Connecting Our Dreams

The smell of smoke had us moving right away. Our only chance to run away from this place is to out-run the flames, and that'll be hard enough on the forest tracks.

The trees were burning like a temper, as if the leaping flames have a terrible anger toward the living world. The smokes move faster than a person can run, moving swiftly as they do. The air smells and tastes like wood ash while the horizon glows orange beneath the smokey wind-dragged fleece.

“Sister, I’m scared. I don’t want to go.”

“Don’t be scared Mona. Trust me.”

“But everything is so scary, I do-” With a frozen gaze she stopped speaking, looking right over my shoulder. I followed her gaze, and without a seconds delay, grabbed her by the arm and jumped to the other side. Hundreds of burning arrows came hurling towards us with a hissing rustle, ripping into everything in their way.

Mona crawled out from my grip and started running towards our home screaming, “Our home, it’s burning!”

The flames had not their own mind, any pity or remorse. It only consumes on what it pleases. The cinders flaked violent and hot, with no care for leaving anything behind. But as I stared at the flames beyond the shadow of Mona walking towards our burning house, I could see myself, torched from inside till charred to nothing. And with it came fear.

“Mona, get back. Don’t go there.” She couldn’t listen to me. I’d breathed in too much of the smoke, and my voice was breaking. “Mona, come back… come back.”

I am too familiar with this scenery, one can maybe call it a cursed fate. Am I really cursed after all, or does fate have in store nothing but misery for people like us. Us who aren’t even deemed as humans by our fellow humans. The scenes played in my eyes like still images, one after another, foreshadowing that day two months ago.

Mona laid there motionless, after the giant arrow pierced through her chest. And soon as she fell down, the arrow flickered into golden dust in thin air, vanishing without a trace.

I got myself back on my feet, but they weren’t listening to me. It felt like the world had drunk poison instead of water, and earth soaked in flames and the air choked. “Mona, don’t go! Your sister is coming.”

That’s when the figure arrived from the smoke, as I stopped on my feet after feeling the unnerving presence. Long black hair, and red eyes like ornaments resembling the fire burning around him. His clothes were white and elegant, something I had never seen anyone wear before, along with a crystal-like bow in his right hand.

He stepped forward casually without caring to catching the fire. “So there’s another one left? I guess I’ll finish you off too.”

Our eyes met, as the shear horror that was carried with it made all my muscles tensed. He is the one who shot Mona with that arrow. And he is going to kill me too.

“I’m sorry, little girl. Don’t hold any grudges.” He words carried no feelings, just like a wave of cold air.

“Why are you doing all this? What did our village do to you people?”

“What you guys did?” He laughed off what I just said, continuing like that, “Ahh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. It’s just your bad luck being born cursed.”

The voice that spoke to me after mom died, the fear, that feeling, like small seedlings they started sprouting inside my guts. “You are the cursed, you damned wretched. You are the cursed!”

“And we’re here to bring an end to this curse.” He glared with those burning red eyes as he pulled the string of his bow, “Stand there and don’t move, if you want a painless death like her.”

“Bring about the end, the legions bow. Imphu”

Arrows started appearing above him, the same ones which shot Mona, gliding in the air with a sense of suspended time. I didn’t even have time on my hands to brace myself, or think of anything else. His eyes closed for a brief second, and the next second flashes of blue and white struck like thunder in front of me. It all happened so fast that my eyes couldn’t follow, only standing dazzled after it all passed. The next moment I realized all the arrows scattered around on the ground, as a shadow appeared in front of me.

A tall and bold appearance. The brown hair fluttered in the smoke flowing wind, with a shabby olive cloak wrapped around his shoulder and neck. He had a long sword drawn towards the other person, though it was sheathed.

“Norre Victus.” Surprised with the new arrival, he lowered his bow, continuing indifferently, “What a surprise visit. What are doing here?”

“I could ask the same, Eirvis.”

The swordsman in front me, Norre Victus, strapped his blade back on his waist. “The curse has been already lifted, so I don’t find it necessary to continue the bloodshed.”

“Don’t bore me, Victus. Let me finish what I was doing?”

“Don’t disobey your orders, Eirvis…” Victus raised his voice. His fingers were still hanging onto the handle of his sword, “Is killing all you can do?”

Eirvis laughed dreadfully, “Are you joking with me? We were ordered to kill every last person in this village.”

“It seems you haven’t done your homework properly.” Victus looked around, before continuing, “We are only tasked with exorcising the curse taken root in the Nord village. And our task here is complete, so any further killing is unnecessary.”

“You’ve gone really soft, haven’t you.”

“What do you mean?”

Eirvis snaffled a bag strapped on his back, bringing out a sword from inside of it. The same broken sword Mr.Beryn had with him that day in the temple.

“I found this inside a run down temple in the forest. Doesn’t this look interesting.”

“Isn’t that…” Victus looked stunned as soon as his eyes fell on that blade, “The sword of Arden… What’s it doing here?”

“Beats me. But they were using it for something. Maybe you can ask that girl behind you.”

