* * *
It was well past noon before Aiden managed to shake the horrible feeling left by the dream. Sayana's presence had not seemed usual while in the midst of it, but now, fully awake, he was astonished at the thought she had somehow managed to be present in his nightmare.
'That was no dream' she had said – the words haunted him, and he wanted nothing more than to get some answers. Unfortunately, her remarkable feat had left the sorceress severely weakened, to the point that he had to wait a full hour before she regained consciousness.
The others remained unaware of what had transpired during the night. Even though she had been trying to shout and scream within the vision, evidently Sayana had been silent in the real world.
She had said nothing at all upon waking and remained quiet throughout the morning. Nellise had expressed concern that Sayana was looking very tired, and surmised the late night on watch had been harder on her than she had thought. Nellise forbade her to take any watches for the next few nights, which did not meet any protest from the sorceress. Colt figured she was still just a weak little girl and paid her no further heed, but Pacian poked Aiden relentlessly, assuming something was going on between him and Sayana.
“She was lying right next to you, what am I supposed to think?” he chided, keeping his voice low as the two young men kept to the rear of the group. “And she's so tired, I mean, you've got to go easy on the poor girl - she's skin and bone.”
“Enough already,” Aiden replied, exasperated. “Look, if I tell you, will you shut up?” It took Pacian a few moments to decide.
“Probably. There’s one way to find out, though.”
“Do you remember where I found this?” Aiden asked, lifting the shard on its chain from around his neck just enough for Pacian to see it. His mocking smile faded.
“You know I do,” he whispered. “What of it?”
“What I never told you is that every few nights since then, I've had a dream about that day. A really vivid dream, and it's always the same.”
“How come you've never told me about it?”
“I just thought I was a little traumatised, or something,” Aiden replied, fighting feelings of embarrassment. “Besides, you remember how everyone treated me when I told them what happened. I wasn't about to go through that all over again.”
“Fair enough,” Pacian conceded. “What's this got to do with Flame Girl?” Aiden glanced around to make sure nobody else was within earshot.
“Last night, she appeared in the dream. Specifically, right when I was watching the battle.” Pacian seemed sceptical. “I'm serious - she was standing right next to me, shouting, but with no voice. She wasn’t wearing much either, for some reason.”
“Oh, well, that explains a lot,” Pacian said with a wink.
“No, no, it wasn't like that at all,” Aiden insisted, trying to keep Pacian on track. “The dragon looked right at her, and she screamed like it was about to attack her or something. That dream has been identical every time except for last night, and when I awoke, she was holding on to this shard thing, and then she collapsed.” Pacian took a deep breath and appeared to think about it a little.
“She is a strange one, I'll give you that,” he mused. “Who knows what sort of abilities she has? Maybe it was real enough for her to jump into your head like that, I don't know. Perhaps you should go and talk to her.”
“I don't want the others finding out about this just yet,” Aiden muttered. “Maybe when I get a chance to speak with her alone, I'll see what she knows. But you know what she's like – just about everything she does is instinctive, and she doesn't really understand how she does any of it. Somehow, I don't think I'm going to get much from her.”
“Worth a try, though,” Pacian replied, both of the young men noticing Colt signalling them to gather around from up ahead. “Oh look, perhaps our intrepid ranger scout has located another distillery from which to sup the sweet nectar of life.” Aiden smiled in spite of himself as they moved forward to investigate.
“This is as good a place to rest as any,” Colt declared when they had gathered around him. “Get something to eat and catch your breath.”
They sat on fallen logs and ate a cold meal of cheese, sausage and bread. Pacian and Nellise sat together away from the others, talking quietly. Aiden wondered who was trying to change whom, and which one of them would give in to the other's point of view first.
As he chewed his meal, he glanced over at Sayana every few moments. His desire to ask her more about the dream last night was almost overwhelming, tempered only by his desire to keep this strangeness a secret from the others.
It was possible they might be able to understand what was going on, but they might also dismiss it as nonsense, which seemed the most likely result. Aiden wasn't even sure if he really believed it, despite having borne witness to the vision.
“Can we talk for a moment?” Aiden asked Sayana quietly. “There's something we need to discuss.” She nodded silently, picked up her bread and followed him a little distance from the others where they could talk amid the cold forest without being overheard.
“First of all, I want to apologise for saying something that offended you last night,” he began. “I obviously touched upon a delicate subject, and I should have chosen my words more carefully.”
“Don't feel bad, you couldn't have known,” she whispered in reply, pulling her warm cloak tightly around her to keep the chill at bay. “It isn't something I have talked about with anyone before, ever. It's hard to open up...”
“I know how you feel,” Aiden said reassuringly. “Well, I hope you're feeling better anyway. You do seem to topple over quite a lot.” She shrugged and took a moment between mouthfuls of food to answer.
“My talents require a lot of energy, and I simply cannot eat enough food to keep me going sometimes, especially during an event like last night.”
“Is that why you eat so much and never gain weight?” Aiden inquired. She stared at him with penetrating green eyes.
“Why did you think I was eating so much?”
“... A love of food?” he replied weakly. “Honestly I didn't know what to think. But we're getting side-tracked here. You know why I wanted to speak with you.” She nodded, and stuffed her mouth full of bread. “I'll accept that you somehow managed to appear in my dream, or whatever it was. I've seen you do some pretty amazing things, so I can believe you're capable of entering a person's mind. But if it wasn't a dream, then what was it?
“My mind would not let me rest,” Sayana began to explain. “I laid there for several hours, thinking about the glass you wear around your neck and where it might have come from. Like you, I want answers. I went to take a closer look, and since you were sleeping, I didn’t think you’d object. When I touched it, I was instantly in some other place - you were standing next to me, and yet you were younger than you are now.”
“Aiden, the reason I said it wasn't a dream is the detail I saw – the misting breath from the fort's warriors, the fluttering of the flags, the crunch of snow beneath their feet. No dream has that much detail. It was like I was actually there.” She paused to take another bite of bread, conserving her strength. Aiden said nothing, awaiting her next words with as much patience as he could muster.
“There was something else though, a feeling that you and I were just visitors in that place. It was as though we were walking in someone else's dream. I tried to pull you out of it, but I was stuck, just as you were. I didn't know what else I could do about it, and then... the dragon flew in. It was the only other thing in that vision that seemed real.”
“As I recall,” Aiden said slowly, trying to remember the details, “you screamed when the dragon appeared.”
“No, I screamed when it looked at me,” she corrected with a shudder. “Have you ever had that feeling, like you were somewhere you weren't supposed to be, and then you are caught?”
“I may have experienced that sensation,” Aiden replied flatly. I
t was actually Pacian who had been caught in places he shouldn't have been, but Aiden had the misfortune of being there at the time.
“It was like that. I could feel its anger, and it was... terrible. I wanted to run, but I couldn't get away.”
“Wait a moment,” Aiden said, “in the dream, the dragon always looks at me. And although I feel awe, I've never felt terrified of it, at least, not until I wake up. And you said that it was the only other thing that felt 'real' to you? Are you saying it's alive?” Sayana nodded meekly, which drew Aiden to an unpleasant conclusion.
“Lovely, I have a dragon living in my head.”