Dreamer's Throne

Was that wraith afraid of the flowers? What on earth sort of skill did I pick up?

Unable to understand why the Whispering Wraith would have felt threatened by flowers, Garrett could only shrug and continue following Henrick and Gorn through the foggy streets. After nearly half an hour they arrived at their destination, a small alleyway that overlooked the warehouses sitting on the eastern bank of the river. Seeing them stop, Garrett took a deep breath and continued forward, trusting in his cloaking ability to keep him safe if any nightmares showed up. Even the Whispering Wraith, a regular-level nightmare, hadn’t noticed him, which gave him a lot more confidence.

Leaving Gorn and Henrick behind, Garrett slipped across the road, walking into the tangle of buildings that made up the warehouses. All the warehouses sat on a corner of the river and were arranged in a rough diamond shape. To the southwest was the beginning of a long stretch of docks that ran all the way up the river, while to the southeast was an area that had previously been part of the city but had been claimed by the swamp over time, transforming from marshy land into a small bay. Only the top of one hill remained above water, sitting as an island in the center of the bay.

Most of the buildings were rectangular and arranged in rows, with the ones closest to the water holding goods that were unloaded and loaded at the docks along the river’s edge. The four warehouses he’d pointed Henrick to were along the southeastern edge of the block of warehouses, and it was here that Garrett hurried. This area was controlled by the Swamp Shark gang, a large collection of thugs who had grown in strength thanks to their hold over the docks in this part of the city.

According to the information Ryn had supplied, the Swamp Sharks had nearly three times the number of members that Ghoul’s Tooth possessed and among their ranks were several Awakened. It was only their hesitance to get into a full-blown gang war that had kept the larger gang from shredding all forms of pretense with Ghoul’s Tooth, but they were already starting to put pressure on the smaller gang as they moved into the territory around the inn.

As strange and terrifying as the Dream could be, currently Garrett had a much greater fear. If something happened to Henrick, the tenuous stability he’d just earned would evaporate like so much smoke, leaving him without an anchor once again. As such, Garrett was determined to do whatever it took to make sure this succeeded. He had handed everything to the innkeeper, including a detailed plan for moving the goods, and as long as Henrick followed it, he was confident there wouldn’t be any problems, but Garrett wasn’t about to leave anything to chance.

Moving quickly but cautiously through the foggy alleyway between the warehouses, Garrett hurried to do a complete circuit around the warehouses before sitting down near one of them and activating Observe the Dream. He could feel the strain of both Dreamer’s Cloak and his observation ability as they consumed the energy from his soul, but thankfully it was still bearable. Sending his vision out, he carefully swept the areas he’d already passed through, trying to cover as much space as he could.

About halfway done, he caught a bit of movement and focused his sight on one of the alleyways he had passed. There was a lot of trash in that particular space, and as he’d walked by Garrett had completely missed the person hunkered down among the debris. It was only after he did a second pass that he managed to see the man, hiding behind some cans. Focusing on the man’s figure, he saw a faint soul spark gleaming and his eyes sharpened.

Across the street from the group of warehouses, Henrick was staring at Gorn, whose face was slightly strained. They had been standing in the shadow of a building staring at their target for nearly five minutes, and Henrick was starting to get irritated. Gorn had asked him to wait before giving the signal to start the operation, and at first he’d been happy to pause, but now his patience was beginning to wear thin.

“What’s wrong?” Henrick asked, his voice low and dangerous.

“There… I think there’s another guard,” Gorn said, his eyes revealing his confusion as he heard a faint whisper in his head.

“We’ve swept the area twice. If there were more guards, we would have seen them,” Henrick replied, turning to give the signal to start.

“No, wait! The second alleyway—there’s a bum hiding behind some crates,” Gorn said.

“So we’ll pay him off,” Henrick said, his expression growing even darker.

“He’s Awakened!”

Gorn’s face was screwed up in abject confusion, completely unable to understand how this knowledge had just flowed into his head, but he was so certain of it that he felt as if he could see the person he was referring to clearly. His boss stared at him with narrowed eyes for a moment before nodding solemnly. The scouts they’d sent hadn’t been Awakened, so it was entirely reasonable they would have missed an Awakened guard, and if there really was such a guard, all their efforts would end in disaster unless they dealt with the threat ahead of time.