“But I didn’t sense anyone with a strong presence who could wield a divine construct in this village…” Both their eyes were towards me, while my eyes were still on that broken sword.

“Don’t act confused, missy.” Eirvis insisted with a sinister look, “You do know something about this, right?”

“Actually, I…” I stumbled at first, not knowing what to say. All those painful memories were gushing back to me like violent waves. My heart was consumed whole by a blak fog bit by bit, and now, even uttering a single word was as painful as biting upon a thousand horns.

Victus turned around towards me, “Don’t be scared. No one is going to harm you. So please tell us what you know.”

His voice was heavy, and didn’t carry that much warmth, but the reassurance it gave calmed my mind a bit. I coughed some smoke out from my lungs, as I spoke again.

“That sword, they use to burn our faces for some kind of ritual. They’ll take you to this really old temple, and…” I stopped again, smelling blood at the tip of my nose, washed on my hands, as real as that day. My insides were coming out, as it felt, when I coughed.

“What a drag…” Eirvis fizzled, “Do I need to spurt words out from her mouth?”

“Don’t talk like that. This girl had been fighting her own fight this whole time. She’d endured far more than we can imagine.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s just hard for me. They killed my mom, then burned my face with some sort of magic using that sword. It’s hard for me to recall a day like that.”

“Did you say magic?” Victus’s eyes widened, pushing his gaze onto mine, “Do you remember anything about it, like what kind of magic it was?”

“I don’t know. A person chanted some kind of magic spell, and the sword started burning itself…”

Victus turned towards Eirvis, who was listening to all of this with a lose grin hanging on his lips, “Do you know anything about this?”

“I guess I didn’t mention, but inside that temple I had found another rather interesting thing.”

“What was it?”

“I believe you will be surprised…” The grin turned to an ugly smile, “A corpse. But not any corpse. One with its soul burning?”

“You don’t mean…?”

“Yes, you’ve guessed right. This villagers had been using demonic arts. They were using it to confine this village from the outside world, and the sword of Arden acted as the catalyst. Even with just a fragmant of this sword, one can construct barriers confining space itself if supplied with enough mana.”

“But nothing like this was mentioned in the report.”

“How could there even be. They’d sent us on this expedition without even confirming what they were getting themselves into.”

“Then are you sure that there was no curse lurking in this village?”

“Just tolet you know, I had checked some corpses out of curiosity, noticing that some of them had residual dark mana in them. And all of them were shabby looking women. They were holding some kind of ritual to select which person to sacrifice next. And it was always among women or girls from lower classes. Women are closer to nothingness after all, meaning closer to hell itself.”

“So you mean, all those people we had killed to exorcise the curse…”

“I too had found it out myself, right after I saw that girl over there. There was no curse from the very beginning. What we were chasing was the lingering demonic energy that was holding the barrier in place. But you could then say that the people here were the true curses after all.”

“And that’s why you wanted to kill her, even knowing that there was no point in doing so.”

‘Yeah, you’ve got it right.”

“Then let me say this once,” Victus drew his sword back up again, “If you dare to lay a finger on this girl, you’ll have to go through me first.”

Eirvis took a step back, flinging both his hands up, “For someone like you, you’ve really gone soft.”

“I think we are on the same page then?”

“Don’t get me wrong, even for someone like me, there’s no chance winning against you. So I’ll just play safe.”

He gave me a good look, a prolonged one, as he turned around, “But remember this, Norre Victus. I only follow those who are really strong in this world. So don’t disappoint me.” Saying that he vanished among the smoke, as if he had disguised into that black smog.

I grabbed my breath and ran straight towards Mona. The smitten flames danced about as I could feel the tempting heat through the soles of my shoes and clothes. Mona was lying there, the light receding upon her petal skin, the heart that wasn’t beating anymore. The sound of her laughter and giggles still resonate in my ears. I took her on my lap, feeling the same coldness of losing someone again. My eyes were torrid in the heat, and even the tears that had brimmed under my eyelids had dried out.

“I’m sorry.” Victus came and stood beside me, as every step he took slowly quenched the flames around him. “If only I had arrived a bit earlier.”

“Her name is Mona, my little sister. She was a cute little girl, always laughing, giggling as she played around. And whenever I were feeling down, she would pat me and say that, “Everything’s gonna be alright….””

“She’s a really precious family to you, isn’t she?”

“I’d wanted her smile more, laugh more. She’d meant everything to me. I’d promised to protect her. And now I will never be able to meet her again…”

Maybe it’s because the fire is slowly going out. Tears finally started rolling out from my eyes, dropping over Mona’s pale cheeks before conjuring to little patterns. “One day I had scolded her for stealing my chocolates from my drawers. But then all of a sudden she started crying, saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over again. Maybe I shouldn’t have scolded her back then? Maybe I could’ve pampered her a little more?”

I looked at Victus, who was just standing like an avid listener, without even nodding a head or two.

