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Astrid

Astrid Gray had a very strange dream.

In her mind, she saw an unfamiliar truth.

She saw a girl, perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old, with blonde hair, pale skin, and average height, her dark eyes reflecting a strange tablet, in a dark room surrounded by her peers. And yet although she could not know what it was called or what it was supposed to do, she saw a whirling maelstrom of realities within the device.

Invisible to the naked eye, yet dazzlingly clear to her brain, she saw worlds being created, their chaotic strings stretching out to the ends of time, guided by the thoughts of the girl's brain pouring into the device.

As Astrid dived into it with her mind, she saw a dizzying array of infinities, as if each string of thoughts were a set of chords, tuned to its specific reality.

A thought flashed into her mind, leaving as quickly as it came. You are not real.

A very uncomfortable thought to have indeed. Was perhaps the Kingdom of Norlan fake? Al-mighty King Francis, and vain Queen Isabella, its millions of citizens all imaginary, subject to the whims of a singular mind's subconscious?

Was that possible? She tried to put her boundless questions to rest, slowly drifting to sleep.