Dreamcatcher

by Christian Rosnell

  Of course, Sky had also claimed that what the Dream Syndicate really wanted was to destroy the Dark. If this was true – and Lyght had doubts that it was – then he realized his original decision back in Kona had really been to pursue the objectives of the Dream Syndicate or their enemy, the Legion. Lyght had come all the way up to the apex of Triumph to find out more about which group really held the truth – the right way forward. He needed to find that out, he had to. Lyght couldn’t be working with a group whose objectives he didn’t truly understand and believe in. The confusion stopped here.

  Lyght opened his mouth to ask Lyn a question, but the Legend raised his hand, forestalling him, “I know what you’re gonna ask – Seth and Iri filled me in on the whole situation so far. The reason I’m here now is to tell you everything. We planned to tell you all of this when you were ready; we were very close to that moment, but due to circumstances we never quite got there. The King somehow found out that I was working with the Dream Syndicate, though if he had the slightest clue who I really was, he never would’ve put me in that sorry excuse for a prison. He would’ve killed me himself. Or tried to… again.”

  Lyn walked towards Lyght and continued, “Some of what I’m about to tell you I’ve already told Sky, some of it I haven’t. Consider this the reason why you need to help us destroy the Dark. I’ll let you know how we go about doing that once I’m finished, but I think you deserve an explanation. I want you to make the decision because you want to, not because you feel compelled to.” Lyght nodded slowly, still not sure where Lyn was going with this. He resolved to withhold judgment for the moment, however. He’d come to understand that there was still much he didn’t understand.

  Lyn paced back in forth and motioned up in the air, “Where we are right now is called ‘the apex’ of the tower of Triumph, the King’s great diamond palace built especially for his purposes at the beginning of his reign, over a thousand years ago. As you could probably tell the first time you saw the tower, Dark clouds the diamond windows of this apex, because the apex is the location from which the Dark is sourced. There is, however, a receptor within the location where the Dark comes, from. Destroying the Dark means destroying that receptor, but we’ll get into that in a little while.”

  “Sky should’ve already told you about the real history of the Dreamscape, is that correct?” Sky nodded, and Lyn gave her an appreciative look, “Thank you. I know it’s really complicated, and Lyght probably didn’t fully understand, but no need to worry. He’ll see what this is all about as we go along here. Best to learn through experience, especially when re-learning something like, oh I don’t know, your whole reality.” Lyn laughed, and Lyght frowned, put-off by Lyn’s words. Lyn would have to do a whole lot to convince Lyght that everything Sky had said concerning Decimader Vuruman’s history was actually true.

  Lyn took a deep breath, looking up at the dark, tapering ceiling, “Where to begin? For starters, you should know who I really am. My birth name, my name from my other life, is Llewelyn – that’s why I picked Lyn for short. You know the Godra race that Sky mentioned? I’m one of them. In fact, I was Decimader Vuruman’s best friend when we were growing up together – we were inseparable at the time. As you know from Sky, however, Decimader… he… kind of lost it when his father chose me as his successor. King Eld chose me to rule the human race, although I was of the lower branch of the family who’d never had that opportunity. I suppose the King believed I had the leadership character Decimader lacked, despite my friend’s prodigious talents. I never asked for the position, understand, but I was of course excited about a chance to lead the human race. I hoped Decimader would understand, and that he would help me in my position.” Lyn laughed bitterly, “Well far from that, he attacked and killed his parents, and attacked and tried to kill me.” Lyght listened in disbelief as he heard the story. This definitely didn’t fit together with everything he’d been told his whole life.

  Lyn exhaled, looking a bit stressed, even, as he recounted his distant past, “I still don’t know how Decimader’s final blow didn’t kill me. I fought back against him, you see, but my heart wasn’t in it. I didn’t want to kill my friend, but I couldn’t help but feeling the man I was looking at was not the friend and brother I’d grown up with. Regardless, he defeated me, delivering the killing blow right through my chest. I fell to the floor, and presumably died. But when I awoke next, I was not in Aether – the home of the Godra race – but on the ground in Gaien. I somehow just… felt like I knew what to do. I obviously had no idea what Decimader was planning with the Dreamscape, but I felt compelled to go the area of Gaien that Decimader added on and created himself before it was completely walled off by his power – which I’ll explain in a second.”

