1979 - Part I Dream--02/05/79
Red sands and mist surround us - wolves gruffly echo - voices out of Time. Breane is at my side as we walk thru a misty-enshrouded woods. She is dressed in light blue leggings and I am in black and silver. The trees around us are very tall. On Breane's right breast is a golden circle of stars. We walk and come to a clearing, where there are two robed figures. One is Danielle; her face is streaked with soot and there is a sharp gash down her right arm. She is in a burgandy robe and it is pulled tight around her - her figure is scant, resulting from a period without sustenance. The other figure robed in grey, hooded. He/she (?) is not as tall as Danielle, but seems to be floating about six inches off the ground. My sword is out and has fresh blood on it. "Put the weapon away - there is no need," comes from Danielle; her voice is weary. The other figure turns then and it is Aliana; for the first time, her features are unblurred. On her forehead is a diamond-shaped mark, her eyes shift from smoky grey to pale blue. "Arthur's world?" I hear Breane telepath. " - is no more," finishes Danielle. "Night is everywhere, and tomorrow Berella will blow out Srour's light." I ask where he is - for he'd vanished with Virling Kerlan. "They struggled in the places between and it was largely a draw - Kraft stopped the intervention - against the ordinations, you realize." Suddenly Danielle collapses to the earth - and Aliana speaks for the first time: "She needs the blood of the Dragon." I stare at her uncomprehending. To my right, Breane shifts her stance, calls upon "Omyr and _____" to open a dimensional gateway; thru it steps Roderick, Anatana and Jarane. Anatana is as grim as I've ever seen her - her hands have circles of force glowing around them. Roderick sets to link with Danielle, to transfuse part of his energy to her. Jarane sits in the center of the clearing in a cross-legged fashion. Aliana moves slowly to sit beside him and the two of them, possibly the the only two innocents left in the war, sit side by side. Breane telepaths, "They form a cocoon - they are far different than the rest of you." My eyes seek hers; she excluded herself from the stastement. Anatana is seated on a boulder, casting Tarot. "Twice he's taken no heed of the cards - and it has cost us our daughter." I look at the five cards on the stone: the Hanged Man, reversed, the Star, Judgement, Death, the Shattered Tower. Her eyes meet mine and they are red from pain. I feel another part of me, Logan, awaken briefly. The sky goes dark suddenly. Breane transparencies suddenly and says, "The time is near - the crescents merge - I will greet you where first we kissed - if you survive," and is gone. Roderick stands beside me, dagger drawn. Behind him, Danielle, wounded. The rest, Anatana, Jarane, Aliana are frozen in a beat of Time. The sky splits open and Morganna is there - filling the sky. Her eyes shoot radiant beams at us - something is wrong - Berella is not to be seen. Roderick moves to his left, using Morganna's beams to transmute a boulder to a polished stone. He raises it into the air and uses it to block her beams. Below us, there is a huge burst of light - the earth splits open and red sand rises upward in a cloud. Roderick is scanning, seeking Anatana below. We spot her engaging Berella in a small clearing. Her hands - her hands are living fire; she hits a rock outcropping above Berella's head and he is buried beneath them. Morganna picks that moment to destroy herself - she flares into soulflame and hurtles towards Anatana, who is unaware. At the moment before impact, a barrier is there - black, implacable - Morganna's force is absorbed by it. Roderick swoops to Anatana; Danielle is battling J'siere and winning, but I am wary - it is to simple. "You still have the final mystery to unlock," comes Danielle's voice. "Where?" "Sanctuary was timed to phase in and out of existence, it cannot be destroyed." "But - " "There is one whose hand has been hidden, whose Will was done Unbidden - his construct has been Berella - used, used - all of us, myself included!!" her voice is bitter. She looks away, then back at me. "My powers are great but I lack perspective - on your own you may seek things and view things I cannot. All energies work on an exchange basis, all identities are this as well. My loss is my reason, never to know victory nor defeat - " she breaks off again, and Roderick is there with Anatana. We are high above the red sands and the winds hum. Below, Aliana and Jarane guard the tomblike debris that covered Berella. "I am a living pendulum - a test for people of lesser knowledge, who will nonetheless pass me in abilities-" Above us J'siere is gesturing, minor lightnings only. "Those that fail," J'siere's prison constricts, a scream, "die." Roderick asks, "Who is our enemy?" Anatana answers, "The Shattered Tower - Sanctuary?" to no one in particular. I recall Breane's closing words - urgently I pull Roderick aside. I flash all of my "awareness" to him, and he nods in assent. "First, we prepare." He gestures, and around us Time swirls; the others grow indistiinct - our wounds and our clothes are healed - he is in black, but with the sole ornament a silver ring, a serpent ring; I am in black, but with a cowl of red, on my left ring finger is a wolf's head. Courtly, Roderick smiles. "Shall we go?" I nod. We are whisked away and reappear in the anteroom to the room of mirrors in Sanctuary. We enter - Breane is strapped spreadeagled against the center mirror. Two figures stand with their backs to us at the hearth, a brazier glow - flowing robed beings. Breane cries recognition in her mind, and the two turn to face us. "You've solved the Maze, godlings, now you must best the Mage, or die," comes the thought-voice of Solomon Kraft as twins of Kraft, one light, one dark, manifest in front of us. Roderick motions - light is extinguished, my wolves growl inside me - as the dream ends.
