Light

Chapter Two

The next morning was a strange one, for sure. Because when Lina and Priam had finally stopped snoring their heads off, they saw that the cashier at the register...

was still asleep.

"Well now," Lina said, and gave him a sideways glance. "Ay, Garrison! Wake up!"

He didn't budge an inch.

"Hmm." Priam gave him a good stare-down. "Maybe he's just tired. And I'm hungry, so let's give him a minute or two."

The two of them walked over to the bar with a confused expression, which in turn got even more confused when they saw that the bartender, as well as everyone else in the vicinity, was asleep.

"Huh? What time is it?" Lina looked a tree shadow. "Well now, it's about 10 in the morn', so... Why's everyone asleep?" Lina asked Priam. 

He shook his head saying, "No clue."

"Actually, that's not what I find strange," Lina said, after examining the bodies. "Everyone is asleep. But why we aren't asleep is what I find strange."

 Priam thought for a little while before snapping his fingers. "Wait, isn't this like that show play we could barely afford to go to?"

"What?"

"You don't remember?" Priam raises his eyebrows. "Matthew. Matthew's Nightmare. Something like a dream, and you have to defeat someone to escape the dream."

"Serra the Cleric. But didn't she get caught in the dream universe at the end? Besides, 'tis an ol' wives tale," Lina dismissed it. She still had a hint of Judgral slang around her. "And you believe that?"

"Well, it's a good basis, right?" Priam points to the various people. "She puts them to sleep to test for her new vassal. If they die, they die. If they get her, then they go on till they wake up. So it's like an elimination tournament. Eliminate the weak ones, the strong ones go on. There's one final champion at the end, who becomes the vassal."

"That makes sense, I suppose," Lina taps her foot and chews her cheek, "but that's pretty much the only thing we know about this whole thing, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, supposedly, it's based off of the wives' tale, 'Matthew's Nightmare', a tale which we learned as children. So we're going to need some actual information on this whole thing. And we've got practically no insider info on this whole 'manipulation of the subconscious' thingy. So we would need to travel to Elibe."

"Is that where the tale originated?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Priam hops out of a chair he was in and strides to the door until Lina gives him a glare that says Really?

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" Priam points to the scuffed-up golden sword hefted on his shoulder. "I have Ragnell."

"No." Lina shakes her head and facepalms. "The ferries are shut down, if everybody else's asleep. We have no way of water transport. Ylisse and Elibe are a good three days away from each other."

"Across an ocean?"

"A damn large one at that. There's no way in hell we could get across."

"Take a boat?"

"You know how long a boat would take?" Lina quickly does a calculation on her fingers. "It would take you almost a week."

"That there's are only option, if you think about it."

"Oh wait, I know what you're going to say next." Lina holds up a hand and narrows her eyes at Priam. "'You're the best mage in Judgral. Power the boat.'"

"Dang, you know me too well."

"Well, you better get me some Forseti and Exalibur tomes." Lina puts on her face-splitting grin. "It's gonna be a hell of a while."

"Sped up."

"You're so lucky to have me, y'know?"