Demoa - Dance (1)

The faces of the people gathered on the dusty square turned toward her with wary, unfriendly expressions as Demoa stepped out of the building behind Eri. Dusk had settled in, and the sky above felt broader, darker, heavier. Only the streaks of orange and red near the horizon, cutting through the trees, offered any last promise of safety.

Inga sat atop a muldi, staring at them with a hard expression and piercing eyes. Her hands clenched around the reins.

"That’s her!" she hissed suddenly, eyes fixed on someone just past Demoa.

There was no need to turn around. She could only mean Ray, still unconscious, slumped over Olver’s shoulders.

"That’s Ray, yes," Eri said, his voice surprisingly calm.

A faint red glow of his aura betrayed he was still ready to call on his Lucidity if things turned.

"Don’t play dumb, Pilgrim. You know what I mean. She woke Elga! I felt it!"

"You felt it? Has it always been like that, being able to sense her?" Eri replied, deflecting smoothly.

He glanced, seemingly offhandedly, at the people slowly closing in. More and more of them were surrounding the plaza now, forming an uneasy ring.

Would they really attack us? No way… right? We’re lucid! That should be enough to protect us. They wouldn’t stand a chance against Eri… would they? Demoa thought, brushing her hair nervously behind one ear.

“No. It was only for a moment. Just as the Sun rose. Just for a blink, I could sense her... and then... she was gone again. That witch over there woke her!” Inga snapped, jabbing a finger toward Ray.

Krud stepped forward in an attempt to calm her.

“Well, as I said before, it’s your right to grieve Elga’s awakening. Yet there are more urgent matters right now,” he said gently.

Inga looked down at him with disdain.

“More urgent? What could possibly matter more? Elga is gone. Do you even understand what she did for us? All of us? You knew her too, didn’t you?”

“Yes, of course. She spent time here, now and then. We valued her deeply. She helped us grow new fruit. She healed our wounds. But now... can’t you see it? There, on the horizon?” Krud asked, pointing toward the last rays of sunlight.

“That cursed thing? You can thank her for that. She dragged that blazing sphere into the sky!” Inga shouted, pointing once more at Ray.

Murmurs rose. A ripple of unease spread through the crowd.
A man near the front barked, “She dragged the Sun into the sky? How could anyone do that?”
A woman’s voice broke in, trembling, “It was beautiful at first... but now—now it feels wrong.”
Another stepped closer, whispering as if afraid of his own words: “She brought it to steal the Light... to leave only the foretold darkness.”

The last word spread like an echo through the crowd: “Darkness...”

The mood was shifting. Demoa could hear it in their voices, see it in their eyes, sense it in the way they held their bodies. They were teetering—if not into madness, then certainly on the edge of reason.

I have to do something. If this keeps going, they’re going to attack us, Demoa realized, staring at the ground, trying to steady herself.

She had never tried to influence another person using her Lucidity. She didn’t even know if it was possible on this scale, yet it was worth a try. Slowly, she called the image of the circle to mind, its bright, searing light. Demoa thought about the warm sensation it always stirred in her, and about what Elga had taught her in the moments they had spent gathering things or talking about Lucidity. Words that hadn’t been enough to truly know the Sage, yet they left her with lasting insights.

"The Light isn’t something external. It’s always a part of you. If you reach for it, you can shape it, with some practice. Some things will come more easily, others will take a long time to master. Yet the foundation is always the Light," Elga had explained early on.

"What about the circle?" Demoa had asked.

"I’m not certain yet. But it seems to create a kind of clarity I’ve never known before. For me, it helps connect thought and Light. I haven’t talked to Eri about it, though I imagine he experiences something similar..."

Keeping their talk in mind, Demoa focused on the circle more and more, felt the brightness and whiteness bloom inside her. Her fingers and toes tingled as the Light wrapped itself around her. She added other thoughts to it, imagining a quiet field glowing gently in the morning Sun, just beginning to stir. She pictured colorful flowers releasing a scent of peace, sweet, delicate, calm. Just as Elga had once described on one of their walks, she imagined the scent and the Light merging, imagined sending the comfort and safety of her thoughts out into the Dream around her.

