Work Text:
May 18, XXXX
Hello. This is the beginning of my dream journal, which I am writing by my doctor’s request, so that I may properly process my experiences and track any abnormalities. I will endeavor to fulfill these instructions as best I can. However, this is a new experience for me. I have never kept a dream journal before. In part, this is because I have never remembered my dreams before, although I admit I do not believe I would have thought of this idea on my own, even if I had. I remembered some things, but overall, I think my recollection was far below average.
That changed one and a half weeks ago, after the conclusion of Malleus’s overblot. I remember everything, now. I don’t know why this is the case. I am told that it is rare to the point of impossibility that a person, who typically has four to six dreams per night, would remember all of it, but I believe I have gained memory of the entire period of time that I am in the dreamscape, likely due to my experience being very different because of my unique magic.
Last night, I dreamed of home. I was in the cottage with Father, and I was making breakfast, but nothing else of note happened. I was quickly aware that I was dreaming, and on a whim, I used my unique magic to travel to the dreams of someone else.
There is something I need to address: I want to take this dream journal seriously and be thorough in my entries; however, it feels like a violation of privacy to write everything about the dreams I visit. I’ll only write about what isn’t sensitive or heavily personal to them, although I realize it’d be difficult to ask their opinions on this directly; already, I know far more about my companions than I think they would have wanted me to. Maybe it is wrong of me to continue to visit their dreams at all. I do not control which dreams I enter; however, it is also true that I have been seeing familiar faces much more often now, than I used to. This is another change that has occurred apparently due to the time spent inside of Malleus’s dreamscape.
I will need time to think on this further.
Silver Vanrouge
+++
Silver watched Sebek from a distance, keeping himself hidden among the large Briar Valley trees.
Sebek wore a confident smile, and his eyes gleamed with excitement as he sparred with a dream version of Lilia, while the dream’s Malleus and Silver watched him from the sidelines and spoke encouraging words to them both. Silver watched them closely; even now, he found it hard not to be instinctively wary of the clones, remembering the Darkness spawned by blot which were designed to keep the dreamer asleep inside Malleus’s domain and fight off anyone who tried to disrupt that dream, but he knew very well that this was nothing like that. This was just a normal dream, and gratefully, it was a happy dream, too. Sebek was practicing for a competition, a ‘Battle of Swords’ in which he would represent Malleus as his knight and fight against opponents who…represented other lieges of their own, probably.
They were in their hometown right now, which looked the same as reality except for the giant castle that wasn’t there before, complete with banners of all the contestants, which were all fuzzy in detail except for Sebek’s, which was emblazoned with art of him in armor, plus his title, ‘Knight of Lightning,’ and many lightning bolts for bold graphical effect.
Silver looked back at Sebek and smiled. He was glad that he was having a good dream. Silver had been making a habit of checking up on him, Lilia, and Malleus every night…although, logically, he shouldn’t have been able to do so, since he couldn’t control his unique magic like that, but somehow, he still succeeded, every time, albeit in random order, with others in between.
He left the dream, satisfied that he wasn’t needed here. He would only interfere if there was some way that he should help.
“Silver!?” Deuce asked, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw Silver appear at the doorway inside the Heartslabyul dorm, where numerous pieces of teaware were floating in the air all around them. Deuce’s attention snapped to Silver immediately, and he seemed stressed. “Oh, it’s a good thing you’re here—I’m running late, my homework isn’t finished, and I need to finish putting the hedgehogs in the teacups! They’re color-coded, and I put the pink hedgehogs in the green teacups by accident—can you help me? With the hedgehogs? I’m sorry, you’re probably busy too, but…”
“No, it’s fine; I can help,” Silver agreed, promptly grabbing the cups from the air and finding the hedgehogs. He wondered curiously if this was a real Heartslabyul tradition that he had never heard of before, but he also knew very well that dreams did not follow real world logic, typically, and by his observations, the Heartslabyul students seemed especially prone to unique dreams.
“Wow, Silver, I knew that animals loved you, but…those hedgehogs really seem to like you,” Deuce said with awe, as Silver gathered more of them in his arms, who then climbed him and became perched on his head and shoulders. “You know, you’re welcome to visit them in Heartslabyul anytime! If you want to, I mean… Well, anyways, thanks so much for your help! I promise I’ll pay you back!”
