Ray - Breakthrough (3)

“A breakthrough. It’s very rare. It usually happens only after the Pilgrimage, if at all. And normally, you're at least roughly prepared for it. Sometimes the Light builds up and eventually forces its way out. We don’t know why it happens, but it brings about a change in the Dream, usually in a small area. A new tree, a new stream… But when I touched you just now, I felt it. Something immeasurable is building inside you, and if it comes out without preparation, without someone to guide you, you could be torn apart instead of something new being born. And it’s best if no one is nearby when you bring about that change. We need to ride as far as we can!”

Missing… something… is…

Pain shot through Ray’s head again, and Elga groaned. Still, she urged the muldi forward. The settlement quickly vanished behind them. Ray barely noticed, as flashes of a golden-white circle began to outshine everything. They crossed a field and then a forest, finally breaking through to another hill.

“Wait, Elga! What about you? Can you endure what’s coming?”

Ray tried to turn toward her but almost lost her grip. She wanted to look at her, yet a searing pain in her temples made her cry out, and she clung tighter to the muldi’s mane, pressing herself against its neck. Still, she noticed there was no response.

“Elga, let me down! It’s far enough! Let me ride on alone!” Ray screamed.

“That’s not possible. I’m keeping you as calm and relaxed as I can, but if I move away from you, it’ll overwhelm you. I’m staying with you to help control it as best I can,” Elga replied, her voice flat.

Something… missing… missing…

Once more, the circle broke into her thoughts, and she could barely push it back. Only after gathering herself did she register what Elga had said.

“NO! You’re not staying with me when this thing inside me goes off! It’ll kill you! NO!” Ray screamed, trying to twist around and shove Elga off the muldi.

Waves of nausea crashing over her again and again, but Ray gave it everything she had. Suddenly, golden, glowing cords burst from Elga’s aura and wrapped around Ray’s wrists and torso, binding her to the muldi.

She could no longer move at all. The bindings didn’t hurt or cut into her skin. On the contrary, the glowing threads were pleasantly warm and soothing, slowly draining her of any remaining resistance. Then she felt Elga’s hand on her back.

“I’m sorry, Ray. I didn’t want it to come to this. We need to take you farther. The village and its people—I don’t want them caught up in what’s about to happen. Some of them mean more to me than I cared to admit. I don’t want them hurt. And I don’t want you hurt, either.”

Ray stopped resisting. She felt Elga’s lucidity warming her, but tears still streamed down her cheeks, and desperate, sobbing sighs escaped her trembling lips.

Something… missing…

Dio’s words were now almost the only thing echoing in her mind. They dulled her own thoughts. Now… there was only the circle. It shone in all its beauty, and whatever was inside her had nearly found its way out of her subconscious. Soon it would be there, soon it would break through and spill into the Dream.

When Ray was briefly pulled from her trance, she found herself lying on a hill, still bound by the golden threads. Elga now shone even brighter, but she was gasping for air from exhaustion, sweat running down her forehead. The muldi was nowhere to be seen. The threads had now wrapped around Ray’s entire body, though they no longer restrained her. Even so, through the haze of calm Elga had cast over her, she could barely move. The priestess was trembling and breathing irregularly.

“Elga, what in all that shines are you doing?” Ray screamed.

“I told you. I’m making sure you break through here, in a place where it won’t hurt anyone. And I’m trying to prepare you as best I can, to guide you. I believe you’re about to bring forth a great change…”

Ray could only let out a wail.

“Please, save yourself. Leave me behind,” she begged.

She couldn’t be responsible for Elga’s… no! She couldn’t lose control again, couldn’t be too weak to manage her own power. She was a monster, one who had done nothing but cause harm so far. Why did she see the Light and not the Darkness? That would’ve suited her much better. The Light felt good… but she wasn’t good. She was just a ticking time bomb. What would Dio say when they met again? If he found out she’d killed Elga? Would he even want to speak to her again?

Ray screamed, arched her back, her feet dug into the ground. White bolts shot from them and drilled into the earth. One struck Elga and pierced her aura, drawing a blood-curdling scream from her. Her green robe tore and burned where she was hit, and she collapsed forward, barely managing to catch herself with her uninjured arm.

“ELGA!” Ray screamed, but she could no longer move.

Lightning now continuously burst from her body, and the ground began to tremble.

