Sorry this took so long to write- I don't know HOW many times I've rewritten this chapter. I just haven't liked any of the previous attempts. I wound up scrapping the original idea for this story- it was simply doing better before I tried to force it down a specific route.
This chapter's a bit short. Gomen, gomen! ;_;
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I didn't have to wait long until my little "trap" was triggered. Palom was an overly curious and so painfully easy to read sort. If I wished him to do something- it was as simple as telling him NOT to do it. Was it any wonder he hadn't moved far past the same boundries that held him as a mere child? I close my eyes and surrender myself to sleep, though it isn't directly to the dream I descend. I have a....different destination in mind if you will.

The world awaiting me lacks form or light...it's merely a stopping point after all. A quiet place to discuss my intentions with two others involved in this. As it enfolds me, Cecil becomes visible as a dim, fading glow barely aware of it's existance here while Palom appears as a brighter flame- filled with life, unlike my dying brother. Both are wandering aimlessly as well- this is not the dream Cecil is accustomed to after all and Palom has likely never been in one that had any true meaning. I shouldn't be surprised.

After all, until my release from Zemus, had I ever dreamed? And I surely had more reason than this upstart wizard to do so....

I shake those thoughts away, willing shape to this place and my "visitors". I would never get them to speak or even comprehend what was going to take place if they were too busy panicking.

A desolate landscape forms the ground- the red, dusty stone of the Moon that had left. Overhead lie the stars, distant and cold. A scene I had looked upon more often than any other in all my days...for there was precious little else to look upon in that prison.

With this as an anchor, my brother and the wizardling find their own forms, turning to face me with various degrees of suspicion. I can't help but smirk at this...so much for being completely willing to trust me in solving this mystery. Ah, well..

"Golbez- what are you doing? Why is Palom here?"

Ah, Cecil. Ever the perfect tempered paladin- forceful as a kicked puppy. I smirk slightly and look away from both- examining those false stars instead.

"Hm....father's perfect little son- the one who can't see what's right in front of him. I would like to laugh at you but it seems that pleasure's denied me for now. I haven't figured it out either. Tonight- I think we shall however."

Paladin and wizard look to each other a moment then to me again...I can guess what they're thinking as surely as if they were screaming it. No matter- I don't need their trust, or even their cooperation at this point.

"We will soon descend into the dream again. Palom will be accompanying us as.....an observer."

"Uh- why ME? I don't know anything about dreams, Golbez!"

It sounds so amusing to hear him say my name- almost as if he's convinced he's inviting some greater misfortune by doing so. I must have made a fiercer impression than I'd realized all those years ago...

You were the tool that nearly destroyed their world, Golbez. Who wouldn't fear that?

That voice..? I turn away from Cecil and Palom sharply, scanning the horizon of this "world"...there should be no other here. And near as I can tell- there is not. But it was the same voice I had heard before awakening in Mysidia....it was so much fainter now though.

I shake my head, ignoring Palom and Cecil's confused looks and simply turn to gesture for both to come nearer. Dream this may be- but proximity is still important. I was attempting to enforce the laws of reality into the world of dreams. This was no easy task..

"You will do as a view Cecil will trust, Palom. I already know he has no faith in mine. Our dreams are the same and yet still differ. We have already found I cannot enter Cecil's dream so I highly doubt Cecil can enter mine...under the present rules. I quite simply intend to break them. And you, wizardling, will be how I do it."

How pale he'd been the day I suggested a duel came no where near the hue he turned NOW. Pale enough to make Cecil's white armor seem gray and dingy. Did he really understand the sort of danger I was placing him in? If so, perhaps the boy was learning after all...

"Now then..I can't keep this barrier up much longer. Cecil, take Palom's right arm. And don't let go."

"Golbez, what are you-"

"Just DO it Cecil or he's going to stay here for good, even if we succeed in this!"

Well not really, but if it gets him to cooperate fully, I'm not above the white lie or hundred.

I settle my hand on the boy's left shoulder, gripping hard enough to make the wizard wince, while Cecil takes a no less firm but still gentler hold on the boy's wrist. A "wind" blows over the landscape I had wrot for our meeting, carrying it away and scattering it....and then we're falling, nothing more than shadows now vanishing into a deeper darkness. As the dream encloses around us, a flicker catches my eye- a shape revealed by the dissolving of the landscape that tugs at my mind- but vanishes before I can place it.

Just how many players were there in this little game I found myself trapped in...?

(Continued in: A Game of Dreams and Dreamers)