Keira had always had particularly lucid dreams, to the point where she struggled to tell them apart from reality. Of course the more fantastical ones were fairly easy to notice, but the boring ones, where she was going about her day to day life, those took her a while. Fortunately she didn’t remember falling asleep in the snow. Nor was she sure where the source of light illuminating it in a harsh glow was coming from. Somewhere from above, she wagered. Either way, that was the first major sign that it was a dream. The second was the fact it was in monochrome.

While it wasn’t too obvious with the snow, though it was a little greyer then it should be, it was very clear with the trees. Surrounding her were the tallest pines that she had ever seen, thick trunks easily supporting the hundreds of feet of wood. Their bark was a darker shade of grey, and lying on the floor as she was, she was able to tell that the leaves were a slightly lighter hue. Beyond the canopy was the sky. It was rather hard to see clearly, since the branches of the trees were so sprawled out, but there were a few gaps. It seemed like the clouds were a stormy shade of black, though a few of the snow flakes didn’t seem darker than that light ash. They were most likely storm clouds then. A fact further highlighted when she noticed a slight glow behind the clouds. After a moment passed, a moment of her staring at the sky, she came to a realisation. The third and most obvious sign that this was a dream.

Nothing was moving.

There was no wind, no sound. Even the afore mentioned snowflakes were caught mid fall. Everything was caught in a perfect image. Everything except for one thing. Perched on the trunk of one of the trees was a butterfly, wings fluttering slightly. The wings were also an iridescent red, breaking the monotony of black and white. They twitched slightly, before the butterfly took off.

Keira pushed off from the floor, ignoring the fact that she didn’t feel the cold of the snow as her hand touched the floor. Nor did she acknowledge the general numbness of her entire body, robbing her of physical feeling entirely. This turned out to be fairly lucky though, as the butterfly set a fast pace, weaving through the trees with a certain grace and agility. She became even more grateful of it when the floor started to incline upwards slightly and steadily grow steeper. She was never good with hills, and her calves would have definitely started burning by then. At some point the butterfly vanished, but at that point Keira knew what she had to do. She needed to reach the top.

When she finally crested it however, she wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Instead of more forest, it was a clearing. Blackened stumps of crumbling wood decorated the floor instead, for the pieces of the floor that she could see anyway. The snow was thick here, limiting her view and making it painfully clear that the picture was taken from the middle of a snowstorm. Dotting the parts that she could see were humanoid looking figures, all a light grey and facing her direction. Some crawling her way, some caught mid run and a small fraction on their knees, heads tilted towards the sky. She had no idea why someone would make such statues, but they did freak her out a little.

Keira’s head followed the motion though, and then she knew what they were looking at. Though the clouds looked black when looking through the canopy, they were more likely a deep grey. An important difference considering the silhouette lurking behind them. It was truly black. Highlighted by a web of lightning behind it that was stuck in that moment. That didn’t detract from the blindness of the rifts on what might have been its head, though it did help her see more of its body than she had previously. Especially the lines coming from its body, looking as though some one had accidently smudged it in the middle of drawing.

“Hello friend.” Keira took a moment to breath out deeply before responding.

"Is it time to talk about the deal already?"

“Hm. Very straight forward. I can appreciate that. As long as we are cordial. Yes?”

“Yeah…”

“Good. We shall go through what needs to be done then. The ritual itself has many components, I can handle most, but the two most important parts are the ones that you need to do. You shall need a vessel and a place where the fabric of reality is thinned.” Keira already knew about the vessel, but the other thing was new to her.

“A place where the fabric of reality is thin?”

“Indeed. I am not of your plane, and due to circumstances, it is more difficult for me to come onto it. So it is fortunate that at the moment, you are currently in such a place.”

“Currently? Does that mean that the places where reality is thin moves, or just that I could move out of it…”

“Both child. Very few locations are permanent, and those are true places of power.” Keira wanted to push for more information on that, but she wasn’t sure how much the being would be willing to give her. Instead she pivoted to the other important factor.

“So, about the vessel. You mentioned movement being a requirement. So could I just put you into a snail and be done with this?” There was a blossoming feeling of amusement in her mind.

“Movement is a requirement. As is a certain degree of sentience and latent power. So, for example, a human who has just performed a sacrificial ritual.” Keira felt her stomach drop.

“You said that it doesn’t have to be human!”

“It doesn’t.”

“So?! What else can I do?! Give me something- anything else!”

“Hm. No. It is the best vessel for me to enact my plans, and you do remember my kindness, don’t you?” She paused. Not because of anything the thing said, but because she needed a break. This thing was a being of unknown origin and currently it had her life in it’s figurative hands. She couldn’t risk insulting it.