“That’s not necessary, but thank you,” Silver told him, although he knew that most likely, Deuce would forget about this by morning. “I am glad I could help.”
+++
It’s become customary for me to interfere in dreams when there is a need of some kind. It seems only natural, although sometimes I question whether my presence is really a help at all. It is smoother, however, with the dreams of the people who know me, as my presence isn’t alarming to them. Just last night, Epel dreamed of adopting a stray cat who without warning transformed into a wolf, and he came to me for advice on how to take care of it. Luckily, I am very familiar with forest creatures of all kinds. The wolf grew very strong and healthy. I was probably unneeded, since dreams do not necessarily follow the logic of reality and the wolf would have been fine regardless, but still, I’m glad I could lend my support.
However, unfortunately, the problems encountered in dreams are not always nearly so benign.
+++
“Riddle! Riddle, please, just listen to the sound of my voice, and keep walking forward. We’re going to get out of here.”
Silver wasn’t sure if he could promise that. The darkened hallway kept drawing more tightly around them, and no matter which door they opened, it only led to another twisted hallway or to another room in Riddle’s house. They’ve been going in circles, and Silver did not know if there was a way out. This was Riddle’s dream, so if he didn’t believe there was a way of escape, there wouldn’t be.
“RIDDLE! WHERE DID YOU GO!? COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!”
“I-I-I need to go!” Riddle stammered, his eyes darting around frantically as if his mother was in the walls, while his hand only grasped onto Silver’s more tightly, to the point that it was becoming painful. “I need to go back and see Mother! She’ll be mad if I don’t come!”
Silver didn’t know how to answer. Riddle kept vacillating back and forth, between wanting to go and wanting to stay. They were inside his house right now…or some extremely distorted version of it, which Silver only recognized because, in a dream, he’s been here before. And the similarities between what happened then and now were disturbing to him, to say the least. When he first got here, Riddle was drowning. His room was flooded, and monstrous hands kept forcing him underneath the waves, which he struggled and flailed desperately against. It was a very difficult fight for Silver, too, who also was dragged underwater multiple times, but they made it out, breaking the doorway and making an escape. Silver…only hoped this dream wasn’t a recurring one. Has Riddle been dreaming of floods ever since his dream in Malleus’s domain? Or was he dreaming this beforehand?
“Let’s…keep moving forward,” Silver said slowly. He shouldn’t make the decision for Riddle, but this felt like the best thing they could do. All the way, the floor and walls warped around them, and hands reached out from below to grab them by the ankles or from above to smother their faces, and Silver diligently repelled each of them with magic and kept reapplying barriers around them to act as shields.
“RIDDLE! RIDDLE!” the walls screeched.
Riddle clung onto Silver and silently used fire magic to burn away the limb reaching for his face. “I have to go back, Silver. I’m…I’m sorry.”
“Is that what you want?” Silver asked gently.
Riddle paused. “I want to leave. We have to get outside…it’s…the exit has to be somewhere.”
+++
I can’t fix every problem. I can use magic inside of dreams, and I can fight, but I cannot change the rules of the reality we are in. That is dictated by the dreamer, and even so, I do not believe they can actively control the actions of their subconscious, in this state. They try, but they are bound to the world they are in. There are also times that the dreamer does not wish to avert disaster. Jade had a dream of the school getting overtaken by a rare fungal infection that turned it to ruin. This was not a nightmare, however. He had little sense of danger and seemed happy to study the infection even as it ate his skin. Jade’s nightmares are…much different, than that.
+++
“Jade? Can you hear me? Please, I’m not going to hurt you.”
The sensation of blood in the water was overwhelming, a vivid and acrid taste in Silver’s mouth that he knew, all too well, could only come from experience. Lots of people had nightmares about them or someone they cared about getting hurt, but it made a difference, how well they knew about what they imagined. Ace’s nightmare about Deuce and Yuu getting hurt wasn’t nearly as graphic as Father’s nightmare about losing all of them. It was, however, just as terrifying, for both of them.
