Tejoka

This is a big one, folks! Well, not really, but it's something I'd been looking forward to.

This chapter, I've experimented with the formatting a little. The colored text is distinct from the normal narration, but in both cases, italics still indicate direct thoughts. I hope it's readable. If there are any problems, please let me know! If needed, I can switch to using different fonts, but I thought the colors fit better.

I rolled my shoulders and tried not to grimace as I stepped onto solid ground once more. At least I didn’t have any inclination to get sea-sick, or I’d dislike the litter even more.

But I focused and tried to assess my surroundings. This town didn’t hold many people, and what felt like half of them had gathered around to watch the army move in. The spectators kept their distance. When they saw me looking in their direction, they bowed, not meeting my eyes. I swept my gaze over them and to the reason we were here, the military base. It looked fairly large. Built of old stone, enclosed by a few fences, it should have enough barracks space and conference rooms for everyone.

I swept inside, Aston and the guards following. In other circumstances, it might have interested me more, but I felt too exhausted to be curious.

“Take me to wherever I’m staying,” I said to Aston. “I’m going to sleep.”

We had sent some of our elites and specialized soldiers after the nomads. They were supposed to harass the raiders as best they could, establish surveillance and generally keep us from getting any unwelcome surprises. But most of our forces were still concentrated, and would be used to reinforce garrisons and outposts in the area, and launch strikes at the raiding groups.

It would take a while for all of the army to arrive and be put up. Besides, I didn’t see the need for any more planning meetings until we had more intel from the teams we’d sent to follow the nomads, or at least knew more about what we had to work with. I’d ordered more airships brought here. Some would be requisitioned from vehicles that had been confiscated, which tended to happen to professional smugglers, apparently. Others the army would buy. But it could take a while.

The suite Aston showed me had to be the best in the base, but I didn’t care. I simply shooed my guards out and finally shrugged out of my robe. A shower in the attached bathroom made me feel like I washed layers of grime and blood off, even though I hadn’t been injured or particularly dirty. Then I curled up in the bed, the silky sheets relaxing some of my tension.

I hadn’t slept for days, and had barely eaten or drunk anything. After the battle, and what I’d seen in the destroyed fortifications, I just wanted a break. I’d been a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to calm down, but my tiredness overpowered any other concerns, and my thoughts had felt slow since before we arrived here. Even if it was mental exhaustion instead of physical, I welcomed it. My eyes fell closed, and I sank into the warmth of the bed with barely a thought. It didn’t take long for me to slip from my half-awake state into sleep.

I knew as soon as I fell asleep. The world around me turned surreal and vague, and yet I remained perfectly aware of myself. But something felt off, something about the dream I entered.

Between the vague shadows of dreaming, I could see the burnt landscape, scorched of anything that might support life, a big crater thrusting its edges to the sky as if in accusation. Time hadn’t blurred the picture, and my memory of it remained clear, even dreaming. Will I ever get used to having an eidetic memory? I wondered idly. Perhaps if I had grown up with it like everyone else, it would be different. I don’t particularly wish to remember this scene, in any case.

I shied away from the impressions and thoughts filtering through my mind. They weren’t mine. The whole dream carried a subtle distance with it, even though I was right inside, living it. This is new. Am I seeing someone else’s dream?

Sighing mentally, I zoomed in on the plain, my dream-self stepping over the burnt ground. The spot where I should have been was hazy, since I could not remember seeing myself. My subconscious filled in the figure lying on the ground, gasping for air. I turned away from him, towards the approaching cultivators. With a bit of focus, I made them freeze, taking a moment to contemplate the scene. I was glad I had learned to control my dreams. ‘Lucid dreaming’, Acura had called it. Suited to reflection perhaps better than even meditation.

Yes, I was definitely sharing someone else’s dream, I realized, while most of my mind was busy experiencing it. And that someone was in control of his dream. I knew it was a man. Behind the dream, I got a sense of him, an echo of his identity. It was too vague to make out any details, but I’d recognize his mind if I was ever telepathically connected to him, perhaps even if I met him.