“I am not killing someone for you.”

“Unfortunate, as you have no other option. If it may ease your mind, your assailant meets both of those already.”

“The type of person isn’t the is- wait. You know who killed me?”

“No. Only that they must be human, and due to the ritual, they have latent power.” Keira scowled. If there were other ways, other vessels, then she just needed it to tell her what they were. She took a couple of calming breaths. Maybe… a compromise? Something she could reach through a more diplomatic approach. The first step of the diplomatic route is to ingratiate yourself with the target, make it seem like you care.

“What’s your name?”

“My name… The last time I communed with your plane I was called Palotl. Do with that what you will.”

“Okay… What plans do you want to enact?”

“To purge the sickness and restore the plane.”

“…Sickness?”

“Indeed. A parasite that leeches off of the originator’s and it’s creation’s power. Much like the one that was attached to you when you arrived, albeit more malicious. We purged it once, a very long time ago.” Keira fell silent as the more serious implication occurred to her. One that she hoped wasn’t true.

“H-how did you purge the sickness.”

“We removed the hosts.” She continued to gaze up at the thing before, almost as if in a trance, she looked at the humanoid figures beneath her. Then the spell broke and she was sprinting down the hill, towards the gathered figures in their frozen vignette. She reached the closest one and crashed to her knees, skidding to a halt next to the kneeling person. It was incredibly detailed and when she put her hands on it, she felt the icy coldness spreading up her arms. The only feeling in this gods forsaken place.

“These aren’t statues.”

“They are husks.” Keira removed her hand from the face of the person in front of her, and then she looked to the sky. The pose mimicking a couple of the statues- the people around her. Palotl only stared back. She looked down at the person in front of her. The detail was all frozen over leaving what they originally looked like to the annals of time. Unless… this wasn’t real. It looked pretty apocalyptic, something that she would definitely remember learning about. Maybe it was trying to spook her, show her what was to come.

“Is… this real?”

“It was. I had thought pulling from a memory would soothe you. To see a familiar environment. A shame. I will use a different memory next time.” Next time… Keira never wanted to speak to it again, but she had to. They were locked in a deal.

“How many.”

“There were 3,653 vestiges of humanity left once we were done.”

“…Why leave any alive at that point?” There was a long moment of silence. One where Palotl did nothing but merely stare down at her from amongst the clouds.

“I have given you all of the information that you need. You should go now, to ruminate on what you have learnt and use it well. I hope that the knowledge that this was necessary makes you more willing to comply. It truly would be a shame if you faded before completing the ritual.”

“Wai-“ The picture started to move again, snow beginning to dance in that furious pattern, the lighting finishing its arc across the night and Palotl’s form moving. It began to fold in on itself while other parts unfurled, making it clear that those sweeping swaths of black were actually a multitude of wings.

Time caught up and Keira was knocked off of her feet. Wind buffeted her and kept her on the floor, immediately the cold settled in. Feeling returned. She looked up to Palotl again. Though the lightning was gone now, she could still see the lights were still there. It was still there. Another blast of wind knocked her to the side. She rolled a couple of feet and this time, when she raised her head, she saw something else.

It seemed to be a tree pulling itself along by it’s own roots, much like a centipede, but unlike a centipede, it’s front was tall and bent back on itself. Trails of leaves flowed off of its head, they glowed a vibrant gold and only swayed in howling winds. Keira noted that colour had not seeped back into the memory, at this point it was the only thing that didn’t conform to the monochromaticity. The front part of it was tilted up, as if it was watching Palotl. Tiny lights glimmered in the knots of the wood, where natural cracks appeared. They glittered like starlight in a night sky. They were the last thing she saw before the wind picked up a more furious pace and everything faded to a white fog.

Then she woke up.

Gasping.

She was still in her room. A quick glance at her phone told her that it was… not a happy hour to be awake. Keira didn’t think that she could go back to sleep though. Especially with the sweat clinging to the back of her neck. She took a couple of calming breaths and stood up on shaky legs.

Keira had navigated her house enough times to know where everything was by memory by now, so she didn’t bother turning on any of the lights when she headed to the bathroom. It felt weird though. Like she was being watched from the shadows. When she got the bathroom she turned on the light. That feeling of being watched didn’t diminish, and when she looked in the bathroom mirror, she finally understood.

In the bathroom mirror as she filled up the glass, she saw one of those butterflies from her dream behind her. Those small red circles on its wings staring at her like eyes. Keira turned around looked at the wall behind her. There was nothing there. Turning back to check in the mirror she saw that it was still visible. She wanted to panic, to breakdown, but she didn’t have the energy. She downed her water and went back to bed. She’ll freak out in the morning.