Chapter 135: Shared Dreaming

  We all started to get aced to the persistent cold as it became the new normal. We sealed the doors to the small library as best we could to keep in the heat ahe five fires going in the offices. Part of my assigned duties were to watch over Schor Favian as he paged through the hundreds of books. I also finished going through the entire herbalism and apothecary se. Eaight, I added aen books to my dreamscape colle, and I was gettier at handling the migraines oing. Perhaps I was building a tolerahey were fading much quicker, at least.

  I also made trips with Maveith to the floors above to search for viable books in the mess above, which was once a small library for Favian to look at. The third floor still had its doors intact, but a rafter in the roof had fallen, exposing a portion of the room to the elements. The room was half filled with snow; no tomes remaiher than some tarnished silver book bindings. We stacked those dozens of bed silver ptes together. If we escaped the city, maybe we would pack them out—or they might find their way into my ste.

  The sed floor held more promise. The shelves had colpsed, and one of the quartz windows had buckled, leaving a wide crack. It gave me access to see how cold it really was outside. Stig my hand through the crack, I found it colder than anything I had ever experienced before in this life or my st, and my hand rickled with needles of pain immediately from the cold. Maveith ented after replig my act, “We wouldn’t st an hour outside. The summoner doesn’t o send any creatures after us in order to finish us off.”

  I tried to cheer up the morose goliath, “The Summoner ot hold back spring.” I handed him a ration bar from my ste. “Eat this, Maveith; you are looking a little thin.” The truth was all of us were thinning rapidly after just four days iy on the forced diet. Maveith more so, even though he was getting twice as much as everyone else at meals. He looked at the bar uainly. “I have a few more in my ste. Eat it. It is fine, and just don’t tell anyone.”

  His hand slowly exteo take it, his hunger winning out. Maveith had trouble with lying, but I thought he would keep this secret. He s in half and tried to hahe other half. So far, I had been suffering with the others, ing from my dimensional space. It had been difficult to overe the urges and I knew if I started, I wouldn’t stop. Looking at the bar, my mouth watered, “No, Maveith, it is all for you.” I turned my ba him, resisting the temptation, and tinued searg the sed floor.

  As I dug through the debris, I heard him slowly g away guiltily oion bar. These upper floors held no offices to search as they only held shelving. We dug through the mess and stacked books to be brought downstairs for Schor Favian to review.

  Acc to the Schor, the sed floor appeared to focus on all types of metal smithing, from household goods to armor and ons. There were lots of teiques with instrus and images by elven master smiths within the pages. Of course, it was all in Elvish and useless in our current circumstances. No one in the pany was foolish enough not to think these books would be worth thousands of gold if recovered. The problem was rec them.

  After I had paged through the herbalism and apothecary colle, I started helping Schor Favian sort the books. He had resumed teag me the Elven nguage. It was a lot easier to speak the nguage than it was to read it. This was made doubly so by the fatigue from slowly starving my body. My mind did not want to focus for more than a few mi a time. I was finding myself staring out bnkly at nothing. I had no idea how the Schor kept going s hour after hour, but I guessed his thirst for knowledge outweighed his hunger pains aal fatigue.

  I did make progress on the Elven nguage though, as I cheated. I spent four hours in the dreamscape amulet every evening, w on reading, writing, and speaking the Elven tongue. So far, no one had requested to use the artifact. I was most surprised that Mateo had not made another request. During my nights, I added ten books and then tried to sort the ones I had as I worked on my steady mastery of the nguage. Having a copy of Schor Favian with me in the dreamscape made the process even easier. Creating a copy of him allowed the amulet to draw on the short daily lessoaught me during the day, making progress faster with each day that passed.

  Learning ihe amulet was also much more effective than in the real world. I found that recall for knowledge was much clearer from studying the books, and my muscle memory from ons practice was much sharper and more effit, helping to reduce wasted movement during sparring practi and out of the dreamscape. My best guess was the amulet focused all my efforts on learning the current task. I could see why these amulets were so valued if using them allowed me tress so much faster than without one. Schor Favian thought that with my rapid improvement, I should bee a master linguist rather than a soldier. The funny part of all this was I could not speak Tsinga, my alleged native nguage. None of the books I had gave me insights into that nguage, though.

  On the fifth m iower, I noticed that only Konstantin and I seemed well-rested when I woke up. Everyone else was lethargid took more time to wake up a active. I used the amulet, and Konstantin had a spell form to shorten the rest he needed. I po tell Castile my suspis and observations. I spent that night ing up the spa the amulet, after I added more books and a bit of nguage practice. I moved everyone and everything to the scorpion room, walled it off, a all the monster rooms. I felt some guilt log Oscar with the structs, so I altered their disposition to py with him.

  I was never part of Castile’s small group that went every m to the underground plex to kill specters. I did hear stories of how they would spend time trying to attract the attention of only a few at a time. Then they would lure them back toward our tower and sy them with runic ons, and Castile would use the kettle of souls to end them permaly. When they returhis evening, the group was missing a person.

