Unexpected Guest

Misha watched carefully and quietly as Bran drew out the inscription for the door's target.

It was that door, the one Bran had used to get dragon Misha back home after the little adventure involving Amethyst and the little girl. Since that night, Misha had had a look at the door and had even tried opening it (it didn't budge), but other than a slightly more elaborate handle, it looked just the same as the rest of the doors in the flat.

At least, it had when it wasn't being used to teleport somewhere.

Now that it was about to be used, the dark, lacquered surface of the door now glowed with the most minute little lights that reminded Misha of the night sky up in the highlands of Alba of all places, and gave the thing an unearthly, shimmering quality.

Suddenly he felt like he and Bran were doing some secret coven ritual instead of… whatever it was they were doing. He'd held off on the questions thinking Bran would benefit from being able to concentrate more, but now that the set-up looked to be about done, he decided he might be able to get one in.

"Bran," Misha began, "are you joining the door to Coral's hospital room?"

"No," replied Bran. "Wish Slip."

Misha handed him the piece of scrap paper Coral had written her wish on. Bran placed it onto the square of paper he'd been drawing on then used a long handle stapler to affix it.

He picked up the paper and shook it. The slip didn't budge. Satisfied, he went to the shimmering door and slotted the papers into the gap between the door and the doorframe and slid it downward, almost like he was swiping a credit card.

The shimmering lights flared up where the paper touched the door then moved out, wave-like, all over the door and making it look like the surface of a pond right after someone had thrown in food for the fish.

The ripples went back and forth then eventually subsided and the lights stopped twinkling and instead held fast to whatever brightness they had been caught in.

"It's ready," said Bran after a moment.

He reached for the handle and opened the door.

At first the door seemed to open into absolute darkness but after a few moments, Misha spotted a dim light far off in the distance.

"What is this?" he asked.

"A dream-Coil," replied Bran. "The paramedics said Coral's in a coma, and they don't know why, but I think we both know that there's something going on."

"The book," said Misha.

Bran nodded. "Right. There's something wrong with that book, or at least with its name." He sighed. They'd proven that beyond the shadow of the doubt earlier with a simple dousing test, the remnants of which were still smoldering in the sink. "I don't know if I can unravel whatever it's doing from this side, but I'm pretty sure we can do something if we can get into Coral's head."

"Her head?" Misha asked, surprised.

"Her dream. 'Head' is metaphorical."

"Oh, okay."

Bran went to his instrument case and pulled out his sword.

"Should I… bring… something too?" asked Misha, eyeing the blade.

"Like what?"

"Like a… weapon?"

Bran smirked. "You're a dragon, what do you need weapons for? Just bite stuff"

Misha rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but I can't keep destroying your clothes, right?"

"...You have a point."

Bran sighed.

"Thing is, you can't just bring whatever you like into a dream-Coil like this because of the 'dream' aspect. If the thing doesn't have a strong… presence, it becomes too easy for it to get lost in the dream. My sword can go in because it's a demon blade, but I've only got the one." He regarded Misha seriously. "If you're worried, you can stay here though." His tone said he really meant this, that it wasn't meant to be demeaning, that Misha really did have a choice.

Misha shook his head. "I'm coming," he said, taking a position next to Bran.

Bran smiled. "Let's go then," he said, taking Misha's hand. "Don't let go until I say it's okay."

--

I feel like I need to admit that I haven't held that many people's hands before. If you exclude family members then that number becomes… zero, other than you just then.

I could feel my whole body heat up and I was sure my face was all red, but luckily the passageway remained dark as we traversed it.

By contrast, your hand was cool, cold even. You weren't that cold in bed, so I wondered if it had to do with the unsheathed sword. You said you were its sheath, right? So maybe it was related, I thought to myself.

To distract myself, I decided to do what I do best: ask questions.

"Do you think Coral's in trouble?" I asked. Stupid question - the answer was obviously yes - but it was a start.

As usual, you took my question seriously and didn't make fun of me.

"She's in trouble, but whether it's 'a lot' or 'just a bit', I'm not sure, though I'm leaning towards 'a lot'," you replied.

"Why's that?"

You didn't answer immediately, and I glanced over at you. You were looking down at your sword.

"We know the book's name has a spell, the test earlier proves that, but the fact that I got fooled by it means it, or its designer, is quite powerful. Normally Excalibur would stop that kind of thing from happening."

"Excalibur? You mean…" I looked down at your sword again. "Your sword is Excalibur?!" I said that last bit in a forceful whisper.

"No," you replied, deadpan-like, "but I call it that out of spite."

"Oh, I see."

I didn't really.

You hand tightened around mine. "We're nearly there," you said. "Remember not to let go."

You were right. That dim glow at the end of the tunnel was now large and bright and right before us. As we got closer, I felt a great force push against me. It was like wind, but stronger and more present - maybe more like grasping hands than anything else. It tugged and pushed apart each part of me - almost as if it wanted to separate me into just limbs and organs.

But most of all, it wanted to pull us apart.

I held onto you tight, walking closer to you so that just in case my hand slipped I could quickly grab for you.

Our hands shifted and our fingers became interlaced.

The force built and built, and the light grew brighter and brighter, until I could neither feel nor see.

Then it all vanished.

It was so sudden that I nearly fell to the ground. Luckily you seemed to be ready and caught me just in time.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

You righted me then moved away. "Alright," you said, and let go of my hand.

I would have been disappointed - was disappointed, if I'm being honest - but the scene around me kept me from staying like that for long.

I'd been in a Coil once before and, even though I knew this was a dream-Coil, I'd been expecting it to be at least somewhat similar to it.

I was completely wrong.

Where the little girl's Coil had been spooky with all the eyes everywhere, it had at least felt like a real place. This place, on the other hand, felt completely unreal, completely removed from anything tangible.

The ground was flat and grey and sounded vaguely metallic as I shifted my feet. Around us were walls, also grey and I assume metallic, except that they warped and spiraled away in diamond patterns whenever we looked longer in a particular direction, almost like the walls were shy and trying to avoid our gaze. When we looked away, they'd then spiral back again, boxing us in. I think if this had been in the real world, I would have gotten motion sick from it all.

"Alright," you said, "now comes the hard part."

"Hard part?" I asked. It hadn't exactly been 'hard' up until this point, but I hadn't expected there to be a jump in difficulty.

"Maybe tedious is a better word." You sighed and put a hand on your hip. "Somehow, we need to find Coral in all of this."

"Somehow…?" I repeated. You normally sounded so sure of yourself, so this was new. "You mean, we just walk around?"

"Unless you've got a better idea."

That was definitely new.

But not wholly unwelcome.

Since meeting you I'd been feeling more and more out of my depth, and less and less capable of finding a place for myself, so now I had a chance to contribute. Maybe you were doing it on purpose to help me find my footing in this strange new world I found myself in - metaphorically as well as literally - but even if you weren't, I was glad of it.

I looked around. Behind us was a doorframe, exactly the same as the one in your aunt's flat, and inside it, the same the same dark tunnel with the dim light at the end of it.

I closed my eyes and tried to reach out with my senses.

I heard something.

It was faint, but…

I turned in the direction of the sound and opened my eyes.

The wall ahead of my spiraled away. As it did, the sound, the voice, got louder.

"Bran," I said. "It's…"

Together we both looked down the spiraling hallway of grey metal.

Suddenly the wall shuddered and came apart, revealing a person in the distance.

They were quite far away, and sitting on the ground, but we both recognised who it was.

"...Melody?"