Liandra and the Dream Reader
Page 7
“It’s only a part of you. Don’t fear it. We’ll just have to put it back inside of you, where it belongs. You see, Liandra, you summoned this weapon from the depths of your mind using your Life Force as a conduit for materialization. That’s my theory anyway. I noticed how tired you became after I separated it from you. I don’t exactly know how you specifically summoned it or why it’s there, but I think I can help you put it back. Are you ready?”
She shivered before pausing then closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“I am, but I have so many questions for you afterwards. Stuff like this isn’t exactly normal. It’s not like learning how to ride a bike or awkward lessons about puberty.”
Roocean smiled and gently clasped her shoulder.
“I’m glad you’ve kept your sense of humor,” he said nodding his head. “But since you mentioned it, this development of yours is exactly like those two things and more. I will help navigate you through this. Now listen to me and grip the spear as loose as you can, only barely keeping it aloft.”
She followed his orders.
“Close your eyes and picture where you found it.”
“There’s nothing there but darkness. It’s literally like finding a needle in the dark.”
“That doesn’t matter, just picture it, the exact spot. Remember how it felt, how you felt.”
She did and found it much easier to do than she realized. All of the feelings from tonight’s dream felt fresh.
“You’ve found it. Your ability to recall has greatly improved. Now place the spear where you found it, the exact place.”
“How will this even work?” she asked.
“Never mind, just keep this feeling. Remember where you found it and exactly how you found it. The placement is important. Any alteration from the original placement could affect you in ways I don’t want to fathom. Now focus, Liandra.”
“Okay...”
She pictured it in her mind. This black space looked just like the rest, but it felt like where she’d left off in the dream. She hoped she was right as she lifted her hands to put the spear back into the void. Was she still dreaming this or not? She couldn’t really tell if she had fallen asleep again or not. She heard Roocean’s voice as the spear began to dispel the darkness again with brilliant golden rays.
“Good. Very good, Liandra. You are a natural. You can come back now.”
She opened her eyes and saw Roocean smiling at her, his blue eyes shining. Robert, on the other hand, looked quite upset.
“What have I done?” she asked, awestruck and terrified.
“You’ve done something spectacular, child. I can’t even fully explain or understand it, but I’ll tell you what I do know.”
She nodded.
“Okay, let’s start from the Life Force, yours to be exact. Your Life Force flows through you, through us all really. It’s what connects you to your parents, you to me, and you to this planet and the universe at large. It provides us all with the vitality we need to live and the energy we need to grow strong and willful. People who can understand and manipulate their own Life Force and the Life Force flowing in the world around them can alter the world with ease and do some truly mind-blowing things. What we term as ‘reality’ is a plaything for someone gifted in the craftes. I’ve met many troubled minds who could’ve been great crafters, but none of them had even an ounce of the potential you’ve just displayed. Both of you have shown me this tremendous potential. That may have something to do with your dreams intersecting. Two raw crafters with potential as high as the two of yours is sure to cause some ‘glitches’.”
“So craftes are literally like magic like what Robert was explaining?”
She felt crazy for even asking. This was madness, was it not? There was no way any of it could be happening in reality as she knew it.
“Well, yes—mostly anyway. I suppose it depends on how you view magic. Craftes are different in the way they are cast, and the forces used to channel them. Craftes literally tap into your life’s energy, so overuse or misuse can easily cause death, especially without the right buffer. Long ago, it was once known as magic, or spells, to a small sect of practitioners who conflated all things mystical until this distinction was discovered. To separate it from mainstream magic, which actually doesn’t exist in the form most people think of it, and to protect new practitioners, they changed the name. Craftes is the most popular name, but hardly the original or the only sort of Life Force manipulation.”
“So, you can use them too?” Liandra asked.
Roocean waved his hand dismissively.
“I never had the patience needed for them, so I’m not very good. After many decades I’m still a novice, which is why I wear all this jewelry.”
“I don’t follow.”
“This jewelry is the buffer I mentioned. Each crafte you cast needs to be connected to a suitable emotion to power it. The easiest way to do this is with an object, like a magic wand for instance, but crafters tend to use things that are more personal and practical. A lot of us use jewelry, stuff like rings and necklaces. These stones and metals also help channel the raw Life Force of nature. We can save the essence of a single specific crafte and the emotional Life Force needed to power it inside of each piece of jewelry. This is great for quick and easy use and when you don’t have the power or control needed to cast craftes with an all-purpose buffer.”
She looked at all seven of the rings he wore on his fingers and saw different colored metals and stones. She noticed, for the first time, the tiny black earrings that were nearly hidden at the top of his ears, and the necklace that was mostly hidden under his shirt.
“What does it all do?” she asked.
“I suppose I can trust you both since you’ve given me so much trust.”
Liandra interrupted with an unflattering snort.
“That and who’d believe or care if the two of us claimed to know a real life magical dream reader? Perhaps our therapists would, to have us committed finally.”
