Dreamer's Throne

With no time to lose, Garrett sprang into action, flashing to the silver blade that reflected the captain’s face and unleashing Isabella’s power just as the blade started to fall. Captain Fernek’s muscles seized up, locked in place as the heavy pressure rolled over him. But Captain Fernek wasn’t the target that Garrett was locked on. Behind the captain lurked a large shadow that grew deeper as Garrett glared at it.

You have observed a Void Terror, a terrifying nightmare that enjoys slowly consuming mortal minds, driving them to death. You have gained 5 EXP.

EXP: 64/360

The monster in the captain’s shadow tore at Garrett’s control, trying to break free, but Garrett wasn’t about to let go of his advantage. Recognizing that only a small portion of the monster’s body was in the waking World, Garrett jumped to the dream, only to find himself in a pure hellscape. The entire room was filled with shadows that danced like flames, and the captain, who sat in the midst of them, was slowly being eroded by a many-tentacled monster that was all hooks and barbs. Looking like something from an eldritch god’s worst nightmare, the monster lunged toward Garrett as soon as he appeared, its body transforming into one big mouth.

Dashing backward, Garrett set Isabelle’s hair spinning, battering away the reaching tentacles that tried to stuff her into its mouth. With a gesture, her hair rose up around her like a wave, stabbing out at lightning speed to open up a deep gash in the Void Terror’s body. The amorphous monster drew back, more shadows flooding into its body to heal the wound and a powerful surge of energy gathering the flames to the tip of one of its waving tentacles.

With a roar, it threw the flames at Isabelle, forcing her to use her hair to block it. The flames licked at her black hair, sending an acrid smell into the air as it burned. Sensing that he was outmatched, Garrett ceded control back to Isabelle who let out a paralyzing shriek, blowing out the flames and shattering the tentacle that carried it. Her hair began to billow, spreading out in a sea around her that whipped into a hurricane. Her hands extended like claws and she dashed forward, practically throwing herself into the monster’s mouth. At the last moment, she drifted like a leaf, barely avoiding the maw that snapped shut, and then raked the Void Terror across the eyes.

Garrett watched her closely, wanting to see how she fought against such a large nightmare. Though the Void Terror was not quite the same level as the terrifying chosen he had seen, it was a tremendously powerful creature, and simply shrugged off the blows that Isabelle unleashed like they were nothing. Engaged in a deadly ballet, the two greater nightmares twisted and wove, trying to do as much damage to the other as they could. The Void Terror filled the empty space like a flood of black flame, chasing Isabelle as she flitted this way and that, using her hair to propel herself at eye-watering speed.

Her nails tore the Void Terror apart, but it just returned to its normal form as if nothing had happened, relentlessly trying to grab on to Isabelle. It soon became apparent that the attacks that the Dire Spirit was unleashing were not having any effect, so Garrett took a risk and focused his mind, sending out a Dream Seed. He knew that planting them in the Void Terror was useless, as it was too strong for him to control without a guardian seed, and his abilities would not support another one. Instead, he was worried that the Void Terror might consume them, absorbing the energy they contained to revitalize itself.

Instead, he targeted Captain Fernek, who was oblivious to the battle happening in the dream. Fernek was a mortal, and as a mortal, should have been largely immune to the influence of the denizens of the dream, but somewhere along the line he must have been infected with dream energy, setting him up as a target for the Void Terror. The seed that Garrett threw out settled into the captain’s mind, and Garrett willed it to grow, adding another and then another.

Five experience points dripped away in an instant as Garrett sent five seeds into the captain, willing each to grow into a single bloom. He had no idea what this would do to the poor man, but at this point he was angry enough that he didn’t care. He had been nursing a deep fury for days, suppressing it to make sure he took no risky action, but now, under the influence of the Void Terror’s black flame, his emotions began to boil. Intellectually, he knew he was making a mistake, but that rational part of his brain had been shoved into a small corner and he was now operating on the pure rage that filled him.

