[-=Nox=-]

I should have kissed June instead of going to sleep, but for some reason I felt like being respectful to her or letting her get used to me, to like me. Why? Was it because I was afraid of pushing her away, of losing her again? Human feelings are so strange. I should have just taken her by force, as I always had taken things by force.

No. This was not the time nor the place for such... activities.

I knew that the Baron was watching me with his all-seeing magical eye. I had scanned it with my tongue and the damn thing could peer through nearly anything in one hundred meters range. A smart enough Archmage could use it to read lips or even surface thoughts. I didn’t want to talk to June about my feelings on this ship, because I didn’t want the Rimmers to know that I liked her. I didn’t want the Rimmer Archmagi to use her against me like Maggie nearly had. I am running out of Void mana. I need to think of ways to make June mentally stronger. I need to make her my Apostle again to keep her safe. Maybe, I should have…

Wait. What’s this? My human body wasn’t responding. Someone was forcing Yul into a state of deep sleep while her muscles were being paralyzed by magic. Damn Rimmers were playing dirty. I should have known something was up when the Baron said he would have to retrieve the ring from their pilot. Sneaky bastard.

Something had interrupted my internal contemplations. A mana-rich, deep thread of magic started to dance over Yul’s brain. It was a slow, meticulous, complicated spell. Slow spells like this were easy to dissect, easy to meddle with, especially if they didn’t expect me coming. Someone was trying to connect Yul’s brain to themselves. A mental mage? Really? Okay, I’ll bite. This might be a fun educational experience. I let the thread connect, let it take control of Yul’s brain and dove right into it.

[Valerianne Yul]

I sat on a root, swinging my legs back and forth, looking out towards the distant Edge mountains. A storm was rolling across the hills, a sheet of rain moving across the forest. I heard the rumble of thunder. I was home. I relaxed against the breeze, waiting for Aloenna to show herself. She did not. Instead, a dark shadow stretched along the root and kept on stretching up into the air, weaving a figure of darkness and stardust.

“What the hell?!” I blinked, nearly falling off the root.

“This is neat. Where is this?” The shadow spoke. She looked like me, but naked and also composed from darkness and stars.

“Home.” I answered. That’s not what I wanted to say. This thing, whatever it was, didn't belong here. It was alien, foreign, impossible.

“Interesting.” The shadow commented.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Ah. You don’t know me. I don’t belong in this memory of a dream, I suppose.” The darkness smiled. “Are we on a giant beast of some sort? Feels like we are moving. This is pretty high up.”

I nodded. “We are on Moosy. Uhm. What are you?”

“I’m Nox, the unfortunate Goddess of the Night stuck in your body.”

“Why are you unfortunate?”

“I’m stressed, tired, nervous. I find myself infected with your human emotions and I find them confusing and hard to manage.”

“Huh?” I asked, feeling lost.

“Hold up. I’m going to see if I can shake up and maybe connect your conscious mind to your subconscious mind.” Nox smiled. She waved her hands made of night about and then booped me on the nose.

A spiral spell circle flashed on her finger. The world became more clear, more refined, brighter.

“Nox!” I exhaled. “What’s going on? Am I dreaming?”

“Yep.” Nox answered. “A Dreamancer just put you to sleep, seconds priorly. He’s trying to dissect your mind for information. It’s a good thing that I’m here or he’d already know all of your secrets.”

I gulped.

“Don’t worry. He’s lost somewhere down there.” She pointed at the forest below. “He’s trying to find you to demand answers, but I keep knocking his dream-search tendrils away.”

“Thanks.” I said.

"What town is that over there in the distance?"

"Amarillia." I answered.

“It’s nice up here.” Nox smiled.

“Nice in which way?”

“Nice in a nice way. Calming. Peaceful. Quaint."

“This is the place you threatened to burn down and destroy. It’s my home.” I muttered.

“I did do that, didn’t I?” Nox muttered. “Look, when I woke up I was a little lost and angry.”

I squinted at her.

“Okay, very lost and insanely angry,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about anything. I didn’t have anyone believing in me.”

“And now?”

“Now you believe in me.”

“And this makes a difference?”

“It does. You’re changing me with your belief. Since June is gone, the biggest believer in me that I have is you, Yul. Ironically enough, you’re the closest thing I have to an acolyte now.”

“June isn’t gone.” I said.

“You know what I mean, damn it! She doesn’t remember me. Our connection, the tendril of belief that bound her to me is broken. She might as well be gone. I can’t feel her anymore.” Nox put her head down, making a pouting expression.

“Are you serious? You’re sad?” I blinked, feeling like I was asleep and awake at the same time.

“Yes. I’m sad.”

“What about the people you exploded in the Kleinburg Convent of the Light?! All the people enslaved by the Sextants in Kleinburg? Are you sad about them?”

“No. They didn’t believe in me.”

“So you just care about the people who believe in you or something?”

“This is how it works, yes.” Nox answered. “You can’t expect me to care about people who believe in Virtue, of all the things! People die all the time, Yul. The Sextants have been planning their invasion for a long time. It would have happened sooner or later. Such things are inevitable.”

I simply glared at her. Her mindset at times was so alien to me I couldn't even fathom it.

“War is part of human nature, I find.” She commented.

“You don’t know shit about human nature! You’re not a human!”

“You got me there. I’m not. I’m a divine manifestation, not a meat popsicle like yourself. Are you going to show me around your farm or what?” She blinked at me innocently.

“Why would I show you anything, Nox?” I asked. “So you can plan evil against my family?”

“I have no such plans. I just thought it would be nice to see how your family lives. Is that so wrong?”

“I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“Look, Yul. We are…. no... we have been separated by your damn White aura or by other unfortunate events. The only reason we can talk to each other now, in this place, is because the Dream mage is weaving this shared dream from your deepest, most precious memories. It’s an entire simulation made of very high-end dream magic that I can incept myself into. Let's not waste it, okay? Time is a whole lot faster in this construct, but I’m still going to run out of Void mana in a few minutes.”

“How long is that in dream time?”

“Approximately an hour, give or take, I think.”

“Right then. We’re not going anywhere until I… uhh... know more!”

“Well then. Ask away. What do you want to know?” The girl made of night tilted her head.

I didn’t expect this development. Didn’t expect openness. I sat there for a while, trying to produce a question. Nothing came to mind. Thinking rational, complex thoughts inside of a dream was hard.