Dream Realm. No-Man's Woods.
Twenty minutes. That was how much time had passed in reality since I ended up here. Not much you can do in that time, right? Maybe. But not in my case. I'd spent much more time here. In this hole, time moved differently. While for everyone outside only a little time had passed, I'd wasted four hours in this godforsaken place. And knowing that danger was approaching the village, I didn't sit on my ass.
My calmness was a lie. The truth was, I was fucking terrified. Still, I couldn't do nothing. That crazy bastard whose vision I'd gotten was approaching my home, my village. No one knew what danger was coming. Even if for just a moment, I'd clearly seen the massacres he'd committed. I couldn't just sit around. Gathering my courage, I stepped deeper into those leathery trees.
It wasn't long before I came to a clearing filled with them. Shards. Dozens of shards. They all grew from the ground like grass. But what I noticed was how different they were from each other. They came in all shapes and colors: dull and bright, murky and clear, ugly and beautiful, formless and smooth.
Such variety of crystals, whose nature I didn't know, awakened conflicting feelings in me. On one hand, I was afraid. Each shard could be a new torture. But behind the wall of fear, another feeling festered. The same filthy curiosity that made my father poke a stick at a wounded wolf.
Fuck it. I grabbed the dullest shard, ready to toss it at the first hint of pain… Expecting a storm that would drive me insane, dozens of terrifying, chaotic visions, and the jumbled thoughts of another person, I felt a slight relief when instead I saw the real world. No emotional horror, no alien thoughts attacking my mind. I just… saw the world through someone else's eyes and felt their sensations. Flimsy houses, damp grass under bare feet, a cool breeze that I so lacked here.
But before I could dissolve into those feelings, I recognized the surroundings. I saw Wilkorrmor. Had I really penetrated the mind of one of the villagers? But who exactly? Not seeing the point in wondering, I went through about a dozen shards. Everywhere was my home village. Corners, faces, snippets of lives. I crept through other people's eyes like a thief. Old Martha, blacksmith Groph, Edric's mother… I saw the village like a spider sitting in the center of a web. Saw everyone panicking and grabbing weapons. And all this time, one thought gnawed at me: where were mine? Where were the shards of Mom? Dad?
That's when I noticed that some of the crystals stood out from the rest by being brighter and clearer. Feeling a thirst for them, I reached for one that pulsed with a soft light.
The moment I touched the crystal's surface – a purple lightning bolt shot through my entire body. But the suffering didn't last long. It was just a warning. A warning I intended to ignore.
There's something life taught me. If something is protected, then there's a reward inside. Risk is either rewarded or punished.
With new resolve, I grabbed the crystal and held it with all my might. The lightning immediately began striking my arm, no longer warning. The familiar smell of burning filled my nostrils. Roasted flesh. Just like when my eyes had burned. I squeezed my eyes shut, but despite the pain, despite the feeling that the blood in my veins was literally boiling, I refused to let go.
Suddenly the agony vanished, and the breathing earth beneath my feet was replaced by cold, hard stone. Opening my eyes, I saw a hall with stands filled with people in masks, shouting silently.
This place, these people – it all seemed strange to me. All the crystals belong to Wilkorrmor residents. And I was absolutely sure that our village didn't have such large buildings, let alone so many people. Hell, I couldn't even hear any sounds!
When my gaze went further, my blood froze and my heart practically stopped. Mom and Ignavius, bound, were kneeling. But… they looked different. Younger, cleaner, even richer. In horror, I started looking around again, trying to understand anything. Had I gone somewhere deeper than just into her mind? Maybe it was her dream?
As soon as I tried to approach them, I felt the air become viscous, disgusting, and filled with emotions that hindered my movement. Each step was a trial. And along with that, I began to feel someone else's emotions and sensations again. They belonged to Mom. I heard her fear, sharp as a blade. Felt the ropes, though not on me, chafing my wrists. Felt the cold stone freezing my knees, even though I was standing upright.
Something inside me snapped. This wasn't just a dream – it was Mom's nightmare. And they were humiliating her. I didn't need hearing to understand that. Those bastards hiding their faces behind masks were shouting insults and death threats, but they didn't even have the courage to reveal who they were.
I growled, my fists clenched, but I was only a ghost in her nightmare. And yet, my will refused to surrender, to let her suffer here.
– Wake up!
As soon as my cry reached her, the entire dream began to crack and crumble. Walls and ceiling crumbled to dust. Tapestries on the walls began to unravel into threads and rot before my eyes. The masks of those present began to melt and slide off their faces, revealing emptiness beneath. I glanced one last time with disgust at the judge in his wig, before an indistinct image flashed before my eyes. No longer able to hold the fucking crystal, I released it and fell to the ground.
