Illusia Chapter 6 – Rough Awakening
Chapter 6 – Rough Awakening
Elizabeth started awake with a small scream then looked around wildly to find herself back in her room at the academy. The echo of her small scream faded away and she heard a voice say from across the room from the other bed.
“By the Dreamer, Elizabeth! You scared me!”
Elizabeth took a deep breath or two before she replied, “Sorry Tanith, I just…” She paused and shifted her gaze from the blanket covering her legs over to her room-mate across the darkened room. Tanith, as always looked slightly nervous and worried about something, her grey eyes were focused on Elizabeth for now, her pale face partially hidden in shadow. “I encountered a Nightmare.”
Her eyes dropped from Tanith and went over her bed on the other side of the medium sized room. It had enough space for the two single beds and a pair of desks for them to do their study at and between them was a large rug that covered the stone floor of the room. There was an intricate design of spirals in muted colours around the edges and the center of it was taken up by a design of tall blue-grey tower with a silver eye with long lashes on its front. Elizabeth raised her eyes from the rug with a jerk, she didn’t need to be reminded of that emblem just now.
Tanith gave a small gasp and immediately began chewing on the ends of her honey-blonde hair. “Are..are you sure it wasn’t just a bad dream?”
Elizabeth resisted the urge to snap at her, barely. “No Tanith I didn’t just have a bad dream. I was Dreaming and talking to that boy I told you about yesterday, Andrew.” Thinking about him left with the nightmare made her stomach lurch a little but there was nothing she could do. It had treated her with scorn and she wasn’t going to be able to sleep for hours now. Not knowing there were still Nightmares out there. Elizabeth realised she was still in the dark and hurriedly reached out to light the lamp resting on the desk besides her bed.
Tanith reacted as Elizabeth should have known she would. She immediatly brightened and got a mischivious look on her face. “So you met with that boy again did you? I think someone has a crush…” She drew the last word out, teasingly. Elizabeth glared at her as she finished lighting the lamp. It filled the room with a soft yellowing glow which highlighted Elizabeths glaring face.
“I do NOT have a crush on him Tanith. You’re missing the important part again anyway. How can you so easily forget I just encountered a Nightmare!” Tanith immediatly blanched again and looked incredibly worried.
“Why did you have to say it again…I was happily distracted by thinking of how bad your crush on this Andrew is.” She shivered. “Should…Should we go see master Theron? He would know what to do, and he should know if you really did encounter an Nightmare.”
“I…” Elizabeth thought about it, Tanith had a good point. As much as she didn’t want her instructor to know about her intereactions with Andrew that were going far beyond the rules of observation and study. He should be told that there was a Nightmare still walking the dream. With a sigh she got out of bed and began to dress. Tanith joined her after a worried moment of consideration.
“What do you think master Theron will say Elizabeth? Do you think he will punish you for interacting with your dream subject? Does this mean the Nightmares are going to break down the dreamwall?” She asked many questions that Elizabeth had no answer for and didn’t want to think about. Especially the last one.
The Dreamwall had protected the city of Illusia for centuries. It couldn’t be under threat by nightmares now. It had withstood them in their thousands when it had first gone up. It couldn’t be failing now. It just wasn’t possible. She shook her head to clear her mind of such dark thoughts and spoke to Tanith a little sharper than she intended. “Shush, Tanith. I don’t know that is why we are going to talk to Master Theron.”
Tanith immediatly silenced herself and in silence they both finished dressing. Elizabeth pushed open the door to their room and was hit by a blast of chill air from the hallway. The girls dormitory was meant to be warmer than the boys but Elizabeth didn’t believe it. They boys dormitory could not possibly be colder than this hallway. Her breath came out in little puffs of mist as she entered the hall, followed by Tanith. She turned right and began to head down the hallway, heading towards the exit for the dormitory. Master Theron would be either asleep or in the library reading at this hour. She would check the library first, it meant not sneaking into the section where the instructors had rooms. Many of them slept very lightly.
So Elizabeth guided her roomate and herself towards the Library, out of the Dormitory exit and into one of the wide, tall hallways that made up the interior of the Dreaming Academy. The hallway was lined with the occasional tapestry and large painting of imposing figures that stared down at you. Elizabeth had heard many students had been indimidated by the vast weight of history that bore down on you where ever you went in the dreaming academy. It didn’t affect her, she was used to even heavier history surrounding her as she grew up. She remembered so many long corridors devoid of life except for the occasional servant dusting a painting or tapestry.
They turned down several more corridors before coming before the large wooden double doors that were the entrance to the Library. Elizabeth was glad they had not encountered anyone, the instructors had some sort of roster for themselves where they patrolled the corridors of the Academy to make sure students were not wandering around at night. She did not care to try and explain herself more than one more time tonight. Given Tanith’s reaction was likely to be the most believing of anyone she cared to tell. She wasn’t even sure about Master Theron’s reaction, for all that he was her friend and mentor.
Elizabeth turned the handle for one of the doors and pushed it open slowly. It opened with a slight creak, like the rest of the Academy the Library and the doors that led into it were ancient. It showed. She pushed a little more forcefully when the door got stuck and it opened with the loud squeal of hinges that needed some oil. Tanith winced and looked even more nervous, if that was possible.
“What if someone besides master Theron hears and comes to look? We’ll be in so much trouble!”Tanith spoke in a loud whisper fraught with nerves.
Elizabeth made a hushing gesture to her. She didn’t want anyone to come investigate either but Tanith’s whisper that could be heard across a courtyard was hardly going to help them not be heard. She followed the door into the library and after Tanith was in as well she closed it once more. Thankfully it only gave a softer squeak this time as she closed it. Once that was done she looked around the dark interior of the Library, when it was night all the lights in here were put out. No one wanted to burn the collection of books that contained all the history and knowledge they possessed. As far as Elizabeth knew there had not been a new book brought into the library for at least a decade and that book had been falling apart from age and from having resided inside a cellar of a tailor for generations. The shadows of the night covered everything in the Library yet they could still faintly see from the moonlight that came in through the high windows on the far side of the room.
It was then she noticed the yellowed colour of a lamp or candle faintly emerging from one of the rows of shelves. It looked like Master Theron was here and reading as Elizabeth had hoped he would be. She caught Tanith’s gaze and gestured with her head to the light coming from between the shelves and Tanith relaxed ever so slightly.
With that Elizabeth began to walk over to the source of the light, hoping Master Theron was feeling in a genrous mood and would believe her. More importantly she hoped he could help and shed some light and the matter of there being a Nightmare still in the dreamscape. If he couldn’t she didn’t know what to think besides the question that was haunting her. Were they about to enter a new age of Nightmares?
