On a still ocean, beneath a crescent moon, drifted a boat with no sail and four rows for rowers, but only one survivor. A boy, almost a man, with hair like mud, encrusted with salt. He had wrapped himself in a damp blanket, the only equipment he had. He regretted stepping foot onto that accursed ship, he regretted running away from home, but most of all, he regretted peering into that secret dream.  

He thought back to the warmth of the hut he had left, the only warmth he had known for a long time. He remembered the lessons he had abused so much, taught by a patient and well-meaning master. Warnings of what not to do or where to go, the dangers that lurked, yet exactly those had enticed him so much. He looked to the barren sea with not a wind or sight of land. He decided if he was to expire, he would not wait for it, he would wade towards the horrid unknown; there was no point in not knowing now, if he was to die anyway.  

He had decided: he would fade into dream. The boat rocked him gently, a swaying rhythm that would give him grounding, a reminder that he had a corporeal body. He focussed his mind on simple things, away from his guilt and noticed when they started to dissolve, thoughts without logic, flow without direction, he reached for his awareness, but when he opened his eyes, he saw his home. 

The hut was warm, his mother stood at the counter and preparing dinner, facing away while reminding him of his duties and chores. He closed his eyes. 

“It’s just a dream, she is dead. Let go.” He would not allow himself to be kept by memories. 

He felt the boundary, the sand of the bay. Coarse yet smooth he felt it, ground round by eternities of dreamers. 

When he opened his eyes again, he saw a starry sky of geometrically perfect proportions. Circles, spirals, squares and much more could be deduced in absolute relations to another from them. He was in the bay. When he arose from his indentation in the sand, he saw nobody else around him, not even the footsteps of thought could be seen. The shipwreck must had taken everyone else. 

He looked to the beach and the bay. An island glowed in its centre, as grey and faint as the full moon, where a single portal stood, circled by a flutter of white spots. Beyond the island was the mouth of the bay, guarded by two watchtowers, holding off waves from the outside sea. He turned around. A dense forest stood there, blocking all sight beyond a few trees’ depth. He remembered his Master’s warnings. The prospect of knowing for himself what lied there excited him. 

He stood up from the sand and set a foot forward. What seemed like a ground of sand was in truth just a thin barrier, that narrow line between being aware and being awake. He felt the swaying, like a rhythm to both keep him from floating further from his body and pulling him down towards it. A wind blew steadily, smearing and blurring everything beyond a few yards, as much as his force of will allowed it. Only when he knew where he wanted to go could he perceive a way towards it. 

He reached the edge. The darkness was absolute and drew him in. If any of the warnings were true, he would not withstand the onslaught. He set forth. 

From the depth of the forest he heard wailing, whimpering and roaring. Emotions as raw and forceful like a fire raged between the trees. He kept his centre and moved forward. They tried to entice him, tried to make him give in, and although he knew he would falter sooner or later and join them, he wanted to see just a few steps further. 

The swaying intensified and the boat rocked on a hefty wave, the connection lashed back onto him and he stumbled, caught himself by leaning on a tree, but as his hand hit the bark, vines grew over it, drew him in, he felt the pull and his mind was flooded with anger and rage, at the world, at the unfairness. He didn’t want to die, it wasn’t his time! It wasn’t fair that he would die before he could right his wrongs, he hated it, he hated the world! 

In a moment of clarity, he tried to tear his hand loose, tried to pull it out of the wood, but he had become part of it. He closed the eyes of his mind and felt the emotions flooding into him. 

He realized he would not have to endure them, he could direct them, at another, if only a dreamer was nearby to take his place. Yes, he would force this upon someone else. He could do it, he knew how to and he had all the right to! He had yet unfinished business, he had to set things right! 

A soft glow seeped through to him. He opened the eyes if his mind again to perceive the mental realm around him. 

A figure drifted between the trees. It was a radiant being like seafoam touched by a faint light from within. Gracile, soft, admirable it was unlike any entity he had ever seen. He looked at it and it looked back, from eyes like lakes beneath a starry sky, black and vast within. He stepped closer and for the first time, dared to send his thoughts out as a voice. 

Hello? 

The figure looked at him with interest. It was surrounded by a shining aura that made its outline hard to see concretely. 

His mind spoke again. Are you a spirit? 

His heart beat rapidly. The figure came nearer and finally, send out its own voice. It came over his mind like the light of a solid stone glowing in the dark, cutting apart the shadows of trees and vines and creating certainty in the murk of this realm. I am a mortal, like you are, adrift and alone. 

His heart lit up, he felt his hand loosen from the tree, his mind was his again and he pulled his hand back, his mental body was free again. 

The being sent its voice out again. You dared to cross beyond unprepared. Do you wish to meet a grizzly fate? 

Yes. I am alone, adrift on the ocean without provisions. I will expire soon, so I decided to seek my own end. 

The figure’s eyes welled up as if crying, the tears were pure and wise like water of the mountain brook. What is your name, child? 

Lirran. He tried to say in his own voice, but what he sent forth was a memory, a memory of his mother calling him. My name is Lirran. 

You can call me Kaza.  

Kaza... What are you doing here? You were not part of the crew, were you? 

The figure shook its head. They are gone, all gone except for you. What a horrid fate and now you wish to become this. The figure moved an arm towards one of the things Lirran had seen as a tree before, but in the light of this figure, it was revealed to be ugly, voracious, like a creeping tendril with many mouths, greedy to feed. Why? Who has taught you to wander here yet did not warn or equip you for it? 

Lirran thought of the lessons and warnings he had been given. My master told me to never approach the forest, but I was never a good student. I wanted to feel it for myself, know for myself what truly laid beyond the threshold, it can’t be worse than dying of starvation or thirst or cooked alive under this horrid sun.  

