Runesight

31 - Why not?

When the guards left, Aymiae forced me into a hug, which caused an undignified squeak to escape my throat, "Fari you scared me to death! You disappear for two days straight after dropping off a random zombie in my basement! Who does that?!"

I laughed nervously and extricated myself from her grip. "I'm sorry, I had to take Hivren to Aubinere and I wasn't in the best frame of mind. I bet Illila isn't any happier with me."

"I'm just glad you didn't do anything too stupid."

I relaxed slightly, "I don't know what to do next. Everything was thrown off, I was going to ask the Queen to help me get to the dragonlands, but that's off the table now."

Aymi grimaced, "Yeah... I don't think you can fix it now."

I nodded, sitting down on one of the benches.

"Is there a reason you can't contact Yumorath though? I mean you haven't seen him in a long time but he would probably know the answer to what you're looking for. Plus he's calmer than most Dryads. I can't see him biting your head off for tracking him down."

"...Yumorath? I feel like I've heard that name before, didn't you say it once?"

Aymi stared at me, "Sparks it hit you too? That acctually...hmm yeah that makes sense, when you died the spell would have counted you as a stranger to him..."

I furrowed my brow, "What spell?"

"Fari, Yumorath was the dragon you worked for. He's one of the abyssal dragons that travels between dimensions. He cast a spell a while back that prevents strangers from remembering anything substantial about him. The more they know the more they forget." Aymi frowned, "You should remember most of that tomorrow... Sparks, he's probably in some other plane right now."

"Aymi, you're freaking me out, besides, aren't different planes a legend?"

Aymi looked at me like I was stupid, "A master dimensionalist is asking me this..." she sighed, "Fari the between is a different plane, so is the Void, so is Orien itself. There are hundreds of planes hidden from the naked eye where other dimensions touch ours. I've read all about them in some very interesting Yeran legends and I even have a guy who supplies me with seeds from other places for experiments. They're very real."

Okay that made more sense, I'd always felt like there was more to the between realm. "I'll look into it then, tomorrow. Right now I need to sleep. I just crossed a couple thousand miles with a teleport spell built for short hops, and the days before that weren't much better."

Aymi nodded at me, "You can stay here, rumors are probably going to spread that the Hero usually wears an illusion and Gium knows it's not much of a secret how good I am with those."

I dimly took a blanket from her and headed up to my old room, I finally had an idea of what to do next. I would leave Reiaran, I would leave Melor, I would leave Virna itself. And I would chase a dragon. However long it took.

--

Something seemed...odd in the middle of the night, I kept tossing and turning, increasingly out of sorts as something in the back of my mind refused to rest. I would fall asleep and then minutes later find my consciousness returning as a strange scent began to assault my nose. As loud sounds echoed through the Ayfel and something that reminded me of screams rose up from the back of my mind.

I jolted fully awake to silence and the distinct smell of smoke. It burned at my lungs, threatening to suffocate me. I gasped for breath, I screamed for help, I pushed my door open searching for fresh air only to find more smoke.