“Is this what they call ‘fate’? The reason we are all alive in this twisted world? Then is there even any meaning for us to be alive? For us to be created by these so called gods or goddesses?” The words came out in an instant, like my heart had taken command of my lips.

Victus flinched this time. “As a warrior, I’ve fought many battles, where I had lost countless of comrades. Countless others had lost the same by my own hands. Even today…”

“But this isn’t the same!” I yelled, “She isn’t just anyone. Mona means my whole world to me!”

“Yes, you are right. They aren’t the same. Though I can’t say that the feelings are either. From when I can remember, I had never had any family or dear ones.”

A brief silence swept by, as his head lolled to the side with a long breath, “For the most of my life, I was in battlefields sharing the same fate, the same dreams as those around me.”

He stopped for a moment, maybe to find the right words, “But as much as we resisted against this twisted world, the same fate only repeated itself. Over and over again. At the end, we are cursed into this cycle of hope and despair.”

“And that is why you’ve attacked our village, for us being cursed or something?”

“Do you know what humans fear the most?”

I nodded my head, having nothing to say to his question. He carried on afterwards, “It’s not being able to understand something. A village which is cursed into solitude from the rest of the world. We feared the unknown, which led to everything that followed. At the end, we were only led to more bloodshed…”

“Then do you mean I had nothing to do but just succumb to my fate?” I crackled, “That I could’ve never protected my dear sister?”

“I don’t know. I can’t give an answer to that…” Victus sighed, “Once I too had someone dear to me. Not a family, rather a comrade I had met in the battlefield.”

“Was that person really important to you?”

“I don’t know. He was a funny person, who would put his own life on the line to save someone else.” He grabbed his cloak, pulling it over his mouth, “One day, he had told me about his dreams, about an omnipotent magical device, the Tablet of Destinies. Legends say that it had the power to alter any kind of fate that had already been written. He too had embraced death fighting against the irrationality of this world. But the anguished, the fallen, their dreams don’t just fade away.”

“Even if I’m nowhere near strong, I’d sworn that I’ll carry his dreams with me till my last breath. And at the end of my journey, when I’ll face him again, I want to show him the world he had dreamed of.”

“Is that even possible? Even after witnessing so many things, I don’t think changing the world would ever be possible, even if a miracle had happened.”

His eyes were looking towards the sky, past the pillars of smoke at the radiating sun hiding behind the black curtain. His voice had turned upbeat and florid, “Yes, it is. And the proof is my encounter with you, little girl.”

“W-what are saying, is this some kind of joke?”

“I’m standing here right now carrying the lives of all those whose dreams were connected to mine.” He placed is palm over my forehead, closing his eyes, “O’ divine beings who dwell beyond the mortal lands. I am the beginning, and I am the end. I am light and the darkness that follows it. I am life and the death which engulfs it. Listen to my voice, the power hiding within, and show me the path I will be leading.”

As soon as he finished, my skin became brighter, glowing, with small light globes circling around me. A rum sensation washed all over my body, as something radiant appeared right infront of me. Some kind of small shard, floating amongst those light globes. Victus took his hand off of me, while taking that small shard between both his palms. The light flickered from between the gaps of his hands, before going out completely.

“What was it just now?”

“A shard of the tablet of destiny. There are shards like this scattered all around the continent, but this is the first one I’ve found in my long journey.”

“A shard!?” I crunked, openmouthed, “What was it doing inside of me?”

“There isn’t any specific reason. But you may call it as fate…”

“How many are there like this?”

“I don’t know…” He giggled, for the first time on that somewhat mute face, “But finally I’ve found a ray of hope. And it’s all thanks to you… oh, it was rude of me, but I haven’t asked your name yet.”

“I’m Lunett Presphine.”

“I think you’ve already heard mine. But once again, I’m Norre Victus. You can just call me Victus. So Ms. Lunett-”

“Just Lunett will work.”

“Oh, okay. So Lunett, I would like to ask you one more thing. Would like to come with me, and accompany me on my long journey? Let me tell you first, the real world is nothing like the one you’re used to right now. I can at least get you to a safe place- ”

I gulped. I had already determined by now, what I had to do. Leaving this village means I’ll have to leave behind mom, dad, and Mona here. But I had promised Mona that we would leave this village together, that I would protect her in mom and dad’s sted.

“But I believe you can help me finding the rest of shards around the continent.”

“Like you said, the tablet of destinies has the power the alter the fate of this world, right?”

“Yes, indeed.”

I placed Mona on the ground, remembering the times when I would lie her down on her bed after falling asleep on my lap. I’d make up another warm bed for her with a spare duvet and ball up another a pillow, and tell her to sleep well because her sister is here beside her. There is a rage building in me, frustration maybe. She will never wake up from this sleep.

“Then I have made my mind. I would like to see through it all myself.” Maybe our lives are all just a staged act, maybe there is a script already written for the lives of each and every one of us. But the dream to overcome our fate, to change this rotten world, just like how his dreams connected to me, I want this dream to connect to the rest of the world. This will be my fight against the irrationality of this world. “How your dreams will change the world.”