Chapter 50: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

[Ona].

"Explain what you mean, slowly," I demand as I take short, even breaths.

Daax is protectively growling at my side, his jaw set. We both know there is only one person who is close enough to both of our dreamers to have a chance of being successful.

Me.

"Daax," I say softly under my breath, worried the same thing might happen again. "Look at me, Daax."

"Ona," he breathes, his body softening as he pulls his gaze from the containment pod back to me. "I can't. Please don't ask me to watch them put you in one of these things."

To see me in one of these pods would be a type of death for him. Daax spent 40 years in a pod very much like these, sleeping away his existence as he was harvested for energy and spare parts, only taken out occasionally for whatever torture Segundus had in mind.

One of these days, when we are far away from all of this and are lying naked and feeling safe, I will ask him what he dreamed about during all that time away. Who was he when he was trapped inside his mind?

But that is a conversation for another time.

Taking a deep, slow breath, I look down at my sleeping family, the rim of the open containment pod cutting into the palms of my hands as I lean forward. "Will I need to get into the tub to connect with them?" I ask, hoping that isn't the case, that I can spare Daax the sight of seeing me in such a state of helplessness and misery.

"No," Thalan replies and I feel my body relax. "There will be no need for all of these wires," his lip curls, "or contraptions once we have the dream walk properly established. Once that is done, we will remove them from the pod as well and put them on this path properly."

"The Technician said that moving them might cause permanent damage," I look at him curiously, wondering why things are so different with him here than they were before. "It said that Primus and Carnelia may lose themselves to the dream, that their minds might be lost or damaged when they are removed."

"Damaged, no," he looks at me intently. "Different, yes. But the entire point of a dream walk is for a person to take a journey of self-discovery. It is impossible to take a journey of transformation and not be changed as its very nature is to cause metamorphosis of that magnitude that it becomes a metamorphosis."

"A metamorphosis," I repeat, trying to grasp his confusing and poetic steam of words. "But will they be changed so much that they are no longer the people I know? Will my brother still be my brother when this nightmare is over?"

"He will always be your brother, regardless of the form he takes." his smile is wistful as if remembering something from a lifetime ago. "But you need to remember," he continues, "We all change over time. Change is how we grow."

Carnelia has already changed so much in the last year, especially in the last three months. How much more will she change before this is over? And Primus was already lost to us, his mind no longer his own. Will changing how he dreams help him come back to who he is supposed to be?

"When in a dream state," Thalan continues as he watches over the sleeping pair, "the dream becomes real for the dreamers. They are unable to see a difference between the life they are leading as they dream, and the one they left. If anything to them this reality is more of a dream than the one they are experiencing right now. Time moves differently as well. You can spend forever in a single memory, or live a lifetime within a moment. Each dream is as different as the dreamer. When they wake, they could have lived and loved a thousand years in a month."

Mulling over his words, I think of the scope of what he just relayed. How many lifetimes have Primus and Carnelia had together? Will they remember any of them once they awaken?

I watch as the Elf King turns towards Kora and requests assistance preparing the materials necessary to make the switch. The list is lengthy and precise, but Kora is prepared. "We have all of those items here," she assures him as she sends servants to fetch them.

"These two will need a soft, comfortable place to sleep," Thalan explains and we are shown a nearby room that is more traditional with a large fire pit in the center surrounded by several large cushions. "We will need more cushions and the rolls of glimmer," he explains as he takes a seat near one of the largest ones. "Also a flask of imperial oil if you have it."

Kora nods. "I'll see to that myself," she walks away, heading toward a cupboard on the other side of the room.

When she returns with a mortar and pestle, Thalan pulls out the leather bag holding the crystals, throws a couple into the bowl, and begins to smash them into small shards as he adds a few drops of Imperial Oil into the mix.

"This," he explains, "Is dream paste. The power of the skystone is what allows us to enter the dreams of one another. It also sustains our bodies during the dream if taken in very small amounts."

