The Dark Sun

Chapter 2: City Walk

The heat was unbearable. Intense, skin-boiling pain. I took a hard breath and felt my throat burn as the smoke poured into my lungs. I coughed. I clutched my throat with my hands. I need to breathe! I thought desperately. I heard strange crashes all around the room. The smell of smoke was so thick in the air that I thought a hand was crushing the air out of my lungs.
I felt lightheaded. I took a step back to gain my balance. Suddenly, the floor met my hands and I tumbled to the ground. Gasping for breath, I felt my senses start to slip away. My vision blurred, my hearing dulled to my heartbeat, I lost feeling in my arms and legs. Then, my eyes started to close. I felt my life slip away.
I screamed. Opening my eyes, I sat up quickly and slammed my hand into my chest. Breathing heavily, I tried to slow my heartbeat. Within a couple of seconds, my room door burst open, and in came Polis, my servant. She rushed over to my bed and placed a cold cloth to my head.
"I've sent someone to fetch your mother, okay?" she asked.

"yes I'm alright, it was just another nightmare," I told her, trying to reassure myself more than her. I could tell by her facial expression that she did not believe me.

"Ma'am, if I'm not being out of line, the fact that this is your eighth nightmare in as many nights, and the look on your face, tells me that it is not just another nightmare."

I looked away for a moment, then turned back to her. "No, you're right. I am not being completely honest. These dreams, they aren't just-"

"Cassiopeia! What are you doing?" My mother's voice echoed around the room, startling me. I hadn't heard her enter the room. She stalked over to me. "The things that we discuss in here stay in here. They are much too sensitive for a meer servant to hear" she said with a slight sneer on her face. I was shocked. I looked at her, eyes wide, while Polis got up.

"I'm so sorry Your Majesty, I did not realize these were that important, I'll leave for you to talk." With that, she started to walk to the door. I swung my legs over the edge of my bed. "No!" I said loudly. Turning to Mother, I said, "I'm sorry, but I cannot just keep all this to myself. Polis is a spectacular servant and deserves to be told what is going on." Mother looked at me and shook her head. "I don't care what you think mother, Polis and I have been friends since we were 4. She has never hidden anything from me, she deserves to know this."
Mother looked at me with death glares but didn't say anything. I signaled with my hand for Polis to come back. She took 13 slow steps back over to my bed. Sitting down on the edge, her eyebrows furrowed with worry. Mother sighed loudly and looked away from Polis. I gave her the coldest glare I had ever given anyone. "What is your problem? If you do not want Polis here, then we don't have to talk about my dream."
"No!...no. We need to talk about it. What did you see?" She shouted, slightly panicked.
"Okay good. Well, I was in a room, the ballroom I think. I was alone, and the whole room was on fire. The smoke was so thick that I couldn't breathe. I could feel and hear the room falling apart around me. I was dying when I woke up."
Mother looked at me, clearly frazzled. She opened her mouth to speak, then shut it and looked at Polis. Polis had an expression on her face that I had never seen before. Her face was completely relaxed. In contrast to her face, her body was rigid. Her eyes were half-closed and her mouth was slightly open, giving the appearance that she was dead. Then she snapped out of it. For a moment, I wondered if I had imagined seeing it. But then I looked at Mother, and I knew she had seen it too.
"I'm confused on the significance of this. It's just a nightmare, isn't it?" She asked. Mother laughed a cold, bitter laugh. "No, it isn't you foolish child. It's not a dream at all. It's a prediction about what will happen someday soon. Just like all her other "nightmares." All past visions have come to pass, and so will this one."
Polis looked from me to Mother, and back to me. This time, I did not break eye contact. "What Mother says is the truth, I am an Oracle."