Section Author: 'Yui-chan'

This time, the night of soul-wrenching dreams had left Yui drawn and exhausted when the morning dawned. From her cocoon in the soft furs of the palette bed, she watched grey nighttime turn into blood-red morning, her thoughts whirling. Try as she might, she couldn't recall last night's horrors, yet her whole being felt chilled and muffled, as though she were slowly suffocating in her dangerous dreams. It frightened her, all the more so because she could not remember what had brought her to this point, nor what caused her anguish. She knew only that the old man had cared for her, continued to care for her with a heart that was pure goodness and a strange ability to frighten away the shadows in her mind.

While her thoughts turned to him, she watched the silent old man stoking the fire in the pit in the corner and wondered idly how he could appear so calm and well-rested. Throughout the long night, he had watched over her, she was certain, for whenever she'd cried out or opened her eyes to the moonlit hut, he had been there, his warm eyes and gentle hands easing her pain. She only wished she could remember what caused it…

"Ozyiisama," (9) The huntress' quiet voice carried easily across the small space, and the elder turned to regard her with questioning eyes. "I have so many questions. I know I am … unwell, but … I cannot remember what happened to bring me here. Will you sit with me? Can you try to help me understand?"

Those young eyes in the old face darkened sadly, though he left the porridge to warm over the fire and ambled over to sit on a corner of the palette. Yui could see that the smile was gone from his face, yet he looked at her and gently nodded, gesturing for her to continue. She smiled weakly, feeling relief at the mere possibility of finding answers, and then spoke softly.

"Thank you, grandfather. I owe you so much already." The warm smile slipped back onto his face as he shook his head and patted her hand as if to say that there was no debt, only kindness. The Huntress' smile widened in return for a moment before she sobered with thoughts of her situation. "You showed me the mountain, yesterday, and I know that I have been there. You showed me, too, the ruins at the peak, and I think that perhaps I have been there as well, but … not exactly. I think… I think there should be a castle there." An image of the imposing stone walls lit by a jagged streak of lightning flashed past her mind's eye, and Yui shuddered. "… Hai. I have been to a castle there."

Frowning, she looked to the old man questioningly, and he nodded, his eyes grave. Her frown only deepened. "How is that possible? It is a ruin. You showed it to me." The old man could only watch her in silence with his soul-deep eyes, willing her to put it all together.

The young woman frowned and looked out the window at the blossoming morning, her unfocused eyes falling on the strong limbs of the cottonwood. "Aegon was in danger, I remember. I rode in secret so that he would not be killed, for those who had taken him claimed to want ransom," she mused, her frown deepening, "though I knew that, for whatever reason, they also wanted me."

Pleased, the old man nodded solemnly, recalling her gaze to the narrow hut. "You know of them? You know of whoever had… has Aegon?" Again, he nodded, and Yui sat up straighter. "Ozyiisama, do you know where Aegon is? Did you bring me here to keep me from whoever has him?" The old man frowned at her exuberance, and she could see the thoughtfulness in his eyes as he considered how to answer. More calmly, she repeated, "Please… do you know where Aegon is?"

After long moments, the old man shook his head back and forth, a regretful, but emphatic 'no'. Yui wilted back against the furs like a plucked flower, a measure of the hope that had sprung into her eyes dying. Her voice was weaker as she continued. "Did you bring me here to protect me from those who took him?"

This time, the old man nodded, his eyes going very warm as he stroked her hair back from her forehead in a fatherly gesture.

"Are they the ones who have done this to me, the nightmares, the strange marks?"

Again, he nodded, a mixture of sadness and anger entering the blue gaze. Yui shuddered slightly. The old man had her answers, but she couldn't help but feel that she almost didn't want to know what they were. A chill of foreboding warned her that the worst was yet to come, yet she knew she had to face it, for herself and for her beloved.

"Ozyiisama, can you t--- AIEEE!" Yui screamed as pain suddenly sliced across her back, burning a convoluted path as if someone were carving fire along her skin. With the hurt came darkness, a nightmare shadow that covered first her eyes, then her will, then her consciousness. Within seconds, the young magess lay still against the furs, reclaimed by the nightmares.

Chronos scowled beneath his great, white beard as he bent forward to place his hands upon the Dream's brow. The pull of the Dark Dream was as strong as it had ever been, and the ancient wizard knew that the woman was now fighting the final battle for her own soul. Timeless, he knew, too, the thousand possible outcomes of the battle and the million possible results of those outcomes. He knew, at the same moment, the dozen possible roles he would play. He chose one.

*******

The storm whispered to the Master, telling tales of a lone rider protected by magic, of a fleet-footed race up the steep mountain slopes. The Master was displeased, the eyes, invisible under the hood, narrowing angrily. He bellowed for his Slave, the gravelly cry echoing throughout the great, stone keep.

He is here too soon. I am still Unreal and Unfinished. Outwardly calm, the black-robed figure retrieved his razor, bending carefully over creamy skin. Still, his dark mind raced even as his lips began once again chanting the words of the Binding. There can be no more gentleness, no more game.

"One. We are One." The razor began its path across his unconscious victim's back once again, leaving behind a trail of fire-red blood as she jerked in pain. When he arrives, I will be ready. Joined with the Weaver's Dream, I will finally be wholly Real. Joined with the Dreamer's Dream, I will become a Dreamer!

The laughter that bubbled forth from the Master's twisted throat filled the chamber even as the young woman laying on the platform before him struggled against his work. After but a moment, his black eyes narrowed in concentration even as his hand carried the razor over the smooth planes of her back. Within the battlefield of her dreams, the clash of wills resumed…

*******

The spell was shattered with the cold efficiency reserved for those of Pure Evil, and the sparkling shards dissolved into dust. With an angry frown marring his wrinkled forehead, the Timeless Wizard opened his eyes upon the white-stone walls of his Chamber and stepped gingerly out of the glowing green Circle in which he stood. The Dark Dream had reclaimed the mortal, and not even his powerful magic could shield her, now.

Chronos shook his head in disappointment. He had really wanted to spare the woman and the Weaver this particular path in all of the infinite possibilities, but he had known from the start that it was very unlikely that he could. He shrugged to himself, knowing that remorse was useless.

Instead, he walked to the far wall, lifted his pointed hat from its place on a peg and gestured, opening a hole in the air. With a firm tug, he settled the cap on his head and disappeared into the Void.