1982 - Part I Dream--03/29/82
A hand with a blade comes into our view at first - then as we "pulse" into Caliro, we see it is Roderick's. He wears a girdle of green and silver with a Dragon embossed upon - Danielle gave it to him to heal his wound. Roderick is testing it with swordplay. Behind him, Danielle is in animated conversation with Jarane, whose language sounds guttural and clipped. Magdalen stands regal and solemn against the balcony window. "You piece this together like an eager quilt, Shardow," comes from her. "You've not been much aid yourself." She smiles. Bartholomew is gaunt, silhouette in the doorway - his eyes are blank. "What is it?" comes from Roderick. "Anatana," from Bartholomew. We rush out into the corridor. Anatana is unconscious against a pillar, hair strewn behind her head. She has blood on one shoulder. Roderick dashes to her; as he touches her, a negative imaging takes place and they vanish. "Quickly," I motion to Breane. We link hands - minds - and launch ourselves into the void after them. Behind us comes Jedric. Ahead of us in this negative limbo, I can sense Roderick and Anatana being pulled as tho in a tractor beam of sorts; they are tumbling. There is sudden light - and five of us are in a stone-walled room with a brazier in its center. "Sanctuary!" comes from Breane. "Yes - look!" The mirror is glowing, 5 sided gem of realities. There is a twist here, tho - I can "see" forms in four of the frames without anyone in front of the mirror. Jedric is suddenly very somber. Anatana awakens but her eyes are blazing with fire. "How did you escape Ceycirie?" from Roderick. "I have not escaped her - she is in trance with the Middlemasters. Her attention divided, I retained a moment of control." Her eyes blaze. "Why did you not tell us of Ceri?" I ask. "Ceri is not prime - she is an offshoot of my selves - a composite being. Ceycirie is a Middlemaster because of Ceri - her power rivals that of a goddess." "Why threaten us?" from Breane. "There is no choice - she is my highest aspect." We turn as an intake of air fills the room, yet no one is there. The mirror still glows. I chant: "By reflected image in the glass, one among us yet to pass, reveal this dark mystery mystic to us," and Jedric begins to glow. He nods and laughs, walks to the center mirror. Instantly, all of the unfocused forms come into focus - the four members of the Pentacle Choir. "What does this mean?" from Roderick. Breane: "Jedric is-" and a burst of light halts her. Jedric's voice is within/without us. "I am the composite of the Pentacle Choir - my powers are of all, in Ketain's reversed world." "But that means-" "Yes - Jarane is a part of me." We stare. A commotion - Anatana's form flickers - Ceycirie is reassuming control. She stands, dark image not in control of her. "I am a Middlemaster, t'is true - you've thwarted us throughout." Roderick slips into telepathic mode with her; she looks at him, stunned. "You know my past?" We nod. Jedric suddenly, precognitively, shouts, "Into Time!" As he shouts that, Ketain appears superimposed over Ceycirie, and her dark aspect reasserts itself. The room implodes and this shock catches us off guard. Instinctively, I "reach" for Aliana-Beveth and hit the red sands tumbling. A storm rages. Breane is with me. "Shardow-" her voice urgent. "Ketain dissolved Roderick - he is scattered throughout existence!" Her voice has tears behind it. Ceycirie-Anatana and Jedric blink into this scene. "See what you've wrought!" comes my anger blazing at her. "I am sorry - Rejc turns me inside out to use my abilities - it is not done of my volition." "Father-" from Jedric, "we must ride the winds of the Netherverse to reshape Roderick." I motion into the air, drawn once more into leadership I want not - and cast us determinedly into Ketain's home realm as the dream ends.