“Focus and calm yourself!” Elga shouted, pressing her hand—face twisted in pain—against the charred wound. Slowly, the burned flesh began to heal, but Ray noticed that the calming stillness surrounding her was beginning to fade.

“Elga, what can I do?”

Ray’s voice was swallowed by a thunderous roar as the earth nearby split and rose upward. Geysers of dirt, debris, and plants hung suspended in midair, giving the landscape a ghostly, surreal appearance. But Ray barely registered it.

“Is there anything that used to calm you down? In situations like this, there’s always something! You just have to find it. Think, Ray! I know you can do it!” Elga called over the chaos.

Blinding white bolts shot up from the ground around them, scorching trees and bushes. A sickly sweet storm wind howled around Ray, swirling leaves of every color and shape through the air.

“The sky! The sky calms me!” Ray cried out, pressing her hand to her forehead with all her strength as another wave of pain threatened to overwhelm her.

She felt Elga’s hands on her cheeks and looked directly into her face. Her eyes were so close. In them Ray saw fear, but also a spark of hope. Elga’s voice was calm now, almost a whisper. Only because her lips were so near could Ray hear her through the raging noise.

“Focus on the sky. Look up. Imagine it. Lose yourself in it. You will survive. You’ll bring us something beautiful, something breathtaking. I believe in you. I’ve seen the potential you carry. Your Lucidity, it will be a radiant beam of hope and clarity!”

“I can’t. It’s going to break out, and then you’ll… I can’t lose you here! There has to be another way!”

Ray sobbed.

“That doesn’t matter now. I don’t matter now. It’s not your fault. What matters is this: you promise me one thing, Ray! When I come back here, whenever that may be, make sure I arrive in a world bathed in light. Please, make sure the place I imagined truly exists in the Dream and isn’t just the fantasy of a foolish woman. Those lush trees… the stream… It’s all right now, Ray. Let go. Focus on the sky. Just focus…”

Through her tears, Ray nodded with the last of her strength.

“I… promise…” she cried.

Elga smiled, her lips trembling. She closed her eyes and let go of Ray’s face, leaned back, and relaxed.

“Farewell, Ray. Until we meet again,” she whispered.

Ray felt her gaze pulled away from Elga, drawn upward toward the sky. Part of her did not want to look, wanted to sit with Elga forever, but something called to her and her eyes went up.

The sky was as dull as always, gray and monotone, casting its faint light upon the realm.

Something is missing… Something is missing… Something… missing…

It was as if Dio stood right beside her, whispering those words again and again. She missed him. She needed his thoughtful voice, his comfort… Though he wasn’t here. Only Elga was here. Only the sky above her. Ray tried again to soothe herself with the gray expanse, looked upward. She wanted to hold it back, give Elga more time, give herself more time, but then even the sky betrayed her. The murky sky…

The murky sky. The gray sky. The sky. The sky…

Something is missing. Something is missing. Something is missing. Something is missing. Something is missing…

Radiant circle, circle of light, up in the sky.

Something is missing…

The sun…

The sun and the moon and the stars…

And Ray remembered.

She remembered them. The circles of light in the air, vast and distant and warm and powerful and bright and white and radiant…

They should have been there. They should have shone down on her and filled the Dream with shimmering brilliance. But they were missing, had never existed, had not been remembered…

Finally, Ray understood. The circle of light belonged above them all, above as the stars and the sun and the moon. That’s where it belonged, so that all could feel its warmth and witness its beauty. Dio had sensed its absence somehow; she should have listened more closely…

The light inside Ray stirred like an infinite ocean and finally surged outward. She let it happen.

Ray felt Elga torn away from her and vanish into the light, fading in strange shapes and patterns. The golden threads disappeared with her, as did the ground beneath them, the hill, and the nearby forest. Everything was consumed in a mass of white that burst from her and shot into the sky. All around Ray burned away in the heat of her desperate soul, to dust and ash, and she knew somehow that the light was rising into the sky, weaving itself into it, to create the first midday of this realm of the Dream.

When she realized Elga was gone, when she realized the Light within her had woken someone from this Dream once more, Ray let her arms fall uselessly to her sides and began to weep, vowing to carry the promise she had made to the woman who had sacrificed herself in the hope that she would bring something good.

I will let this realm shine in light…

Then the radiant circle pulled her into her innermost self, and there was nothing but the symbol.