The Dynast's Plan

Chapter 1

Vanis drew in a sharp breath and opened her eyes.

Only the faintest light surrounded her. All she could hear was a pattering, where seconds before she was inundated with fireballs, bolts of energy, and percussive, inhuman roars both distant and near. These still danced just outside her vision.

There was a flash of light and she gasped. It was followed several seconds later by a low rumble, which made her heart skip a beat. She squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to distract herself. She tried to review what she'd seen around her during the very brief illumination, and her thoughts coalesced onto a table, a wall sconce and a footlocker against a wall.

Her quarters. She was lying in bed, the sheets sticking to the sweat that coated her skin, making her feel both dirty and cold. Despite that, she drew in a deep breath and let it out, willing her heart to slow itself.

She sat up and placed hands on her chest and arms, feeling the soaked bralette and goosebump-covered flesh. Not the damaged, blood-slickened armor she'd expected.

She took a moment to collect her thoughts. Obviously, what she'd seen was a dream. A terrible, frightening dream, of the kind she hadn't experienced in a very long time. She tried to grasp at the threads it had left in her waking mind, hoping to make sense of what she'd experienced, but it was already evaporating away.

She heard a sharp breath to her right, and her head snapped toward the sound. In the low light she could just barely see a mass there, shifting itself.

Vanis reached over a hand, hesitantly. She laid a hand on the mass, feeling the scratchy surface of an ever-familiar military-issue blanket.

She took a handful of the synthetic fabric and slowly pulled it away. She could barely see the figure she'd uncovered, but she laid her hand on it anyway.

She felt warm, soft skin under her touch. Not the tattered overalls, not the slickness of blood, just warmth.

Vanis hesitated for several seconds, her heart still pounding despite her best efforts, and raised her hand to the form's shoulder. She gently pulled, rolling the figure onto its back.

Even in the dim light she could see Jayn's face, placid and serene. Beautiful. Only slightly weathered. Not ravaged by...whatever she'd dreamed. As vivid as that was a moment ago, she couldn't remember it now.

She pulled away a strand of hair from her lover's mouth, allowing her fingertip to slightly stroke her cheek. Jayn moaned and the corner of her mouth twitched a bit.

Of course it had been a dream. Vanis tried her best to think back on it, to bring at least some of the details forth, but they had already left her. All that remained was the terror she felt when she experienced it, and the worry that what she'd experienced was more than just a dream.

Despite the tribulations of the recent months, all the deaths, all the retreats and the losses, this was the first time she'd had a dream that disturbed her so thoroughly. The first time since...

She shuddered, trying to shut it out of her mind. She then swung her feet off the bed, stood, and padded in only her underthings to the balcony door. The rain was tapping at the glass, leaving a distorted blur through which she could barely see anything, even when the distant lightning illuminated the world beyond.

She laid a hand on the door frame, and the door slid upward. It folded and curved 90 degrees, forming an overhang that blocked the rain from striking the polycrete just outside the doorway. The floor absorbed the remaining rainwater and in a second or two it was dry. She padded out past the overhang, allowing the chilly rain to soak her skin and underwear. The chill helped shock her awake. She'd hoped it would shock the sense of doom left over from her nightmare, but if anything the chill only cemented it into her bones.