Dreamer's Melody

by J E Mueller

  Mare leaned over to whisper to me. “Aim just a little bit behind the one you can see and two steps to the left. That’s where the other one is. A good injury will pull it into view so we can eliminate it.”

  That sounded reasonable so I quickly nocked the arrow and aimed. With a nod, I loosed the arrow. To my surprise a screech came from the nothingness I seemed to pierce. As the creature became visible, the other dashed in to attack. I shot an arrow at it, but it barely grazed its side – enough to cause it to flinch, but not enough to significantly slow it. Taking up my bow once more I aimed for the once invisible one while Mare, Cane, and Clove went in to attack the charging one.

  This time my target moved last second, so I missed it. Cursing, I aimed another arrow.

  “Aim a little higher for a moment,” Ze instructed. I could feel his magic wash over me and I wasn’t sure what he was doing. “Now normal but more to the right.” His voice was low enough that I could hardly hear. With a nod I did so. “Perfect. Loose!” I sent the arrow flying and this time it dodged right into my arrow.

  The cry was enough for the first one to back off from combat to see what had happened, but only for a moment as Cane tried to slice at its neck.

  Ze gave me a smug look before concentrating once more. “Again.” I followed the same steps, waiting for a nod between each and managed to get a strong shot into it once again. How did it fall for that twice? Illusion magic was brilliant.

  Clove and Mare held off fighting a moment while Cane made a wide swipe with her sword, leaving a perfect opportunity for the other two to charge back in, dealing the deathblow.

  “Not a bad plan.” I glanced over at Ze as the trio turned and charged the one trying to pull arrows out of itself.

  “I didn’t think it’d work. Illusion magic on illusion magic and all that. Yet, it did. Twice over. Sword practice will be great, but maybe that’s not exactly what I should be focusing on.” The last part he almost mumbled to himself.

  I nodded, unsure if he meant his magic or something else.

  Cane cheered as the last Nipem was slain causing us to look that way. It was nice to see how easily and quickly things did work out and I couldn’t help but smile with them.

  Clove and Mare started walking as Cane pulled her sword loose from the creature. Halfway back to us, Mare froze.

  Clove stopped and looked at her confused. “What’s coming now?”

  “Nothing that should be…” Her eyes were wide in surprise.

  “What?” Clove looked at her curiously.

  “But I’m right… I know I am…” Mare said more to herself as she stared past us.

  I looked down the hall behind me. Nothing was there yet of course.

  “Mare, what are you seeing?” Clove demanded.

  “A Dilus.” Mare was firm in her statement. No doubt left in her voice.

  “Why? That should be outside! How in the freaking hell did it get all the way up here?” Clove argued.

  “Yes, yes it is. Willing to bet I’m wrong?” Mare challenged her.

  Clove shook her head instead. “How many?”

  “One,” Mare replied.

  “Still, there are enough of us...” Clove muttered. “Think we can get three more to aid us?”

  Mare shook her head. “They’re not ready for this thing. They’d just die. I’d just die.”

  I realized I hadn’t yet had a chance to share that information on how to kill it with anyone. I couldn’t say where I got it from though so I needed to wait and have Mare help spread the word.

  “Evacuate them.” Clove took long quick steps back to the library, the rest of us right behind her. “We’re leaving. Now,” she called into the room. “Grab what you have.”

  No one hesitated to finish shoving things in bags and grab the bags from the middle of the floor. Conversations stayed hushed, but there were more of them now. Everyone wanted to know what was going on and what was coming, but no one wanted to be the one to ask.

  “What’s going on?” someone finally asked as they rushed to the door.

  “A creature has escaped its normal area. Mare will lead you back around it. We’ll be right behind,” Clove explained simply, waving everyone to follow behind Mare.

  I caught a glimpse of Ze shaking his head. Cane didn’t seem to mind.

  Mare took over. “It’ll be a bit of a jog, and some ups and downs but we’ve got this.” She motioned for everyone to follow her.