Dream--02/23/79
We're on greystone, floating through a barren land - but it is a land that's known through infinity - brought here by Solomon Kraft and his dark twin. The sky is brilliant blue and a golden sun hangs blazing to our left. Roderick and I, and a little behind us, Anatana and Danielle. Kraft's image fills our vision - he is not speaking, more watching. To the direction opposite the sun, lightnings dance. Then we see it - a massive swirling energy sweeping towards us at tremendous speeds. There is a tug of memory, a word 'Dilalevida' comes to my throat. I speak it, softly. In the whirlpool coming towards us is death. Behind us, Anatana is gesturing, she is playing with the fabric of time. Suddenly, she and Danielle vanish, and seconds later so does the energy. Winds rip at our clothing. I have a silver sword in my hand - and my hand is in crimson mail gloves, my leggings are black and there is a crested blue bird on my belt buckle. My chest is bare, and an oval mirror dangles from my neck. Roderick, too, is shirtless and in black leggings, sworded - but his sword has a name - Entrancer. "You've both grown much since your last deaths," comes Kraft's voice. He is before us, then, flickering into existence. "Where is Anatana?" Roderick speaks harshly, voice betraying concern. Kraft laughs. "She and the Other have their own mystic to conquer, in their home realm." Roderick says, "Who?" and I laugh. "Of course," I say, "Kerlan, am I correct?" Solomon Kraft, robed in black and gold, nods. "You did well, both of you, with your only clues the Mirror and a gateway." Roderick is silent, his mind active; in this eerie land, thoughts almost are brought to vision, and Kraft adds, "More than that, thoughts are projected here, this is the land of origin, Dilalevida." Overhead soars a red falcon - it dips and lights upon my shoulder. Kraft chuckles and gestures with a flicking finger and the falcon is turned to crimson stone. Roderick asks of Breane, who is she? "I did not lie - she is daughter of my daughter - and betrothed to you," he points at me. "She appeared to you long ago, in the form of one you loved, when you dreamed of this place; you asked your purpose and she gave you a riddle." Roderick, who's been silent through all this, notes, "Breane is the balance between, isn't she?" I nod. "And Kerlan?" Kraft moves, motions us to sit, we decline. He smiles and reclines in mid-air. "You both possess fine degrees of control, with not enough comprehension of the chaotic force, the necessary chaos for creation. I am the embodiment of the chaotic force - what was known as emotion." "We've battled you before," says Roderick, sword hand extended, the mark of a serpent on his arm. "Yes - and you both failed and were cast out." I am very, very angry and demand to know of Danielle and Anatana. Kraft motions, and I feel my intensity fading, but renew it with a breakthrough of Garn. He picks up on it and his bushy eyebrows raise in surprise. Kraft nods. "They are in your antiethical situation - possessing little control - they are emotic, chaotic, not magicians at all - and they face Kerlan, whose control is total. He will master them, just as I shall master you." Is that all this is to you, a game!!??" my rage fills the air, the words twist at him. "You cannot best me alone." And Roderick suddenly erupts, eyes focusing brilliant blue-yellow flame. Kraft's calm disperses - there are dark outlines around his eyes. "The game, as you call it, is always filled with chance, variables not planned - your ability to flow within your selves and your (Roderick) ability to strike at the very essence of a process were unplanned." "But hear me; you both tried to best me before and failed - for that failure, your lives were altered." Roderick in my head, "He means that I may not become him." Kraft strikes, a blur of energy engulfing Roderick - he barely shields himself. Kraft has projected this land, Dilalevida, to his liking and we are now in a box. He has folded up the land so that there are walls everywhere we look and in the coppery