Dream--03/29/82 - 2nd dream
Colours swirl in the maelstrom. Jedric and I light the way in terrible anticipation - electric blues upon golds on many hues, borne thru the power of our hands. We seek Ketain in his very realm. As before, the fabric of existence here betrays all senses. Jedric has communicated little - a composite existence drawn from Jarane's shared soul and those of the Pentacle Choir. Behind us Ceycirie (light aspect) shifts as we shift through this maddening universe. Breane is about us, seeming to "feel" this universe she is somehow related to through Magdalen. She is one with it, moving through it. Before us, leagues ahead, is a castle of silver light. It seems to mock us, yawning windows and parapets seeming to swat towards us in this chaos. Ceycirie bathes us all in multicoloured light for protection. We all feel it, a sense of final battle. Suddenly, before us, a sliver of reality detaches and forms. It is Gideon, laughing beast, mad and chaotic - dressed in jester's clothes, a beret perched rakishly on his hair. "I will have Auralane in this dissolution of souls - she is mine!" Lines of weirforce leap from his fingertips - a slicing effect - it settles about Ceycirie and the impossible occurs. Auralane walks out from her, separate, distinct. Ceycirie's form seems slightly dimmer. Gideon cackles heinously and draws Auralane to him. On the parapet opposite Gideon stands a being of purest cold - robed in maroon, a black belt circling his waist. His hair is long, flowing far away from his head. We know him as Morgan. "I am promised none of Ceycirie - for I need her not to be - whole." He waves his hands into the air, and his form shifts into a woman's. "I am Estebast," she says, "the Timeslayer." Behind her a shadow; she continues, "Permit me to introduce my agent." From behind steps a man with blackest hair - Nea Selana. The shock sends me reeling. Breane gasps, then motions in her mind to me. In the highest point of the structure, dressed in purest white, stands Rejc Ketain. "Welcome to the Castle of Thorns-" He waves his hand and once more Ceycirie is his target. Her darksoul separates and responds to his call. Ceycirie, this time, tho, had resisted Ketain. "All of your control now ends - in this, my realm, I will separate, then destroy." His hands are beacons and bathe us in their power. I feel a slipping - and look at Jedric. He has separated souls, into Viena, Brigand, Soroco and Lyri - and a healed, whole Jarane, whose power is ascendent. I am, too, slipping into my five selves, but can sense others untouched by this being. Only Breane is unaffected, and she struggles to free us of Ketain's spell. Suddenly, through her, is Roderick's voice. "Shardow, we must restore the demon Aradi!" "Too dangerous" I flash back to him. "I need the mirror to do that." I shrug and split off to Caliro. In the house built for us, I "fold" the mirror into the space beside me and prepare to go back. Suddenly, a shadow - standing in the doorway's light is Estebast and Nea Selana. "Not for nothing am I called Timeslayer," and she erupts at me - a darkening pool of timewater is upon me, blocking all exit. She constricts it about me - and suddenly, Breane is there, impervious to Estebast's power. She draws me into her personal aura and she blips us off to Aliana-Beveth. We sit regrouping from this onslaught as the dream ends.
Dream--04/04/82
Distortion - images blurred and pocketed, mirror images of our energy trail dog us, a reminder of those who draw 'pon Nether-powers. Breane shifts us slightly and we move toward Caliro. Her spacesense is as alert as always, her hair streaming behind her like a comet's tail, high contrast mahogany to the ghostly blacklight of the scene. She reaches her hand to me and in my mind's eye I see two mirrored hands grasping. We tumble into Caliro's space in the room of nine mirrors - folded now, untouched in a pocket of Time. All evidence of our flight is gone. Estebast and Selana are not to be seen. We prepare to go, when Breane 'paths' "Why not here? They'd not look for us to restore Aradi here now." I nod. We sit cross-legged; her hands reach to and into mine as I shift Time so that we can occupy the same space. "By pow'rs spawned on red sands' shore," "powers barred to demon's door," "let aspects dark and distant come rest their soul - and into Roderick's shell restore." And the mirrors come alive. Aradi stands darkly brilliant, eyes of fire, hands glowing coals - and from the ether, Roderick: "By my power as the first, by my demon, age-old curse, let the souls of my universe - converge!" And focusing the spell thru Aradi, we can sense the scattered aspects of Roderick being drawn like filings to a magnet, folding in on Aradi, superimposed, then synthesizing with him. Minutes pass, and then the process is complete. Roderick stands before us whole, limning about Aradi - his form glows and his energy seems purer. "Thank you both," he speaks, then shields us in a bubble, shifts us into limbo. "What are you doing?" I ask. "The Key all along to this is that there was a splitting of universes - all existence should be whole." "So?" "I propose to shatter that barrier so that all souls shall flow to a wholeness." "There are dangers." comes from Breane. We emerge into the fringe area, Amaka, which borders both universe. "You mean to do what here?" "To open the iris that contains." We go to the room where we'd met briefly Adrionna Keep; her throne is empty, the place deserted. Roderick's hands grow with power, becoming sharp wells of energy. Outlined on the wall is the iris which gatewayed to the Netherverse. There is the emblem of a unicorn with five horns on it. Breane murmurs something and stops. "Stop!" a command from behind us. We turn and there is Danielle; beside her is Magdalene. They each hold one of Cymynal's hands. As we start towards them, a shimmering is in the air - and there is Estebast once more. "Morgan" comes from Breane, and instantly he has replaced Estebast. Roderick hurtles Nea Selana, a late entry, against a wall. I can sense a differentness about this being; Morgan has a weakness Estebast did not. I blip power at him and he shifts across one dimension and back into our frame. Breane: "Like a king in chess," and my mind agrees. I "box" energies in Time and leave them scattered around Morgan, then hurl from this frame. He dodges into Time, and is promptly rendered unconscious by my "mining" his Time field. Selana draws a device from his sash and hurls it, but Breane suddenly shifts it and him out of this frame. "Where did?..." "I sent him to Aradi's land." A dry chuckle slips from my throat and Danielle is motioning to us as the dream ends.
