Treyan lived his life bound by duty and honor, believing his future as told by the Prophecy of Fire and Light. Even after he found his Empress, he felt he was doing as he was foretold and in the best interest for the Empire. But when his own brother...
Treyan never expected retrieving the Empress to be an easy task. But he also never prepared for the shock her world would have on him.
What he knew, he learned from books—no one ever made the journey unless there was a true purpose. Key construction was expensive and time-consuming, and other than Reylor's training only the Councillor had studied long and hard enough to master the trade. For Treyan to begin now could take years of his own researching and training to do so.
Clearly, his brother had been keeping himself busy while locked away in the Borderlands, for it never occurred to him that he would attempt to extract the Empress himself.
It was then Treyan truly realized that Reylor was lost to him. For good.
But he would not allow his twin to affect his task, this was what he was born for, and he knew he, and only he, had the strength to do it.
The unfortunate part for Treyan was figuring out exactly where the Empress was, and then infiltrating her world and convincing her to leave everything behind and come with him. He knew it wouldn't be an easy task, but others had succeeded in the past, so he knew it was possible.
Research about her realm was his main priority while he waited for the Key to be constructed. During the construction, he momentarily appreciated Reylor's delaying the task to give himself additional time to hone his skills. It wasn't that he lacked intelligence, but Treyan could think of many different things he'd rather be doing than wasting away behind the pages of a book.
But study he did, and though he learned as much as he could of this Otherrealm, there was so much more he learned from his dreams. The connection to the Empress was almost instantaneous. He knew her language and soon where she was from, all by the power of dream magics. The connection grew the more they dreamt together, and by the power of her subconscious melding with his, he learned she lived within the land of the United States of America, within a city named Boston. She spoke a tongue known as English and had the most adorable accent when they talked. He was able to pick it up himself, hoping that his own underlying accent would not betray him as too much of a foreigner and draw more attention to himself than need be.
Once the Key was ready, he was sent off with ceremony, but all he could focus on was finally finding her. He hoped she would be easy enough to locate. After all, how large could one city truly be? From dreaming together, his imprint was already on her mind, so she'd eventually begin looking for him before she even realized it.
At least that's what the books said.
What the books didn't tell him was how damn expensive her city was, and how obnoxious the other people who lived around her were. But he kept to himself, vetting the area to the best of his abilities, hoping to become neither too obvious, nor too suspicious, being such an outsider.
The upside to having the Council of Lords at his disposal was the luxury of being fully equipped to survive within the Otherrealm without needing to worry about having a roof over his head or food within his stomach. He didn't know how they managed it, nor did he ask, but there were accommodations readily awaiting him as soon as he passed through the Key. It was a small one-room apartment with enough amenities to keep him going for the sun's rotation he hoped it would take to track her down and convince her to return with him.
The main concern, then, would be tracking down the Empress, and Treyan would remain within the Otherrealm as long as it took to find her.
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