  I could read the faces of everyone; someone had died. I tried to recall who went with them this m. Konstantin stood in the doorway, his fak. Castile went into the room she slept in and closed the door. Delmar gathered everyone around, “Men, e close; I don’t want to repeat myself.” His voice was heavy.

  Delmar’s face was thin, and his eyes were sunken and dark. He waited as a group was ing back from gathering wood. With everyone present, we listeo him, “We entered a wight.” A lot of fused looks had him expin. “It is a powerful type of undead zombie. We were surprised, and it got Lysander. Castile was able to restrain it subsequently, but Lysander is dead.”

  There was a quiet shock. Lysander was one of the you men in the pany. Not evey-one, if I remembered. He was also a terrible cook, but no one made a joke about it now. Firth asked the most perti question, “Are there more of them? The wights?”

  Konstantin answered, “More than likely. We entered a different part of the underground plex. It was a barracks e for important citizens. It had a slew of specters and peists. We had drawn out five of them and the wight as well. Lysander aralyzed as it stabbed him and then bit into his neck, ripping out his throat.”

  Konstantin handed Brutus the sword that I had loaned him at the beginning of this mess, as he lent it to Lysahis m for use. Konstantin walked into the room, “We ot bee pt. This undead city most likely has more surprises.” He pced a new elven short bde oable Schor Favian worked at, its thin bde about a meter ih which grew wider toward the end with only a slight curve. “The wight had a runic on. Lysander fought well; remember him well.”

  Delmar broke into Konstantin’s speech with a ft tohere is some mood news. We found a storeroom full of elven wine. If it is not vinegar, we will have it with our meals.” Even the promise of alcohol did not break the somber faces. Twenty-one legionnaires were left, not including Maveith, the Schor, and Castile.

  Delmar gave Lirkin two bottles from his pad went to join Castile. Adrian followed him but had not been part of this expedition to the underground plex. I knocked on the door shortly after it had closed. Castile’s sharp voiswered, “Enter!”

  I walked in, and the three of them looked at me expetly. I told them my thoughts, “I think everyone is being prevented from dreaming and rec mentally when they sleep.”

  Delmar responded hotly, “Everyone is sleeping just fine, Eryk.”

  Castile held up her hand to stop Delmar, “Expin, legionnaire.”

  I gathered my thoughts, “I have noticed everyone is more lethargic, irritable, and quick to anger with shorter tempers. I have had to calm more than a few men down. I have been using my dreamscape amulet nightly, and Konstantin has his spell form to help him sleep and recover quicker. ear to be the only two ag normal.”

  Delmar harumphed and said dismissively, “Normal? We are eating a quarter of what we should be eating. Most of the men are making a new not their belt every day.”

  Adrian finally said something, “I agree with Eryk. We have been in more dire situations before. The meo have given up too quickly and easily.”

  Castile nodded as well, “I think Eryk is right, too. We should firm it by having others use the amulet.” She looked me in the eye, “With your permission?”

  I had known this was going to be the oute. “I think it is necessary. Two people e once; perhaps more. I have tempted it. They just both o be toug the amulet.”

  Castile nodded slowly, “Tonight then. I will use it with you here, and Adrian and Delmar stand watch.” I left the room feeling slightly awkward, but I khat it was the right thing to do and had to be done. Maybe the men were being blocked from just getting a deep sleep, but I felt it was more. Maybe there was some type of slow-festering corruption or curse surrounding the city.

  A few hours ter, I was on the floor, in front of the fire, with Castile on the bedrolls. The pn was to stay in the dreamscape for six hours and see if it was effective for Castile, I suspected it would be. Delmar was currently on wat the outer room. “I will el aether aer first,” I told Castile, who nodded. Adrian was seated, watg ily as my sciousness left to ehe dreamscape.

  I was iry room of the dungeon. Castile appeared a moment ter. She turned around slowly, “The dungeon?” I nodded. “The others using it will figure out where you got the amulet if this is the space you created.”

  “I didn’t create it. It was like this the first time I entered, and I ’t ge it,” I said while creating a table and chairs and taking a seat, a seat to Castile with aended hand. Castile stepped back, surprised, before rexing.

  She sat opposite of me, “How does it work?”

  “I just think what I want, and it creates it,” I expined while filling the table with a Thanksgivi. “I know it is not going to give your body any sustenance, but it still tastes good.”

  Castile took the mashed potatoes and berry relish. She tried the relish first and spit it out, “Sour!” I ughed.

  “It is tart, not sour; it has sugar, but you o get past the tartness. Give it a ce,” I said, and she tried it again and nodded slowly.

  “What is it?” She asked, trying the mashed potatoes, which were much more to her liking.

  “berries from the south,” I replied. I watched her as she ate. She tried a little of everything before stopping.

  “You are right. I think the cursed souls iy are affeg us. Because there are so many specters, they are creating an aura,” Castile moved the food around oe, not making eye tact.