"Won't that poison them?" I ask, remembering how he advised caution when even standing in the same room as the stone. "If touching the stones can cause death, wouldn't absorbing them be worse?"

"For most, yes," he admits. "But if it is administered correctly, it can be a very powerful, reality-blending substance. It is the same thing we use to paint our flesh and let us see beyond."

Thalan continues to explain his methods as he prepares a space to transfer their bodies to continue their dream walk--not as it is now, but as it was meant to be, in the ways of Elfholm. "What the Technician did with those pods is abhorrent. They should have never been subjected to that. It's a slow form of torture."

"Do you think their pain..."

"Could have been caused by the pods. Yes, definitely," he confirms. "But the Technician only had part of the understanding of how this works because of all the scientist-priests and other moon dragons who were captured over the years, none of them knew all the ins and outs of how the dream state works."

He pulls out his pouch of crystals and begins to arrange them purposefully in a precise formation, placing them between pillows in a makeshift nest of cushions. "Only the highest ranked and most powerfully gifted among us know the true secrets of the ritual. The Technician was doing the best it could with the knowledge that it had."

Following his directions, I work by his side changing the room for the proper ritual, finishing our preparation by draping lengths of glimmer from the ceiling.

"You will be sleeping next to them in the nest," he explains as he goes over what will be required of me during this process, " As you dream, either myself or Xane," he gestures to his scientist-priest, "Will be by your side guiding you and making sure your mind is well and that you are in control."

When we return to the main room to assist with moving Carnelia and Primus to the designated room. Orion is called in to assist as well, and with the help of Daax and Thalan, Carnelia is carefully removed from the tub. She is then dried and placed gently on the ground near the tank. Kora hovers nearby, ready.

Xane, the scientist-priest, smears the shape of an eye on her forehead in dream paste. The paste glows brightly for a few moments slowly fading as her body grows from cold to warm. Once she is informed that it is safe to do so, Kora begins to remove the wires and tubes one by one, pausing after each removal to make sure she is not suffering. When the final tube is removed, Carnelia gasps for air in her sleep, her lungs no longer used to working as they should after spending several days breathing fluid.

The priest begins to hum, his thumb on the mark he made, and I watch as Carnelia's body is lifted and taken to the prepared room. The skystone crystals in the nest begin to glow as her body is gently placed on one of the large cushions.

"We'll get you back soon," I place a hand on her cheek as the priest continues to chant.

Next Primus is removed. This is much more of a challenge, not only because of his size and girth but because of the condition of his body which is still healing from his mortal wound. Slippery from the fluids of his tomb-like container, they almost dropped him to the floor and required additional help placing him on the clean, dry blankets next to the tub. Using those blankets to help transport him, we carefully brought him to the next room and laid him down next to his wife.

As the fire warmed their bodies, they were wrapped in blankets of glimmer as their arms and faces were gently painted with signs and sigils in an old dragonish language, most likely the words of the first ones that we have lost the ability to read. They glow warmly as the dream paste seeps into their skin, casting it with a blueish tint.

I am lowered into the next by Daax, who holds onto me a moment longer, not wanting to let me go.

"I love you," I hold him tightly. "I will come back to you."

When we separate, I am instructed in how to lay within the nest and made comfortable as they place additional cushions beneath my belly.

"We will wake you before you go broody and need to lay your eggs," Thalan promises. "We won't keep you in the dream when it comes to that, even if your job isn't done."

I nod. Good, I do not want to miss my children. "Will I need to go back in afterward?"

Daax and I look at one another. Last time we both missed the opportunity to nest with our little ones. This time things were supposed to be different.

"Hopefully the job will be done before then," Kora smiles brightly. "And we won't need to worry about it."

Thalan says nothing, but I can read everything I need to in his silence.

"Queen Ona," Thalan indicates a place in the nest directly across from them. "Are you ready?"

Taking one last deep breath, I close my eyes.