A Dreamer's Tale Chapter 8

The ‘pressure’ of the dream world within the mountain was incredible and strange. It felt like nothing Elizabeth had ever felt before, like being deep underwater but able to breathe. Thousands of lights and points of brilliance shimmered and sparkled all around, marking the dreams of other monks.

It was even more disorienting than trying to find her way around the mountain regularly, and Elizabeth felt a ‘pull’ on her. Something trying to draw her into a particularly bright light. The pull felt gentle and reassuring, so after realizing what was going on, she stopped trying to resist, curious to see where this would go. 

Once absorbed by the light, she found herself in a cloud, or almost. She was resting on top of a cloud, an impossibly wide blue sky stretching out all around and above her from the large cloud. It was fluffy and dry, despite the fact that she thought it was supposed to be made of water. 

As if summoned by that thought, she felt a bit of dampness where she was lying and surged to her feet. She heard some laughter behind her and turned around to stare at an Adept woman with straight blond hair hanging just above her shoulders. “Sorry about that, just a bit of a surprise to see someone interact with the Dreamscape so quickly.” 

“‘Dreamscape’? What’s that?” 

She opened her mouth, then saw something behind Elizabeth and closed it. Dalila was standing up behind her. “Well, I could explain now, but it might be best to wait for the rest of your class to get here.” 

Elizabeth found herself a little surprised, though she didn’t know why; they were training to be Dream Warriors after all; she just hadn’t expected their first class to take place in a dream.

Their fellow initiates trickled in after an indeterminate amount of time (it was hard to judge within the dream, unshackled from physical needs or markers), though it felt quick to Elizabeth. The others gathered around on the cloud, joking around, some even trying to take off and play with pieces of the fluff, but it didn’t come off easily for them.

She also noticed most of them weren’t wearing their Initiate robes. She thought they might have just changed out before sleeping, but it didn’t always match what she remembered they wore. It also didn’t match what she remembered of falling asleep and being too tired to change again, yet in the dream she stood with a regular outfit. Only Dalila and Mordell were in their robes. 

With everyone in the dream, the Adept clapped her hands together to get their attention. “Welcome, I’m Adept Pashun, and this will be your first class here in the Order. As new Initiates you’ll have several classes to help teach you our ways, as well as some duties to help keep the temple running well.” 

One boy interrupted, “Why do we have to do chores? That stuff is for the Sleepers; we’re better than that. Can’t we just focus more on learning about our powers?” The grin she gave him sent shivers down everyone’s backs. 

“The Sleepers offer valuable assistance freely to us, but that doesn’t mean they can do everything on their own, and in a way, you might count helping them as a lesson in and of itself. One in humility," she said, locking eyes with him until he nodded nervously. “In addition, the lessons you take will not all be about using your powers.” There were some groans, but Pashun shook her head. “I know, big shocker, but Dream Warriors do need a bit more than just our powers. History, politics, geography, and many more are all useful topics you’ll be learning about.”

“We have a heavy class load assigned to all of you for the first year you’ll be spending here, after which you can choose your own classes, though you’ll also be given some more chores as you get used to them. If you become an Adept, then you’ll start to be given missions outside, as well as help teach the Initiates.” The ‘if’ in her sentence was confusing; it seemed like Adepts were really just standard Dream Warriors and what everyone should be trying to achieve, but given the age of some Initiates Elizabeth had seen in the Dining Hall... 

The teacher was speaking again, so she focused on that. “For now though, we’ll focus on your first class, an introduction to Dream Walking, at the end of which I’ll give you your lesson plans. Everyone, take a seat.” They did so, Elizabeth feeling bold enough to reach out with her will and shape some clouds up into a chair for her to sit on. Mordrell, a bit emboldened by her actions, made a seat of his own, and he actually thought to form the seat to have definition and look like it was carved out of wood (Dalila followed suit too, though her attempt took longer, and she had to actually ‘physically’ pull at the clouds to make her far lumpier seat, and the teacher almost called her to stop before she sat down in her slightly lopsided chair). 

“As has just been demonstrated, dreams can not only be walked in with our powers but also altered and reshaped. This space, called the ‘Dreamscape,’ can be a good place to practice your powers there. Obviously, real dreams won’t be as stable as this pocket created or have all the little details you’ll need to interpret in the real thing, but it serves as a good ground to practice.”

“Can’t Dream Walking also be used to sense things when someone is awake too? Their subconscious thoughts and stuff” Elizabeth asked. 

“That’s- ah, right, you were taught by Master Florian. Well, it is a possible application of Dream Walking, but that’s a much more advanced subject. We don’t even begin to teach it until you become an Adept. Any other questions?” No one said anything, so after a moment, she clapped her hands together, and the cloud beneath them disappeared, leaving an empty, endless blue void around them. And then they fell. 

Elizabeth was caught off guard and tried to hold on to the cloud she had under her, but it was too late, and she fell through the void along with everyone else. What were they supposed to do? How far would they fall before- she didn’t know what, but it would probably be bad. Above her she saw Derrick jump to his feet, then he realized what was going on and began to fall as well. 

