I’ve always been plagued by nightmares.

Skies of fire, visions unheeded and unspoken to others. The voice of Xande, telling me that I would spiral into the same insane nihilistic darkness as he did.

‘Tis why I avoid sleep when I can.

Or, rather, I work myself to the point of collapse, hoping my exhausted mind won’t conjure up terrors in the night. This only works for so long, of course. One cannot hope to deny the body its needs. But I still try.

Lately, my dreams have shifted again.

I see the dark, snaking towers and their odd, radiating light. At first, I thought ‘twas due to my exposure to the twisted aether I noticed around them, affecting me even from the distance. But now, I’m not so certain. As I stated before, ‘tis something about those towers that leave me feeling beyond uneasy. Why they now haunt my dreams, I cannot say.

But more unnerving than that are the night visitations.

I try not to think of my family often, those I left behind to be consumed within the calamity of my age. I don’t like to ponder their fate, and would much rather hope that they had survived.

However, ‘tis unmistakable that I’ve been seeing Tad, my younger cousin, in my dreams as of late.

We used to be close as lads, even though I was several years his senior. He was tough and stubborn and full of spirit – all virtues that grew with him as we got older. Even into my teen years, after I had taken up residence in the city, we used to keep in touch and visit as often as we could.

The Tad I dream of is not the Tad I remember. He’s older. More fearsome and rugged. And most frightening, his aether flames about him in a way I’ve never seen before.

In my dreams, he seems to be trying to tell me something. His mouth moves, though his body makes no gestures. I cannot hear his voice. I don’t know what he wants to communicate.

The whole thing leaves me waking in a cold sweat. I can’t determine what it means – though intuition tells me ‘tis a warning that I cannot perceive but desperately need to hear.

I think I’d rather brave the dead eyes of Xande than face this unknown again. But my dreams have always been outside of my abilities to influence…

-A