Another five experience points transformed into more flowers, each one blooming inside Captain Fernek and then crawling out into the room. Normally, a seed would bind itself to its host by wrapping its roots deep in their mind, but these dream flowers were just blooming and marching to war. As soon as they left the Captain, the black flames that made up the majority of the Void Terror’s body assaulted them, starting to wither their leaves and petals, but Garrett had been in this sort of situation more than once and knew exactly what to do.

Hunt.

The dream flowers opened up their petals wide, sinking them into the surging flames, and began to absorb the energy that made up the Void Terror’s body. At the same time, he began to command the flowers to channel their energy together, sending it to the guardian flower in Isabelle. A happy shriek burst from her lips and her shark-like mouth drew back in a gruesome smile as she redoubled her efforts, transforming her hair into a thousand spears that tore huge holes in the Void Terror. It responded in kind, hacking at her hair with its sharpened tentacles, attempting to rip her hair apart. Managing to snag some, it pulled her close, a fearsome mouth opening in its side and lunging forward in an attempt to devour her body.

Pointing her finger, Isabelle spoke and there was a shrill whistle. A large needle shot out of her hair and darted into the monster’s mouth, dragging a strand of hair behind. It changed directions abruptly, tearing through the edge of the monster’s lip with a jerk. Back and forth it darted, rapidly sewing the Void Terror’s mouth shut. Startled by the use of the needle he had taken from Julie, Garrett saw the needle darting toward another of the Void Terror’s gaping maws.

One after another, the needle moved with supernatural grace and an unstoppable piercing force, sewing closed every mouth it could find. Just when Garrett thought that it might turn its attention on Isabelle, the Void Terror opened up another mouth on its body to bite a strand of hair that was wrapping around it, and the needle was there a moment later, already stabbing into it. The entire time this was taking place, Garrett had not stopped throwing out flowers, and soon there were nearly thirty of the blooms creeping around the floors and wall, their petals locked in a battle with the dark flames. Occasionally, one would be slapped by a waving tentacle and would lose its petals as it was torn apart and burned up, but Garrett was always ready with another to take its place.

Even with Garrett’s support, the fight was fierce, but it soon grew clear that it was just a matter of time before the Void Terror fell. Still riding along with Isabelle, Garrett felt like he was fighting his own battle. Little by little he was clawing back control of his emotions, purging the corrupting influence of the Void Terror’s flames. He could tell that the monster was growing weaker because it kept absorbing its flames back into its body to try and heal its wounds.

But even when he knew that they would win, Garrett didn’t relax. He had fallen into a terrible situation that he didn’t know how to salvage without a major loss. The captain’s mind was nearly completely destroyed from the impact of so many dream flowers blooming in it, and despite the fact that none of them had bonded to him, they had taken some of his mental strength with them as they climbed out of his head, leaving his mind looking like it was riddled with holes.

Even worse Garrett was now close to the northern edge of the city with one of his guardians and close to thirty dream flowers. Anyone who was watching the dream flowers’ expansion would surely start to put two and two together if Captain Fernek showed up possessed by a dream flower, but Garrett wasn’t sure what else he could do to keep the captain alive.

Why do I need him alive?

Shaking the thought from his head, Garrett put that problem aside and focused on the bigger issue. Two greater nightmares had just thrown down, and he could practically smell the circling sharks. There was no doubt in his mind that they had just attracted a lot of attention, and that meant potentially getting the attention of the Great Rulers or their chosen. Right now Garrett wasn’t sure if he was in the territory of the Skeletal Hand of Lesrek, or the territory controlled by the Burning Pain of Gath, and while he didn’t care about making Lesrek mad, he wanted to avoid antagonizing Gath as much as possible.

The fight was starting to wind down, so Garrett took a moment to center himself and then sent his commands, picking what he thought was the best of a bunch of bad options. The dream flowers reacted immediately, ten of them crawling up into the mess of hair that filled the room. Some of them continued to attack the Void Terror, while others began to crawl back toward the captain. One of the flowers climbed up on him and sank its root deep into his mind. The rest slowed down and when they got close, they shook and their petals started to dissipate, flowing into the flower that was in him.

