The Day My Dream Died

48 - Blessing Entangled

— 48 —

Blessing Entangled

//\\

"The dreams stopped for a week or so, but when you... Well, when whatever happened to you happened, they... came back. They came back, but different." Pelanea explains.

Lise nods, waiting, wincing as the cart hits a rough patch of ground. "I-I see." She is trying her best to understand the explanation but it sounds rather convoluted from Pelanea's perspective. "But how am I to help with this? I'm not quite sure... what you want me to do about it."

Bente hadn't said so much when he'd been riding with her, but the moment they switched places Pelanea had started her story and has hardly let up since. It is a strain on her tender mind, trying to make sense of it all, but if she is honest it is a welcome distraction. The dark leaves too much to imagination, too little texture to get a visual hold sturdy enough to pull herself from the pain.

"Oh... Oh, well I just figured you would know what to do, you know... you're a dweller and all that, I just figured...." The difference is abrupt; from the eager outpouring of emotions, to this despondence. She massages her hands, not meeting Lise's gaze. "It's alright though, I... I just..." The sudden tears were as much of a surprise.

Lise watches the tears fall silver, catching moonlight on her deathly complexion, and is struck dumb. Handling her own blistering emotions is usually a case of tossing them between her hands until they are cool enough to examine, and she rarely manages to do so with grace—her experience with others' is clumsier still, often ending in a blaze when she loses her grip.

"I... Just wait, I will still try." Just don't cry. "Can you give me some time to consider what you've told me?"

Pelanea takes a shaky breath, wiping her eyes on her sleeves, and nods. "Please... It... It's tearing me up inside and I don't know what to do anymore..."

Inside... "I have an idea that may help me help you better, but I need to... sleep on it."

\\//

Lise slides smoothly into the undermind. She feels her thoughts clear, a presence of mind she hasn't known since Dejed. A breath of painless air.

Rubbing the scarred nub of her pinky, she takes her time scanning her surroundings—though there is not that much to see. The earth is dark, amorphous. What she supposes must be the cart she rides in, begins to take shape as she recognizes it, ferrying her across the surreal black sea, sloshing. A pinprick drifts along next to her, alighting the cart with her iridescent glow.

Over the deep to her left floats another, a brilliant orb larger by far than any she has encountered before. She frowns, knowing it is Eclait. The significance of such a size disparity is something she's never been able to parse, and in this circumstance troubles her ever more for its subject.

Another time, Lise knows she would have leapt at the opportunity to puzzle at it. It is the pressure of other problems that keeps her from it—a more present puzzle. Or is it a past puzzle? No, the past is where parts of the puzzle are, but the puzzle itself is present. Wait... is that right? I don't know. Does it matter? Probably not... Definitely not.

Lise purses her lips, prying her attention from Eclait and from her own impertinent word-toying.

Bente is formed to her right as expected, a blocky built man, bald head bobbing along beside them. He seems the most reliable of her three new companions but beyond his placid demeanor she knows little. Still, she can't sit satisfied until she knows what purposes he keeps from her, and why. To erase that concern would be simple, a short perusal of his thoughts...