spells that were intended to be permanent or had complicated interwoven effects.
She wasn’t knowledgeable enough to have the faintest idea what it meant, but Kian gasped as he traced the complicated lines with his fingers. “What is it?”
“I can hardly believe it,” he said breathlessly, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. “There is something at the center of the Dreaming, something quite important. Mehr knew about it, and concealed it from me, which is troubling, but a minor detail compared to what this sigil reveals.” He sighed, and Zoe waited patiently for him to continue. “This sigil indicates that the Dreaming was created specifically to separate this world from the world of humans. At one time, our two realties were one and the same.”
It took a moment to sink in. “Does that mean that there were once humans here, living with the Kumari?” Zoe asked, frowning in thought.
“Without more research, I cannot be sure,” Kian replied. “But just looking at this spell and recalling what I know of our ancient history, I do not think that was the case. If I am correct, then at least some of the first humans of your world were Kumari, transformed, somehow, by the process of splitting the world in two. The Dreaming was left as a place of connection on purpose, in hope that the worlds could be rejoined at a later date.
However, there are many questions that remain. Why were the worlds made separate in the process, and why does the human world lack magic? If this was the spell that originally caused the split, both worlds should have had an equal share of magical power, but, as you know, the human reality does not have any. Or the amount is so small that it is not detectable.”
“Do you think that is why no one can find their mates? They’re all in the human world?”
“It is possible,” Kian said with a heavy sigh. “But that puts us no closer to solving the problem, if so. Until we find out why the worlds were separated, it does us no good to try to rejoin them. It might cause a terrible catastrophe. And, there is still the question of the creature invading your dreams. That is a more urgent and easily solvable problem, if we can find the right information.”
“Well, what should we do? Keep looking here?” Zoe asked. “We haven’t gone through everything, but if you think the ward over my sleep will hold for a while, we can take the books home and go through them at a more leisurely pace.”
Kian frowned for a moment and then nodded. “I think returning to the palace is a good idea. If I can find a few of Mehr’s famous shrinking bags, we can carry half the library home without much effort.”
***
With the aid of several of these magical bags, which made Zoe feel a bit like Mary Poppins, they managed to pack up nearly everything from the secret room as well as many important volumes from the main part of the library. They could always come back, but with the wedding fast approaching and Zoe getting rounder by the day, it seemed foolish not to try to limit their time away from home.
Time passed quickly. Sirius was growing even faster than Zoe’s stomach, and soon she was glad that Kian had taught him to stay off the bed. Otherwise, he was her constant companion, and Ameretat had grown so fond of him, that she adopted another of his siblings, a female she called Nensu.
Shahin was thrilled by this development. “Perhaps you will have started a new fashion. I am glad that now that my father and I worked so hard to keep the line going without inbreeding too much. If I breed my other pair, Sirius and Nensu will have mates of their own in a few years, and we can fill the palace with puppies!” Zoe and Ameretat anticipated this gleefully, while Kian pretended to be annoyed.
He had been hard at work, researching the split between the worlds and trying to discover the identity of the creature that crept around Zoe in the Dreaming. His wards had held, but he was obliged to renew them every night. “Whatever it is that troubles you is quite determined,” he said, examining the wards one night.
The wedding was only a week away, and both of them were anticipating the date with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. “I can discover no more information about it, except that it is probably one of the guardians of the Tree, the magical fulcrum that lies at the center of the worlds. I cannot begin to guess why it would be after you or find any technique for deterring it.”
“So, now what? Do we jus
t keep strengthening the wards and hope it gets bored?” Zoe asked, rolling onto her side to look at him.
He shook his head. “If you are willing, I believe our best strategy is to face it deliberately. Perhaps we might be able to communicate with it, or scare it away.”
“If you’ll be there with me, I’m not afraid to try, but I don’t know how to travel in the Dreaming the way you do.”
“Do not worry about that,” he said, climbing into the bed beside her. “It will be simple for me to enter your dreams and guide you. The only reason I have not visited you before is that I thought you might feel somewhat smothered, if you could not even escape me in your sleep.”
