The Assignment

Seeing her confusion, he explains further. "I don't have nightmares, it's why I'm not a grouch like everyone else in the village. When I sleep I'm lucid, and there's this... force that keeps me from running into dangers. But if I get too excited or scared I end up in a dark realm I call the murmuring void. It's... in short a terrible place. Until recently I haven't ran into any dangers other than that 'void' but for the past two days I've encountered various monsters in there and after I entered the dreams of a friend of mine, I couldn't find the Elders' palace, which made me- well us suspect that the Elders have a hand in the villagers' nightmares. But this is all speculation of course." He doesn't tell her about his sister's coffin though.

Sara takes in all the information, she found it all too hard to believe. She then tells Kael, "How are you so sure about what you say, you could just be seeing things, or having your own version of the nightmares." Kael takes a deep breath, looks Sara deep in her eyes and says, "You own a silver hand mirror you keep in the bottom right drawer in your bedroom right next to your diary, that you were contemplating turning into a 50 paged will about your life story." Sara is stunned, finding it both real and unbelievable. Leaning back she asks, "How do you-?" "In my dreams, there's an exact replica of the village in there, it usually replays everything that happened the day before, so I can just explore the entire village, except of course the parts that aren't visible to me, so, I already knew who you were, I'm sorry." Kael tells her, reaching to touch her hand, but she abruptly gets up from the bed.

Kael looks at her apologetically, "You don't have to be what we're a part of, but could you do us one favor, don't tell anyone about this, please." Layla then speaks, "Might as well turn myself in now." Rio has no words to speak anymore, his lips tightly closed. Sara takes a few moments to take in all she heard then speaks, "So now, what do you plan to do?" Kael answers, "For now, I can only find out what I can from the Dreamscape, maybe we can at least know and avoid the dangers that could come from the nightmares, the Elders and the death worshippers."

Sara stays silent, unsure of what to say, Kael reassures her, "You don't have to say anything right now, *getting up* just keep this a secret until you come to your decision." Rio then asks, "So where are you going to explore this time." Kael responds with a determined tone, "I'm going back to the gate, I'm going to speak to that voice again..."

Layla and Rio are worried about this, but ultimately know they can't convince him otherwise.

"If my body looks like it's in danger, I hope you guys can wake me up," Kael said to everyone. Layla asks, "What if we can't?" "Then I'm fucked." Kael states smiling. Rio then asks, "What about Elliott, are you going into his dreams too?" but Kael says, "I don't think that's a good idea, there's a faceless monster that spotted me before I left, and I'm pretty sure he'll be waiting for me right now. I'll have to wait for a while before I go back there."

The others, except Sara, understand and stop their probing. Kael then lays on the floor and goes to sleep.

The familiar backdrop becomes visible and he finds himself in his room in the Dreamscape. He gets up, reaching out into the air, opens an illusory door and walks in wasting no time. He once again makes his way to the giant gate instinctively avoiding every danger on the way.

He observes his surroundings, making sure there are no monsters that could come out of nowhere, then waits, hoping the voice would speak to him, but nothing happens.

He then places his hand on the gate, but this time there is no response from anyone. He once again waits, observing his surroundings. Then he tries opening the gate. He comically pushes and pulls the gate unable to open it but to no avail.

He then places his hand on the gate, closing his eyes, takes a deep breath and begins to focus. The gate begins to tremble, and he hears a small laugh from what felt like every direction.

"Haha, are you really doubting me?" The voice sounded amused and disappointed at the same time. Kael responds to the voice, "I'm not that foolish, I simply wanted to speak with you."

There was a long silence. Kael finally asks, "Who are you, why did you warn me?"

The voice stayed silent for a while then spoke to him. "What do you think you will find in there?" Kael replies, "The cause nightmares in my village."

The voice speaks again, "There are answers in there yes, but at your current level it won't end well if go in." Kael asks, "So what can I do. This can't be the end of my road."

The voice goes on, "If you truly want to go further, go kill one of those monsters then bring it's body back here." Kael pauses and asks cautiously, "The big one, or the small one. Wait I thought you wanted to help me not send me to my death." "I am helping, and you can start with the smallest one you can find." The voice tells him.

She goes on to tell him, "There is no time limit, take as much as you can afford." Kael responds sounding almost defeated, "I understand." He leaves the realm and goes back to his room, intending to find a nightmare immediately.

He makes his way to the village's forge, he observed the blacksmith slaving away, soullessly pounding on a sword that was already made, seemingly trying to break it with his hammer. The blacksmith was surprisingly old compared to everyone else in the village. Aged 58, he sported grey, formerly blonde hair, his face looking much older than he actually was, with deep wrinkles on it. His arms were red probably from constant heat but he didn't seem bothered about it.

Kael went into the forge, the smith not even acknowledging to his presence. He picks up multiple weapons, a spear, sword, a bow and a quiver full of arrows, a hoe and two daggers.

"So I'm going from a few street fights to fighting Faceless monsters in my dreams. This'll be fun. Although I've only trained with a stick before, but I'll be fine, yeah I'll be fine." Convincing himself, he steeled his resolve and left the forge, making his way to a villager's house.

He has explored his dreams for years, and for years he has observed everyone in his dreams. He knew who had the more 'severe' nightmares, who was on the brink of 'giving up', with one of his biggest regrets being his inability to save Rio's father. He also knows most members of the death cult, but for some reason he couldn't tell who their leader was.His hypothesis being he wasn't from the village, Kael didn't even know where he went in the real world.

With all this information, he knew which villagers had the more tame nightmares, and that was his current destination, a young girl named Dyrel.

He goes to her house, dodging her parents and gets to her, sitting in their living room, unmoving with a blank expression. Kael observes her, and notices, "Her nightmares must be getting worse... What really is happening." He feels bad for her, reminding him of his sister and her condition.

He prepares himself, holding onto his weapons tightly, placing his hands on the sides of her head and falls sideways, entering her nightmare.

He opens his eyes and sees the scenes in front of him. A faceless monster leaning right in his face.