  “What’s our plan going to be? Just be the last ones in line?” I mumbled to Cane.

  “Oh no, that’s too easy.” Cane shook her head. “That thing needs to lock onto something or it will just chase down the group. So, we’ll sidetrack it.”

  “Oh heck no. Those things killed me once already.” I shook my head. I did not want to be stabbed again this soon, let alone ever.

  “Perfect.” Cane smirked. “If it does we just need to get you to a pass room.”

  “A what?” I watched the last of the group file out.

  “A room that basically doubles as a strange secret passageway. Whether it’s loose ceiling tiles or an actual secret door,” Cane clarified, summoning her weapon.

  “I don’t know where any of these things are!” I motioned frantically. Thankfully, I had at least used them before.

  “I do.” Ze stepped into the conversation. “I guess we’re teaming up again.”

  I gave a small laugh. “I think working to take something down is far more fun than potentially running for our lives.”

  “True, but our options may be limited. Maybe it’ll go after someone else,” Ze said as he exited the library.

  Joining him, I could hear the sound of claws being dragging and carving through the walls.

  “I hate that sound…” Cane sighed. “It’s so… it’s grating on my nerves.” She covered her ears. “I’ve spent so much time over the last week dodging around things with claws.”

  Clove joined us, taking up the very back. “With any luck it’ll regard us all the same and we can hinder it from getting any further. The four of us should be able to disable it if nothing more.”

  “And if it picks a single person?” I asked.

  “Run for a safe room,” she replied simply.

  I blinked at her for a moment. “I… really don’t remember any of those things.”

  “Oh.” Clove didn’t seem to know what to say.

  “I know enough, it’ll be fine,” Ze added in once again. “I don’t know how to disable those things.”

  Clove grumbled a moment before looking over at Cane. “Think we can do it as just the two of us?”

  Cane laughed. “No. I’m not that good.” Her eyes wandered to the far end of the hall. “But it’s here so think of a better backup plan.”

  “If it locks on me, just run the other way,” I finally stated without emotion. “No need to try and disable it. It’ll try over and over to get into whatever room until it succeeds whether or not I’m in it for long.”

  Clove nodded. “And if not, four of us can at least attempt to disable it. Perfect.”

  What heroics. At least it was a somewhat decent plan, and if worse did come to worse, I knew what to do.

  I felt Ze’s magic wash over the group of us and I looked over at him.

  He smirked. “Well, it can’t lock onto you if it can’t see you.”

  “Very true…” Clove said, gears clearly turning. “Remi, go ahead and take aim. Maybe we can get a few good shots.”

  Sure, why not. Let’s aggravate the death monster with claws that could turn me into a kabob while the other part of the team escapes. Excellent idea.

  I took aim without a word. As it rounded the corner, slowly dragging its claws along behind it, I fired a shot at it’s head. It scraped along the top of it, causing the creature to let out an ear-splitting cry. Everyone had to cover their ears. I barely had time to notice it had something sticking out of its head and throat. A badly cut out arrow.

  It moved quicker toward us once it stopped its ho
wl. Without hesitating I took another shot that landed in its collarbone. The cry it gave was less awful, but it didn’t stop moving. Instead, it came at us quickier. Cane and Clove readied themselves when suddenly it stopped. The good eye! I remembered belatedly.

  The Dilus started to sniff the air. Instead of running I took another shot, landing it in it’s skull. My hands were shaking too much to aim correctly. It cried out another terrible hands-over-your-ears scream. As it stopped, Ze pulled on my arm.

  “We need to go. Now,” he urged.

  Did the thing know my scent? Was it the one I ran into before or did something else happen to this one? I mean, I couldn’t possibly be running into the same one over and over... could I?

  The creature seemed to fix its gaze on me despite the fact I was invisible.

  “Time to run,” Clove agreed, grabbing Cane’s arm.

  Together we took off down the hall and rounded the first corner. Ze tugged on my arm and pulled me to a side room while Clove and Cane continued on without us. Without a word he shoved one of those old mirror stands in front of the door.

