* * *
The darkness was replaced with the near-blinding light of midday, causing Aiden to squint against the sudden brilliance. His boots crunched over snow as he took a few tentative steps, looking down upon a scene from his worst nightmares.
He stood amidst a battle between armoured men wearing the gold dragon tabard of the Kingdom and others clad in hooded robes, with signs of steel armour hidden underneath their garb. The fallen from both sides of the battle littered the landscape, and the ringing of steel and the cries of the combatants were deafening.
One of the Kingdom soldiers suddenly bumped into him, giving him a dirty look as he yelled in Aiden's face to get back on the line, or be tried for cowardice. Aiden looked down at his body and saw he was wearing the armour and uniform of an Aielund soldier. His mind raced, trying to remember how he had come to be in the middle of this fight.
Aiden knew what was coming, but he didn't know how he knew, and he staggered around as if in a dream. The ground began to shake, and grew with intensity until the head of an armoured creature appeared over the rise, revealing more of its body as it closed the distance. He knew what was coming.
It was easily over twelve feet in height, with shoulders eight feet across and completely encased in ornate armour. It gleamed with the appearance of burnished steel, and the face etched onto the front of the helmet was forged into an expression of haughty superiority. More followed, marching across the snow-covered land.
“You can’t win this!” Aiden shouted, knowing the outcome of this fight. “Run, for the love of God run!” If the soldiers heard him, they paid him no heed.
Aiden watched the ongoing battle, but knew it was a futile effort – the outcome was inevitable. After long minutes of bloodshed, the black warrior stood alone against the last of the bizarre metal monsters. This one was different to the others though – shorter by several feet and wielding a huge sword in one hand, the edge of the blade rippling with light.
They came together in a savage dance. Aiden remembered where he had seen this, and he was right, it was a dream, yet he couldn't understand why it felt so real.
Then, a shadow grew over the battlefield as something immense obscured the sun. An immense gold dragon was descending onto the battlefield, its wingspan easily over a hundred feet across.
As expected, the dragon turned its great head to look directly at Aiden. It seemed as startled to see him as Aiden was to be witness to this entire scene. It spread its wings and the air around it crackled and sparked with a build-up of power. A flash of white light suddenly engulfed the battlefield and a blast of energy engulfed Aiden, who fully expected to die.
A stillness came over the field. Aiden slowly looked up to see a colossal hole carved out of the ground, easily a hundred feet across and just as deep. It was almost a perfect hemisphere, and even went inside the bailey of the castle itself. The outer gate and part of its walls cleanly sheared off where the hemisphere met them.
Aiden slowly stood, looking at the devastation before him and felt at peace. It was an odd feeling, considering what he had just witnessed, but there it was, regardless. The scene around him began to fade and turn a curious shade of purple. Then it was all swept away in a swirling sea of blue and violet light, a vista that appeared flat and featureless, yet seemed to stretch on to infinity at the same time.
He could no longer see his body in the dimness, and felt as though he were floating in water. He simply drifted with the flow, pushed about by eddies and currents of the great ocean. After an interminable amount of time, a shape began to form from the surrounding formlessness, a piece of rocky ground beneath his booted feet.
Aiden touched down lightly upon the surface and watched as the fog of violet and blue slowly receded before him to reveal an immense creature. Its great head lifted slowly and Aiden saw it was the dragon from his nightmare, manifest before him in all its terrifying size. But it wasn’t quite the same.
Its great wings were wasted away to mere skeletal frames, covered in aged and worn skin. The golden scales adorning its hide were lacklustre, and the eye that was now looking down at Aiden from the great head was bleary, and dull. Aiden felt no fear of this creature and was instead filled with a sense of pity.
Welcome, Aiden, a powerful voice intoned, although the mouth of the dragon had not moved.
“Where...what is this place?” Aiden replied, his voice small in the vast emptiness around him.
You are standing on a small pocket of reality amidst the Aether, a dimension adjacent to what you know of as Aeos, your world. Do not be alarmed, you are quite safe.
“How can you talk without moving your mouth?”
My jaws are not capable of reproducing mortal speech patterns, the dragon replied patiently. I am communicating directly with your mind.
“I see,” Aiden said timidly, struggling to comprehend everything that was happening. He took a few steps, noting that the great eye of the dragon, only yards away, followed his every move. The dragon's bulk took up most of the space on the small pocket of land, but there was a structure of some sort behind it. Peering closer, Aiden could see that it was a castle gate and part of a stone wall, with crumbling edges that stopped just short of the edge of the ground. Chains were lashed across the front of the gate, which appeared to be locked tight.