Dream--05/10/82
We're in Jedric's alter-earth - sky still flames and we seven have shielded our eyes with gray to blanket some of the light/heat. Bartholomew is wandering near the inner sea. "I recall this place," his words drift to us. Roderick stands alone, peering into his hands, a form of skrying. He whirls suddenly, his black cape swirling behind him in the wind. "This is where Beveth appeared?" I nod. Danielle is in my field of vision then, her eyes seeking ours. "A distant land, this one," she murmurs. Jedric, Breane and Magdalen are each in their turn silent. Behind their frames, the city burns - in eternal flame, I realize. "What do you know of this?" I sweep my hand, speaking to Jedric. "This is place of potentials - all things flow here, even from dead eyes." Cryptic, as always. Roderick materializes a gondola large enough to seat all of us, and we clamber in. No oarsman is needed, as we begin to go to the inner city beyond the inner sea. As we reach there, the buildings waver, shift into trueform, becoming a city of crystal. The flames die, eternity conquered by will alone. Roderick's mouth tightens. "This is your homeland?" he queries of Jedric. "No, a stop along the way." Breane stops, picks up a flower discarded on the walkway. "No one lives here?" she begins to speak, but it ends as a telepathic communication to us. There is a tall structure, not quite a building, but more unnatural than crystalline form. From the inside is revelry and music. I sense danger, but am quiet, curious. Magdalen catches my eye; the unspoken distrust wells up in me. "You," I bark at her. "You know this place!" All heads swivel to us. Confronted, she retreats. "Yes, but only through my brother's memories. The "party" going on is eternal - releasing all inhibitions to wield the energies of demons." "Shardow," comes from Breane, "it is a well - you "dip" yourself into it for purposes" and she looks at Magdalen, "of shifting true reality. The only way it can be done is by loosing certain controls." Roderick strides to the entry crystal and vanishes within it. "No!" I shout - too late. I know his motivations, but recognize his limits and other dangers. Magdalen has a contented look on her face. I motion to Jedric. "You are in charge here - Magdalen's life is to be held in lieu of our return." His lips curl back and he nods. Breane is in my mind, demanding access. "Remember, if we do not return, you must effect her demise." Breane again - I turn to her. "There are levels here untaught," I broach the thought to her for perusal - then step into the crystal. The first thought is of a sterileness, a cleanliness so clean as to be without any substance at all. My garb has translated into an all white tuxedo-type affair. There are dancers in the distance - mist enfolds them. A city inside of a crystal inside of a crystal city inside of a burning city. It is white, shining, lifeless, motes of light (coloured) move against the backdrop. I lay my mind against this "place" and create my colours for my garb. In the city, music is everywhere - no sign of Roderick. On white marble steps lights coalesce into a form. Dressed in blues and blacks, it is Beveth. "Llewes," her voice is - hers - I move to her. "Will you take me to the concert?" I nod. It is a masquerade - her mask is a simple black number and I duplicate it for myself. "Why are you here? You are - dead in reality?" "This is not reality." The ghost of a smile, on the ghost of a ghost. We walk to the top of the steps and enter the symphony chamber; it is a light-music show. Musical spheres float about, each containing a different passage of song. Orchestrating them far below is a figure all in black - I start - it is Ketain. Suddenly all other patrons vanish, and Beveth and I are left exposed. Ketain looks up at us and begins to applaud, heavily. "You like my symphony of souls, young Master?" My grip tightens and my mind is a loose computer, analyzing possible outcomes. A flash hits me - where is Roderick? - we were both to be drawn here by Ketain. "Oho! Your brother - is trying to save his love from a death worse than fate." He chuckles at his wordplay. "Llewes," Beveth's voice - "the spheres." I reach out in my mind to touch them and feel them pulsing - frequencies - conclusion - in my mind a chill grows. Each sphere, each frequency, is a band of reality, and Ketain means to control - or destry - all. Behind us, then, is Roderick's image cast by one of the spheres. He is on a daylight street. Beveth flashes to himto warn him. I confront Ketain. A shift then, and Breane is there. Ketain begins to play the spheres again. I 'path to Roderick about the spheres - frequencies numbers corresponding to realities - urging him to warn the others. He steps away from Beveth to contact the others. As he does so, a sphere exits the symphony chamber and appears before Beveth. I shout - but it explodes!! taking pieces of crystalline walkway into the air. Beveth had no defense. Roderick was hurtled against a wall, but protected himself. She lies, dead again, my mind mocks. Ketain roars laughter, and Breane touches my hand. I pulse inside and shift Breane back outside of this conflict and instruct Jedric to hold her there. I turn to face Ketain and sense Roderick blipping in on my right. The spheres reassert themselves once more into vision, as we face the ultimate evil of Rejc Ketain and the dream ends.