The figure seemed to understand his desire. The fate that awaits you is far worse than all of these. You would not be devoured as you imagined, these maws- The figure shone more light on the creeping tendril and its many toothed openings. -they seek not satiation, they seek more of themselves. You would become one of them, the gratification of giving your emotions free reign would be elation at first, but then you would realize that your mind was being eaten away, yet your mouth would remain, until you were nothing but another maw, ever hungry to fill their stomach. All the pain would be yours, all the satiation would be... something else’s. Your starvation would be eternal. Your salvation from pain lies not here in death but in continuing to live. 

Lirran looked at the teeth chewing at nothing, tendrils reaching out for the figure yet retreating when in its light. So there truly is only misery in the mental realm? I wished to go from the realm of the living on my own terms. 

You are still in the threshold. Only those strong enough can wander beyond. Do you wish to accompany me for a while? The figure named Kaza seemed to reach out a hand to him. You can see what lays beyond and abandon your quest for death. 

Lirran nodded and stepped closer. The figure led him deeper into the forest, yet in that light, the tree-like beings moved aside. He made sure to keep up and stay in that shine while he watched more of the starving maws. He remembered his own corporeal hunger, the hope of eating something just one last time. I was supposed to help them. Or at least people like them. I was training to become a dream healer, even if I never wanted to be one. 

Then why seek that path? It is a difficult profession to learn. 

I wanted to be a wizard. Lirran remembered his childhood, hearing stories of powerful old men that could turn the tides and command the clouds. But our village had not seen a wizard in living memory. The dream healer was the closest thing, so I thought, I can change my path later still, as long as I get to learn deeper mysteries and powerful secrets. 

The figure named Kaza remained silent for a moment, then send out its voiced thoughts again. Changing your path later in life is always possible, but to take a wrong path on purpose with that in mind... that is just setting yourself up for regret and disappointment with yourself. 

They had arrived at a point where the tree-like beings had become lighter and a body of water began. Beyond stood a forest, a forest of trees that seemed to be that even in the light of Kaza. Among them stood water up their trunks, like a swamp in the sweltering summer heat. He could ill imagine moving through this mire. 

What is this? 

We are at the edge of the threshold, entering the true borderlands, like going from wading at the shore to swimming in the free, open waters and diving even below the surface. The blind voracious maws seek the most apparent food source, moving up to the sands of the bay, but here, clearer thought is possible, active intent. The figure floated ahead across the water, curling it into ripples like the wind. 

I cannot walk here, it is all water. 

If this is truly what your mind perceives, you are yet to learn much of wandering beyond. Why would you leave your master’s care before learning those lessons? All I feel within you is fear and guilt. 

Lirran hesitated for a moment, but he decided it was not worth holding back at this point. I committed a great taboo and was cast out. 

May I ask what it was? 

Lirran’s heart contorted. I pushed myself onto the dreams of a girl I fancied. 

In Kaza’s face now appeared the understanding of the severity of his deed. Your master should not have cast you out but corrected you. To leave the willingness to do such a thing in someone who possesses this power is vile. 

Lirran’s gut felt empty. I am sorry. I hope you understand now why I can’t go on. Just leave me to die as you should. 

But Kaza shook its head. No, I am not as cruel as your master. I will not allow you to die. To turn into a hungering maw is a horrid fate for you, but someone with your power and guilt, that is a danger to everyone. The soul of such a sinner would not wait for the white moths to guide you to the island, you would flee, turn into something worse: a wraith. An undead shade that seeks out the dreamers on the beach of the bay and feed on them. I have to deal with you in one way or another, sooner or later. 

Lirran stood there and let those words into his mind, bearing the full force of the condemnation. So destroy me, then. Save everyone else, not me. 

You are everyone else and everyone else is you. The bay is the realm that connects us, after all. The forces of creation have left us with the bay of dreams for a reason, that we may be safe from the predation of beings that would harm us when we are at our most vulnerable. If a being that can enter the bay of dreams is turned to evil, it is more dangerous than any daemon or being from beyond the borderlands. 

Lirran looked at the being before him. What for? Why save me? I came here with a rotten past and no future. Even if you were to save me, then what? I would still have nothing in front of me. Nobody would take on someone such as me, a failed and old apprentice. 

The being of sea foam and light hovered closer to him. You wished to see beyond. You thought there was at least one thing left ahead of you. What if I told you that I can show you all of it, teach you to walk there yourself? The darkness, the borderlands, the impossible beyond. I shall offer you this: work to anchor yourself to a good or die as an evil by my hand. In the latter case, no salvation shall come to you, but as for the former, a good life can still be lead from a bad point onward.  

A strange pull came to Lirran, he knew it, but different. Now that he was almost beyond the threshold, he knew the waking world pulled him back, but he felt like ignoring it for just a moment more 

You are dreaming, are you not? It seemed Kaza had noticed that he was being torn from the realm they were in. 

Lirran nodded. Aren’t you? 

No. I have no longer need for sleep to find this place. 

The realisation hit Lirran. He was in the presence of a rare individual, someone who was capable of freely moving their consciousness between the realms of matter and mind. 

You should go and think of my offer. I will find you again in the corporeal world, Lirran. I will not let you pass away without fixing what you have become. 

But Lirran felt like staying away from the world of bodily pain a while longer. I am afraid. 

I know. But you will weather this, I promise. 

Lirran closed the eyes of his mind and allowed the pull to take him. Like falling backwards, seeking his corporeal body and allowing it to envelop him once more. 

He woke up.