Floyd had gotten hurt. Jade clutched him protectively, with a fierce and almost wild look in his eyes not unlike that of a hurt, cornered animal, as he backed into the broken reef clouded with the floating guts of dead merfolk, and it was very clear that he did not trust Silver in the slightest…probably because, right now, he was a child. Sometimes, people had dreams that put them back in the form of their childhood self, and if so, they didn’t always have memory of their current real life, especially if it was a nightmare. Silver’s seen Azul have multiple dreams like this, too, as well as Jamil, Leona, Idia, and even Trey. It…made things much harder, for him, when they had no reason to trust him.
A shadow loomed behind him, of a large, faceless merfolk with long, twisted, bloody claws. Silver was forced to move fast before it lunged for him. He was unfortunately, quite literally, out of his depth, as he had no proficiency in fighting underwater, and the figure was so distorted that it was difficult to clock its movements. Jade’s mental visualization was never all that clear, in his dreams—he never got people’s faces quite right—so sometimes, his dreams were difficult to navigate, but even so, every other sense remained as clear as day. The feel, sound, and smells of their surroundings were as vivid as they were oppressive, and Silver could not help but imagine that Jade’s pain was just as strong to him, as well.
“Hold on! Your parents are on their way!” Silver shouted, before gathering magic to attack the figure. He couldn’t stray far from the dreamer, and he couldn’t change this dream, either, but he found, by at least putting the idea in the dreamer’s head, it could sometimes be made a reality.
It didn’t happen right away, but Georgina Leech did show up, in the end. Their mother came in like a deadly flash, grabbing the figure off a now-bleeding Silver and throwing it against the rocks with a powerful strike that seemed to shake the ocean itself. They fought, and in what might have been just mere seconds, she embedded her knife in its heart and snapped its neck. Emerging out of the cloud of blood, she quickly rushed over to gather Jade and Floyd up in her arms, and quietly, Silver backed away and left the dream behind.
“Wait…Kalim. I…I have to find Kalim. He’s still…” Jamil cut himself off with a violent cough, accompanied by splatters of blood landing onto his arm and Silver’s, and Silver had to fight harder than usual to remind himself that Jamil was still fine, in reality. He wasn’t poisoned, he wasn’t stabbed in the chest, and he wasn’t dying. Still, Silver kept applying healing magic, as he proceeded to carry Jamil’s limp form in his arms and navigate through the underground labyrinth.
“I know,” Silver assured. “We won’t leave without him.”
Kalim must be in the labyrinth too, then. Silver still didn’t know what was happening, exactly, not knowing quite the nature of Jamil’s captors, yet, but he was unfortunately familiar with the scenario. Kalim’s had many nightmares just like this, before, and this was far from Jamil’s first, either, in which one or both of the two of them were taken captive or otherwise attacked or poisoned in some way. This time, Silver found Jamil inside an underground banquet hall with hundreds of guests, who he struggled to serve under the debilitating daze of poison, while they mocked him relentlessly. Unfortunately, given their numbers, pulling Jamil away from his kidnappers (at least, that’s what Silver assumed they must be, in this scenario) was quite difficult, and Jamil got stabbed during the fight. Silver sincerely regretted not handling that better…if he had been more patient and didn’t confront everyone there so openly, then maybe, Jamil wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Silver just…found it very difficult, just to stand back and watch. Even if it was just a dream.
The labyrinth was quiet, now, since they had escaped and thrown off the men pursuing them, but Silver knew he couldn’t let his guard down. That fear proved unfortunately true, when figures appeared in the hallway ahead of them.
“Who goes there!?”
Silver set Jamil down, by necessity, so he could draw his sword and get ready for a fight, but to his surprise, Jamil immediately got up, stumbling in the action by assuming a combative stance and charging magic into his hands.
“Silver, stay back!” he said, his raspy voice still surprisingly strong in its delivery. “You’re a prince—they’re going to want you, too.”
“I…am?” Silver blinked in surprise, stunned for multiple reasons. He remembered, then, that Jamil knew about his past now, and in his subconscious, he must think it quite relevant, at present. However, that was beside the point.
“Jamil, don’t push yourself!” Silver urged, as he threw up a barrier in front of them to hold the attackers back for a few more precious seconds. “You’re hurt!”