“How sure are you?” Henrick asked, his voice dangerously calm.

“I… I’m completely sure,” Gorn replied, his expression changing from confusion to firm certainty.

“Alright, then let’s get him. If there is an Awakened guard, our one-armed advisor is probably right about what’s kept in those buildings.”

With surprising stealth, Gorn and Henrick moved across the street, sending their men along the original path. With a flick of his fingers, Henrick signaled for Gorn to split up from him and they began to work their way toward the alleyway where Gorn had said the guard was hiding. From nearly a full block away, Garrett sat curled up against the wall, watching as the two men crept along the edge of the buildings, entering the fog where Garrett had never been.

Though he normally wouldn’t have been able to follow their progress, Gorn’s body carried the Dream Flowers Garrett had planted, allowing him to observe him without an issue. In a lot of ways, the flowers acted as an extension of Garrett himself, and he could tie his Observe the Dream ability to them, giving him perfect sight of everything around Gorn. He had no idea how far his ability would work, which was one of the reasons he’d ventured out of the inn and away from the safety of the Dreamer’s Throne, while the other was to act as a scout for Gorn and Henrick.

Creeping along the edge of a building, Gorn peeked his head around the corner, staying low as he tried to locate the guard. If not for Garrett’s prompt, he would have missed him because of how well the guard’s ragged clothing blended in with the pile of trash he was sitting in, but once he locked onto him, Gorn’s lips split into a savage grin. Henrick had gone around the other side of the alleyway, and he saw Gorn’s signal that the enemy had been spotted.

Watching all this from the Dream, Garrett couldn’t see any of the details, just vague, gray motions, but when the two men sprang into action that all changed. The gray haze that covered the world suddenly evaporated as Gorn’s soul spark flared and he charged in, a long dagger appearing in his hand and stabbing straight toward the back of the guard’s neck. The light from Gorn’s soul spark appeared to twist like a rope that spun out in a large circle, casting everything into sharp relief as it established a barrier around the alleyway, allowing Garrett to see both the attack and the incredible response from the guard. It only took a second for the hiding Awakened to realize he was being ambushed, and with a desperate heave he threw himself to the side, sacrificing an arm to Gorn’s vicious stab but managing to preserve his life.

The sound of the guard’s yell shook the air, but thanks to his position in the Dream, Garrett could tell that the sound waves were being contained by the light barrier that radiated from Gorn’s soul spark, completely sealing the alleyway where the fight was taking place. Chilled by what he was seeing, Garrett found himself coming to a new appreciation for how dangerous Awakened were. He wasn’t the only one who realized that the area was sealed, and as he watched the guard abandoned both his wounded arm and the fight, using all his energy to break free from the restriction Gorn had created as he dashed past him, heading for the opening of the alleyway.

Glancing back with a sneer, he was only a step away from escaping both the alley and the sealing influence of Gorn’s aura when a powerful presence appeared in front of him and a heavy cleaver chopped down, cutting through everything with unnatural ease. As the thick blade fell it sliced through his neck, stealing his life away in a single stroke. With hardly a flare of energy, Henrick flicked his cleaver, sending drops of blood splattering to the ground even as the guard’s corpse bounced away, its momentum carrying it past him. The faint tang of blood hung in the air for a moment before Gorn arrived, his aura covering the smell.

“Deal with the body,” Henrick said coldly, putting away his cleaver. “I’ll bring the others to check the warehouses. I really hope we didn’t just kill him for nothing.”

“Yes, boss,” Gorn said, nodding quickly.

As interested as Garrett was in how Gorn would dispose of the body, he thought it would be better to focus on the more pressing matter of making sure there were no other guards. While Henrick brought his men to open up the first of the warehouses, Garrett continued to scan the area. Not finding anything, he canceled his ability to preserve his fading soul spark energy and began making his way back to the inn. Despite his recent adventurous actions, he had no desire to be caught outside of the inn without Dreamer’s Cloak active.

I’ve done what I can for them. If they can’t do the rest, I’ll need to look for a different group to partner with anyway.