Just like he had done for Ryn, Garrett controlled the flowers to send their energy into the captain’s battered mind. He had already been drunk and suicidal, and after being crushed by Isabelle’s mental energy and then torn apart by the blooming flowers, Captain Fernek was in terrible shape, but little by little the energy seeping into him started to repair the rips and tears in his mind, filling them up before sinking down into his chest where his dim soul spark was.

Fernek’s body shook, pain from the forceful injection of mental energy coursing through him. In a near unconscious state, he flopped this way and that, eventually sliding from the chair he was on and curling up on the floor. Still, Garrett didn’t stop. This time, he couldn’t afford to take it slow like he had with Ryn, because they simply didn’t have time, so he just pushed as hard and fast as he could without directly killing the captain. Five minutes ticked by, and then ten, and then twenty. By the time they hit an hour, Garrett was growing very nervous, and had nearly abandoned the project. Finally, just before an hour and a half passed, he saw the captain spasm and grow still.

One of the mortal dreamers under your authority has awoken using the power of your dream flowers. You have gained 10 EXP.

You have slain a Void Terror. You have gained 5 EXP.

EXP: 32/320

Mentally cursing at how many experience points he had wasted, Garrett didn’t hesitate. All of the flowers that remained sent their energy surging into Isabelle, crumbling to the ground as Garrett commanded his Dire Spirit guardian to return. Instead of riding along with her, he disconnected and opened his eyes, his teeth gritted tightly together as dark flames ignited on his body, burned away by the golden light from the throne. Bearing the pain, he took a deep breath, taking solace in the fact that if there was any hidden influence left in him, the throne would remove it. He knew that there had been other nightmares, and maybe even worse, lurking around the building, watching for him to emerge, and he was just hoping that none of them could detect his projection.

It wasn’t long before Isabelle had returned, and Garrett met her in the mirror world. She floated through the mirror, ten brilliant rainbow flowers in her hair. Her hair parted and she produced a bundle that she tossed to the ground, revealing a stunned Captain Fernek. A soul spark glowed weakly in him, but he was still incredibly disoriented and didn’t seem to realize that he had already become awakened. Standing in front of him, Garrett stared down at the sprawled out man.

“At someone’s direction, you targeted one of my pawns. Normally, I wouldn’t care about that at all, but in this case, I have particular plans for that piece. Not only did you target him, but you targeted someone he was using and nearly ruined an operation that we have spent considerable time on. Again, normally I wouldn’t care about this, but I find myself irritated.”

Crouching down, Garrett locked gazes with the captain.

“Do you know what I am referring to?”

It took a full minute for Fernek to answer, but Garrett was happy to give him time.

“Y… you are talking about Carraway. And that cripple. Klein.”

“Very good. One of the best characteristics a pawn can have is the ability to recognize opportunity, but you look to be in rough shape so I’ll just spell it out for you. Currently, you have something I want. Specifically, everything you know about the person who hired you. And, wonder of wonders, I have something you want. The opportunity to live. However, what I have comes in a few different kinds of flavors. Flavor one, I turn you into a drooling slave with no free will who can only follow direct commands by having one of my flowers burrow its way into your skull and consume your mind. Flavor number two, I have my pretty friend Isabelle here turn you into one of those.”

Garrett gestured toward the door as a Pale Fiend floated through, its dead eyes fixed on the captain.

“They’re not great at parties, and they’re terrible conversationalists, but they make good fodder for throwing at my enemies, and they’re loyal as well.”

A shriek broke out of the Pale Fiend’s mouth, causing a noticeable shiver to run down Fernek’s spine and he tried to back up, only to find an undulating wall of hair behind him.

“You don’t seem to fancy the first two options, so let me give you the third. Maybe you’ll like it better. Third flavor of this once in a lifetime opportunity. We become friends. You tell me what you know, and I let you go. Of course, I’ll have the occasional favor to ask of you, and I’d love to keep up on what you’re doing, but no will-destroying flowers, no spectral screams. What do you say? Want to be friends?”