  “That should give us a little more time.” Ze murmured as he stood up on the dresser and moved away one of the ceiling tiles. “Come on, up you go.”

  I could hear the claws nearing the door. The sound made me hesitate for just a moment before I was up on the dresser. “Why is everything so high up?” I grumbled as he had to help me up.

  As soon as I had pulled myself up he was right behind me. “Because it’s built to have some semblance of a house.” He mused. “Come on, this way.” The sound of claws at the door was getting louder and faster. That thing wanted in.

  “How do you know all these paths?” I asked curiously.

  “I had a very active three weeks,” Ze vaguely answered. “Sitting around gets dull, and since I can technically be invisible through my illusions I’ve used it to my advantage.”

  “Fair enough,” I agreed as I tried to dodge around cobwebs. “That would be a nice advantage to have.” Wait… didn’t he say he spent most of his time in the first floor library? Or had I misunderstood? Was it all the libraries? If I could turn myself invisible I guess I would explore a lot more things with confidence.

  We paused for a moment at what sounded like a tide of water hitting a wall behind us. Looking back there was nothing though.

  “Is there a second floor creature that can use water?” I asked, confused.

  “Not that I know of…” Ze looked equally confused.

  “Let’s just keep going and pretend that wasn’t a thing we heard.” I motioned for him to continue leading.

  Ze looked back for a moment longer. “You know what, I’m good with that idea. Let’s go down a bit further. I don’t even want to know what mess that could have been. I wasn’t expecting things to get this thrown off…”

  “What do you mean?” I followed carefully behind, trying to dodge the never-ending webs. How did so many spiders even get into a place like this? Did every world have to have spiders?

  “Oh, I wasn’t expecting when I heard things weren’t what they used to be that monsters might figure out how to break out of their zones. That was a huge lifesaver, and now…” He motioned for a moment as he looked for the right words. “I don’t know. It’s kind of scary. What if those things can get into the safe zones? This whole mess is probably not what either side wants to deal with.”

  “Agreed. Hopefully, we can fix it.”

  Ze lead on silently for a few minutes taking this turn and another before ducking under some beams and taking another turn. He finally stopped. “I don’t know if things can be made better.”

  “Why do you say that?” I had already started to make things better. At least, I thought so. Starting to find the Creators and working on freeing them had to be helpful.

  Ze moved a board and I could see the light of a room below. Carefully, he lowered himself down before offering to help me down. Accepting, I was more than thrilled to be out of that web infested place.

  “From what I’ve heard, all the Creators have been separated, probably trapped. What if there’s more to it than just that? What if even if we found all of them and freed them that wasn’t enough?” Ze sounded scared.

  I hadn’t thought of things like that. “It wouldn’t hurt to try. What could possibly have happened to make it so things can’t be righted?” I wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “What if one of them is dead? Or some of them gave up on us and went to live elsewhere?” Ze paced around for a moment. “What if they don’t want to right things? If one of us did this to them, can we really blame them?”

  “I doubt they gave up on us, and I really doubt they would hold us all accountable for the actions of one or even a few. I don’t think they can’t just die. They’d probably resurrect. I’m sure they have thought at least that much through. We’ll figure it out. I’m sure they’re all here, somewhere.” I hoped my smile was reassuring. There were several new questions I wanted to ask them now.

  “How do you think anyone can free them? If they’re tapped you’d have to find them first. What if they’re trapped so bad they can’t free themselves? Binding magic is strong here, that’s why the creatures normally can’t just roam free. I bet the person who did this can’t even un-trap them.” He continued to pace around, frustration lining his features.

  “It’ll work out. Remember there’re several of us here who have basically grown up here as Dreamers. Maybe someone accidently learned some useful tricks. If we free even just one it’ll help us find and save the rest..”