light, we are facing life and death. In my mind, as the scene unfolds, is Breane: "I do not wish to spend eternity awaiting you," and an almost echo in my memory, "You are anima." I stand, knowing that Roderick too is preparing himself. - and draw upon the energies of my sons and daughters, selves focusing on Garn, and Aliana, and chant at this gamesman before us: "Through my wolves honored white and red, and named through fire, Blood and Bone, I draw upon my children's force and focus their strengths, sharp and honed, Bent to fire and forged with light, I draw too on my fearless night, and await the damning of your course, and grant you death through Blood and Bone." Invisible gaps appear in Kraft's outer robes - and Roderick is encased in trance. Kraft lashes at me, an invisible stinging blow which draws blood and gives me, I know, I know, the scar which Shardow wore. I am forced to my knees, but maintain that spell, drawing on my mirror, my children, my very soul - and I repeat and hear, mixed with my voice, Roderick's own chant: "The Soul of Dragons guide my spirit, endless, through ripless tides, and the stars themselves rival my pow'r, This be Kraft's final hour," and I see, feel, a timelessness to the scene. Frozen, I can see Kraft struggling to break free of wolves clamped about his neck and arms, and in his struggle his true form is there: he has two heads, four arms, and he is losing. From above, Roderick is standing, blue flames leaping outward. For an instant, Kraft appears to break free and I draw upon Ras and unleash four different coloured arrows through Kraft's throat - still he struggles. He crosses his arms and tosses the wolves to each side and turns to me. His eyes are ravaged and his rage unbound - but my anger, Garn of Justice, Ras of Vengence, Shardow of Conscience, holds him and my mind feels like breaking. But I focus, keeping him from unleashing the horrible death that awaits us - and Roderick chants once more: "Knowledge through Chaos, Time and Error, Power through Fire, Sword and Mirror, I invoke these strengths to draw this Kraft, back inside our souls, let him now repair." I blink - different- and again. I feel something twisting its way into my psyche; storms are ceasing, the wind dies. Above us a crescent moon has appeared on the horizon. We look at each other. Kraft is gone - we have won. Roderick is solemn. Suddenly a shimmering and Breane is there. She kisses Roderick (like daughter to father) and stands at my side. "Anatana and Danielle?" Roderick looks at the moon. "We must enter the Lost Confusion - our destiny - and theirs - must begin there." Breane takes each of our hands and we are gone as the dream ends.
Dream--02/23/79 - 2nd dream
Breane, Roderick and myself are in the room of Mirrors. They have asked me to try to fuse into, tap into, Virling Kerlan - into his past. I am able to reach personnae belonging with Kerlan, a Frenchman named Michel LeDoux, called Le Chambret or something sounding like that - and I can sense the being that Kerlan was just before becoming Kerlan: a tall, dark-haired man all in purple and black, wavy black hair. This man is not of Earth, not in fact, of our universe. A ruby hangs in air beside him, and tho in trance, I ask Don where we have seen that effect before. This man has a name, but I cannot see it - his power is masked. I feel my psyche split off from him. He is in a room with a paino, he wears a black turtleneck with purple trim, purple leggings, tall, nearly 7 feet tall. A woman is there, she has oddly burnished hair, not red, not blonde, not green, but somewhere between, clipped short. Also, a man with a mustache, reminding of a Peter Sellers or a David Niven. Kerlan's personna holds a silver goblet in his hand and the ruby follows his movements, almost like a guarding eye of some sort. Suddenly, he is aware of me - and in that moment I pick up his name - Nathan Kasten. I feel a cage forming out of the air around me - I break off the linkage just as tendrils of flame leap outward from the ruby. I stagger against Roderick as the dream ends.