Zoe laughed, but she couldn’t really argue. Palace life could be suffocating, especially if you were accustomed to spending most of your time alone. As much as she loved Kian, the thought of even her dreams being shared made her feel claustrophobic. “Okay. What do I have to do?”
“Just relax,” he said, pulling her close. She turned so that her back rested against his chest, and his arm came around her hip so that his hand cradled her uncomfortably large belly. There was a chorus of responding kicks.
The baby was always most active right when she wanted to be going to sleep, and it seemed tonight would be no exception. Zoe could feel Kian smiling against her neck. “There is no reason why we could not wait to fall asleep naturally, but I fear a combination of anxiety and a playful baby will keep us up all night. If you have no objections, I will spell us both to sleep.”
“Please do,” she replied, yawning. “You can do that any night. I’ve had the worst insomnia lately, what with this watermelon attached to my abdomen.”
Kian chuckled. “I will teach you the spell tomorrow, though you might ask Ameretat if it is safe for long term use. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, and we will begin.”
She did as he bid, letting her eyes fall closed and sighing out a deep breath as she relaxed against his chest. His breath was softly stirring her hair, and though he didn’t say anything, she could feel the spell working, like a lullaby at the edge of her senses. It only took a moment before her thoughts unraveled completely and she was sound asleep.
It felt like waking up, this dream. Zoe opened her eyes and stood on a cliff overlooking a vista right out of a postcard. A river wound to the horizon, forests to the left and grassy hills to the right. In the distance, she could just make out a castle on a hilltop, a rainbow hanging in the sky above. But she knew it wasn’t real; everything was too bright and sharp, while at the same seeming to waver in the air like a mirage. It was a comforting sensation, realizing this, because she knew that Kian’s world had none of these problems, and she marveled that she had ever mistaken it for dreaming.
Kian appeared next to her, just popped into being like a reverse soap bubble. He smiled as he looked around him. “I always enjoy being in your dreams. Your mind is much more creative and aesthetically pleasing than mine.”
Zoe frowned as she took the hand he offered her. “I thought the Dreaming was a place? Another world. What are we doing in my dreams?”
“The Dreaming is a place, but it is a place that is shaped by intention and the desires of your subconscious. Everything here is malleable, responding to our thoughts, our desires as well as our fears. This part of the Dreaming is currently being shaped by what it reads from your subconscious, as I have allowed your will to supersede my own.”
“So what does your subconscious look like?”
“A library,” he replied with a shrug and a lopsided grin. “One good thing about the Dreaming is, since we know where we want to go, we simply have to concentrate on our goal and the world will respond. I have no doubt that the central hub is warded, but hopefully if I think on what I know of it, and you also bend your will toward approaching the center, we will find ourselves on a path that leads that direction.”
Zoe sighed out a breath, closing her eyes to focus her thoughts and thinking, as hard as she could, about reaching the center of the dream world and finding out what that monster was and what it wanted. After a moment, Kian squeezed her hand, and she opened her eyes. Now they were on a narrow dirt path in a dark forest. The trees were too close to see the sky overhead, but she had the feeling that it was night, if that sort of thing even had any meaning here.
Kian had conjured a small light so they could see, and it reflected off many pairs of eyes watching them from the shadows. These woods were full of ominous noises too: howling wind, creaking wood, the call of unidentifiable animals. It seemed designed to frighten them, and Zoe gave an involuntary shiver, unconsciously sidling closer to her love.
He squeezed her hand. “Our efforts certainly had some effect, though it will be difficult to tell if we are getting closer until we walk down the path a while. Still, I suspect we are on the right track. Something like this would be a good initial deterrent, frightening away those who have stumbled upon the core areas by accident.”
“Like a more elaborate ‘Keep Out’ sign,” she said, linking her arm with his as they started down the trail.
“Yes, only in this case, it does not also serve as a challenges to the bull-headed. Even my mentor knew that if you tell a young man he isn’t supposed to go somewhere, he is certain to try anyway. He deterred my curiosity regarding this area by making it sound boring and foolish, rather than forbidding me to search.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t look anyway. Maybe that’s just me. My mother always said I was too curious and stubborn for my own good.”