Dream--05/10/82 - 2nd Dream
Evil in black and a chamber of spheres - Ketain is within our vision, but he curses us as if we were too near to his secret or his power. Roderick: "That was Beveth, was it not?" "Indeed." "A GHOST, Shardow, a living death being!" yells Ketain. Roderick and I pulse close to Ketain's position, our after-images left behind on sphere after crystal sphere. Luminous trails of light-force flow from our fingers - Ketain brushes them off. We are in his sanctuary, it suddenly occurs to me. "Anatana may be about," I 'path to Roderick. He nods. Ketain suddenly forces the decibel level up and shifts into a different frame. Roderick looks at me. "Why didn't he attack?" I ask. "I don't know." I call to Breane 'cross crystal wilderness - she responds that all are well, that Jedric has shielded them with invisibility and dust; the picture is of an enclosed dome around which a hellacious dust storm ensues. Breane's manner is elusive for some reason, the pitch of her communication different from the norm. "What is wrong?" I ask. She hesitates, and in that instant I pick a word, a name, from her mind - Blackthorn. "We can discuss it later," and telepathy twists and ends. Roderick is focused upon me - "I've locked into Ceycirie's being." I raise my eyebrows at this. We begin to leave the symphony chamber. "Hold it," I call out. "The reality spheres" - discordant is my voice - "if we can release some of these spheres from Ketain's control, his powers may lessen." Roderick nods. We "disengage" the tyranny of the spheres have labored under by disrupting the frequency that traps them here; one by one, they vanish. As they do so, a normal colour returns to this crystal city, alive with vital colours: reds, golds, browns, greens. We do not notice her until her first strike - Ceycirie. She is in golds and blacks. "You try our patience," and she sends dark lightnings in greetings. Roderick is at the other end of the chamber. I attempt to box her energies, then sense a second force - Ketain's, my mind is aware. He stops my thrust and she scatters my energies, and in that moment I am hurled to my knees. I see her drawing Moodoom forth, darkly pulsing. She raises it for a killing blow, then the sword is whirled from her hands - Roderick. She turns upon him instantly, fires blazing from eyes and hands. His garb is burned away, armour burned red with heat. "You cannot do this thing," his voice is a specimen of total control. "I will eliminate you from my lover's plans," her voice. "I am your lover," he responds. "Rod-" Anatana's voice breaking through Ceycirie's - she stops it. "Die!" and she begins to erupt again in killing fury - but both of us sense an internal struggle, and before the flames reach Roderick they dissipate. He speaks again: "Anatana is the birthform - no matter what shape you are in," and Ceycirie seems taken aback by this. Roderick's voice is passionless: "You, Ceycirie, are ensorceled by Ketain through your demonsword." She looks confusedly at Moodoom and at me. An impression-memory of her is above her head - and Anatana's; she sweeps it into her. The renegade soul of Ceycirie is now on the defensive. "I MUST DESTROY YOU!" she screams and flings her arms, flailing into the air. "I MUST SLAY YOU." Roderick, after holding back all of her energies, screams back: "Then do it!" and releases them all. She stands statuesque against crystal background - caught in mid-fury, her voice - Anatana's voice - Ceri's voice - Auralane's voice, "I - we - I can't - I cannot!" and she slumps to the floor in a faint. Roderick kneels beside her, his hair scorched and his skin red and blistered. He pulls her to her feet, and though the features are Ceycirie's, totally Anatana's eyes and soul blaze from her. "The worst is over," comes from Roderick. Anatana-Ceycirie comforts herself in his arms. I pick up Moodoom, feeling again the vertigo, sense of oneness, I share with this blade. It now glows golden once more, and we 'path to Breane and Jedric that we are alright as the dream ends.