  “To fast forward to much closer to the present day, I should say that the reason why I aided in the formation of the Dream Syndicate years ago for the purpose of destroying the Dark once and for all. Ever since the King changed how he sourced the Dark over ten years ago, it has become possible for the first time in the history of the Dreamscape to actually destroy the Dark, and free everybody trapped inside it. Let me explain further what I mean by that.”

  Lyn began pacing back and forth continuing on, “I still hate to talk about it, because of how it turned out. But you should know that the Dreamscape is not the real world, if you can believe it. It’s only a part of the real world, a part that is blocked off from the rest of the world by the force we know as the Dark. Decimader Vuruman’s power is the widespread manipulation and usage of this “Dark”, which he uses to literally screen the whole Dreamscape – as he dubbed it over a thousand years ago upon its creation at his hands – from the wider world historically known as Gaien. He can do all of this, quite frankly, because he is not human.”

  “His Dreamcasting power, if you will, is the usage and manipulation of what’s known to the Godra as ‘dark matter’. Everything you see in the world around you is made of matter – it’s what you can feel, touch, smell, taste, and interact with. It’s what Dreamcasting manipulates… or at least the watered-down version you humans can use, that cannot create. Everything you see around you, the Dark excepted, is made of matter. Decimader… you have to understand what he was like when he was young. He was definitely the greatest prodigy I’d ever seen. Gifted… intuitive with his spirit use, like it was a real extension of one of his limbs, or a sixth sense. He just had it; in such a special way that no other Godra could have claimed, maybe in the entire history of the race.”

  “Well, at some point in the years leading up Decimader’s breakdown, he, with his prodigious skills and brilliant mind, somehow discovered this ‘dark matter’. He often discussed it with me, and I was fascinated to learn of its properties that he was just beginning to understand at the time. The stuff is completely invisible; it neither emits nor absorbs light. It can be manipulated by Dreamcasting, but it’s a very subtle and extremely-difficult art I could never grasp. Only Decimader could apply his spirit to manipulate this invisible matter, and even then it was hard to work with. I noticed, however, that when Decimader used his spirit to manipulate the dark matter all around us, the stuff immediately became an ultra-black, like the vacuum of outer space. I know you don’t know what that is – but bear with me. What this was, understand, was the predecessor to what we know today as ‘the Dark’.”

  “And even today he uses this technique in his Dreamscape. Dark steel, for example, is regular steel infused with, and strengthened-by, Decimader’s spirit applied to the dark matter in everything – to make it extra strong, sharp, and lethal. You see, wherever there is dark matter in the Dreamscape – and that’s pretty much everywhere – Decimader has a profound level of control. That’s why he needs to be stopped.”

  Lyn stopped speaking at this point, so Lyght finally found a point to break in, bursting with questions as he was, “ So…”, Lyght struggled to put everything Lyn said together, “what you’re saying is, the King controls and uses the Dark? For what purpose?”

 
Lyn held up a finger, “One reason: control. I don’t understand this part, but the Dark compels people to go to sleep while its out, which serves the double purpose of allowing Decimader to do whatever he wants in the realm during that time with no one noticing, while also ensuring no one but his Legion gets to see or understand the Dark. In addition, the Dark serves as a barrier that cuts off the human kingdom from the rest of the Dreamscape. Decimader wants his rule to be absolute, and he doesn’t want the Godra’s other races to be involved or compete with him for power. I don’t know what his objective is, since even he can’t keep such a massive thing as the Dark going forever, but it won’t matter if we’re able to destroy the Dark tonight.”