The Zarian warriors looked as menacing as ever, although I could only feel an echo of the qi presences they had had. Two of them were in the seventh stage, the rest in the sixth. Frozen like statues, their faces displayed grim lines attesting to their determination. The one whose arm I’d gotten moved like nothing bothered him. They wore no distinguishing marks, only simple cultivator’s robes you might see in most nations. I stepped aside, prodding the dream to continue replaying my memory. Consequently, I watched as the Zarian picked up the hunched figure and carried him off, outside of the crater, where they would take me into the air. Unconsciousness had taken me then, until I awoke far into their land.

I never did find out what happened to the men of the unit I had taken command of. Short as our time together had been, I felt a pang of regret at that.

Perhaps I could ask. I frowned as the thought occurred to me. Waving a hand, the scene dissolved, until only void danced before my eyes. I did not wish to relive my journey, so I changed the setting to my current home.

In the back of my head, a feeling of unease started to spread as I realized what I was learning. But I concentrated on the dream. I could think about it later — for now, I didn’t want to miss any details.

Back then, it never would have occurred to me that they might simply give me information freely. But now, as I paced among the pillars at the entrance of my domicile, I reflected on how much had changed. The Zarian no longer treated me like a prisoner, if I was being honest.

A flash of Fiarko’s face crossed my consciousness, disrupting the scenery I’d built. I watched it for a moment, the smile revealing his gleaming teeth, the sympathy in his eyes, part of it faked, part of it likely real. Then I pushed it away, refocusing on my dream.

I had climbed higher in my cultivation since then. To their credit, they had allowed me to pursue it. But now that I had broken through to the middle of the seventh stage, I knew my threat increased. They can hardly keep me guarded forever, tying up their elites. I looked out over the city, the capital of the Dominion in all its nightly glory just one valley away. In truth, they allowed me far more freedoms than was probably wise, even for a valued hostage. Naturally, there were guards around the estate, and I would never enter the city unaccompanied. But they did let me visit, let me see many important personages, met any reasonable request.

It’s not like I didn’t give anything for that modicum of trust, a part of me whispered. I am hardly acting like a prisoner that hates his captors.

I stopped pacing and stared out at the dream scenery I had recreated. I knew why I had returned to the day of my capture. I was simply trying not to think about it, or the reflections of my past it had stirred up.

In recent years, I’d often asked myself if I even wanted to return to the Empire of the Sky. Would I even be welcome? Acura and I had parted on tense but nominally good terms. And if the burning in my chest whenever I thought of her was any indication, I felt confident she still held some small, lingering affection for me. I would likely be accepted back warmly … If I keep my mouth shut, otherwise she might not be so welcoming.

I didn’t like to think of Acura, or the life we had once led together. Nothing good could be found in such thoughts.

I had never reached a clear decision, certainly not enough to attempt action. But now, with the tensions between the Dominion and the Empire rising, that might pose a problem. Especially with the news I had received today.

Inaris was fighting the nomads, leading the Imperial campaign against their invasion.

Without my conscious decision, the dream changed again. It morphed to show a lounge opening onto a rooftop. I moved forward in the clear night, the stars twinkling down on me, turning away from the lights of the city shining from the other direction. A figure waited for me at the balustrade, blurry in the darkness.

With an effort of will, I took hold of the dream and changed it again, this time to a balcony above a courtyard. There I’d stood, watching children fight, while occasionally the cries of a toddler would resound from the playroom. One started, but I cut it off, flinching back from the sound enough that the dream wavered for an instant. I stared down at the remembered scene of a girl kindling a spark of light to make her opponent flinch.

For all I know, my boy might already have gone through his soul journey. I turned away at the thought, looking towards the door behind me, but I did not dare go through it. I couldn’t stand seeing little Alaster as he had been. But I could not stop considering it. It’s almost been long enough, hasn’t it? And Inaris certainly has. The way she jumped to the next stage all of a sudden and was acclaimed a high level genius is telling.

