Chapter 10 - The Past and Dreamwalking
Eventually, though, after a soothing cup of tea her mother prepared, she let her eyes close and sleep win over.
She was Tuft again, she acknowledged as the dream began, feeling the slight disconnect Mystic Alnus had warned her to look for. She grasped at it gently as it was her tether to reality and the thing that could be used to let her out if she needed to escape.
Still, she was curious why the young Faelyn maid's dream had returned. Mystic Alnus had surmised that the lesson to be learned of the past was to steer clear of Elfin lands while her magic was still young. If he had been right, the Reincarnation Sickness wouldn't have brought the dream back again when it managed to claim her once more. There was something more to learn from Tuft, something important.
Watching through the night's chores, though, the only thing Silaira learned was how to clean and how to organize books. Her family did not own a lot of books themselves, the few they bought merely being added to the public collection once they were done with them. Silaira had three herself, books she often reread, stories of great Faelyn that once lived, some of whom had helped forge the truces that were now in place with the Elfin territories that nearly surrounded their entire forest.
The brush of the metal ring on the back of her legs was really quite irritating, Silaira thought, its chill threatening to consume her entirely. It felt as if it happened more often than before, though the dream was the same. Any time the ring moved too close to Tuft's bare skin, Silaira mentally strained away from it, from the dream.
Eventually, Tuft picked up the book once more and once more thought about how strange it was that the Elfin people thought Faelyn could use magic. Silaira knew, though, that their people could use magic and that at Tuft's age they should have been Dreamwalking already. Nothing should have been able to stop that.
The bitter cold of the ring on her mind, Silaira made the connection the dream was warning her of. All of Tuft's family wore such rings tight around their tails and none of them could use magic. Whatever they were, they bound magic and cut off the captive Faelyn from the heart of their own people, from their magics and the dreams they should have been walking. It left them isolated and unwilling to believe even when told what powers they held within them.
She snapped awake immediately, the dream's lesson held tight within her mind. She would not witness Tuft's beating again, likely would never see the young Faelyn maid unless she had another lesson to teach. She had escaped the dream intact, but had not made use of all of her training under Alnus. She'd left the dream the natural way, by figuring out the knowledge it needed her to know.
Next time, she would leave by force, just to be certain she could. After all, the Reincarnation Sickness could not taint all of her dreams so if she left a dream it gave her, she could perhaps have her own dreams or Dreamwalk to meet others of her kind.
She moved stealthily to the window for a moment, using the stars outside to tell the time, somewhere near midnight. She had a pocket watch on her bedside table but needed for a moment to see the world around her, to feel connected to it. Dreams of the past were unsettling, even knowing them for what they were. After letting herself calm, she went back to bed to see what dreams awaited for the rest of the night.
She felt for the disconnect, but it was not there, she did not dream a past life. The questing pulse of magic came next, its return calling to her once more of Dreamwalking. At first, she thought herself mistaken again, alone. The thought came with a crippling fear that laid her ears flat against her head, perhaps she was broken and unable to find others in the dreams they walked.
Heavy footfalls drew her attention and she whirled to face the direction they came from. He was tall, more so than her own willowy father, and broad shouldered as well. He had an odd air about him of someone with a lot of responsibility, like Mystic Alnus and the village elders but so much more as well.
He looked her over curiously, his shining ruby colored eyes seeming interested in the child he had stumbled upon. His hair was short, a mixture of a deep crimson with black intermixed and his tail was long and sleek, tipped in a tuft of black fur like a lion. He waited in silence a moment, examining the child as she examined him.
Silaira bowed as she would to greet one of the village elders, "I hope your walking finds you well this night, sir," she spoke one of the customary greetings of Dreamwalkers, another way they used to solidify that their meeting was true and not a dream masquerading as a walk.
"It does," his gruff voice responded, "I hope your walking finds you well as well, young Faelyn."
She was a bit informal considering his station, but as he did not know her save from his son's description he would not have been surprised to find she did not know what the royal family looked like as of yet.
He frowned slightly as his mind went to Vex and spoke, "My son says you met while Dreamwalking," he watched confusion on her face and determined he might bat that irritating child of his around the ears for discourtesy.
"I don't know that I've dreamwalked before, sir," she responded, once the first wave of confusion wore off, "I'd been taking medicine to prevent dreams until just recently and my first dream," she paused slightly, "It felt like what the village mystic told me Dreamwalking would, but I never met another soul and it was far too fantastical of a place to be real."
He probed a bit, asking questions about the place and finding it to be the sacred forest. Few were allowed there and even as a place to meet while Dreamwalking it was incredibly rare. The trees of that forest had a fair bit of their own magic and often did not like to be seen unless their magic deemed the intruder safe. Most that found that part of the forest saw nothing out of the ordinary, meaning the trees trusted the girl.
It made sense, considering the waves of magic radiating off of her. The young Faelyn would grow up to be powerful one day, a great asset to the kingdom. Perhaps, he thought, even the one that would help temper Vex's personality into something more manageable. They spoke for a while, just idle chatter about day-to-day things. He spoke of the capital and the bustle of the people as he knew of it while she spoke of a much smaller village, one likely without a marked name.
Eventually, feeling the time of their parting coming soon, he asked a final question, "What is the name of your village's Mystic, young Faelyn?"
"Mystic Alnus, sir," she responded, her ears twitching suddenly as something from the waking world called her, "It must be time to wake, I have very much enjoyed this meeting and hope your future walks go well," she bowed once more as she had when greeting him and was gone before he could respond, her absence waking him as well.
"Alnus," he grumbled as he opened his eyes, "I'll have to ask Mystari to keep an eye out for him…and that child. Vex told no lie, she will hold great power one day."