Tyrant's Ebb

Tyrant's Ebb, chapter 8 - Would You Remember a Dream?

Halla

Second of the Guardian Deities of the North.
One moon and two tens since the new Mark of the Other One blossomed.

At one point you become convinced you are asleep.

The wordless thoughts of the outlander rang like a bell in Halla's mind. It was one of the few memories she could yet steal from the outlander. She could no longer see beneath the restless surface of Andaris' soul. All his thoughts and emotions hid with him beneath the waves.

Surely it was well that the man had accepted his true nature. With every day he would reach a step closer to mastery over his flow, and perhaps closer to the heart of those powers. If darkness truly held all of creation, then the possibilities would be endless.

If you remembered the real world while you slept, would you remember a dream?

Whenever they spoke, from underneath his calm and determined stature, disquieting emotions yet leaked through. A hint of them after the fact. It was a start, was it not. Getting him this far, making him embrace the flow inside of him.

But had he ever been afraid of it in the first place? As any human he had been afraid of the hunger, the pain that came with his journey and the conflicts he had encountered. Fear of all those tiny mundane things. Halla was uncertain if she had ever sensed Andaris fear the unknown future.

The outlander was settling on his bed-roll, adjusting the logs in the fire, lazily looking into the flames. What did he see in there, Halla wondered? The man did not dwell on his past any longer. Soon enough, his eyes drooped shut and the steady deep breaths told her he had fallen asleep.

Halla wanted to feel the world appear around her, wanted to feel life fill the surrounding void, but as usual the emptiness lingered, a wall between her and the living world. There was nothing when she stretched, no relief when she drew a deep breath, no proper feeling when she caressed Andaris' hand out of spite. Only memories of what flesh and the feeling of living should have been. It had been an ordeal learning to live without air, she would still sometimes feel as if she was suffocating endlessly.

She knew who she was, where she was, but the thought of her existence in this state offered no guarantees that she would not cease to be at any moment. Surviving the embrace of the voidstone and being able to exist in any state should have been a blessing, but Halla longed for the feeling of air in her lungs, the heart beating in her chest, the touch of another person. Facing the voidstone, she had had a purpose, something to protect. Lingering in unlife with only desires in her mind was not a worthy life.

When the outlander slept, whatever bound Halla relented and she slipped out of the prison that bound her. She could manifest any time she wanted to. Yet there was no way to be sure what it cost when she pried open this prison. The pain she felt could not have been real, but it was one of the few sensations she did feel. A suspicion told her she should mind hurting herself.

Halla looked at the outlander and mulled over the memories she had once viewed daily to escape boredom. Memories of the previous world, now her own, disjointed, worthless. A mess she could not untangle any longer. It vexed her she found nothing of worth among them to use in this world. The man was her predecessor, not by blood, but a soul so much older than she. How could there be no wisdom in such an existence? 

Carefully she tugged on the outlander's mind and the one memory came forth once again. 

With a jolt, Andaris slipped out of his chains. He stumbled about among the chained humans in the void. Fear did not grip his mind as Halla thought it would have. As it should have. Disappointment lingered in his mind, a disappointment that Halla could not understand. She went back to that moment when the flow was all that he knew.