“Seriously? You were injured too, in that fight. What are you even doing here!? How did you find me!?”
Oh…right. Silver suddenly became a little more aware of the gash in his side and the blood still flowing from the cut on his forehead. He wasn’t thinking about that, before. Of course, head wounds tended to bleed a lot, so really, it looked much worse than it was, but Jamil probably knew that, so he wouldn’t waste time pointing that out. “I happened to be in the area,” Silver said instead, unfortunately also very accustomed, by now, to lying about his presence inside people’s dreams, so as not to alarm the dreamer.
“Really? You just happened to wander inside a heavily guarded secret underground labyrinth?”
However, Silver never said he was good at lying.
“We’ll fight together, then,” he said instead, hoping that would placate Jamil’s reservations. He wasn’t the only one who didn’t like being indebted to others, after all.
Jamil agreed, and they successfully fought the attackers together. They then hurried off, to find where Kalim was being held.
+++
I feared it would be much worse. People tend to be significantly more prone to nightmares, after stressful events, and Malleus’s overblot was sure to be stressful for many, including Malleus himself. I have been to his dreams multiple times, now, as well as Father’s and Sebek’s. Unfortunately, they have had some nightmares, as have everyone else, but it is hard to say how much greater this is compared to their normal rate. I cannot be sure; again, I used to never remember anything. The people whose dreams I visited were also much more random, a fact which I don’t think I have quite addressed in this journal in its totality. It is increasingly clear that I really am visiting the same people’s dreams, over and over again. They are the people I know, who we visited on purpose, back in Malleus’s domain. I don’t think I am doing it on purpose now, or maybe I am. I have wished to check on Malleus, Father, and Sebek specifically, and my magic has granted that wish, multiple times. I also have wished to check on everyone else, as well. While the rate of nightmares they have does not seem to have changed significantly, it does seem like, for many of them, their nightmares are terribly potent, especially for those who have overblotted before.
I feel a sense of familiarity, like I have visited their dreams before, long before this time. I detect patterns that I shouldn’t know, I think. Maybe some part of my subconscious does remember. It can feel…overwhelming, sometimes. How long have I known?
+++
For a moment, Silver wasn’t sure if this was Father’s nightmare or his own.
He swore that this happened to him, before. Silver never stayed in his own dreams all that long, and when he had a nightmare, he was always aware that it was a nightmare. Sometimes, that didn’t help much, in making it any less terrifying. It certainly didn’t him now, as he stumbled in the mud and fell into a bramble of twisted, thorny vines, while he was forced to listen to Father’s screams tangle with the cries of his own childhood self.
The Silver Owl knights roughly pulled Lilia back and pushed him into the dirt as they continued to bind him hand and foot, while the knight on the horse struggled to hold tightly onto a small, crying, flailing Silver, who he was getting ready to carry far, far away from here.
“FATHER! FATHER, NO! DON’T HURT HIM!”
“What, him?” Hendrick sneered, looking down at Lilia from atop his horse with a vicious grin. “He’s not your father. That monster must have lied to you—you belong to us, little lost prince! But don’t worry, you’ll see your precious ‘father’ again…when we parade him through our streets as our trophy prisoner!” he finished with a loud, mocking laugh.
“You—!” Lilia started, but he was immediately cut off by a vicious kick to his chest by one of the knights.
“Silence, you monster!”
“STAY AWAY FROM HIM!”
Silver’s shout attracted everyone’s attention at once on him, when he appeared before the group, finally, with a drawn sword in his hands.
“What!? You’re… TAKE HIM! CAPTURE HIM!” Henrick commanded, and immediately the knights charged him, just as Silver was planning to do to them. He was outnumbered, but he fought them with a fury boiling in his chest. How dare they do this to Father!? How could they think they had any right to do this!? It’s just a dream, don’t forget it’s just a dream. Silver’s eyes were drawn to the dead bodies all around them. Fae in their armor lay scattered in bloody pools on the ground, already creating an acrid stench that Silver felt like he might choke on. There were so many, that he almost missed a familiar head of bright green hair, unmoving on the ground where it was enveloped by bloodstained grass. His grandfather had fallen right next to him, in front of him as if protecting him…
Silver saw red, and he didn’t remember much of what he did after that.
