The Eight Pillars of Magic (The 8... of Magic Series 1)

A Crow like Dream

"Wake up!" called the Crow. He didn't hear, instead he wandered on through the seemingly endless corridors of the old library. He did not know how in the eight realms, he had got here. Everything was soaked in a greenish light and every step for him was like wading through the tidal beaches. "Wake up!" crowed that Crow again.

"Who are you?" asked the stranger wandering in the dream.
"A raven." replied the crow cheekily. "I'm a crow god dammit. Don't you see that or are you blind, you Ignaz." it came indignantly from the crow's beak and it puffed itself up really nicely.
"Since when can birds speak?"
"Only crows and ravens and parrots can speak idiot. Since Always."
"Education keeps going downhill." said the Crow, slightly disappointed and sardonic.
"I've never spoken to a crow before. That's why I assumed ..."
The crow rudely interrupted the Stranger: "... that all birds cannot speak in your ignorance. Yes, yes, and all ravens are black."
"I beg your pardon?" Now the stranger was confused.
"You know a paradox or did you just use your exercise book to catch drool?"
The stranger just thought that this Crow was pretty bottomless, but he answered soothingly.
"No no. I see what you mean Sir."
"Get that formality up your sleeves, Sir was my father."
"Okay. What is your name then?" The crow looked at him in astonishment, for a moment it seemed as if the quick-witted poultry were lacking words. But the nasty bird quickly regained his composure and uttered indignantly: "I'm a bloody crow, none of us have a name."
"How do you recognize each other then?"
"BY THE SMELL !!" roared the crow furiously.
"I see." replied the stranger very calmly and fumbled for his pipe, but forgot that he was in his dream. And couldn't smoke here at all.
"I have to call you by some name if we keep talking."
"You're right with that." admitted the crow sullenly and laid her head in a slight angle on her shoulder, just like birds did. Only now did the stranger notice what the crow looked like. It was a lot bigger, maybe a little bigger than a raccoon-lion, and had blood-red markings under her eyes that looked like tears.
"My name is Skraah." it said
"Not very clever eh?" it came unimpressed by the stranger.
"Just a test. I'm Buthga!" threw the crow back. Now it was the stranger's turn and after a brief period of thought, he also revealed a name: "My name is Owuala."
"A dream name, fine. So that's how you play." said the crow snapped and rattled its beak like the birds in the real world did. Then added: "I would say yes, I'm happy to meet you, but I'm not happy. Your presence is a dagger in my eye, a disturbance really. But let me at least show you around, as nothing really happens around here. Last week there was a strange blonde boy, with a stocky body and glasses, fell right outta a book." Then Owuala looked at the different shelves but they all had black books in them, some with green highlighted titles or inscriptions. "So what is this place?" The Crow Buthga always flew a few inches in front of him and stopped middair, hovering in the air. Owuala surmized that this feat was only possible in dreams. "Well you uncultured savage, this is The Dreaming Library a realm created by Master Kelios, who is absent currently, which plagues me with the quest to keep everything in tact. Every written and unwritten book is stored here as well as every finished and unfinished thought. Those are things that keep me well comfort but the truth about those who are written here is sometimes so disappointing." The Stranger processed the information giving to him before saying something again: "Wasn't Kelios the Hgh-Frwr's God of Sleep. The Feiyr use him as a calculation of time. According to them, time begins with his first sleep. When he wakes up it means that the end of the kalpa has been heralded." The Crow scratched a wooden bank in annoyance and  refuted: "No you cheeky, try to trick me. The Hgh-Frwr have Zara-El, who isn't just the God of Sleep but also of Prophecy, Summer and Time. Unlike my master, he is also associated with Flow. Zara-El is often revered by those Who-Walk-Among-Planes. And my Kelios does not give simply sleep but also dreams and is known for counseling mortals in dire need or for granting them the gift of Plane-walking. He rarely visits me anymore and I think between his sleeping and dreaming, he has forgotten me."

"Despite you being such a lovely companion.", Owuala quietly commented in an ironic tone but nonetheless the bird heard and took offense, as it snapped out to say:

"In all my rambling I forgot that I was talking down to an idiot mortal, your wounds are healed up good enough that you can finally leave me be again. That's what everyone does anyway"

The Stranger was confused again but before he could say anything to his sole companion, the Crow crowed a last time

"Wake Up!"

Bathed in sweat, the stranger woke up in a bed of straw. Next to the bed was a woman sitting, presumably knitting at first of his vision. She had curly white hair, skin as black as coal and was clad in several furs. His rescuer pounded something with a pestle made of ivory and decorated with runes. When the woman noticed that he was awake, she looked at him with worried eyes. The same ice-cold blue eyes that he had, greeted him and the stranger recognized that she was also a hedge mage. But unlike his icy gaze, her blue eyes were more reminiscient of a bright blue flame. "What's your name Lady?" he asked and without a hint of fear, she replied: "My name is Tysha White-Mane." There was only truth in their word. The flickering of the candlelight brought a change, because if Tysha had just had an old wrinkled appearance, her facial expressions and muscles changed to that of a middle-aged woman. Now, the Stranger felt, there was something maternal about his savior. "How did I end up here?" he asked and she replied that she didn't know, just that she had found him somwhere with heavy injuries and that she took great care nursing him back to health. "Perhaps I was in a battle?" he wondered and Tysha shrugged her shoulders and replied that it been five months, she had found him and that he wore a denched armour but no weapon, no scabbard and no shield. While laying on the makeshift hay bed, he looked around in the tent, spotting a four-stringed instrument with a gourd like body. The Stranger weakly lifted his arm and pointed at it, asking what it was and his saviour answered by saying that it was a Tiepu. "Play for me." the Stranger requested and Tysha stalled him with: "Later maybe. Your bandages need changing. Now hold still." Carefully she made him lean on his right side, removing the linen with precision and grace. Then she applied the mashed paste on a few wounds on his torso and a big one on his left leg. He would need months before he could stand again or even walk. After the paste Tysha wrapped his wounds in new linen. He passed out but dreamt a dreamless sleep.

Later when he awoke in the evening, there was a fire burning and a bunny being roasted. So he made sure that she knew that he was awake. The Stranger started a conversation by saying:

"I had once a beautiful harp made of birch and oh I would play and sing."

"What happened to it?"

"I lost it or I broke it or someone else broke. It opened ways to magic that brings no joy."

"Hm. We are very much alike you know. It is time now that I sing." Tysha Pale-Hair said as she picked up the Tiepu and softly began to pluck the strings. And then she sang but not alone, there were other voices too. Male and female alike. He knew from experience that a Song of Doom was about to happen and that their meeting was fated.

"As whispers flow, And shadows grow,

Beware of evening snow,

Behold that darkness crept,

It waits in the below,

The lich will shout and she will not creak nor howl to his deceit.

A challenge will come for winter,

Out of the Undark. Not just a splinter,

Face the Baroness lustful bark."

And then she said  his name, his true name. It almost broke his heart to hear his true name after such a long time, combined with the encapsulating melody and her enticing soft voice...

It only occured to him now that Tysha Pale-Hair had made another physical transformation, as she looked by closer inspection like a young maiden.