I looked at my left arm and nearly screamed. The skin was blackened and charred, in places peeling off to reveal dark-purple flesh, like old blood. My fingers were curled, as if gripping an invisible red-hot rod. From elbow to wrist, my arm was not an arm, but a burnt log, with sap oozing from beneath the bark. Regeneration was happening, but agonizingly slowly – flesh squirmed and contracted, making it even more painful.
– F-Fuck… – I hissed through clenched teeth, clutching my shoulder. My head throbbed with pain and thoughts, forcing me to squint. And yet, this pain was exactly what I needed right now. I was alive. And as long as I was alive, I had to think.
Questions pounded in my skull like uninvited guests you can't get rid of. But because of the pain, I couldn't concentrate on even one of them. I kept getting distracted.
"If you can't remember something, draw it." Great advice, Dad. But what am I supposed to draw with here?! Cursing under my breath, I weakly looked around and stared at the tree branches. Not thinking of the possible consequences, I grabbed one of the branches with my good hand to break it off. The texture was strange. The bark of the tree was a mix of human softness and woody hardness. The bark itself was warm, as if life flowed within.
Forcing my muscles to strain, I pushed down on the branch with my entire body. A crunch came, either of bone or of wood. Suddenly, from the break, a warm, red liquid resembling blood began to spray, making me flinch and turn away. Tugging a few more times, I managed to tear the wooden skin completely. With my newfound stick in hand, I quickly backed away from the bleeding tree, whose faces began to show agony. Covered in this pseudo-blood, I looked at them indifferently and walked back to the crystals.
– They're not people, just trees with human faces. – I whispered coldly, not for the trees, but for myself.
Holding something in my hands made me feel much bolder and calmer. I had a crutch. Settling near the crystals, I began to draw on the black earth with the stick.
What did I do? It seemed, using the crystal, I had interfered with her dream and forced her to wake up. Probably. But it cost me my arm… Still, I considered it an acceptable loss. Only because of the regeneration.
As soon as I got distracted, my scribbles began to glow and lifted into the air, starting to move. What was even more surprising was that they began to depict exactly what I was thinking when I drew them.
A tiny me grabbed the crystal, lightning began to pierce my body, and then I let the thing go. Reaching that point, everything started moving again.
– Cool… – I muttered mesmerized, watching the simple magic move through the air. – Beautiful, but strange. It didn't show what I was actually doing when I held the crystal… Seems like it only shows what was drawn. And it moves only because of the intention put into my drawing.
Out of curiosity, I started drawing something simple. After a few seconds, a small, glowing apple flew up from my ground scribbles. I immediately tried to grab it. But unfortunately, it was instantly crushed in my grip, turning to dust and ceasing to glow. The remaining outline on the ground was also destroyed.
– That's… interesting. So you can't touch, only look.
Sighing, I returned to business, namely visualizing what was on my mind. My arm was starting to heal, and the pain was slowly fading, allowing me to think more clearly. And then I remembered that tapestry I had glimpsed before the dream collapsed. It depicted many things, but the most important was the coat of arms shown in the very center.
Don't.
A few minutes later, I angrily threw the stick aside. This was pissing me off. The coat of arms I was trying to draw was a complex, multi-layered image with various elements. No matter how hard I tried to depict it, the stick's movements ruined it, resulting in nonsense that was very different from what I had seen in my mother's dream.
I want to rest.
Then an idea came to mind. What if I just drew each detail separately? I picked up the branch again and began to draw. A shield, on the surface of which gaped three thick scratches, a clawed paw clenched into a fist, and an inverted dagger that the same paw was supposed to hold. When I finished, the individual figures soared into the air, and I cried out in joy.
Don't look.
– I did it! – I exclaimed, but my voice sounded nervous. My clever plan had worked. As the figures soared into the air, they began to connect, like a wooden construction set.
Erase the drawing.
Suddenly, my scribbles became three-dimensional. Before I could even gasp in surprise, they came to life, and the dagger plunged into my forehead.
Hard to breathe.
With a blank expression, I stared into the void. Something clicked inside me. Not a feeling. An explosion of images and visions. A bell tower appeared under my boots, which I had never worn. Thick smoke veiled my eyes. Knightly armor bound my body. In one hand I held a sword stained blood-red. In the other, I held a severed head by the hair.
Leave me alone.
Again that familiar smell. Flesh burning in fire. Not mine. Someone else's. Hundreds, thousands of people died in the fire. And they did not die in silence.
– What the fuck… – I muttered, staring at the spectacle.
The vision disappeared, but its echo still flickered in my mind. My legs trembled under my own weight, no longer able to hold me. I collapsed to my knees, trying to breathe clean air, but the smell of smoke wouldn't go away. My gaze darted to the crystals, and a bright glow poured even from the dullest of them.
Mom hates bonfires.