“Silver! Stay with us!” Lilia shouted at him, blocking an attack from behind him that Silver almost failed to notice, and surprising him by being up and fighting at all. He must have broken free on his own… did Silver kill those knights that were holding him? He wasn’t sure, now.
“Give it up, fairies!” Henrick yelled mockingly at them. “What are you fighting for!? You have nothing left!” he taunted and laughed. “Your precious Prince Malleus is dead! Died just like his mother did! You lost all your men, and you lost that little brat you called your son! You knew this would happen, didn’t you!? General of the Right! Even your people hate you! Your Senate wouldn’t care at all if you were dead!”
“STOP SAYING THAT!” Silver demanded. If only he could get through all these other knights, he would fight Henrick himself. He hated what he was saying. He hated everything he did to Briar Valley. He hated it that the two of them were related by blood. Silver knew it didn’t matter to the people he cared about, as much as he feared it would, but still…still, he couldn’t stand the thought of it.
“You’ll eat your words, lost prince. Come, retreat!”
To Silver’s surprise, he turned on his horse and ran away, and the other knights went after him. He almost went after them…but Father stopped him, before he could.
“You’re injured, Silver! Stay here. We’ll get them later.”
Silver felt numb, so much so that he barely registered the pain from his multiple wounds. He was supposed to be here to help Father, but…but that was very difficult, for himself. He’s been to many, many dreams now. He’s fought many monsters in people’s nightmares. It was…different, when it was something so personal to him, too. (It shouldn’t be. He’s not the one who fought in the war; Father was. Silver barely knew anything at all, up until a few weeks ago…)
“I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” Father asked, a long while later after they found a place to hide and rest and rest their wounds.
Silver startled at the question, but he nodded. This…wasn’t the first time that Father came to this realization.
“Mm, so it’s true,” he said, smiling sadly. “You’re the real Silver, and you came to visit me. Sorry it couldn’t have been a nicer time. You…shouldn’t have had to see all that.”
Silver paused a moment in his thoughts and his action of bandaging up his arm, taking in a deep breath. “It’s alright. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”
“That’s not your responsibility. You couldn’t have even known.”
“I know.”
“Well then…” Lilia trailed off, sighing deeply as he took Silver’s hand. “I’ll be waking up soon. Please, get some rest.”
“Tch, snooping around my dream again, Silver?”
Silver startled a little at Leona noticing him so quickly, but also, here in the open savanna, there weren’t exactly many places to hide. He walked towards Leona, then, who was currently standing alone in the middle of a long, open road, leaning back against what must be his car. To Silver’s great relief, it seemed to be a tranquil, beautiful day here in the Sunset Savana, with a gentle breeze flowing through the grass and distant calls of birds harmoniously blending together in the air.
“You’re having a peaceful dream tonight,” Silver observed with a great release of tension in his own shoulders. “That’s good.”
“What, you assumed it wouldn’t be?” Leona asked challengingly, but he also didn’t seem too bothered by it, as far as Silver could tell.
“It’s not like that. You’ve just…have had some nightmares before, and so has everyone else,” Silver explained. “I’m glad that you’re doing better, now.”
Silver knew, however, that he didn’t exactly have to explain it all to Leona, because Leona already knew. There were exactly two people who recognized Silver for who he was, inside of their dreams: Father and Leona. For Leona, the reason seemed simply because he was often self-aware in his dreams, knowing that he was dreaming even if he couldn’t necessarily wake up from it on command. It was that way a few days ago, when he had that nightmare about Ruggie dying by his own hand, from his unique magic… Silver knew that was very difficult, for him. Knowing that it was a nightmare couldn’t stop the horror of what was happening right in front of him. He didn’t really want Silver’s help, either, but…he tried his best anyways.
Leona sighed loudly, keeping his same position leaned back against the car but sliding his eyes from the sky to where Silver was standing. “You’re really wearing yourself out with this, aren’t you?”
