Ray - Voices (4)

“Stirleo?”

“Yeah. That was him. He woke the Monastery itself. This is his domain. Evil and darkness can’t linger here long.”

“That was… really powerful, what he did.”

“Well, he’s our abbot for a reason.”

“I see.”

Suddenly, Ray burst out laughing.

“I think it’s my fault,” she said bitterly, spitting into the grass.

Novis raised an eyebrow.
“Why?” he asked.

“I brought something dark with me. It latched onto me when I first arrived in the Dream. Then it made a connection for all these awful things to follow… At least, that’s what it said.”

Novis thought for a moment. “I… I saw the Crippler once, during one of my astral journeys. In a realm where they’d have called it a Nightmare. It was hunting someone else while I only watched, though somehow it still got under my skin. It spoke to me just now, you know? And beyond all the mockery, it told me the Sun had brought it here. So it isn’t your fault. If anyone’s to blame, it’s Elga. The Sun is powerful, and everything powerful has its shadows. We only need to be ready, because now there’s a link between us and that other realm. Maybe even more than one…”

Ray bit her lip.

But that’s my Sun! I called it here! she wanted to cry out, yet couldn’t.

Besides, Novis was right; there were always shadows to counter the good. The brighter the good shone, the more darkness it drew. Still, the good had to endure.

There was only one path: to give herself more fully to the Light, to wield its beauty to protect this realm from the Nightmares that had forced their way in. And the brighter she let it shine, the more of that heretical corruption she could purge. Maybe, one day, she could even save that other realm.

A faint image crossed her mind: a place like broken glass reflecting dim stars, its air heavy with silence and loss. She imagined the Light pouring through that stillness, mending the fragments until life could breathe again.

At last, the stress ebbed away.

She would need to prepare for situations like this; in time, she would master them—no matter what it took.

It was her duty to use her gift and the sacred radiant crown to protect all of this and more. To lead it into a fearless age where the shadows could no longer return.

“I’m glad it didn’t get you, Novis,” she said, standing and starting back toward her room.

“And I’m glad you helped, not only me, it seems. You’ll be a fine representative for us. I admire your courage. When you begin your pilgrimage, you’ll already be at the point where your words and deeds can move those around you toward the good, toward the Light,” Novis said with a grin.

Ray nodded kindly to him and set off. It took her some effort to climb back up the slope, yet soon she stood again before the building where her room lay.

There she found several whispering students gathered around Ormir, who still crouched on the ground shaking her head, clutching a golden chalice filled with an equally golden liquid.

With trembling hands, she raised it again and again to her lips, drinking greedily.

“By all that shines, what was that thing, Ormir?” Ray asked wearily.

“I think the better question is what those things were,” corrected an overly elegant voice.

Nobea slowly pushed her way through the small crowd, trying, as always, to appear above everyone else, though she walked nowhere near as tall as Ray had seen her before.

“I… I don’t know…” Ormir stammered.

“But you knew the creature, the ‘Nightmare,’ as Novis called it?” Ray pressed, tensing her shoulders and bracing for the answer.

Ormir drank down another swallow of the golden wine and gulped hard.
“It… the Empty Man, I’ve seen him before. You know I have a talent for walking beyond, into the astral…”

“Not bad!” Nobea said with an admiring whistle.

Ormir seemed a little overwhelmed by Nobea’s positive comment and stared nervously into her wine.
“Yes, it’s rare, isn’t it? Not many of us have both the gift of astral-walking and Lucidity.”

“Well, since the Sun arrived, it’s been happening more often. At least that’s my impression. I’ve managed two journeys myself since then, though never before,” said a slightly older-looking man standing a bit apart.

A low murmur of agreement rose from the others.

“I haven’t noticed anything,” Nobea said, brushing her deep-blue hair behind her ears.

Ray noticed with some satisfaction that she seemed jealous.

“Enough of that, Nobea. We all know you’re already so far along and could leave any time you want. But we’d really like to hear the rest of Ormir’s experience, so for once, please hold back,” Lance said kindly but firmly.

For a moment it looked as if Nobea might turn on her heel and stalk off. Yet she merely snorted, crossing her arms in reluctant silence.

Ormir looked at her in alarm, then glanced cautiously at Ray. “You, you saw him too. Tell me, what did you feel when you… were near him?”