“Smart girl,” Roocean said laughing. “This ring here is charmed with a crafte that induces sleep in someone. This ring has a calming effect when activated. This one helps me translate words from other languages. This one here helps me break down a person’s mental barriers with nothing but my voice. This one shoots a tiny ball of fire. This one gives me some protection, should I be attacked, and this one, well ... I won’t tell you what this one does. I have to keep some secrets.”
“What about the necklace and earrings?”
They enhance my dream reading abilities in different ways. It mostly boosts my own talents. With enough details about your dreams and your firsthand accounts, I can see and experience almost exactly what you did by walking your dreams and observing for myself, but we’re not there yet.”
Now Liandra was shocked.
“No wonder you’re so good at what you do. You have these ... craftes to help you.”
“Ahh, but it takes a sharp mind to understand and use all of these tools in the most useful way, so I give myself some credit. And now you know about Life Force and craftes. You also know about the massive power dwelling within you now. You as well, Robert. Neither of you are like anyone I’ve ever seen. You have greatness inside of you, for sure. I’m afraid that at some point you’ll both need a better teacher than me.”
“Nonsense, Richard! I’ve only come so far because of you.”
He smiled at her.
“Well, one thing’s certain: I’m going to be on the phone with your parents for a long time tomorrow, because there’s no way I can send you back like this. We have a long way to go, the both of you.”
Liandra couldn’t help but grin like a big dumb child on Christmas. Behind all that, she wondered exactly what it was inside of her that made her so special, because at different points in her life she’d felt like whatever it was didn’t want to be discovered.
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Thank you for taking the time to read Liandra and the Dream Reader!
About the Author
Hi everyone! I’m Belart Wright and I hail from Detroit Michigan, the land of super-hot summers and bitter cold winters. I typically wear or carry a hoodie whatever the weather so that I’m prepared for anything. I have experienced days that started like winter, felt like summer by noon, and ended like a storm on the high seas. But enough about the weather, this isn’t just small talk! Maybe that’s all these author profiles are.
I’m a huge gamer. My favorite game series of all time is The Legacy of Kain Series, with Soul Reaver 2 being my favorite in the series. My current gaming rotation (2016) consists of Borderlands 2, Dark Souls, Deadpool, X-Men Legends, Phantasy Star Online, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse. You can find me on Xbox Live at kidNihilnom IV.
I’m a huge book lover too, though I don’t read nearly as much as I should. You can find my current book list over at Goodreads. My favorite from 2015 is Alex McKechnie’s Exurbia. My favorite series from last year has to be Christina McMullen’s Eyes of the Sun series.
My days consist of working, working some more, and writing. If I have any time left over it’s used for hanging out with family and friends, gaming, reading, or practicing homebrewed martial arts.
You can find me blogging about gaming, books, and life at http://belartscorner.blogspot.com/.
If you want to chat about anything (and I’m not too busy) then you can reach me over at Google+: https://plus.google.com/+BelartWright/posts or any of my other social media profiles like Twitter: https://twitter.com/BelartWright.
I’d also like to plug the awesome efforts of my brothers over at FlubberKnuckle Games. They’re making some really cool games right now. One’s a unique card game called Flip’d that can be played here https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/flipd.
This isn’t the end for Liandra and Robert!
Check out more of their adventures in the pages of Average Joe and the Extraordinaires to see what happens to them over ten years later. And be on the lookout for more tales featuring Liandra, Robert, and Roocean in Liandra and the Dream Reader Part 2 coming soon.
Also coming soon (2018), Average Joe and the Beauty!
ToC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Did you love Liandra and the Dream Reader? Then you should read Psy-Hunters (LitRPG) by Belart Wright!
A Cyberpunk Dystopian LitRPG experience.
Troy Warwick is looking to lift his spirits after a run of bad luck. He turns to his close-knit family along with a popular VR game called Psy-Hunters which features a game world where the power of the mind grants humanity amazing abilities like flight, telepathy, and pyrokinesis. Little does Troy know that a far reaching mystery awaits him inside the game, a mystery that involves the leader of a popular clan called the Black Heaven Army. That leader is his ex-girlfriend, Sabbatha the Black and Troy must find out what happened to her and her clan.
*Psy-Hunters TV Ad*Ueden-Ter is a world on the brink of extinction. A powerful race of mechanized behemoths, known only as Overlords, have forever changed the future of the human race. A new race of genetically altered humans have joined together, led by the powerful Psychics. Psychics, Beasts, Cyborgs, Androids, and Humans alike all band together under the banner of the Psychic Hunters' Association or the Military Police Faction to protect Ueden-Ter from the tyranny of the Overlords. Will their combined might be enough to push back the threat of extinction?
Join the battle in the virtual role playing game Psy-Hunters. Ages 10 and up.
From the author of Hell's Glitch: Into a Dark Adventure and The Glitch Fiends: Hell's Glitch Volume 2.