Elfborn: The Quest

Back to the Dream World

As his companions were making their way back to their apartments, Jase was moaning softly as he tossed back and forth in the narrow bed the surgeons had laid him in after finding themselves unable to help him. Unconscious but not unaware. Then, with a gasp and a jerk, he sat up, eyes wide.

And found himself in the half-light of the dream world version of the room. That in itself wasn't that surprising. However, finding a slender creature looking almost too fragile to be real sitting at the foot of his bed definitely was. She was regarding him with a calm, curious expression, her almost too big eyes like a child's, filled with the wonders of the world. Except there wasn't that awe-filled light gleaming there, one that seemed to occupy a child's.

"Who ... who are you??" he stammered, recoiling away from the slender creature. Who immediately smiled.

"You have nothing to fear from me, Elfborn," the creature softly replied, her voice musically chiming in his ears, like the ringing of tiny bells.

Truly there seemed to be nothing threatening about this creature, with her translucent skin and pale, blonde hair, a diaphanous dress floating about her body as if it was reluctant to touch her perfect skin.

"For I will not hurt you. My name is Alura, of the N'Ajier and I am a friend of your friend, Naneen of Hybernia."

"I see," Jase said, not at all confident this creature was telling the truth. Carefully he drew back from her, watching for any sudden moves. "And why are you here, Alura? Naneen didn't send you, did she?"

"No, although she would have, if she knew what was happening to you." The smile grew slightly. "Though she and her companions are separated from you, they still care about your well-being."

'At least Max and Ollie are still alive,' Jase thought with a mental sigh of relief. Not knowing whether his friends were dead or alive had plagued the young Hesivan, gnawing at his mind during the long nights aboard the Dolphin as it clawed its way through the storm-tossed seas.

That done, he looked back at the delicate-seeming creature with narrowed eyes.

"You still haven't told me why you are here, Alura," he said pointedly. The creature's head nodded.

"Please forgive me, Jase." Her smile brightened. "I have come here to watch over you as you laid recovering from the poison that the assassin put into your body with his knife."

Stunned, Jase nearly flopped back down onto the bed, his mind whirling. She knew of the attack?? But how? Wasn't she a creature of the dream world? As if she understood the reason for the look of befuddled confusion on the young man's face, Alura continued.

"It is a long story, Jase. One I've already told Naneen because she was exiled to this place as I was, by her illness. Suffice to say I am able to look beyond the threshold of the sleeping world to the waking one, to observe the happenings there as I wish."

"And you saw me getting slashed by the assassin," Jase managed, looking to confirm her earlier statement. Which, a moment later, she did when she nodded her head.

"Then answer me this: did Lord Astor or one of his agents send the assassins?"

Alura smiled.

"Naneen was right when she said that you are direct and to the point," she replied in her soft, sing-song voice. Then the smile became a frown. "Unfortunately I cannot tell you. Much of the city has recently become cloaked in magic and it makes many significant events harder for me to see through the veil between the worlds. Including the hiring of the band of assassins that attacked you at the Invigilators' private landing."