Ray thought for a moment. “I was furious. I was fighting a monster myself, a Nightmare, so I didn’t notice as much as I should have; I was still full of adrenaline. But it felt empty. Vile… neutral?”

Ray tried to describe the Empty Man, though somehow she couldn’t quite manage it, as if her memories of him were blind spots in her mind.

“He’s terrified me ever since I first encountered him. I wandered into another realm where box-shaped buildings rose into the sky. It felt eerie, artificial.

And between the buildings I saw him, the Empty Man. He was wandering around, a figure of dark abysses, with mottled, porous skin, no face, no chest. There were only blind spots there, holes that led to nothing.

It was so alien and unnatural I couldn’t make sense of him at all. I couldn’t understand him the way I usually do everyone. Not only was his appearance disturbingly blank and unfathomable, he had no smell. In fact, I almost lost all my senses when I focused on him. Normally, during an astral journey, I feel things: the grass beneath my feet, damp tickling at my soles, the scent of wild bees humming among flowers. But with that monster, there was nothing.

The silence was so total it screamed in my ears, like pressure under water. My thoughts scraped against themselves, desperate to fill the void he carried with him.

At first, it didn’t notice me. Then it turned and drifted my way, slow and relentless. I summoned every bit of will to return, to reach safety...”

Ormir sobbed, sinking deeper and deeper into her thoughts and memories.

Lance laid a hand on her shoulder, but she only shook her head and looked at him.

“That wasn’t the worst part. The worst was that he kept following me, —wherever I went, in every crossing between realms. And then, tonight, when I fled from him again by waking up, suddenly I knew he had followed me here…”

She broke off and squeezed her eyes shut.

“He was truly disturbing. But I crushed him. You should be safe from him now,” Ray said, crouching down in front of Ormir.

Her voice was steady, yet inside she felt a flicker of unease, wondering whether such a thing could ever really die, or if it only learned to hide until the next moment of weakness.

“But did I understand that right? Those things can follow us back if we encounter them during astral journeys?” Nobea asked, incredulous.

“It seems that way,” Ray replied.

“If that’s true, shouldn’t we figure out how to fight them properly before going on pilgrimage? I mean… at least those of us who travel astrally,” Lance suggested thoughtfully.

“I’m more worried about the Sages and pilgrims who are already out there. They might be caught off guard,” Ray said, thinking of Eri.

“There’s nothing we can do except strengthen our Lucidity, to be ready when the fight comes. Maybe we should even start developing combat techniques, so we’re not left defenseless when it happens,” someone agreed.

Ray said nothing.

“We’re not warriors. We never were. The people we’ve visited have always been kind and generous to us, so we’ve never needed to fight. They practically revere us because we can do more than they can,” Nobea argued, and for a moment, a flicker of worry passed over her face.

“If we do nothing, they’ll cut us down easily. We’re lucky Stirleo awakened the Monastery in time; otherwise, some of us might not be here at all,” Ray said, her tone firmer than she had intended.

Her words hung in the air like a challenge. Even the night wind seemed to hold still, as if the Monastery itself had paused to listen.

“Maybe you don’t want to dirty your hands, Nobea, but I’m not letting one of those monsters corner me again,” Ormir hissed.

Nobea frowned at her, an unreadable expression crossing her face. The look unsettled Ray.

As the crowd slowly dispersed and Ray helped Lance escort Ormir back to her room, its wall already repaired by someone, she knew she might have to stay longer than planned.

The others… she had to help them. They needed to be prepared to face these Nightmares. They had to be ready to fight the darkness, the darkness she herself had drawn here.

Biting her tongue in anger, Ray thought: Dio, I’m sorry. You’ll have to wait a little longer. If I don’t strengthen the Light in myself and the others, our realm could fall into darkness like the one those Nightmares came from. I hope you’ll understand one day. I only want to protect you too, since you have no Lucidity. How I wish I could return soon… but this place, it’s the best hope our realm has. I’m certain of it. Please forgive me…

At last, she lay down on the white, faintly shimmering pillow she had shaped from her own light and slipped into a cleansing cultivation that washed away her clouded thoughts, leaving only radiant clarity behind.

It felt like sinking into a sea of quiet fire, her breath dissolving into light until there was no boundary between her and the glow. Finally, she found some rest.