  Lyn drew himself up and looked back and forth between Lyght and Mikael, “But before I get to how we’re going to do that, there’s one more crucial point I need to add. The deal originally was that the Godra would hold the creative Dreamcasting power for a certain period of time, and then voluntarily ‘give the power up’ and descend down to Gaien as mortal beings at that time, to be ‘reincarnated’ in a sense through what we call an ‘Heir’ of the Godra within the race that Godra’s family ruled. Now, it just so happened that, as Decimader and I were growing up, the time came when we were asked to start thinking about creating our Heirs and effectively ‘dying’, as the reign of the Godra from Aether would end soon. Decimader, of course, highly objected to that. Admittedly I hadn’t underwent the proper Dreamcasting technique to create my Heir went Decimader went crazy and tried to kill me, but I did have just enough spirit left at the time to release the technique as I lay dying. And Decimader doesn’t know it, but when he came down from Aether to Gaien, and so much time had passed that the Godra race was no more, his Heir was triggered automatically.”

  “Decimader believed you two, Lyght and Mikael, were somehow destined to defeat the one Heir – mine – that Decimader thought would be born into the Dreamscape and cast him down from power. He was going off something I intentionally drew on a cave wall to mislead him, something called ‘the Covenant’, which he might have mentioned to you. While Decimader believed from this Covenant that you two were destined to destroy the one Heir of mine, the Dream Syndicate and I knew better. We’ve been watching you for long enough now, and from my experience as well as Seth and Iri’s, we’re now positive that you two are the Heirs of both myself and Decimader Vuruman.”

  It took a moment to sink in, but when it did, Lyght snapped his head around in surprise and turned to look at Mikael, who oddly didn’t look that surprised for some reason. He did seem somehow… defiant though. Lyght frowned.

  Lyn drew himself up and kept speaking, “We were going to come inform you of this conclusion ourselves, but Seth, Iri, and I were somehow found out and captured. I don’t know how, but someone must’ve figured out who we were and told the King. Well, regardless, we’ve all escaped and we’re here now with you two; the Heirs of myself and Decimader Vuruman, so you can help us undo the damage that me and Decimader’s friendship caused to the human race and the world. Using the Dreamcatcher, we’re going to destroy the Dark now.”

  Lyght was caught off guard by the sudden change in direction, but nodded, pulling the Dreamcatcher out of his pocket. For some reason, Lyn’s explanation just felt right. He supposed the presence of his father, along with all the other pieces of information finally fitting together, had finally convinced him that destroying the Dark was the right way to go. Regardless he took a step toward Lyn with the Dreamcatcher looped around his hand, “Alright, what do we need to do?”

  Oddly, Mikael chose this moment to jump in, “Woah, woah, hang on a second. Think about what we’re doing here, Lyght. We went on a mission for Decimader to go after the Dream Syndicate, and if successful, we were going to be inducted into the Legion immediately. Well, isn’t that what we’ve always wanted? What you’ve always wanted? I mean, now that we completed the mission, you really just want to throw all of that work we did away for some… pointless mission to destroy the Dark? And all the stuff Lyn’s saying is crazy anyway. It’s obvious now that he was working for the enemy the whole time. You’re just going to switch over to their side just like that?”

  Lyght, growing increasingly concerned as his friend kept talking, opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by his dad, who stepped up and looked at Mikael, “You do know I was the one who saved you guys on the bridge, right? I don’t know who you were fighting, but I wasn’t going to let my son get killed regardless. And since I saved you in the process, Mikael, I would think you might be a little more grateful and understanding of our cause.”

  Lyght winced a little bit as his dad said this, and he tried to soften the blow a little bit for Mikael, “To be fair, we didn’t know it was you that saved us, and you definitely have both of our deepest thanks for that, I promise. You saved our lives, you really did.”

  Lyght turned to his friend now, addressing him directly, “And you said destroying the Dark was a pointless mission? I mean… I know we kind of abandoned that whole idea for a time while we were pursuing the Legion as a goal, but the things we wanted to do for our village never ceased to be important to me, even as I was trying to make the Legion. When did they cease being important to you? We heard some clear evidence from someone who’s known Decimader Vuruman for thousands of years about the kind of person he really is behind the mask he wears, and you’re just going to shove all that aside and keep going on about how we need to think about joining the Legion? That doesn’t matter anymore, Mikael! If anything, you should be shocked, like I am, about just how wrong we were!

