A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

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Joon's face stilled and he shook his head just slightly. "What are you talking about?"

Lucy's chest heaved as she fought back the rush of emotions that threatened her as she thought of that day. The day she had ceased to be just Lucy and had become the death tainted Dreamwalker that the common people so feared.

"I was in Krov Korol trying to find work in a factory to help my family," Lucy said. "I was a child but I was the oldest and my father couldn't leave the farm."

The creature cocked its head, almost as if it was interested in her story as well.

Lucy threaded her fingers through Joon's, hoping to draw some strength from the warmth of his palm against hers.

"It was late at night and I was walking home alone through the back allies. I saw a group of men from An-Qi and Shinhama, and they were beating someone up. I was going to pass by, because I was scared, but then I saw it was only another child like myself. So I followed them as they held a dagger to his throat and dragged the boy off toward the river. I only realized that it was you when they tossed you into the water and held your head under."

Joon pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Why were they after me?" he asked. He was unable to remember this, but Lucy could remember the terror enough for both of them.

"You are the prince of the nation," Lucy said. "Murdering you meant that Strana was vulnerable."

As she spoke, it seemed almost as if the scene materialized before her. The burly men laughed as Joon screamed and tried to free himself from their grasp, and then they tossed him as easily as a feather into the black water. She had watched as it closed over his head, and how the men held him under with only one hand. His black hair floated like seaweed, and his arms struggled in the air as he tried to free himself. But his small hands were nothing against the brawn of the men.

She still remembered the fear surging through her veins as she realized that she was the only one who could help Prince Joon. She had, of course, seen the young regent at his father's funeral, and she remembered how he had seemed so cold and calm as the guards lit the fire under his father's body. He seemed almost like stone when they'd handed him the handful of his father's ashes that he was to scatter on the throne in order to bless it for the next monarch. But then she also had seen him in the corner later that day, when she was begging at the kitchen doors. She'd caught a glimpse of him, his eyes filled with tears and his face sweaty and broken as Koshmar had tried to calm him down enough to coax him from the room.

That night in the alley, she'd rushed forward, thinking of that crying boy, and screamed as loud as she could as she shoved the man who was holding Joon into the river himself. It was then that one of the other men drew his dagger and shoved it between Lucy's ribs.

"They tried to drown you and I wanted to help," Lucy said. "But when I got them off you, one of them stabbed me."

In the current time, Lucy gently rested her fingers against the scar that still existed on her side. It had been a sharp pain for only a short time as a child. Then it had gone numb and she'd fallen over, her vision fading. She saw only the vague forms of the palace guards rushing down the alley, shouting and drawing swords as they saw Prince Joon floating in the river. They'd made quick work of the would-be assassins.

Her eyes were closing as she saw them pull Joon out, and she only saw the sparkle of the water on his eyelashes and his bone-white hands as they dangled by the side of the guard who dumped him on the ground and tried to dispel the water from his lungs. He coughed it up, spluttering back into life, just as the blood drained from her and she slipped away.

"I died that night, but as soon as my eyes closed in Krov Korol, they opened in Zerkalo. With the rest of the Dreamwalkers. That is our secret, the thing that we've always known must be somehow linked to why we can travel in Zerkalo. Because we all died on that day. Alisdair in a horse accident. Morrigan and Camila from sickness. Gregor from an attack of fits. Anyone who died in Krov Korol on that day, eight years ago, is a Dreamwalker."

"Is this possible?" Joon asked, looking to the creature.

It smiled, for the first time looking like its brethren that had caused Joon his injuries. "You ask if it is possible when you see everything around you?" it asked.

"It's possible," Lucy said, wiping her arm across her eyes to dry them. "That is why everyone fears us so much. They know that we are connected to death, and not even we can figure out how we are still living after that."

"But how did I die?" he asked. He looked at the creature. "You said I nearly died?"

"You did. You drowned and were dead for almost a minute. The guards brought you back, but for those moments the land was without a ruler. It was pure trauma. Your land created The Heart, in an attempt to stay near you even in death, and then the Heart sucked up any citizens it could. Those that had just died had souls that could be easily moved to your new realm. But then you were brought back. And so it did not need the subjects, and set them free. But they still retain citizenship."

"This is ridiculous," Lucy said, under her breath. "None of this makes sense."

The creature sighed, as if she was being impossible. "Whether you wish to believe, or whether you understand or not, the fact remains that this world is part of our master. This world is created from his heart. It is inextricably linked to him. If our master is consumed by the darkness, neither realm will ever see the light again."

"You mean we wouldn't even be able to get the sun back in the real world?" Lucy asked, her voice shaking at the prospect of eternal night forever.

"That is why I suggest you work to find the sources. There is one here, that our master knows about. But there is one in your world as well. For we are only mirrors of each other, after all. A source of darkness here also means a source of darkness there."

"What?" Lucy said.

Joon closed his eyes, his face looking even paler than before. "You mean that even if we find the source here, we still have to find a way to the real world to destroy it there as well?"

"The sources are linked. Finding one means you find the other."

Joon drew in a slow breath and then placed his hands on either side of him to slowly push himself to his feet. He swayed a bit, and Lucy could see the vein in his neck straining as it tried to push blood past the oozing poison. He clenched his jaw and looked at Lucy. "We need to go find the source right now. I can't be responsible for either world falling to darkness."