The thick fog that covered the streets created a sense of disorientation that threatened to confuse Garrett’s senses, making him thankful that the way back to the inn was straightforward. Even at this distance, the plants he had planted in the inn acted as a sort of beacon for him, allowing him to maintain his orientation no matter how much the foggy streets shifted. Still, it was a long and nerve-wracking walk and it was with considerable relief that Garrett arrived back at the inn, nearly stumbling as he walked through the door. His soul spark was terribly dim, causing sleepiness to flood through his body, so when he had made it into the hallway from the great room, he deactivated Dreamer’s Cloak and supported himself along the wall, entirely oblivious to the terrified Drudge Wraiths behind him.

Collapsing into the Dreamer’s Throne, he felt the gentle light replenishing his energy and quickly fell into a deep sleep, only waking the next morning when Ryn brought breakfast in. The young woman was bursting with excitement and news, largely due to the spread she’d laid out. Seeing Garrett staring in some shock at the sausages, eggs, and slices of toast she put in front of him, Ryn grinned happily.

“The cook sends his regards.”

“It sounds like the operation went smoothly?” Garrett asked as he cut into one of the sausages.

“Like a greased piglet. They cleared out all four of the warehouses without anyone the wiser, just like you planned. Once you’re done with breakfast, Henrick wants to see you.”

“Got it.”

Garrett was just finishing his last bit of toast and eggs when he sensed Gorn coming toward the room. Brushing off his lips and fingertips, he passed his plate to Ryn just as Gorn knocked.

“Come in.”

“Morning, sir,” Gorn said, bowing his head slightly. “If you’re done with breakfast, can I bring you out to the office?”

“Please,” Garrett replied, looking at Gorn curiously.

He hadn’t expected such a change in Gorn’s behavior, but it appeared that the loyalty effect of the flower he’d planted was beginning to work. Waiting for Ryn to remove the plates, Gorn picked Garret up and carried him into the office, where Henrick was enjoying his own breakfast. The innkeeper’s clothing was still damp, which surprised Garrett, since it indicated he’d taken part in the whole operation the night before. Revising his opinion of the large innkeeper, Garrett thanked Gorn with a nod and waited calmly for Henrick to finish his food.

Pushing his plate back once he was done, Henrick wiped his mouth with his sleeve and then looked at Garrett, picking a piece of sausage out of his teeth with his tongue. Seeing nothing but calm patience in Garrett’s face, the innkeeper couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head.

“You’re something else, you know? First, knowing about the opportunity is an ability in and of itself, but your plan worked without a hitch. Did you know there would be no moon? That made it nearly impossible for anyone to see us against the water, and the float system worked like a charm. We moved the goods into the water, attaching them to the line we had put out, and then pulled them all the way over to the sewer culvert. From there it was simple to get them into our storage.

“We ran the whole operation without a peep, apart, of course, from an unfortunate guard at the beginning, but thanks to Gorn’s sharp senses, that wasn’t an issue either. I’ve got a tally of everything we grabbed except for the last shipment, but that’s being sorted now and we should have the tally for that soon. We lost a few items to water, but the rest came through a treat. I’m really impressed with how this went. Do you have more ideas like this?”

Smiling slightly, Garrett’s mind went back to the idea he’d proposed. The goods had originally been placed in the warehouses to await distribution by Prince Everan, the city’s late prince, along with the soap he’d already told Henrick about. With the king’s health failing, Prince Everan had started to turn his head toward winning over the population and had developed a number of initiatives designed to get the commoners on his side. Unfortunately, the prince had been killed before he could carry out any of his reforms, leaving the things he'd prepared unused.

Taking advantage of the supplies, Garrett’s idea had been simple. Rather than carry all the goods through the street, simply lash them together along with a large number of bags of air and dump them into the water. The prince had always been meticulous, and all the goods were sealed in water-tight bags to help preserve the contents inside, so Garrett hadn’t been worried about water damage.

Using a line they had laid the day before as a guide, the gang was able to pull the goods along the coast without anyone being the wiser. They were helped, of course, by the lack of moonlight and almost complete absence of stars, along with the curfew the palace had instituted ever since the royal family had been attacked. Relieved that everything had fallen into place, Garrett allowed himself to relax. For the last week he’d been on pins and needles, trying to calculate everything down to the last detail, and now, seeing those plans coming to fruition, he couldn’t help but be happy.

“I’m glad it worked out,” Garrett said, picking up the list of all the goods they had seized and running over it. “As for other ideas? Believe me, I’ve got plenty.”