  I questioned Castile, “But you have made progress in the underground plex? The more specters you kill, the less the evil aura?”

  Castile couldn’t hide a pained look, “It is much rger thahought. There are two levels and even a sewer system underh those levels. Konstantin thinks it was built by their earth mages to hide the citizens when the Legion attacked the city. The Legion never ehe city, instead filling it with a powerful and deadly gas that seeped into the underground city plex.”

  “So, you have made nress?” I asked, fused.

  “We kill more than a hundred specters and peists a day. We learhe undead are not tied to their body but to the city itself. It means they all wander anywhere iy. And now that we entered a wight? Wights are powerful undead, and there could be wraiths, or maybe even banshees,” Castile admitted.

  “Was the wraith we entered heading to Sobral from these elven ruins?” I said, remembering that terrible night.

  Castile recalled the enter, “It was definitely an elf in a past life, but it was more ied in Konstantin’s runic on. Some undead have es to certain objects from their past life…” She trailed off, not talking further about it, and focused oing.

  After she had stuffed her face for a time, I offered with an unfortable smile, “Do you want to fight any monsters?”

  We walked into the ankheg chamber but didn’t fight them. Instead, Castile practiced maing objects and creatures. She was able to do it, successfully creating gnolls, but it took much more of an effort for her than for me. She was the sed person to ehe dreamscape, so I think it was harder for her to make ges, and I voiced my opinion.

  Castile offered a guess, “I know at the Mage College, only two people used them at a time. My specution is any more would overload the amulet. The first person in the dreamscape amulet also has primary trol of the enviro. Even though I tried to stop you, you could make the gnolls I created disappear.”

  I was happy to finally be learning more about how the amulet funed. I had another question that I wanted answered. Could I get others to create books here with their knowledge? And would those books remain after they exited the dreamscape? I smiled encingly at Castile, “You create books that you have read before. Try it.” Castile arched an eyebrow at my sudden eagerness but focused, and a thie appeared in her hand. It ellbook.

  She slowly ope up, and her eyes got wider and wider as she rapidly paged through it. “It is the plete book!? I read this a long time ago at the Mage College. I learned shadow s from it.” She was in disbelief, “It looks the same. Even the page where I left a drink to hold it open has the watermark.” Castile’s thoughts were spinning.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked her.

  “There are dozens of spell books I looked at. There were spells I couldn’t learn at the time that were too plex. I thought I would never have the opportunity to.” Castile said excitedly as she tinued paging through the book.

  I created a shelf iry room for her, and she studied for the st few hours while I practiced fighting her maions of gnolls. When we exited the dreamscape, Castile moaned in pain and held her head, sitting up too quickly. She rolled over and dry heaved a few times. “I should have warned you, Castile. The more things you create in there for the first time, the more it taxes your mind. How many books did you recreate?”

  Castile tio dry heave for a minute. Adrian was handing her a teen of water. She ughed harshly, “Almost all of them, thirty, maybe thirty-one. Every spellbook I read at the Mage College.” She took the teen and pushed Adrian back, “I am fine. Just some nausea and a headache.”

  Adrian gave me a harsh look as he helped Castile stand. Castile wobbled on her feet, suffering from a bout of vertigo, and it reminded me of the first time I had overextended myself in the dreamscape. “I don’t think we will find out if it protected you from the undead city’s aura,” I said while returning the amulet to my ste.

  Castile regained herself, “No, it did. Even with the aftermath, I tell. My aether core is easier to access, and my thoughts are clearer.”

  Adrian looked a little skeptical, “Are you sure? You look much worse than before you used it.”

  “I am sure,” Castile said firmly.

  “Do we have the whole pany use it then?” Delmar asked from the doorway, clearly agitated. Castile looked at me, and I nodded. “Well, I will go now, then.” Delmar moved and y dowo me. I felt slightly unfortable but produced the amulet aered the dreamscape.

  The st book Castile had been reading was still here. She must have made the others disappear rather than put them on the shelf I made for her. I tried to mahe books she had created, but none appeared. That was disappointing. The three gnolls she had created were still here. I made one of them vanish and made it reappear a mier. So, if she left creations behind, I could trol them.

  I was thinking about this when I finally wondered where Delmar was. I waited a few more minutes before exiting the dreamscape.

  The three of them watched me as I got off the ground. “It didn’t work,” Castile said.

  “What didn’t work?” I said, fused.

  “You have to be able to send your owher into the amulet to activate it. My aether didn’t work for Delmar,” she crified. I let out a chuckle, and Delmar’s face torted into masked fury; he was ready to throttle me. I was chug that I had not lied to Mateo; not Delmar’s inability to manipute aether. Delmar didn’t see it that way; he thought I was ughing at him.

  He didn’t give me a ce to expin. An irate Delmar ordered me out, “Go back to your room, Eryk!” I left the three of them as they started to discuss what we had learned and to pn a course of a.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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