Dream--03/02/79
Roderick, Breane and myself - we've taken refuge in a forboding land, hoping to establish a base of sorts to foray into the Confusion. Outside there is snow. We are in an old weather-beaten shack, and the time is the past of the Lost Confusion. Breane suggested it, that our efforts would be enhanced if we struck from out of Time, because Kerlan would certainly have put guardians all around present day Confusion. Roderick sought this place; the world is an uncompromising place - you either merge with it or master it. We sit before an open fire, waiting. Outside is a blizzard; there is no heat because the technology hasn't developed here - yet. Suddenly, I come aware of a sound. I stand up; I'm dressed in buckskin, brown. Breane is in a bluegreen outfit withwide sleeves. Roderick is in an Old West style shirt in black and buckskin leggings. Outside I heard a whirling noise, kept vague by the blizzard. I can see the outline of a hovering vehicle, its image a helicopter without propellers. It circles our area, then emits short bursts of flame at the dwelling. Roderick motions to me and I fling open the door. We all run into the snow. Breane is barefoot but it doesn't matter. He motions with his hands towards the ground and the snow seems to erupt upward. Like a wall of ice, it forms around the craft and Roderick solidifies it. The craft cartwheels to the ground. We rush over to it, it is largely undamaged. Inside are two very odd beings; one has red skin and no eyes, but his ears are enormous and we suddenly know how they knew we were in the dwelling. The second, the pilot, is vaguely humanoid, but with hands ending in extensor flesh with tiny discs on the end (suction cups come instantly to mind). Roderick suddenly doubles over in pain - and Anatana's voice is heard: "... not to surrender. This is a general warning, I'm casting through Time. I repeat. Kerlan is now torturing Danielle; she escaped once after we were beaten and he is using some sort of ability that damps our powers. I caution you all not to surrender... your deaths will follow. My father has sworn revenge upon you, Roderick, and all who may stand with you." The message ends. Roderick slumps over. Suddenly from a nearby glade there is movement; three figures are there. Jarane, Aliana and Delaqui Abel. We walk towards them as the dream ends.
Dream--03/04/79
We are on some sort of vehicle - trainlike, but with no separating between cars. I am still Shardow, but a heartbeat out of Time. Here my name is Jarod and his forte is subtlety. Roderick is here, as well, and Breane. Breane is still herself, but with hair slightly lighter. Roderick, tho, has altered his name in this place to Gregory, and he is tall and slender. We are on a timetrain, half a pulse away from the universe called the Lost Confusion - on the frontier of known reality, where faceless servants patrol the train. I am returning to our niche and find both Breane and Gregory gone. Hurriedly, I cast out for them - no response. Resolving to check each of the niches aboard, I prepare myself. The crescent moon and four-parted star on my hands begin to glow as I set my power. Through three elshaped passages I find no trace. Then in a stairwell, I find a locket I'ver never seen, showing a picture of me, Shardow, and Breane. I turn and before me stands Nathan Kasten. "You thought I'd be unaware of your personnae?" Light flashes from him, a double being of pure light. It hurls me down a flight of stairs, and Kasten and his light twin move toward me. "By the four-pointed star that gives me my name, by light and fire and dust, I call now on my hidden dreams, and powers right and just." - a galewind swirls about the two, a psychic wind tumbling their minds. I "see" the prison that Breane and Gregory are locked within - Gregory's hands bound in shimmering energies and his face enmeshed in an iron mask. "You shall be damned," comes Kasten's voice, almost evangelical in its anger. Then is the oddest sensation of all; I can feel that part of me called Ras split away, tracking after my companions. Simultaneously, the light being of Kasten follows. I am in - we have different battles. Ras finds the door where Breane and Gregory are bound, but before I reach it the light being is there. I notch two arrows in my bow, one high, one low, infinite blackness on their tips; you can look inside of them to a feel of vertigo. We shoot the arrows and they pin the being to a wall; more than that, they begin to absorb the being until he is contained utterly within the arrowheads. I unhinge the door. Kasten has vanished, and I can feel Jarod reassuming control. As Breane releases Gregory, Ras walks back into me. Gregory is nonplused, he murmurs about "properties of _______," some unintelligible name. He and Breane had been drugged and then abducted. I ask how Roderick came to the Lost Confusion before. He said he'd walked into the Mirror, in defiance, and had found the Confusion. The Mirror was also a gateway, in addition to being reflections of Time and energy. He then tries to contact Anatana; it is only by main will that he is able to project her image. In the background is a howling sound and the backdrop of a cell. Anatana is herself, but different - her face is the same but her eyes are fiery red and her hair is goldenrod. She is taller as well. This is Gala, dressed in the Armour of Caliro, the silver flower. "Danielle?" I ask. "She is - alive, but badly hurt - she needs assistance," and there is a blur of motion and Breane is gone. "Where are you?" comes Gala's voice. "I am in Gregory," Roderick responds. "Good, then you are near - beware my father, his anger has turned to madness - he is aware of his loss at Shardow's hand, he will..." and broken off. I turn to Roderick/Gregory - he kneels and reattaches his symbol, a crown and a serpent, to his neck. "Ah, somehow I would have this all be a pleasant nightmare!" and the dream ends.