What-? That was it! Like how her back got wet at the cloud before, because she thought it should happen given that they were made of water. That’s what happened with Derrick too - he hadn’t realized he should be falling and didn’t until he did.

Focusing her will, she stopped herself midair, which ended up flipping her around a bit, but she managed to stick around midair. Looking down, she saw most of her class still falling downwards, screaming, though some were starting to figure a way back. Mordrell made a new cloud of his own beneath him, rising up quickly to Elizabeth’s level, while Juliet was flipping herself around through Folding, trying to get herself to ‘fall’ upwards. Could other abilities be used while Dream Walking? Or was she just mimicking the effects through Dream Walking? She wondered. 

Reaching out a hand to Mordrell, she said, “Let’s make it a bit easier for the rest of them, ok?” 

He followed her lead, and together he and Elizabeth made another large cloud to catch all the people still falling. “Try to think of a way back up!” She called out, then rose back up, heedless of gravity with a thought, and flew back the couple of hundred feet she had fallen. “How was that?” 

“It was alright. You’ve gotten the basics down, but there’s still much you have to realize about how unlimited we are in places such as these.” At her confusion, Pashun added, “Removing the need to fall was good, but then why did you have to make yourself rise and not just-” Suddenly the Adept was behind her, “-be here?” 

Her voice didn’t have the encouraging tone it had for the other students, but it didn’t seem cold or that she was upset, just matter-of-fact.

“Thank you for the guidance; I’ll be sure to think on it,” she said politely. Then they waited for the others to get back up to them.

None of them managed to figure out the teleportation trick that the Adept used, but they had many interesting tricks, like even making a beanstalk sprout out from the lower cloud and climbing it (Derrick, Quentin, and Tenga had some odd ideas, but eventually they worked, though Elizabeth suspected someone changed the distance so it didn’t take them the hours it should have). 

Once they were all back together, the Adept called forth a place for them all to stand on, a large tiled floor floating midair, and got them all to gather again (after assuring some of them that she wouldn’t be pulling a trick like that again). “Alright, so you just got a firsthand taste of how rapidly a situation can change in a dream. Can any of you tell me why you fell?” 

“Because the ground wasn’t there?” Derrick offered, but Adept Pashun shook her head. 

“No, that’s not the case, not truly. Why did the cloud support you in the first place?” 

Mordrell spoke up in a quiet, shy voice. “Because we thought it should. We believed it supported us and that we needed that support to avoid falling, so when it was gone, we did.”

“Very good. Yes, your thoughts will greatly influence how you can affect a dream - or be affected within it. With enough creativity, you can change just about anything within a dream.” She paused as Elizabeth raised a hand and indicated for the young girl to ask her question. 

“Why was it so hard for us to change the clouds before?” Elizabeth asked, remembering the difference in effort between what she, Mordell, and Dalila had managed and what they did afterwards, with greater shifts like making their own clouds and defying gravity. 

“That’s because it was something I made and put a bit more effort into. The person who is dreaming has a good deal of control, however usually subconsciously for non-Dream Warriors, over their dreams. Learning to combat that will be important, but something to happen in later classes. For now, just focus on practicing your mastery over these worlds and yourself. Make some things, play around; this is basically open space for you to use as you see fit.”

With that, the initiates all excitedly went about creating things, from snowy hills to sled down to made-up animals. The bigger pieces took longer, and some (like Derrick) had difficulty making much of anything at all. The animals seemed more like statues, freezing up when no more focus was put into them.

Elizabeth herself focused on trying to recreate the castle back in the capital. Her own brain fought against her as she did so, though, not knowing some of the complex pieces of architecture that made it up to get it right. It had apparently had something added to it by every new ruler of Engalia, a tradition that made it incredibly unique but also complex, and she couldn’t get the details out of her mind long enough to make it work. 

Scrapping the work when the class had been called to an end was fun in its own way, though, as she swept her hands down and the whole thing crumbled into dust and rubble. She decided she’d start with something smaller next time, maybe just a ballroom, to work the details in and build from there.

Once they were all gathered, Adept Pashun snapped her fingers and had a number of scrolls appear, floating in front of us. “These will be your class schedules for the week. Memorize them well, since you can’t exactly take them with you outside.” 

Looking over her class list, she got a better idea of why Adept Pashun seemed to be treating her like that. While some courses were normal for a new Initiate, there was also a class for ‘advanced’ Fire Manipulation, as well as Adept level Fix techniques. What in Engalia was Dawn thinking?! 

It was almost certainly Dawn who was behind Elizabeth’s, but this seemed insane. Was the Master that desperate for time to push her through so fast? It did only seem to be advanced in areas she already knew herself to be good at.

With that in mind, she memorized it and took a step- 

-out of the dream, emerging in the same overcrowded, energy-filled mountain as she had been before. She wondered if that was part of why so many Dream Warriors constructed their own dream bubbles, to get away from the ‘noise’ of everyone else. It was distracting a bit, but also kind of beautiful, she thought. Dawn was the only presence strong enough for her to make out easily amid the others distracting her, and even then only in the abstract of her being there. 

She spent the rest of the night just feeling the dreams around her, the mental energies swirling about, and thinking about her place in the mountain and the world around her.