Kian laughed at that. “I probably would have, eventually, but Mehr kept me too busy with studying to have the energy to do research on outside interests. And then, I found you, and anything else that interested me suddenly faded in importance.”
He smiled then, remembering, and Zoe was about to ask him about their first meeting when she felt something brush her ankle. She shrieked in surprise. Kian jumped too, a sword and shield suddenly appearing his hands. He was wearing armor too, not made of metal like a medieval knight, though the shape was similar. It appeared to be interlocking plates of shimmering light. Nifty trick, she thought to herself. I need to get me some dream armor.
But in the meantime, there seemed to be nothing to fight. “What happened?” he asked, once his breathing had returned to normal. “You startled me with your scream. I may have overreacted.”
“I swear something touched my leg. Like an animal walked right by me, or something.” She shook her head, annoyed with herself now that there was obviously nothing around, and then grinned at him. “I think your magical armor and weapons are very impressive. I know exactly who to call for all my monster-slaying needs,” she said, kissing him on the cheek. His cheeks colored a bit as the armor faded away, and he opened his mouth, perhaps to make some sort of retort, and then his eyes widened.
“Zoe, you should, without screaming, turn slowly, and look behind you, toward the ground.”
She frowned in confusion, but did as he asked, turning her head and scanning the underbrush at the edge of the path in as calm and casual a manner as she could. At first, she couldn’t see anything, and she was about to ask Kian what he was talking about when one of the shadows under the trees detached itself and moved toward her with purpose, blinking up at her face with calm yellow eyes before stopping at her feet and letting out a plaintive meow. “Nahuel?” she said, utterly dumbstruck.
The cat bumped into her legs with his head before starting to wind his way around her, purring loudly. Zoe couldn’t help but pick him up, and his weight rested reassuringly on her chest as he rubbed against her cheek enthusiastically. “This can’t really be him, can it? I mean, I haven’t been thinking of him. I suppose I trained myself not to, but obviously this has to come from my subconscious.”
“No,” Kian said grinning. “It is really him. Cats are naturally gifted with the ability to slip between the worlds. But I never thought I would see him again, when he wasn’t with you that night at the park.”
“What do
you mean? How do you know my cat?” she asked, completely confused but too thrilled to be terribly bothered. Nahuel had been her constant companion, and, as she’d told her friends, only half-joking, the most dependable man in her life for more than a year before she’d come to Kumarinatu. The cat meowed and turned at the sound of Kian’s voice, creeping onto Zoe’s shoulder so he could more easily get attention from both of them.
“Originally, he was mine. My familiar. Not many of us have them anymore, but I summoned him to help me locate my mate in the human world. Once he did so, I asked him to remain, to watch over your safety and keep you company, if you would permit him. Obviously, it worked out for the best, as he enjoys your companionship so much that he no longer feels any allegiance to me.”
“Does that mean he’ll come home with us?” she asked, hopefully. As much as she loved Sirius, it was not quite the same as the bond she had shared with her cat. The Vryka was very serious about his guarding duties, even as young as he was, and wasn’t much of a cuddler, either.
“I doubt you could keep him away. He probably lost your trail when you came home with me, and it took him some time to find us, but now that he knows where you are, I have no doubt that you will find him curled up in bed with you in the morning.” Nahuel purred louder, almost as if he was agreeing.
They fussed over the cat for a few minutes more before setting him on the ground so they could proceed down the path again. Finding her cat had raised Zoe’s spirits; she couldn’t help but feel cheerful as they walked, despite the creepiness of the woods, and she almost forgot the danger they were in.
Nahuel noticed it first. He stopped in his tracks and turned his head toward a sound only he could hear. Then he sniffed the air, and his ears flattened as he let out the whining growl peculiar to housecats. Kian stopped, holding Zoe back with a hand to her chest, though it wasn’t necessary. Neither of them could hear anything, and so they crouched and crept forward as silently as they were able. The trees were starting to thin out, and when they were finally able to see the sky again, a curious sight unfolded before them.
