The Ardent and The Bard

Chapter 9: Unseelie and Unwise

It had been 10 days in Aisling'Am. In the mortal plane that equated to half a day. Time moves slowest in the realm of dreams. Shade and Cole had long since passed from their own dream to that of a dwarven baker fantasizing about cooking for the king. Beyond that there was Githzerai strangely dreaming about digging a big hole in the desert, a troglodyte's dream about becoming a dragon, and a brief encounter with an orc having a nightmare about being hunted by a horde of spiders. Shade had partially adapted to how the realm worked and was slowly mastering its fantastical brand of physics. He had taken pity on the orc so he had erected a wall of fire to protect him from the swarm. Cole was impressed by Shade's strong control of the dream world even in the minds of others.

"How close are we to the center now?" Shade asked.

They were sitting on a raft flowing down a red river. Some goblin named Chuk was fantasizing about singlehandedly killing a village of elves, the river was dyed with their blood. The pair of travelers had left the goblin to his imaginary slaughter. Cole was stopping to eat from the provisions he had packed.

"Quarter of the way I'd reckon. We still have a lot of space to cover. It will get trickier to traverse the deeper we get due to the density of older dreams."

The world around them was starting to get blurry. A sign that they were crossing into a new dream. Their surroundings shifted from a Fae'Riam forest to a sterile marble building. They seamlessly transitioned from sitting on the raft to walking down the hall. Shade and Cole both suspiciously scanned their new surroundings.

"This is the Grey Haven" Shade said.

It was true. This dream was modeled after the headquarters of the Star Reapers1, the morally grey organization that assisted in the defeat of the Obyrinths and held Cole prisoner for 10 years. They could hear the sound of two people conversing farther down the hall.

"The dreamer is down there" Shade said. He had learned to attune his psionic abilities to figure out which person, or creature, was the source of the dream.

"Let's investigate. I'm curious as to what a Star Reaper dreams about, especially now that their order's goal is essentially complete" Cole said in an inquisitive tone.

They ventured down the hall network of hallways until they came to one with a thin green rug running down the center of the marble floor. It was not a location Shade recognized from his time in Grey Haven. They walked down this hall for what felt like hours and found they had made little to no progress. Some trick of the dream was at play.

"An infinite hallway" Shade said "I could probably get us through it if you're that curious."

"The only other way will take us back to that goblin. So short of breaking a wall down it's our best bet for proceeding."

Shade nodded and turned his attention to the wall at the end of the hall, where the path made a left turn. He pictured the hall shortening, closing the gap between the end and himself. In his focus he picked up something odd on his ardent senses.

"There's a real person down there."

"What? Who are they?" Cole was baffled by this development.

"No clue" Shade said, his attention fully shifted onto the presence around the corner "They're frustrated. Something is stopping them from reaching their goal. Whatever they're doing, hey thought it would be easier."

Cole squinted down the hall "let's say hello then. Perhaps we can ease their frustration."

"Think they're githyanki or Vecna disciples?"

"No, those lot always travel in groups. So unless this is some elite lone agent, or was separated from their group then we're dealing with something entirely different."