Dreamwalking (Open RP)

[Phelix]

Sitting on the edge of her bed in the White Tower, Elin slowly brushes her hair, taking long, smooth strokes. Her hair rarely tangles, but the calm, soothing ritual of nightly brush strokes helps calm her. When she is done, she ties her hair into a neat queue, then forms that into a bun, held together by ribbons and pins. Her nightgown is white wool, and it moves softly against her skin as she does her final tasks before bed. Once in her bed, under the duvet and feather comforter, she channels a bit of water to put out the lamps.

 

Her mind begins to relax, allowing her body's rhythms to slow, and she sank into sleep. 

 

~tel'aran'rhiod~

 

Her eyes open, and she is sitting in her favorite garden spot in the White Tower. Her dress is thin, good wool, dark in color, but with fine embroidery. As she considers the dress, the embroidery grows more intricate and more bold, moving from the hems of her dress up into the main panels. A part of her is thrilled at this, watching as her dress becomes a tapestry of vines and thorns. She laughed out loud watching the vines grow up her body.

 

After a moment, she takes control of herself, and the vines retreat to a more reasonable decoration.

 

She begins walking, watching, looking, seeing the Tower in a way she'd only ever seen it before here in the world of dreams: Empty. Every so often, she would catch a glimpse of another person, but they always flickered away, gone from her dreams. The old books she had found claimed that some people had just enough Talent to skim the surface of the Dream, and so like a flat rock thrown across a pond, they dip in and out of the world of dreams.

 

Climbing to the top of the Tower takes time, but she eventually finds herself on the roof of the Tower, looking out over the land, and she takes it all in with awe. A thought occurs to her, and she embraces the source... it's pale and weak here, but she is able to form the weaves. She makes a platform of Air and then a second platform ten feet below it.

 

Gathering her courage, she steps onto the upper platform, and then she breathes deeply, counting on her courage and weaving to hold... and she releases the weave holding the upper platform. I will not fall. She wills it hard in herself, believing deeply that she would float where she was. While focusing on not falling, she had screwed her eyes closed... when she didn't fall, she slowly opened them, and laughed again at seeing herself standing in the air, held by nothing... and that broke her focus on her will, and she fell the ten feet to her second platform.

 

Her fall wasn't graceful, but she managed to land without much injury... her ankle was beginning to swell. She lifted her platform back to the top of the Tower, and hobbled off of it. Walking around the Tower's top was beginning to hurt. With a sigh, she decided to stop walking the dream tonight, and returned to her sleeping body.

 

~The waking World~

 

In the morning, she tsk'd to herself when her ankle was swollen to the size of a small melon. With a frown, she limped to the door and summoned the next Novice she saw running by. "Child, please go get the Yellow sister assigned to Healing today. I appear to have twisted my ankle." 

 

The girl took off, and Elin began preparing how to explain injuring herself in her own room while still in her nightgown.

[Phelix]

*Several nights later*

 

~tel'aran'rhiod~

 

Elin wandered the streets of Tar Valon, looking in on different shops and homes. A part of her felt guilt at invading the privacy of other peoples' homes and stores, but here in the World of Dreams, nothing was quite as it was in the waking world. As long as she did not dig through their belongings or use what she learned here for her benefit, then there was nothing wrong with what she did.

 

Out on a main avenue, she saw someone flicker into the dream up on the walls above the gates. For a moment, Elin thought it might be another Sister, and she wondered if she could get closer to find out who it was. Suddenly, she lurched forward, the world a blur around her, and she was on the wall with the other woman, shocking both of them. The other woman gathered her shawl and frowned at Elin, then popped out of existence. 

 

Just another dreaming woman skimming across this world.

 

But that motion... in a single moment, she crossed a hundred yards. Could she do it again? 

 

From her vantage on the wall, she looked down to the furthest north edge of the river town above the city. And she willed herself to be there.

 

And with a sickening blur, she was. Elin allowed a small smile to show on her face. She was learning the rules of this place. But how far could she go? Did the world always blur, or could she simply BE somewhere else?

 

Gathering her will together, Elin focused on being in her room in the Tower, and she instantly was. There was no blur this time, no sickness. She had traveled miles in a blink... could she go further?

 

She thought about her father's mill, and formed the image of the place in her mind, and willed herself to be there... it took more effort, and when she arrived, she realized why... the mill had changed. There were two stones now, and a second house had been build outside. Perhaps her younger brother had built a family here... or perhaps a new family had taken over the mill... one son killed by the village for being a man tainted by saidin, one daughter run off into the night, likely a witch herself. Elin had not ever written home, not wanting to shame her parents with a letter from Tar Valon. Perhaps she should arrange for someone to check in on her family, to make sure they prospered.

 

But that was work for the daylight, when she did not have this wondrous world to explore.

 

With an effort of will, she found herself back in Tar Valon. The only other city she had ever visited had been Caemlyn, but she knew that the libraries had maps of all the cities. With some work and focus, she should be able to travel to any of them... but it would only be their dream reflection. Still, this was an amazing tool.

 

After a quick jaunt to the Library, Elin focused her mind on a map of Tear, and she blinked, finding herself standing in the Stone of Tear.

 

She began to wander the fortress, intrigued by many things here.

[Phelix]

Months had passed, and Elin had learned more discipline, learned more skills in this fantastic world. The little details about herself rarely changed now, unless she wanted them to change. She occasionally let her flights of fancy become literal... including letting herself fly through the skies of Tar Valon.

 

Tonight, she was investigating the deep libraries, looking at some of the oldest tomes and books in the Tower Libraries. These books rarely moved on their own, likely because they rarely moved in the real world. If she came here in the real world, she might run into the Browns that manage the Libraries, and then she might have to explain why she was reading papers on the theories of linking with Men. Tomes on the complicated intermingling of saidar and saidin when a balanced circle worked toward a unified task.

 

She turned the page and began to scan again, digging deeper into the writings of Nurzine of Essenia, and barely noticed the flicker of shadows. She looked up, looking to all sides for someone who shouldn't be here. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the flicker again. Then it was behind her. 

Suddenly, the quality of the light shifted, becoming darker. Elin reached for the source, wishing to weave a globe of light... but she found nothing. There wasn't a shield blocking her, the source simply wasnt there. 

 

Shocked, she let the book drop and it faded into thin air. To her left, she saw the shadows moving again, and this time she recognized the slug-like pale skin of an eyeless Lurk. Elin started running, if she could not channel, there was no way should would even give the fetch a fight. It followed behind her, leaping from shadow to shadow.

 

Running through the library, she tried to leap ahead of the fade, but couldn't. Nothing seemed to be working... what was this thing? How could a mydraal get into the Dream? 

 

There was a thunk noise as a pitch black blade sank into the wooden shelf just as she passed it. She could smell the wood begin to burn from the corruption of it. The fade was silent as it pursued her, and nothing she could do shook it from her trail.

 

After what seemed like hours of running, she was sweating and weak, and she turned to face the thing.

 

"Light, this can't be real... this can't be happening here... this isn't real." She murmured to herself, and as she did, the lurk began to slip... his form wasn't quite as solid anymore... he surged forward at one moment and back the next. If it works, keep doing it... so she took on a more commanding tone, turning her fervent prayer, denying the reality, into a solid command to the creature that is simply did not exist.

 

And there was a physical bursting sensation and the light returned to what passed for normal in this world, and the fade was gone.

 

Not wishing to wait for another, Elin stepped quickly back into her own body, where she woke up drenched in sweat and tangled in her sheets.

 

Later, she learned that one of the Browns that lived in apartments in that library had grown up in Shienar and had a deathly fear of fades.