Only a Dream Away
Note: this was inspired by an odd dream I had. This is only a part of what I dreamed, but I hope to have this written up as a full story.
Sleep was getting harder to come by for Arenia. The strange creatures, the infernal ghouls, weren’t currently attacking, but but it could come at any moment. The anticipation and stress wore on much of the militia, but hardest on Arenia. They counted on her on a regular basis; she was, after all, their only magic user, and thus their front-line weapon. While swords and bows could slow or even kill the ghouls, her magic could annihilate them in droves. This was assuming, of course, that she could concentrate…which became increasingly difficult as she fell behind on sleep. It also didn’t help that her magic, while potent, barely kept pace with the increasing hordes that assailed their fortifications.
It wouldn’t long before she’d start falling behind, whether from exhaustion or from lack of growth. She’d already hit a wall in her studies of the ancient texts she’d rediscovered months ago; these magics unseen for millennia largely depended on spell components, with only the most simple offensive magics being usable with only a focusing crystal or two. Arenia’d subsisted off of these simple bolts of light for the last few months, and it worked well enough for a few packs of the devilish monsters, but with their attacking numbers growing, she relied more and more on her fellows to catch what slipped by her. And the components these more advanced spells asked for were items she simply could not obtain, either for lack of time or because they were lost to the ages. Unless she managed to find some kind of a substitute or a kick-start, she was doomed to failure before too long. With this one fort being all that stood between the evil forces and her beloved hometown, that was a weight she could not afford to bear.
With a sigh, Arenia shut the book and and rubbed her forehead. The book had no insight on any other ways to cast these same spells. Whips of magical energy, full-on beams of light, magical shields, ways to shape the very earth itself…they all had very specific requirements, with no room for error, and it drove her mad. Giving up for the night, she cast aside her uniform robes and headed to bed, shrouded in a light gown and undergarments. Her personal quarters were large, a sign of how much the militia valued her…and she hated the attention. It felt all too much for just her. She did take pleasure in one thing about the room; clearly, whoever made her bed was a superb craftsman, as even in the most sleepless of nights, it was comfortable. She slipped into bed, closed her eyes, and attempted to at least get some rest.
Something felt different tonight, though. An unnatural calm washed over Arenia. She fell into sleep quickly, and for the first time in her life, she dreamed something other than a nightmare. Where in previous nights she had been assailed by visions of her impending failure, tonight there was a more comforting vision. Darkness surrounded her, but it gave off an aura not of malice, but of warmth and invitation. Tenuously, she walked through her dream, into the shaded mist that surrounded her.
“Come find me,” she heard a soft voice call to her. “Come find me, so that we may bargain.”
Bargain… The word echoed through her mind, as passages of the tomes she’d been reading flooded forward from her memory. Some of the books had mentioned desperate mages making deals with powers beyond comprehension…but she wasn’t that desperate, was she? Why would such an eldritch creature think she’d want to bargain? Curiosity drove her onward, following the sound of the sweet, feminine voice that urged her to follow. If nothing else, she had some questions for this force.
The mist parted after a while, leaving her in a quiet circle, with the night sky above her. A bright full moon lit the area, which Arena found odd, considering it’d been a new moon outside when she went to bed. This abnormal moonlight drew her attention to a statue in the center of the circle. It was a statue of a somewhat cloud-like person, as if the mist that surrounded them had taken the form of a tall, muscular woman. Its shadow stretched out behind it in the moonlight, thick and black under the moon’s argent glow. The shadow seemed to compel her to focus on it, and so she did.
Before Arenia’s gaze, the shadow seemed to draw in some of the mist from the edges of the circle, and it rose to take form. As it coalesced, its shape mirrored that of the statue: dark, powerful, and to the mage’s eyes, strikingly beautiful. The shade separated from the statue, moving towards the lady mage with ethereal grace. “You’ve found me, mage,” she spoke in that same soft voice. “Now, here in this circle, speak your name.”
“Arenia. Arenia Solaris.” The mage’s voice shook, betraying her timidity and fear. Whatever this creature was before her, she’d never seen the likes of it. Her studies had not prepared her for such a being to have such a powerful and seductive aura, nor that they would appear so attractive in her eyes.
“Do not fear me, Arenia Solaris,” the cloud-form woman responded. “I am normally formless, without shape or gender; I have taken this form so that we may converse more easily. You need not fear me; I have come to you as you wish to see me.” The shade looked themself over. “And interesting that your mind should choose a form such of this; is this what appeals to you?”
Arenia was taken aback. “W-what?” She’d read these stories before, and she’d known that some of the demons or creatures ancient mages had dealt with had been demons of lust. If this creature was one such thing, she was already terrified of them; she did not wish to lose her soul to an insatiable monster.
The feminine creature before her seemed to sense her discomfort and acted quickly assuage her fears. “I am not that kind of creature. I am a Shad’dar, a being of pure shadow and mist. For years, we have come to offer our assistance to mages…power is what I offer you. Power, and also companionship if you wish it.”
The young mage bolstered her confidence, pushing her timidity away for a moment. “If you wish to offer me your power and your companionship so generously, what’s in it for you, shade? I have read the stories; I know these bargains are never one-sided.”
The shade seemed to giggle, somewhere between flirtatiously and endearingly. “Some of the ancient deals might’ve been a transaction; many a mage surrendered their soul to hell for the sake of power or lust. But I…I feel something different. I have known of you and have been watching you since you first started reading those tomes of magic. I have wanted to approach you for quite some time, but you never did sleep well enough for me to appear in your dreams. Always your fear held you back…I had to force our meeting this night. I had to intercept the nightmares, and steer your dreams in the right direction so that we could finally meet.” They moved forward and came closer to Arenia. “I wish to touch you. May I? I will not harm you; I swear it.”