Demoa smelled it now, faint but real, the aroma spreading like a whisper across the plaza.

Eri glanced over at her, subtly drew in a breath, and gave a small nod. Yet Demoa did not allow herself to think about it too much; she had to keep her focus. She let the fragrance of calm drift across the square. Inga, along with a few others, seemed to ease slightly. Not much, but enough.

For now.

"We don’t even know what will happen when the Sun disappears again. We don’t know if it really draws in the darkness," Eri said, continuing the conversation.

"It seems completely natural to me, that the Sun would rise and fall from time to time," Sars added, stepping forward.

Once again, the crowd began to speak, though this time Demoa mostly heard murmurs of agreement as she kept releasing the scent of peace into the air.

"No, she’s responsible for Elga’s awakening! I saw the place where that witch launched the burning sphere into the sky. It’s changed. The whole Dream around that place is different. Ruptured. Things are floating. Lightning licks the air. It’s unnatural and dangerous!" Gina said sharply.

"It is unnatural, that’s true. Yet that doesn’t make it bad. Haven’t you all felt it too? That sense of relief, like something new is coming? A better time, something no longer so bleak and repetitive?" Eri asked, his voice open and searching.

"Yes! The Sun made me feel more alive, somehow. My thoughts felt clearer. I felt more drive. I even started carving again, and I never used to have the time or the energy," said one of the men standing nearby.

"Yeah, I tried a new spice in my cooking today and actually had fun for the first time in a while. I’ve always liked cooking, but today I was really... joyful while doing it," another woman admitted.

The air filled with voices thinking about what had changed since the Sun had appeared in the sky. There was a faint loosening of tension among them. Still, Demoa let the hush of her power bloom outward.

Better to be cautious than risk catastrophe.

However, the constant use of her Lucidity was already wearing her down. Demoa forced herself to ignore it and kept listening to the chattering voices around her.

"It’s true! Since the Sun arrived, things seem clearer to me too. Yet it’s also opened my mind, and that’s what led me into what I described... the astral journey that shook all of you to your core when I told you about it," Let said, pacing slowly and thoughtfully.

"What are you talking about?" Inga asked, staring at him in disbelief.

Eri turned to Let now, his brow furrowed.

"Well, it’s quite clear, isn’t it? I went on an astral journey after the radiant sphere appeared in the sky. That journey led me into the darkest depths of another realm, where an entity revealed to me that once the Sun vanishes again, a darkness full of horror will fall over everything..." Let seemed to be talking more to himself, but eventually he looked up. "That young lady over there—at least she looks young—still hasn’t come to. So we can’t ask her. Yet it all makes sense, doesn’t it?"

Inga shook her head. "I don’t care what you say. I want you to leave her behind and make her pay for what she’s done!"

Eri raised a calming hand.

"Judgments are passed by the Sages. That’s how it’s always been. And I have judged," he began, but someone cut him off.

"Like I care!" a woman shrieked.

"Yeah, who do you think you are, Pilgrim? This affects all of us! We don’t have a Sage anymore, she woke her! So what now? It’s not your place to decide!" someone else shouted.

The crowd stirred again, and Demoa forced herself to focus harder. She knew she couldn’t keep trying to control the people forever. As the commotion picked up again, she realized she’d already used too much Light. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her knees began to go weak. Demoa also knew she wasn’t strong enough to counter the increasingly intense surges of fear and anger, at least not for long. She didn’t have the stamina to keep spreading the calming scent either.

"Isn’t it possible that this young woman—Ray—doesn’t belong to the Light at all? That she’s only pretending to, so she can open the gates for the darkness? Wouldn’t Elga have tried to stop her? Maybe that’s why she had to wake—because she was in the way of this young woman’s plan to draw the darkness in," Let suggested.

Demoa felt the blood freeze in her veins, like someone had just poured ice water over her.

What is he saying? Has he lost his mind?