Dream--05/17/82
I stand upon an uncharted Abyss - there are no stars from which to piece one's bearings - and from my inner compasss, I can sense that I am near the end of all awarenesses - the Abyss of chaos and will, a churning, living yin-yang state where the warring halves of the soul battle. I lift my hands, they are opaque, near non-existence. I am jumbling spells, a computer of shifting patterns seeking a Key with which to commune with the energies of this place. Finally, a hook, a slight tug of response. I allow my awareness to flesh out, recognizing that Shardow is no longer in control. The Abyss is suddenly strung with stars - a new, raw universe awaiting, born out of the Abyss. I look at myself, cloaked wholly in black. Suddenly, Danielle appears on this plane. "Why have you risked this?" she demands. I am Shardow once more. "The battle rages to gain this," and I sweep my arm over the scene before us. She looks and is silent. My perceptions are shifting, the stars once more blinking out. "What brought you here?" comes from her. "A memory of my father's father - you said it yourself - Chaos adapts ," my voice breaks off, leaving silences to hang. Breane is my mind, then in the scene. Danielle says, "You have shown me more than I cared to know," and vanishes. Breane is in my mind, "You wanted to know of Blackthorn?" My hands are pulsing slightly. "Yes." "He is threatening all - he is the champion of my people." She 'paths that after long consultation, her people had voted to take an active role in this. Her mind hides something - "What else?" She looks at me. "H-he has enlisted me to battle with him." "And?" "I told him 'no' and he - and my people - have cast me out!" her voice crumples - and I note one more tally of vengence, this time, in Breane's name, as the dream ends.
Dream--05/23/82
"We are gates," the words are Breane's, and she is lying next on me on Aliana-Beveth. I intend to use her as an instrument to probe her people's past. She is in a grey robe and her hair is braided to one side. My fear of what such a probe might do to her provoked her response. "Yes, but thru space, I would seek Time's secrets." "Space - Time, are one," she lapsed into telepathy. I cannot deny her her truth. I sit cross-legged before her; she disrobes and her eyes lock mine. I can feel our mind's mesh, as a cooling, a newness, a universe seen by eyes not mine. In a distant corner, I can hear Roderick trying to contact us; I blot him out, and launch into Breane's past. I sought reasons why Adrionna Keep would choose the Illithians. There is a glowing circle of light against the limbo Time, and suddenly I am there - in Breane's mind when she was a child. A room of mirrors on floor and ceiling, windows on all walls - some inner gestalt from Breane tells me that this is a part of the process of becoming their selves - an alien motto, Obijincia ka inascu ("infinity thru objectivity") runs amok in my awareness. Breane is (I am) teleporting from one side of the room to the other, and each time she does so, the mirrored images remain in the previous position. I jump in Time. Breane is in adolescence, sitting atop a pillar (a column) listening to two figures in shadow below. "The bargain is set - he is not aware that his plans are but part of mine." - a tug of memory - "What gain you from this - a son (sun?) will die, the mirrored one will live?" "Precisely." And they fade. Breane's consciousness flows with mine within her younger self; "that was my grandmother," comes to me from her. We jump again - it is not long after. A celebration occurs, Amaka glows with greeting - for a man I've never seen before. He is big (not so tall, as husky) and swarthy. He rides a roan stallion and is bearded - he casts no shadow, and my present mind computes that datum. I (Breane) stand on a balcony, watching him enter the city. The sky darkens with his coming. Suddenly, there is a wrenching pain! Time fades, and I strain to break our mesh - every nerve screams danger. I re-enter and hurl myself to one side, and the second blow glances off a dune. The being swinging the mace is the same being from the Amakan ceremony. "Damn your affinities," her hurls at me. I am in the dark; Breane is unconscious from the speed of my withdrawal. The being looks about, as though marking Aliana-Beveth for future reference. In the moment I launch myself at him, he fades. I fade with him. Then he shifted into a higher frequency - it was as tho he had tapped a different source and drawn on its power. Breane is coming to - I fill her in on what happened. I ask her who the being was - she looks at me and asks what I'm talking about, that she did not remember any such ceremony. I look at her in amazement, realizing that the identity of the being was held close and Breane's memory of it blocked. For the first time, my world contains more threatening things than storm or wind. I call to Roderick and the others, and I sit watching Breane watch me as the dream ends.