“I’m…wearing myself out?” Silver blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Running around everyone’s dreams, trying to keep nothing bad from happening. Just yesterday I heard Jack, Deuce, and Epel yapping about it, talking about seeing you in their dreams a lot lately and wondering if it was the actual you. Obviously, it was, but didn’t stop them from going on about it like it was some big secret.”
“…oh. I see. I didn’t realize they knew.”
“Seriously?” Leona raised an eyebrow at him. “You didn’t think anyone would notice?”
“No one remembers all of their dreams,” Silver explained, shaking his head, although now that Leona said it like that, he supposed it was perhaps a little more obvious than he thought. “I knew there was a chance that they would remember a dream I involved myself with, but I…suppose I didn’t really think it through,” he admitted, pausing in the silence for a moment. “I apologize if I caused distress. I don’t mean to intrude, but…I’ve been…drawn to all of your dreams, somehow. It’s been this way ever since what happened with Malleus. I almost entirely have been visiting the dreams of everyone who fought Malleus back then, with the exception of Ortho, since he does not dream. That is, it’s been all twenty-three of us, Yuu included. I’ve…seen what Yuu’s parents look like, now. I know more about their world, and their family. I’ve seen everyone else’s families too, yours included. And I remember everything. I used to not remember hardly anything from when I was asleep, but now the memories are very clear to me. So, I am trying to use that change for the better, to make better use of my signature spell. I’m afraid that everyone has been feeling above-average residual stress since Malleus’s overblot. That could be the cause of some of these nightmares. However, I’m sorry, if my presence has done more harm than good. That wasn’t my intention.”
“Okay, you can cool it with the monologue; it’s not like that,” Leona countered with a sigh. “I never said they didn’t appreciate it. To those freshmen, your presence during the nightmares seemed to really put them at ease and put them back in their right mind—not that they liked the part where you went and fought their battles for them. Like with Jack last night,” he added pointedly.
“O-Oh…right.” He remembered that one. Jack hadn’t been plagued with lots of nightmares like that, but in this one, there was a monster threatening his siblings, while he was stuck in a slippery well that he was trying but failing to climb out of, since the walls just kept growing higher no matter how long he climbed. Silver killed the beast and helped him out of the well, but…something about Jack’s reaction, like he felt like a failure for having to be rescued at all, told him that maybe, he should have done those things in the opposite order. Maybe he should have helped him out and then let him be part of the fight, in spite of his injuries.
“Sorry, I should have pulled back, some. I just…sometimes I don’t know how far to go,” Silver admitted. “Everyone’s reactions are very different, and everyone’s dreams are very different, too. And I’m…not really that good at reading people,” he admitted, knowing all too well now this weakness of his that he used to never think about at all. He also used to think that at the very least, he knew Father, Sebek, and Malleus very well, even if he couldn’t understand other people, but even them he realized he didn’t know as well as he thought he did. He didn’t understand their pain, or their feelings…if he did, he wouldn’t have been so blindsided by Malleus’s overblot.
For this reason, Silver wondered if his signature spell would be better used by someone else. He didn’t know how to read people, and he didn’t know how to comfort them, either. For all the exhaustion it gave him, it was honestly much easier for him when the nightmares involved something or someone that he could fight. It was a different story, dealing with dreams like that one Cater had in which he was alone and abandoned, with Riddle, Trey, and everyone else acting completely out of character with how much they detested him, or a dream like Vil’s in which he was being slowly driven insane by his grotesque reflection in the mirror. In those dreams, Silver would work to reassure them and point out the contradictions between the dream and reality, but it was still difficult to manage.
It was…really overwhelming, sometimes, trying to help everyone, when he barely knew how or even whether or not he should.
“Yeah, well, that’s not exactly the only thing to be concerned about,” Leona said, as if that were a simple fact. “You shouldn’t go running yourself ragged while you’re literally supposed to be asleep and resting. No one wants that. I’m sure Lilia doesn’t.”
“Oh…I’m sorry.”
“And don’t apologize about it,” Leona huffed. “Just…think about picking your battles a little better, alright? News flash—we’ve all been dealing with nightmares, long before that lizard’s overblot. It’s normal.”
Silver nodded slowly. “That…is true, that all of you already had more nightmares than the average person, I think. I don’t remember much of my past experiences, but I still remember patterns, in a way. So yes, I think you might be right about this being normal for you, unfortunately.”
