The Dreamer: The Book of Godspells

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I was utterly exhausted. My eyelids felt like lead, and my body was drained of all energy. It was a strange feeling. Hadn't I technically been sleeping this whole time? And yet, here I was, feeling like I hadn't slept in days, safe in the Citadal's sleeper's rest.

Looking around, I found myself in a bed, but not my bed. Everything looked familiar, yet I couldn't recall ever being here before. The pillow under my head was uncomfortably thin, and the rough, old texture of the cotton blanket over me offered little comfort. Despite this, I had no desire to get up. I wasn't even sure if I could.

"I needed you here," a voice said, entering from the door to my left. Glancing around, I realized I was in a hospital room, old and run-down. Yet, I had no idea why I would be here or why this place felt so familiar. Was this a dream within a dream?

Summoning all my strength, I forced myself to sit up. My body felt weak at every level. I saw Steele at the door, but he didn't look entirely like I remembered. There was something different about him, as if shadows were concealing a part of him that I had never noticed before in my waking world.

"Was this you?" I asked, but before he could respond, he vanished. Drained, I fell back onto the bed. Despite the unsettling feeling inside me, I closed my eyes, too tired to do anything. It was as if everything had been drained out of me.

All I wanted was to rest...

*

I sat up suddenly, feeling that my whole body was soaking wet, as if I were lying in a puddle of water. Again, I woke up wet, not from sweat, but literally dripped in water, as if someone had poured a bucket of it over my head. Then I felt shivers run down my entire body, feeling warm, even hot, as if someone had just put my body out like a fire. I got up abruptly, refusing to dwell on what I had just dreamt, and ran to the bath to wash myself clean of every thought and feeling that haunted my dreamlike state.

"I want to apologize," a voice at my door of the Vanis room said. I tried to refrain from jumping, my nightmare haunting me enough. I saw Steele in my dream this time, telling me he needed me here. Here where? I had just got out of the shower, hoping to get the replay of it all out of my mind, not expecting to have a man approach my room unannounced, especially not Blaze. Yet, here he was, trying to apologize. I wasn't expecting any of them to do so, but least of all Blaze. He caused the least damage, despite putting me in the Willows when I first got here. But he saved my life, so I considered it even.

"You didn't do... say anything. No need to apologize," I said, putting my robe around my body. I was glad I got out of the bath when I did, or he would have seen way more than my chicken legs and lack of cleavage. He didn't even knock before coming in.

"But they are my responsibility, I guess you could say. They were out of line, especially Lulu, and I apologize for that," Blaze said, looking me dead in the eyes, ignoring that I was naked under the thin, silk robe. I wanted to say he was out of line for coming into my Vanis room unannounced, but I didn't.

I couldn't help but respect him more now though. Colik would never admit he was sorry. He would never be able to let down his ego enough to admit he was sorry, so here was the Royal, doing it for him.

"Well, thank you," I said in almost a whisper. He nodded then started pacing around my room like he had never been in it before.

The room was like a dome, the ashen grey metal and horned wood landscaping the room's interior with a deep texture of regalness. The floor was marble, with gold flakes, like the rest of the Citadel, and the windows were shaped in the gothic architecture, yet there weren't actually windows at all. They were panels of glass, but to call them windows would be like calling them mirrors that looked back at you. I could see my reflection, only slightly, but not so much to call them mirrors. There were beautiful white flowers that looked like baby's breath all over my room. I just now realized how many there were, going up the walls, in the crevices of the wooden panels surrounding us. The bed in which I rested was more like an oversized circular couch with silk pillows. Though a dreamworld, it was definitely fit for a Royal.