Arenia’s heart pounded at the proximity of this Shad’dar. This was a creature never mentioned in her books, but she simultaneously felt comfortable with them and also incredibly anxious to have one so close. “Y-yes. You may,” she nervously replied.
The Shad’dar reached out their hand and affectionately laid it on the lady mage’s cheek. The contact felt warm and instantly calmed her nerves. “You’re more than a weapon, you know. More than a soldier. More than a mage. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“No,” Arenia dejectedly answered. “The militia treats me well, but I don’t know if they even see me as an individual. And certainly none of them see me as a woman. They depend on my magic, but not a one of them has ever checked up on me or asked me if there was anything I needed. It’s more than I can bear sometimes. That’s why I can’t rest; I don’t feel like I can afford to. And no one asks me if I need to.”
“Then let me be the first to tell you this…you are beautiful. You are valuable. If you partner with me, I will not only give you power but the companionship you deserve to have. You ask me what I get out of this?” The shade smiled warmly. “I get to show you how you look in my eyes. And there may be other favors I ask of you as well, but nothing you cannot handle nor consent to. What I get is the ability to stay with someone I have been drawn to from the moment I first saw you.”
Arenia felt like she wanted to cry. Never before had anyone shown such affection to her. She had had friends in her childhood, even into her adult life, but none so selfless and compassionate as this shade seemed. She fell forward to embrace the creature of mist, moved to tears from the genuine affection she was now being shown. The Shad’dar returned her embrace, then lifted her head so that the mage’s emerald eyes met their purple eyes.
“I take it you consent to a partnership?” The creature came dangerously close to her face.
“On one condition…tell me your name.”
“Anaa’luxia.”
“Anaa’luxia. I accept your bargain, and your companionship. Now please…kiss me.”
Without another word spoken, the two came together, sealing their pact with a long, passionate kiss.
As dawn broke, the light breaking through her window roused Arenia from her slumber. Despite the late hour at which she’d gone to sleep, she awoke more refreshed and re-energized than she ever had before. Her mind drifted back to the dream she’d had the night before and how real it felt. She closed her eyes to imagine it all again, but was met instead with the sight of the Shad’dar she’d met in that dream-world circle. Anaa’luxia, as her memory recalled. Her pact-mate, her partner…and, as she blushed while she remembered the end of the dream, her lover.
“Good morning, dear Arenia,” Anaa’luxia spoke with affection. “How are you feeling this morning?”
Arenia smiled brightly. “Better than ever, Anaa’luxia. Like I could take on the infernal ghouls with only you by my side.”
The shade laughed. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, love. We’ve got a lot of work to do. For instance, let’s see if we can’t master that one spell on page 394 you’ve been struggling with, shall we?”
Arenia opened her eyes and threw the bed covers away, rising to rush to the table. She flipped to the appropriate page, then found the spell she’d been desperately trying to master: a whip of light energy. She picked up her focusing crystals and closed her eyes again, once again seeing her lover fully before her in her mind’s eye.
“The secret to spells like this is not to force your power to flow out of you, dear,” the Shad’dar instructed. “Think of your magic as like water; it takes little effort to reshape it into whatever form you wish. All you have to do is imagine the right container for it. Don’t force your magic into weapons. Cast it. Let it flow and solidify.”
“Don’t force the magic. Cast, not forge. Got it.” She visualized in her mind the crystals that she held in her hands, then energized them with her innate power. The crystals in her mind glowed, responding to the magic. The mage then imagined a narrow, tapered trough stretching out from each crystal, then gently pushed the magic out from the crystals through those mental troughs. Anaa’luxia assisted in the nudging, and quickly, the magic flowed down the channels, stretching out into thin ribbons of light and power.
Arenia opened her eyes, and she noted that she felt a warmness surrounding her hands. She looked down and saw the crystals glowing with raw power, long strings of crackling light extended from them. She gave the whip in herleft hand a test crack, and it reached out to grab a candlestick from the table and fling it into the wall to the right. “Well…oops,” she lamented as she saw the destroyed candle on the floor.
Within her mind, she hear a gentle laugh. “Don’t worry about it, love,” Anaa’luxia said. “Control will come in time. The main thing is, we’ve managed to make this spell usable without the required spell component.”
Arenia looked at the light whips extending from her hands. “My stars…you’re amazing, Anaa’luxia!”
“No,” the Shad’dar assured. “You are. You’d have figured this out sooner or later. I just helped you get there faster.”
“Maybe, but your guidance definitely helped. Thank you, Anaa’luxia…for everything.”
“You’re welcome. Now, shouldn’t we go somewhere a bit more open so we can practice without destroying the room?”
Arenia smiled and laughed to herself. “Yes, that might be a better idea — “ She was cut off by the sound of an alarm from the watchtowers. “Or, we can perfect it as we go. Into battle, love?”
Anaa’luxia chuckled. “Let’s go be heroes, love.”
Arenia de-energized her crystals, shut the book, then threw on her uniform robes quickly. Normally, she would dread going into battle, as she felt alone out there on the front lines of combat. This time, though, she relished the challenge of perfecting this new spell in combat…because she knew she was no longer alone. Her partner and her lover was always present with her…and the caring and affection that her fellow humans refused to show her was only a dream away.