“Not the point I was making, but sure, I guess,” Leona said with an exasperated shrug. “My point is, we’re dealing with it. If you really want to help, you can help—stars know we all need it more than we like to admit—but let them have their own victories. It’s not like their lives are really in danger, or anything like that.”
“That’s…that’s a very good point,” Silver acknowledged, relaxing into a small smile as he looked out at the expanse of the savanna. “Thank you, Leona. That was very insightful of you.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever. Just leave me to my alone time already.”
“Understood. I’ll see you back at school, Leona.”
+++
I do not consider myself to be very good with people. I don’t know how to tell what they are thinking, and I don’t know all the right things to say. I have, however, learned a lot about my school companions—my friends, maybe—through the course of seeing their dreams. They are very unique, but it seems we also have a lot in common. We wish to be seen as strong, or as happy, or simply as someone unbothered by the world and by our pasts, but still, we fear losing everything. We fear our own weakness, and we fear that we are already in a trap laid for us long ago, which we can never escape.
I can’t fix everything. I want to help people, in their dreams, and I can’t and shouldn’t do everything. I’m still figuring this out, but simply put, I have decided that I, at the very least, don’t wish to abandon anyone to their fate. I can’t fix their problems, but I can be there, as their knight.
I am surrounded by extraordinary people. I hope that I may become a person who they will accept to stand and fight by their side in the real world, too.
+++
“Malleus… MALLEUS! CAN YOU HEAR ME?”
Silver fought to shout above the howling wind and thunder, as he struggled through the frozen remains of the crumbled castle halls. He shielded himself, steadily marching closer to the center of the storm, where Malleus was.
There was little Silver could do to help Malleus, but he knew of a few possibilities, if only because they all knew of the chance of this happening, in real life. He could give him a potion to relax his out-of-control magic and make it subside, or he could instead force a potion to make him sleep, or he could do the worst thing of all, and break his horn again, with the power of that sword which Silver knew that he could summon again if he wanted to, inside the dream. Of course, Silver wasn’t going to do any of those things.
He trudged forward, close enough to hear Malleus crying. He kept going further, wincing against the might of wind threatening to blow him back, barrier and all, until the point when he could see him, alone in the ruined throne room and clutching Father’s frozen corpse.
“Father isn’t dead!” Silver shouted above the wind, putting himself straight in front of Malleus’s eyes. “And Sebek and I are alive, as well!” he added, having already seen their corpses at the entrance.
“Silver…?”
“You didn’t lose control! You can fight this, Malleus!”
Malleus looked awful, his face red with tears and his robe torn and bloodied. He looked at Silver as if he were a ghost, but Silver had to keep moving forward, anyways. It was all he knew how to do.
“Why are you…? Silver, stop! Don’t get any closer to me! I order you to STOP!”
“I’m sorry, Malleus,” Silver said, trembling both from the cold and his own emotions, as he kept stepping nearer. “For all this time, I didn’t know how much your power was a burden to you. I’m…sorry if we ever made you feel alone.”
“Silver, you… it wasn’t your fault,” Malleus said, staring at him with wide, frightened eyes. “Please. I never meant to… I hurt you, and I…”
Silver came closer, protected by the barrier which he soon encircled around him and Malleus both, and he knelt down on the ground beside him. Silently, he removed Father’s body from his arms, and he took Malleus’s hand and pulled into a hug.
Malleus was his prince, and Silver was only a lowly knight. He shouldn’t do this, and the still-active ice magic made it painful, but deep down he knew, right now, that Malleus needed the touch of someone who was alive. Of someone who was there to be his friend and not just to be his knight.
“Silver…?”
“You need to wake up, Malleus,” Silver said, releasing him but still grasping his hands tightly. “Please, believe me. Everyone’s okay.”
Malleus turned away from his eyes, his face full of a deep and painful-looking sorrow. “And what if next time, you won’t be?”
“Then we’ll get through it together.”
Slowly, steadily, the storm around Malleus faded. Finally, Malleus smiled at him, before him and the rest of the dream faded away into nothing, just like every dream, good or bad, has done before it.
“Thank you, Silver.”