Dream--03/06/79
Colours flow in this place - there is no land - sky and more sky, rocks that drift and odd - inserts - not a good word, but like that, that the end points or beginning points of all realities are here. It is these things that the colours ripple through. I am Shardow again, Roderick is with me - swords drawn. Time flows oddly here, eddies and pools - movement - we are in the Lost Confusion. A spangled bird swoops by us; it looks oddly like an albatross, but silver, gold streaking through it, as tho light itself was alive. There are sounds, too, borne upon the ether - no rhythm - cacophony really, blurs and pieces of sound. It is distracting. Roderick tilts his head, "calling" for Anatana; her Gala image responds. We more toward her using the sight as a compass. Roderick creates a walkway out of light, but it dissipates as fast as he powers it. "Its no good..." - he is concerned. "Let me try something," I say. I whistle very softly, a tuneless tune, and concentrate on creating a circlet in the air - it appears, solidifies. Roderick motions, "Of course, I should have guessed." He shifts and murmurs, but the sound does not obey him. He is confused; he had tried to do as I had done, structure a bit of the sound - and create from that structure. "Perhaps I am tainted from having been here before." Suddenly ahead of us, someone is humming and there is suddenly a symphony of sound - a glade, green and golden, and stars in the sky. I wonder at the sounds wrought. We move into that forest; there is a figure seated on a rock, back to us, humming 'Good Night Irene.' He is dressed in black and white and wears pointed shoes that are set beside him. Suddenly, tumbling out of non-existence into that frame is a small boned woman with mahagony hair and bluegreen (but with a hint of bronze) skin. We are still behind the man, a ways distance. "I am Corolis-" the woman looks about as if she were aware of us. "I seek my daughter Breane." Only then does he stand - it is Bartholomew! We are shocked and hasten towards them as the dream ends.
Dream--03/13/79
Roderick and Gala are in telepathic communication. He is seated on a rock near Bartholomew, Corolis is standing beside me. Around her the air shimmers. She is dressed in a flowing gown, pastel (pink - light light red), and actually, I note that her feet are about six inches off the ground. "So - you are the one," she echo/states of me. I am in black, blue and silver. I respond, "I don't know your daughter." "Your love," she interrupts, "seems to be a guardian angel of sorts to me...I don't understand all the attraction-" I look at her; she is oddly opaque, only for an instant. "But, I accept it." She appears in her forties, her hair has grey at her temples, eyes with lines spreading out from their tips. "Why are you here?" I ask. "Time is in all things - duration. My daughter embodies Time, besides her native pow'r." Roderick steps to us, Bartholomew in tow. "Do you kow how he got here?" Roderick asks. I shake my head. "Through Danielle!!" I am puzzled. "She sent him here just before Hellmann destroyed his world." Bartholomew looks puzzled at this, saying, "I recall Morganna screaming and hurling flame at me," and then "I don't know how I got here." He is still very much frightened. There is suddenly an influx of energy in our group. "Kerlan," speaks Roderick. "Outside" the calm space created by Arthur's voice, we see strands of golden outline form into a huge set of eyes, seeking us. "No!" comes Corolis' voice. "He must not know!" She raises her arms and we are turned into a space that is not space for an instant, and then stand in front of the five-sided Mirror. "Why?" I ask. "Watch," comes her voice, she speaks in a guttural voice, as tho she is not native to our origins and has had to work to accomplish her telepathic pictures, that symbols that are alien to her must be used. In front of the Mirror stands Roderick - he is striken - shock, disbelief radiate from him. Bartholomew is seated cross-legged in space. I walk to my brother. In the left hand mirror is Roderick reflected. In the next is a man who casts no shadow; he is fanged and lupine in form, dressed in bloodred clothing: "He is Ch'lari, Weir." In the middle is a being of green and gold fire, horned, red pits for eyes, no costume or clothing, alien, distant, demonic; in his four-fingered hand there is a black cross inside a red pentagram. "Who?" "He is called Aradi, the Changer." In the fourth rectangle, a man in shadow reclines, then stands and hurls a goblet through the Mirror; it is transformed into a snake, which then becomes a wand which goes back into the Mirror - it is grasped by the figure, and we can see him. He is blonde and tall, called Aphael - and the feeling is one of impending loss. The fifth is Gregory. There is a sound behind us: on a white unicorn with a raibow horn sits Carol, transparent, unspeaking. Roderick curses. "A ghost - and a unicorn - doom will follow!" He links with Corolis, Bartholomew and myself. We begin to journey back through the Mirror, but there is a rainbow of colours that dazzle us. Corolis and Bartholomew are cut away, as tho a giant hand had torn them from us. Roderick and I find ourselves seated on a ledge - the Mountain Shorn. Appearing, then, is Jarane - and moments later Corolis' voice comes to us: "Battle for love, for all of Time awaits - one who died lives yet." We begin to descend the dimensional mountain as the dream ends.