Golden Dreams

When Ru opened his eyes, he was surrounded by a golden glow. He found himself in a magnificent palace. Halls with ceilings almost as high as the sky, furniture decorated with pearls and rubies, rooms filled with mysterious artifacts in every corner...

"It's okay. I don't have to come back to reality. This dimension is awesome, man!"

Ru was quick to take action, driven by the excitement he felt. He started to look around, running through the corridors and popping into and out of rooms. He threw himself onto feather pillows, wrapped himself in sparkly veils, stretched out on silk sheets, and even jumped onto the bed he found.

There were pools and fountains, but they were all empty. As he looked around for anything that might be alive, he noticed a large courtyard filled with gold-covered plants.

"Wow! The palm trees are made of gold, too," he muttered. Then he fixated on the "golden" aspect. He found trays of food and drinks in crystal bottles, and of course, they were all made of gold too.

"I'm not hungry, I'm not thirsty, and goodbye intestines! Because I'm a spirit! Whee," Ru exclaimed.

He kept exploring, liking the fancy golden palace and knowing he could enjoy it all.

Ru found musical instruments, one of which was a harp. He sat on a stool and began to play. The sound that emanated from the harp was so magnificent that it was as if he could see it with his eyes. The enchanting sound, moving in waves and scattering golden dust around, progressed, expanded, and soared.

Indeed, he could see the music.

"Of course, I can see it because I'm in heaven," he whispered.

Suddenly, he wanted to prove to himself that he wasn't dreaming but was truly in heaven. He had passed by dozens of windows, but he had overlooked the night behind the veils. Where exactly was the palace he was in?

"In the sky," he said, standing on the sill of a window.

Above was space, below was the earth.

He watched the clouds flow like a river beneath the palace. After a while, he waved to the flickering lights of North America.

"It's like satellite imagery, but without a screen in between. This is definitely..." Ru couldn't quite find the words to describe it at that moment, but this thing made him feel amazing.

Sitting on the windowsill and swinging his legs idly, he imagined his home and his best friend. He dipped his eyes into the purple light flickering in the distance and said, "I'm sorry, Vaelan. I don't want to be resurrected. I'm tired of dealing with Mr. Thargata and his ilk."

"The good news is that Mr. Thargata is already dead," the gentle breeze caressing his hair whispered to him.

Ru asked with a shudder, "Who the hell are you?"

"That pervert was reduced to ashes after being struck by lightning," said the same voice, singing like a bird, and added, "Of course, your genie has a hand in this murder."

"My genie? How do you know that, and who are you?" Ru asked, getting up and jumping from the windowsill into the hallway, looking around anxiously.

"Are you curious? Then come find me," the enchanting voice said.

"No, I'm not curious. You're a joking angel. I'm OK with that," he said, tiptoeing across the carpet woven with golden threads.

Of course, he wanted to find that person because Ru was a little bored by the seemingly endless riches. He found a game for himself for the time being: hide and seek.

"Yoo-hoo, where are you, angel?"

One by one, he was opening double-wing doors or simple doors. He pulled back the veils and looked. Sometimes he peered into the rooms through the door beads. The impression he got as he walked was hammered an architectural nail into his brain. This golden palace was definitely of the Orient.

"Maybe so," he pondered, abruptly asserting, "You're not an angel, you're the genie!"

"Am I?" the velvet voice asked naively, caressing Ru's ear.

"Yes, you are. And you must have a lamp and a seal, wherever you are," Ru said, his attention shifting to the lamps decorated with precious stones.

"Shh, be quiet. You will summon him," the voice said, this time sounding as if it had suddenly vibrated on the violin strings.

"I think you're afraid of the djinn, interesting," Ru said, climbing the wide, wide stairs, lined up like a fan.

"Maybe it's not the genie to be afraid of," said the voice, played like a flute.

"Well, you look like you're having fun," Ru said, still climbing the stairs. He bent down and put his palms on his knees. He took a deep breath. "Excuse me, do you have a teleportation service for tired souls?"

"You must be thirsty." The sound of this sentence hit Ru's brain like a drum.

"Are you crazy? I'm dead. What is water for?" Ru asked, frowning—he was almost dying of thirst.

"How about finding a bucket and drawing water from the clouds?" This question was turned into an airy piano tune.

"Sensible," Ru said and immediately sprang into action. At first, he found a golden pair of scissors and used them to cut the ornate strings from the doors. Acquiring the bucket wasn't difficult. He planned to extend the strings by tying them together when his ears were gently caressed by the playful tones of a familiar melody coming from the stairs.

"Pa-, pa-, pa-"

As the excitement of the strings increased, Ru identified the music.

"This is Papageno's duet. From The Magic Flute, Mozart."

With this identification, the music turned into small and colorful birds and began to float toward him.

The birds circled Ru and then lifted the bucket with their tiny claws. Together with the bucket, they flew out of the window and soared into the clouds.

A little later they came back. They placed the bucket of rainwater in front of Ru, and when the music stopped, they merged into a ladle.

Ru was very impressed by the magic musical. In the finale, he even admired the bird motif on the wooden water scoop, which fell into his palm like a feather.

"Wow," he said, but he wasn't satisfied with that. Ru respectfully applauded this person whose identity he did not know.

"You are magnificent, Sorcerer."

Then he sat down on his knees, and he lifted the wooden scoop. As he leaned over the bucket, the water rippled.

"What's happening?"

The eyes of Ru's reflection in the water glowed with the colors of autumn. On his head was a Middle Eastern-style headdress made of silk cloth and pearls.

Ru's reflection in the water said in his magical voice, "I am not a sorcerer; I am a musician."

"Are you... me?" Ru asked, leaning into the water.

"A little," replied the reflection.

"What do you mean, a little? Either you're me or you're not," Ru said with a frown. He liked the figure in the water. Its face, his own face, gave him peace, even if it was partly surly. That's why he hesitated to dip the water scoop into the bucket.

"I am your magical essence that you keep hidden, and I will return to you when the time is right," the reflection said.

"Time? My magic power?" Ru asked. Immediately afterward, he drank from the water and made a suggestion. "Let's not wait. Let's do it right away."

"For this, we must remember some things," the reflection said. "You must know, the genie sultan made us forget some things."

"Is he a sultan?" Ru was shocked.

The reflection gave him a hopeless look. And then he started speaking in a melodic voice. "You and I shall restore our past that was stolen from us by combining our memories. To do this, we must find the sigil belonging to the genie sultan."

"Okay, let's find it," Ru said. Then he paused and raised an eyebrow. "But I'm not the one with magical powers; it's you. You have to teach me some magic so I can find the sigil."

The reflection in the water pouted, but then smiled and nodded. "It is possible."

“Do it then,” Ru said, then suddenly, “OUCH!” he shouted. The sparkles of the golden palace were shaken by a blinding light.

A bumpkin was shouting, "DOCTOR!!!"