Rivers of Reverie

9. The True Face of the Dream

Liryl barely held back her tears.

Forgive me ... all of you.

Without looking back, she ran towards Mount Esper.

***

The first sun rays started shining on the horizon, reflected by the sea surface. Liryl stared at the light show in awe. It was her first time seeing the sun rising from the sea. Indeed, it was her first time seeing the ocean to the east with her own eyes. Even if she had been aware of its existence from the map Eris gave to Sanya and her, until now she had not gone far enough to spot it, hidden as it was by the massive shape of Mount Esper.

Liryl looked at the summit, hidden amid the clouds. I wonder what can be seen from up there.

She followed the harsh route, coasting the eastern slope of the mountain. Her exhaustion and lack of sleep were beginning to take their toll on her, but she forced herself to keep going. She was almost on the verge of giving up, when she started hearing a deep roar. The sound of a huge mass of water.

Liryl followed that noise until she found herself staring at a waterfall, over a hundred feet tall. The water plunged from above into a dark lake, flowing into a narrow rivulet which descended downhill, towards the sea. She turned her eyes up, where the waterfall started. She could not see much from below, but she guessed there ought to be another lake up there, a spring, or something like that. Wherever it was, it had to be close to the summit, days away from her position.

Liryl shrugged. She would think about how to get up there in due time, once she had her rest. She looked around for a while before finding the right spot, behind a boulder which would shelter her from the sun rays. The ground was quite hard, but unfortunately she did not have a bedroll with herself. 

Leaving her bag on the ground, Liryl drew a flask of water out of it, and the vial she had stolen from the priestess in Fys Narhal. Then, she swallowed a gulp of water together with a drop of the liquid from the vial. It tasted awfully bitter, so strongly that she almost coughed it up. But after all, even this was still better than falling asleep forever.

As she closed her eyes to get some sleep, an unexpected memory surfaced in Liryl's mind.

***

The myrri who had first greeted her awakening was now escorting her out of the tunnels, in silence. Perhaps out of respect for all the thoughts crowding Liryl's mind.

For all this time, she had been thinking that her dreams were something accidental, like a lightning amid the storm. Just like the person who, in the myrri's tale, watches the gull diving into the sea without understanding the predatory intent behind that gesture.

Rage. Loneliness. Abhorrence. Liryl searched in vain through the memories of her novitiate – none of the spirits she had come in contact with had ever communicated her such feelings. Only a part of her, hidden away, appeared to understand these emotions.

She had no doubts that, whatever was the origin of the dreams and the visions of the last months, she would find the answers she was looking for only on Mount Esper – there where, according to Thesyl's story, everything had begun. But perhaps, it was not the will which gave result to that rage, that loneliness, that sense of abhorrence, which scared her. Perhaps, what she feared was the idea of facing that part of hers that found itself in those feelings.

Maybe this, more than anything else, was what made her decide to go alone.

The thought of her absent friend, however, turned Liryl's attention away from her inner turmoil for a moment. And reminded her of a question that the previous talk with the myrri had left hanging.