Do not go too close to the edge, the dragon advised. It was quite an effort to catch you in the first place, and I do not want you to again fall into the Aether.
“Is that a castle I see behind you?” Aiden asked, trying to put all the pieces of this puzzle together.
Yes, I brought it with me, the dragon said cryptically. Pay no heed to such things for now, your needs are more pressing. What is the last thing you remember?
“I... was on a battlefield, watching great iron monsters attacking Aielund soldiers at the Battle of Fort Highmarch,” Aiden breathed, his memory distant and difficult to fathom. “But I have dreamt of that over and over for years, and never before has this happened.” He looked at the dragon, its expression cryptic and its eye locked upon him, but no answer was forthcoming.
“I recall Sayana saying something to me, something about it not being a dream,” Aiden mused aloud, his memories slowly clearing. “In the vision, she screamed when you looked at her. Why? She had done nothing to you -”. He was cut off by the dragon's voice, and was startled by the dragon’s reaction.
They are not your dreams, Aiden. They are mine, it informed him, its voice betraying powerful emotions within. She was not invited.
“If they're your dreams, how is it that I see them every few nights? What is going on?”
I sleep infrequently, as my duty makes great demands of me, the dragon explained, but every few days, I walk in my memories of that last battle and wonder with regret whether or not I made the right choices. You would have had the defenders drop their weapons and run? This was a poor choice – there was no retreat from the battle. I doubt there was any way to avoid the outcome you witnessed.
“If there is no way to win, why do I see this horrible fight over and over in my dreams?” Aiden asked, imploring the dragon for an answer.
You dream of it because you were there, Aiden. We are connected.
“How?” Aiden asked simply, for no other words came to mind. The dragon shifted its weight slightly, and brought forth one of its great claws, clenched tight around an object. Aiden took an involuntary step backwards, but the claw stopped before it reached him. It slowly opened, and within its palm was a glass orb, ridiculously small for the dragon to be holding, but about the right size for a human.
You recognise this, the dragon stated, observing Aiden's reaction. It is the result of unequalled artifice, beyond the talents of even my own kind. They came in pairs, and allowed for communication across any distance, even across time.
“The glass sphere,” Aiden breathed, realising the orb he held in that cave years ago was the partner to the sphere being shown before him now. He unconscio
usly reached for the shard hanging around his neck, but to his surprise, it wasn't there.
Your possessions remain with your body, the dragon remarked, confusing Aiden more than he already was.
“But I'm standing right here,” he insisted, patting himself just to be sure.
You are seeing what I want you to see, the dragon explained. Your real body is not here unfortunately, as it was too damaged to hold your mind any longer. Aiden thought about that for a moment, and then came to a shocking realisation.
“Do you mean that I'm dead?” he stated dumbly.
After a fashion, yes. An unfortunate accident separated you from your body. You were wise to keep the shard of the scrying device with you, Aiden, for it was through that I was able to witness your demise and retrieve your energy from the Aether.
“You've been watching me?” Aiden inquired.
Infrequently for the past few weeks, I assure you. Prolonged interplanar observation would cause severe side effects.
“Such as?”
The weather would be affected, for one. It is complicated to explain, but -
“It's been raining for weeks,” Aiden interrupted dryly.
Ah. I seem to have made a miscalculation of the relativistic pressures involved, the dragon replied, drawing a blank look from Aiden. The effects of my probing appear to be far more pronounced than I accounted for. I shall cease such activities immediately, though I must warn you, if I cannot see you, I may not be able to save your life next time.
“So, I'm not really dead after all?” he asked with a sliver of hope in his voice.
No, I caught you on your way past. I shall return you to your body. It is a shame that you broke the sphere, Aiden. Had it remained intact, we could accomplish great things together. As it happens you will have to do it alone.
“Do what alone?” Aiden hedged, not liking the direction this conversation was heading, even as he was relieved to know that he was going to be all right.
You have many questions, Aiden, but your time here is nearly up. If you stay any longer, I fear your companions may not survive. Suffice to say, I serve a purpose here and my time too, is running short. You will travel to Fairloch, and find a man named Desmond. Speak the name 'Salinder' to him, for he will have means of contacting me again.
“Wait, what do you mean -” Aiden began to say, but the scene before him was fading even as he spoke. His vision began to swim and he felt fainter as each second passed. The dragon and the ground upon which it lay faded into the violet storm surrounding them, until both vanished altogether. Aiden felt a sensation of falling a great distance and the ground began to coalesce around him once more. This time it was much darker and far, far colder.