  Lyght shook his head and took and deep breath, “Well, I intend to do the right thing now. I’d appreciate it if you would put away the nonsense and join me. I could use your help.” Lyght put out his fist in their usual gesture, but Mikael shook his head and turned away. Lyght frowned, completely thrown by Mikael’s behavior.

  What’s his problem?

  Lyght had no time to think about that, however, as Lyn walked over to him just then, “Alright, we need to get this going – we can’t stay up here too long. First… or Lucent, sorry, come over here and we’ll get this done.” A wave of sudden realization hit Lyght as Lyn made the verbal slipup – his dad was the First Legend the whole time! It all made sense to Lyght now why he hadn’t spoken during their meeting, and why he’d written the in letter he’d handed Lyght that he’d been “looking forward to seeing him.”

  Lyght looked over with a big grin on his face to his dad as he approached, “So… you did make it to the Legion. You rose all the way to First Legend, even. That’s incredible!”

  Lucent looked down, “Yeah, thanks… although I’m beginning to wish I’d spent that same time raising you instead of defending a tyrant. I didn’t know back then what I know now, of course. You see, the King told me you had died in the attack, and that the Legion had come by and rescued me after the fact – although the opposite happened. It had been the Legion, who attacked me, and, well… anyway, here. Look at this. This is the reason I’m the First Legend.”

  Lucent quickly took off his armor and pulled his shirt up over his head, throwing it to the side as Lyght let out an audible gasp. It took him a few seconds to understand what he was seeing. Lyght remembered with a flash how the enemy’s blade had struck Lucent through the heart ten years ago. It still hadn’t been explained how Lucent had survived that. Well, Lyght thought he knew now.

  Where Lucent’s heart should have been, there was a hole – with an oddly-pulsing black crystal in the center. And odd sort of cube, the thing moved and jumped weirdly, like a heart itself. Lucent nodded and pointed at it, “I rose to First Legend because I was loyal to the King above all else – which I deeply regret now, having met Lyn – so he thought he could entrust me over anyone else with certain knowledge.”

  Lucent looked into his son’s eyes as he explained, “You were right earlier, that sword went right through my heart that night, and it absolutely should have killed me. However, the attackers – who were not
actually the Dream Syndicate, but an undercover Legion patrol out-of-uniform – whisked me to Glory and brought me to the King, who had actually ordered the attack. I didn’t know any of that last part until recently, but I do remember having woke up with this black crystal where my heart used to be. After thoroughly testing my loyalty for years and years of working in the Legion, the King elevated me to First Legend, and told me the nature of the black crystal that keeps me alive.”

  His dad’s next works made Lyght’s heart skip a beat, “Lyght, this crystal in my chest is the source of the Dark. The entire thing flows out of here at nearly light speed, as invisible dark matter, and consolidates as Dark in the sky. And that Dreamcatcher, according to Lyn, was historically owned by the Godra King of the Vuru – leaders of the human race – and was given to them to aid them in their creative mission by whatever deity formed that contract with them.” Lucent slipped a finger over the Dreamcatcher and pulled it off of Lyght’s hand. He held it up, looking curiously at the small woven object. After examining it, Lucent looked up at Lyght and Mikael, “You guys should know what this object really does. Let me explain.”

  “The Dreamcatcher, you see, is based on the fundamental idea of Dreamcasting that the user essentially ‘dreams while awake’; and that they do this through interacting with the universe around them – in other words, matter. If I understand Lyn correctly, the Dreamcatcher essentially acted as a ‘portal’ of sorts for the Vuru to collectively pool and channel their spirit through while creating the world of Gaien. The regular matter that made up Gaien was somehow – in a way I don’t understand – transferred through the gaps in the net of the Dreamcatcher, while the invisible dark matter which also played a role in the creation of the world was sourced through the netting itself.”