The taste of meat, ash, and iron stuck to my tongue. Not wanting to see the fire anymore, I turned away from the shards, but my condition didn't improve. The taste didn't go away. Feeling nauseous, I stuck out my tongue and began trying to wipe the taste off my tongue.
And yet, all my attempts were pointless. In an instant, I felt my entire stomach violently turn. The next second, bitterness eclipsed everything I was feeling.
– Mgh?!.. Bwaaah! – bitter bile erupted from my mouth. I had vomited from everything I had seen.
I can't take it anymore.
My mind and body refused to accept and rejected what was happening to me. The only thing I wanted now was to go home and collapse on my sack. But it seemed the higher beings had decided otherwise.
– Mom… Mom, I'm asleep. Wake me up. For the first time in my life, I'd be happy if you woke me up and kicked me around… – I whispered desperately and curled up on the ground. A single tear rolled down my cheek.
This world is cruel.
Life in the village was hard, yet it was all I knew. My family, my acquaintances, my home. That was my world. I was closed off here. No. I had closed myself off here, refusing to interact with the outside world. That's why the world decided to break down my doors personally.
I'm not a believer, and I never liked gods much. But in this state, anyone would believe.
– Oh, Aya, Guiding Moon… – my voice was a trembling whisper as I began to pray. – In this hour of despair, I call upon You… Give me the strength to rise and continue my path. Shed Your Moonlight and lead my lost soul to the true path…
But there was no answer. And yet, the crystal glow faded, the smell disappeared, and I stopped tasting that flavor. But silence became not a salvation, but another death, suffocating me.
Finding no other way out, I repeated the prayer again. As long as I could break the silence, I could feel at least a little calmer.
Again receiving no answer, I continued to repeat the prayer, muttering it incessantly under my breath. Again silence, and I repeated the prayer, slowly going mad from repeating the same words.
Again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again…
Suddenly, a pair of gentle hands pulled me out of my curled-up position and wrapped me in a tight embrace. With a dirty face, I looked at the owner of the hands, and from surprise, I was speechless.
It was my mom.
All my thoughts short-circuited instantly. How could this be? How did she get here? That's imposs–
As if hearing my thoughts, she quickly spoke, not letting me process what was happening:
– Oh my, Lucius. What happened to you? You look terrible.
When I heard her voice, even more doubts crept into my heart.
She looked exactly like my mom. The same black hair, the same black eyes, the same face, even the same height towering over me. Her very presence brought me calm and a sense of security.
And yet, I didn't understand where this strange feeling of unease was coming from.
– I'm fine. – I said uncertainly. With difficulty, I got to my feet and wiped the dried tears and remnants of vomit from my face with a trembling hand.
Seeing that I could stand on my own, my mom couldn't help but laugh.
Annoyed, I glared at her.
– What are you laughing at?
– Sorry, son, sorry! – she forced out with difficulty, trying to calm down. – It's just that with your pouty face, you always look hilarious.
– Fuck off, you devil woman!
When we both finally calmed down, I thought deeply again. How was it possible that she was here now? I clearly remembered destroying her dream and making her wake up when the commotion started in the village. Meanwhile, something was off about the mom standing before me. Small differences I couldn't notice. Yet.
– Lucius, you're not yourself. Are you sure you're okay, sweetie? – she asked worriedly and pinched my cheek.
My whole body went numb with shock. "Sweetie"? She'd never used such a nickname for me. This woman was not my mother. Now I saw it clearly.
Everything about her screamed high-quality forgery. The tone of voice she used was too calm and measured. Her rags and skin were too clean for a poor villager. Her palms, which I could now clearly feel, were too smooth. Mom didn't have such smooth skin – her hands were moderately calloused from constant housework.
Fucking fake.
Enraged by my realization, I pushed her hand away and stepped back, about to say something, but instead I stepped on one of the murky crystals, again seeing through someone else's eyes. There, I saw Mom and Uncle Ignavius fighting with that one-eyed bastard from my very first crystal vision.
Now, full of confidence in my rightness, with an angry face I said:
– Don't come near me, monster! You're not my mother, you're a fucking shapeshifter!
As soon as I said that, irritation appeared on the fake's face, and she put a hand to her forehead.
– What a pity. I so wanted to hug my boy… But since you've figured it out, I'll have to take by force what you radiate so generously – Urgh!
Not wanting to listen to her bullshit, I picked up my leathery stick from the ground and swung it at her temple.
A sickening crunch echoed all around, and the fake staggered back, clutching her head. Meanwhile, I felt as if the blow had taken something from me, made me weaker.
– Argh, you little parasite! That… That hurt! Hahaha, didn't expect that from a child.
– What are you hissing about, shapeshifter? – my voice sounded tired.
As I stared at her surprised face, I saw cracks beginning to spread from the point of impact across her entire body, and from them emanated a blinding light.