Dream--05/24/82
We are on Aliana-Beveth; Roderick, Ceycirie-Anatana, Jedric, Danielle, Corolis, Breane and myself. I have related what had occurred - some act puzzled. Roderick is thoughtful. Suddenly, a message from Bartholomew - an attack. We shift to Tywehr, and before us is Rejc Ketain, bringing a pinwheel of energies to bear. Each of us seek safety and cover the first attack. I have settled in slightly ahead of the action, allowing some anticipation of Ketain's movements. Anatana-Ceycirie and Roderick blend their power in attack, while Jedric confronts Ketain, his Lippin drawn. Ketain's hair is longer, shoulder-length and going grey. His beard remains dark and his eyes seek out a series of simultaneous patterns; Jedric's energy is a brilliant prismatic effect, casting out all colours. Ketain: "A direct confrontation, at last - I've long felts effects of your existence - now I may end it." He sends the blade whistling, and Jedric calmly reaches his hand out and stops it. He holds it motionless and Ketain, like all of us, is flabbergasted. He blasts with his eyes the ground below Jedric, a vast chasm - Jedric is unaffected, his posture and position unaffected. His green eyes glow and erupt and a glowing, glimmering energy strikes Ketain - he is staggered. I shift my own place in Time to form a barrier against outside interference from Gideon or Morgan in the plane. The others are racing forward. Jedric's eyes blaze again and there is a warping effect - all figures distort - and Ketain, cursing "Who - what are you?" in amazement. We can see Ketain reach for his dual soul, and I await in the timebeat ahead for his arrival - Hellmann. I draw Moodoom, and it is once more ebony, the force of its own being causing a humming through me. Roderick has shifted all out of the line of fire, save Breane, who is nearest Jedric. "Tis the time of fate, Berella." "Bastard!" he spits back, drawing on his own sword. We engage. In the corner of my eye I can see Ketain similarly confronting Jedric. Berella cuts at me, then releases a silvery eruption of needleslivers. I shield, then feint one way, spinning to its reverse - point extended, Moodoom impales Berella's neck as he had moved to parry the feint. I am on bended knee and thrust upward - the blade drives home to Berella's brain. The scene a half-beat behind me shows the energy circuit that Ketain and Hellmann'd set up to be fading dissipation. Ketain roars in rage - a cry cut off abruptly as Jedric's Lippin found his heart. Jedric's eyes blaze once more, enclosing Ketain in a prismcoffin, and he murmurs "Elikyia Obiyincia" (Welcome, Eternity) and his green blade glows. He wields it as a woodcutter, and when it meets the prism container, there is an intake of energy imploding and Ketain's body is warped away. We all stand in a circle about Jedric - about to congratulate him, when the bearded being from Amaka (?) flashes into the scene. "You've saved the puppies, but betrayed your existence to me - the price is high!" and he hurls his mace with eye blurring speed, striking Jedric in the chest and imbedding the spines within into the heart. The being flashes out of the frame and we are at Jedric's side as the dream ends.