Dreamwalker
Flying came to him naturally, a motion wrapped in instinct. The feeling of the air streaming through his feathers, his wings tilting with the winds. Body stretching, spread eagle as he lifted higher. It was the impossible memory that came to SoYa in his dreams.
This was a dream. Of course, he knew that. He was an Athrylith, a mind mage. That meant he was aware of the bits and pieces of living dreamscape that wove and condensed around him. Sometimes, he could even control them. Somewhat.
“I’m glad this is what the Manor pays you to do,” the lofty tone sneered softly from over one of SoYa’s shoulders.
The mind mage turned with a furrowed brow, meeting the gaze of the familiar man. “Zemus? I was just…”
“Sleeping?” his lip curled upward with the permanent expression of distaste. The sharp green eyes analyzed SoYa from behind the glare of his glasses with the same regard a child might observe a specimen in a jar.
-Do you ever get the feeling that there is so much more to us, to our past, than just the Unknown? I believe there is. I see it in my dreams. I search for it there.-
AsaHi sighed as she shuffled the papers to a more hidden side of the table. She didn’t feel right in reading SoYa’s notes, but sometimes she couldn’t help it. Not when he absentmindedly left them out on the middle of the breakfast table.
AsaHi fell silent, a sudden churning dread growing in the pit of her stomach. That was not what she expected to hear at all. “I don’t understand. You said there was nothing wrong.”
“There isn’t,” one of the other men answered, somewhat more sternly. “Your son, FuSoYa, has been summoned by the Manor. He will report there to begin his schooling immediately.”
The ground lights along the walkways raced in front of him, as if perceiving exactly where SoYa was headed. Illuminated on either side by the soft glow of the columns of tall trees, this was usually one of his favorite places to walk at night. Of all the places within the Manor, this certainly sparked his imagination the most.
“Should I have handcuffs or something?” FuSoYa inquired of his nearest captor. He was the one who chose to carry Fu’s bags, a most fitting occupation for someone disruptive and knavish.
“You are not a prisoner,” the Manorite answered drolly.
SoYa’s Letter to Fu
Dear Fu,
I know you can't begin to understand why I've done the things I have. I know you're probably upset and frightened. I know it's hard, but with the Manor, sometimes you have to choose the proper place and time to make a stand.
“Hey there! How you feeling today?” BikKuRi stuck his head cheerfully through the open window of Fu’s boarding room.
The boy jumped back with a start. Though he was not easy to surprise, the stress of last night’s events and the new surroundings left him a bit more susceptible to strange faces suddenly thrusting into his quarters from outside. Fu almost greeted this with slamming shutters, but paused once he recognized who it was.
Fu sent my note back, unopened.
SoYa mused about it momentarily before sticking the parchment into his front vest pocket. It was probably better that way as his hopeful appeals had fallen upon deaf ears earlier that day. Though the Masters heard his case, they chose to dismiss his pleas, especially with Zemus passively arguing against him.
I must have fallen asleep. I didn’t mean to dreamwalk again.
SoYa decided it was exhaustion taking him, even though he didn’t mean to sleep or dream. Not right now. Not when so many other things were happening.
SoYa was a prisoner, blindfold and all. Not that it did his captor all that much good, as the mind mage didn’t need his eyes to see what was going on around him. He decided not to let anyone know about that, though.
The creature didn’t actually speak in words, but rather through melodic sounds. SoYa wasn’t sure how it worked, but somehow, he could sense the translation in the creature’s thoughts. It often wasn’t a perfect translation, the speech patterns were strange, and often words that SoYa didn’t know. But it was enough for SoYa to understand what was wanted of him.
High-Sun had come, which indicated lunch time for the students of the Manor. It was difficult for Fu to get used to being on a clock that was regulated by something other than his mother’s requests. People here were always in a hurry, dictated by numbers on a disc, numbers that never existed for Fu until now.
-There was-was a time when only the Ingway lived in this forest. It was-was before your people, the Manor, appeared,- Burr told him, padding softly down the forest path.
SoYa trotted to keep up with the creature’s huge strides, but he hardly noticed. His mind was fixed on the words, information provided from something that had seen the introduction of his people into this land. It was both surprising and not that their origins were not of this world.
AsaHi threw her arms around her son and hugged him in a relieved embrace. Not that she expected anything bad had happened to him. It was just good to see him, to comfort him and to comfort herself.
“Mother,” Fu hugged her in return, sounding more little-boyish than he had in a long time. “I thought I would not see you again.”
-SoYa has come-come back?- the soft melodic voice questioned from behind him.
The mind mage glanced up into the quizzical face of Hunt, who watched him with growing curiosity. Finally, he nodded, “Yes. I came back. I just needed a place to think about things.”
SoYa’s Journal Entry
I know it's been a long time since I sat down to properly journal. So much has happened since the day I discovered the Zemitree and the Ingway tribe. Between juggling the Manor, trying to work things out with my family and building the resistance base, time has flown by far too quickly.