  Ze stopped as he considered my words. “Maybe. I hadn’t thought of that. People accidentally learn useful things all the time.” He started to pace again but much more slowly. “I don’t see Clove being about to help us. That’s all I’ve heard as far as previous Dreamers go. Who else is there even?”

  “I think that really just leaves me and Benz.” I considered it for a moment. “I doubt it’d be wise asking the other side for help. If Benz had a part in this it might be more likely that he doesn’t want to help.”

  “What if he does?” Ze asked.

  “I guess it would depend on how much he meant his words.” I considered the idea. “If he actually wanted to help and was remorseful for his stupid idea then sure, why not. Even if he doesn’t know how to free anyone, he would probably know where everyone is at least. That could save some time.”

  “How could anyone like that ever convince you?”

  I looked at Ze curiously. “Why does that matter? It’s a hard thing to prove. I’m sure if he really wanted to fix things, he’d find a way to let it be known.”

  “But I just imagine it being a ‘you’re just saying that’ sort of moment, you know?”

  That was a good point. “I guess, if worse came to worse I could just cheat. I have a way to know true intentions.” I wasn’t going to explain anything about the bracelet I to Ze, but he seemed adamant on these crazy questions and answers.

  “What? How can you do that?” Ze asked, confused.

  I held up my wrist and pointed to the bracelet. “I’ve got an artifact that won’t come off.” No need to give the real details. “Why, did you hear something about Benz?”

  Ze’s eyes followed the bracelet as I lowered my arms. Ze had commented on the bracelet before. I could almost see the cogs turning. “You could say that. This whole thing is a vicious mess, really.”

  “That it is,” I agreed. We were silent for a moment. “So, what did you hear?”

  “I’m trying to figure out how to explain it without you hating and not trusting me.” Ze sighed. He leaned against a nearby wall. “It’s a mess.”

  “Well, I don’t know. Guess it depends on how much of a mess it is. We all have our secrets.” It was the truest reply I could think of.

  “You? Secrets? I find that hard to believe.” Ze smirked.

  “A week isn’t enough to know a person.” Had it even been that long yet?

  Ze shook his head. “
I… It’s just that…” He motioned at nothing before pacing once more. After a few moments Ze stopped, shook his head and started again.

  “Just say it already. Whatever it is.” I shook my head at him. What could be so troubling? What did he know?

  “We’re the lucky ones with three gifts.” Ze finally stopped and tried to smile but just ended up shaking his head. “None of us know each other’s magic though. Well, I suppose except for now. Clearly, it’s just easier to give that card up to get this disaster of mine fixed.”

  It took a moment for the words to sink in. “Benz?”

  With a nod, Ze dropped the illusion he had over himself. “I figured if anyone had an idea of how the heck to fix my mistakes it would be the alliance going against me. So, I created a new persona. Pretending to live on Silverwell while still trying to be around enough to appear like I’m still leading Steel Oath. It’s all been a complicated game, and I’m starting to lose it. I’ve no idea what to do and things are getting so much worse.”

  I wasn’t sure if I should be mad, upset, or relieved to know all of this. We locked eyes as I flipped the bracelet around. To use or not to use? He was expecting it, but he didn’t actually know how it worked. I decided to just trust his words.

  “Remilia, I really, really messed things up this time.” He sighed, lapsing into my full name.

  “We’ll get it figured out. I’m going to need a lot of information though,” I said, starting to pace as I thought things out. “And you will be honest about it all.”

  “Of course. I swear,” Benz assured me.

  “Swear on your name Benedict Benzadi,” I said firmly.

  His eyes went wide. “You remember my full name?”

  “And Clove’s.” I nodded. “I may not remember everything, but things are coming back quickly now.”

  Relief washed his face and it looked as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders. “I swear it. Just let me know what you need.”

  “I don’t know what I need yet, but I will.” I nodded. “It’s a lot to take in. Let’s get back.”

  “No one else can know though,” Benz stated, making sure he had my full attention.

  “For now, I’ll agree. That may change eventually,” I admitted, unsure how all the pieces would fall.