I clenched my fists, even though I possessed no real body in the dream, watching the scene again for lack of anything better to focus on.

I regretted telling them about Inaris. I had almost from the minute I’d done it, and all the years since.

I wasn’t sure if I regretted the conversation all those years ago on the rooftop, though. Most often I did. The bitterness was persistent, the spite and desire to soothe it, but that was not the person I aimed to be. I had loved Acura and promised myself to take care of her, and if we had different ideas about how love might be expressed, that did not take away from my desire to support her, any more than it did from my hurt.

I dispersed the dream around me, going back to a pleasant scene of walking along a beach in the Zarian Dominion’s eastern coast last year. I was getting sick of revisiting the past, and my own regrets.

Pull yourself together, Dalcarston, I told myself. Ruminating on this will do you no good. Get some rest.

I concentrated on the beach, relaxed my tight hold on the dream and let it regain some of its wispy quality. My dream-self walked through the sand, the warmth and relaxation lulling me into a deeper state of unconsciousness. Time started to blur.

It took me a moment to realize I was waking up. The dream had ended softly, ejecting me back into my own sleeping mind, which now roused. For a moment, I simply lay there, snuggling into the covers. But I didn’t feel sleepy, and my thoughts were clear.

I sat up, staring at the wall while I thought about what I’d just experienced. I could definitely see what my old self had meant about weird dreams, now. But it raised more questions than it answered.

Sighing, I got out of bed and started getting dressed. So, that was Carston. Mother’s ex and probably my father. But I felt less convinced of that now. His feelings towards me were obviously complicated, and I couldn’t make much sense of them.

I didn’t feel particularly surprised that he was alive, after all. I just wished I knew what he had said about me.

Shaking my head, I opened the door and stepped out, nodding to the guards outside. I needed to let Mother know that the Zarian Dominion had captured him, as soon as she came back from seclusion. It probably had a lot of political implications, too.

I came to a small foyer and looked around, listening to the bustle of people farther away. Maybe I should visit Tenira, see if she was up for a game of chess.

But my feet carried me the other way instead. I followed my qi senses until I came to a door hiding the right presence. Not giving myself time to hesitate, I knocked. I needed to take more action in regards to this invasion, especially if the Zarian were behind it. That meant I needed to play a few more cards, or at least try to get some new ones.

The door opened quickly. I stepped inside, gesturing Aston to follow, and watched as the woman I came to visit backed away and dropped to her knees. She looked unassuming, with graying hair and an understated robe.

“Your Highness. How may this one be of assistance?”

“Rise.” I looked her and the room over. There were a few papers on the desk, and the bed was neatly made, looking untouched. Aiki Ilia was one of Kariva’s agents. Probably not the only one in this army, if I had to guess, but I assumed she was in charge.

“I want you to get a team to the Yellow Graves,” I said. “Find out where the rest of this tribe is hiding, which other ones are supporting it, and what they are planning to do about us. I’d like to get a clearer picture of the events behind this invasion, but what we need is the location of their civilian remnant.”

The agent didn’t look surprised. She simply bowed her head. “As you command, Your Highness. Who may I draft for this mission?”

“Whoever’s necessary, so long as they aren’t of critical importance elsewhere,” I said after a bit of thought. “But I’d prefer if you kept the whole thing low-key.”

I wanted to ask about the contacts her group probably had within the nomads, but decided I didn’t need to know. She could ask Kariva for help if she needed it. If I was asking too much, I trusted her to tell me. But for all I knew, they were already working on something like that. I wouldn’t put it past Kariva, or the other intelligence people.

The agent bowed. “It will be done, my princess.”

I nodded to her, then turned and left. Hopefully, something would come of this. But in the meantime, I’d need to deal with the nomads’ scattered groups as best I could.

After the sun went up. For now, I headed to Tenira’s room.