Aliyah dreamt of wind.

Of slow summer breezes, of autumn winds which herald the changing of seasons, of cold winter winds, of mighty gales which uproot trees and carry roof shingles, of terrifying tornadoes devastating entire landscapes and of the magic that governs the wind.

Aliyah dreamt of water.

Of the tiny droplets in the air, of white summer clouds, of gentle rain nourishing the fields, of snow slowly falling, of clouds getting darker, of rainstorms that soak the ground to mud, or torrential downpours which feed the rivers and of the magic that governs the water.

Aliyah dreamt of lightning.

Of the energy all around her, of the tiny impulses of electricity in her body, of the impacts of lightning bolts in trees, of the clap of thunder and the magic that governs ligbtning.

Aliyah dreamt of many things.

Of the winds, the water and lightning mixing together, blurring the lines between each other, and becoming something greater.

She dreamt of dancing.

In the summer with the breeze and the storms

In autumn as the winds carry leaves from the trees

In winter as snowflakes slowly fall from the skies, slow but unrelenting

In spring with the warming winds and the never-ending rain.

All throughout the year she danced.

With a spear in hand she led the storms, and other times she let them take the lead.

She dreamt of the mansion where she grew up, and the insignificance of such structures in front of the might of nature's whims. 

She dreamt of her father, bound in chains.

She dreamt of her mother's relieved expression.

She woke up.

 Awareness came only slowly. 

First there was the smell of mold and the taste of unwashed mouth. Then came the sound of distant thunder. 

At last she beheld the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. As her mind slowly worked itself from the grasp of unconsciousness, she let her gaze travel from the ceiling, to the unfamiliar walls. Everything was drab and grey. Apart from a single dresser next to her bed, the room was entirely empty. The bed, which was surprisingly comfortable, seemed to be completely new and unblemished. In contrast to the rotting dresser, and door at the far end of the room.

With her growing awareness, came equally growing confusion. The last thing she remembered was the horrifying eye on the ceiling.

She was still wearing the dress she had before, and the satchel her maid had packed, laid beside her on the bed. Her body felt extremely sluggish and she was thirsty. 

On uneasy legs she rose from the bed and after finding her balance, her gaze landed on the only 2 options she had to explore. The dresser or the door. After a deep breath through the nose elicited an unpleasant smell, she decided on the dresser.

Upon touching one of the doors, the entire thing creaked dangerously. Cringing, Aliyah pulled the handle and promptly had to dodge the falling door, which broke off its hinges.

With the dresser now 'open' she peeked inside, and was disappointed. The only piece of clothing that wasn't completely eaten by moths, was a single grey tunic.

After a rather embarrassing time, trying to clothe herself without help, Aliyah decided to leave the room. Although the bed called to her with promises of safety and comfort, she needed to know where she was.

On first sight the door seemed to be as rotten as the dresser was, yet it opened without difficulty or noise. The room behind the door though, was a disappointment. The same grey walls with the occasional crack, the same mouldy ceiling, and the same single door on the far side. The only difference was a large stone slab upon which stood a bowl and a jug. The bowl was filled with soft porridge which Aliyah immediately fell upon. Even though it was by her definition, quite tasteless, it was still devoured in under a minute. The jug, which held some kind of juice, was similarly emptied in record time.

Now considerably less hungry and thirsty, she continued her exploration. The door, which suspiciously looked the same as the one she first entered through led to a hallway. 

The hallway itself was as drab and boring as every other room she had seen till now. The hallway led straight away from the door, and seemed impossibly long. Even though it was a straight line, she could not make out the other end of the hallway. The entire sight was slightly disorienting.

The only noticeable change came when she could no longer see the door from which she entered the hallway. At first it was only a change in the air around her. The longer the walked down the corridor, the more noticeable the change. First came the heightened humidity, then the barely Audible wind. Then came the doorway. On the far end she could notice a change in the light, an open doorway to the outside. She hurried her steps as something on the outside seemed to call to her.

As she arrived outside, she was floored. The hallway led to an open courtyard, with a heavy storm raging above. The courtyard was at least 50 meters long on all sides, and walled off with 3 meter high walls on all sides. In each corner stood a tall statue of a 4 legged dragon, looking over the courtyard. The Dragon statues seemed to be almost alive in a sense, and the eyes of each statue followed Aliyah as she walked through the courtyard.

Yet her attention was occupied by the centerpiece of the open space. In the middle of the courtyard, a huge flat circle was elevated a single step off the ground. The circle with a diameter of 10 meters, held a singular object. An unassuming stick. The stick was at most 150cm tall and looked to be entirely natural. It wasn't completely straight and had a lot of bark still covering it. The upper portion was even rougher, as one could still make out the locations of removed branches.

With slow steps Aliyah approached the unassuming piece of wood. The closer she got, the faster her heart started to beat. She had seen this stick in her dreams. She was dancing with this stick for years, through all the phases of the weather and through an uncountable number of storms.

Slowly she reached her hand out towards the piece of wood. From her chest the tingling feeling traveled down her right arm into her hand. Moments before she made contact, a single arc of electricity jumped from her hand into the piece of wood. As if the slight shock had woken it up, it seemed to jump into her waiting palm.

As soon as the piece of wood made contact with her hand, fragments of her dream came back to the forefront of her awareness. As if possessed, she let her right hand slide higher up, and gripped the lower quarter with her other hand. And finally with a firm step forward she let the tip of the 'spear' pierce the air in front of her.

Time seemed to slow down as she extended her right arm, and kept adding force with her left hand. The force had traveled from her right foot all the way through her body, along the spear and out the tip. In that single moment the winds around her quietet for just a moment. But Aliyah didn't notice anything. She was to focused on the way it had felt to perform that single stab. As if bewitched, she continued to stab and slash at the air, trying to regain the sensation she had felt the first time.

As she slowly lost herself to the movements of her body, and the howling of the wind, she did not notice the eyes of the Dragon statues, as they followed her every move.

The growing pain in her right arm brought Aliyah out of her trance like state. She noticed that the already sparce light had grown even dimmer, and the wind was slowly picking up speed. She had trouble standing upright against the force, and her aching legs weren't helping. 

She was still in the circle the stick had stood in, even though she could've sworn she took enough steps to arrive at its edges.

She let go of the piece of wood, and watched in wonder as it rolled to the center of the circle, before righting itself, and balancing on one end despite the raging winds. 

Trudging back towards the hallway she wondered if anyone else was there, or if she was alone.

The question seemed to answer itself, as she arrived in the second room. After a somewhat painful trek through the long hallway, in account of her sore body, she arrived in front of the door. As it stood closed again, she could only faintly hear the grinding of stone on stone from inside the closed room. After entering, she saw nothing new, except a fresh bowl of porridge, and a filled water jug.

She opened the door towards the room she woke up in, to find the source of the noise, only to see everything like she had left it.

Deciding to find an answer tomorrow, she wolfed down the offered food and drink, and promptly passed out on the bed.