Dreamer's Throne

The real question is, does it have to be an actual tool? Or can it be an object that represents an idea?

Garrett had been sitting at the table for a few hours now, letting his mind wander as he imagined as many situations and scenarios as he could. Rather than limiting himself to what he already knew, he simply let himself explore as many different ideas as he could think of. One of the things talking with Gorn had driven home was how there was no firm system for accessing the energy contained in a soul spark. Given that everyone did it differently, it seemed to Garret that the best method would be the one that suited him most, and more specifically, the one that most closely matched his mental image of what he would become as he gained access to his soul spark’s energy.

After coming up with over twenty different ideas, Garrett felt like he’d finally arrived at the one that most appealed to him. Looking down at the paper on the table, he read over the only remaining phrase that wasn’t crossed out. Hidden ruler. Chuckling to himself at how dramatic it sounded, he considered what had led him to write those two words down. While his inability to walk was an often-frustrating challenge, Garrett was beginning to realize there was some advantage to be gained from it as well.

No one he’d come across considered him a threat, allowing him a strange amount of freedom he wouldn’t have had if he was physically imposing. The instinctive dismissal he faced didn’t mean, however, that he was powerless to influence his surroundings. In fact, it was quite the opposite. By leveraging the freedom from scrutiny his current condition gave him, Garrett believed he could act without worry. Already he was discovering how the Dream Flowers were allowing him to bend the situation toward his own aims by observing those who fell under the flowers’ influence and subtly influencing their actions.

Furthermore, as soon as he’d started down this line of thought something clicked in his heart and mind and a wild idea unfolded clearly. From the method he would use to awaken his soul spark to the shape it would take once it was completely Awakened, each step appeared in his head as if it’d already existed there. The more he thought about it the more exciting it seemed, and crumpling up the paper he’d been using, Garrett got out another piece of paper and began writing out the path he’d attempt to take. At the top of the sheet he wrote out his ultimate goal—shaping his soul into a replica of the Dreamer’s Throne, formed by the petals, stems, and leaves of a Dream Flower.

Underneath his soul shape, he wrote the method he was going to use to awaken his soul spark. When he was in the Dream he planted and grew Dream Seeds, transforming them into beautiful flowers. He wanted to replicate that in the real world, treating his soul spark as a seed that would bloom into the Dreamer’s Throne. While most Awakeners tended to focus on a specific ability, honing it until it naturally shaped their soul, Garrett intended to do the opposite.

He would hold the shape of his soul tightly, accepting and incorporating any ability he possessed in the Dream as part of it. His hope was that he’d be able to transfer those abilities to the real world, giving him access to them regardless of where he was. At the same time, he would reinforce his belief about what he would become by starting to build his influence in the real world through the powers of the Dream, all while staying under the radar. Looking over everything once more to make sure nothing was missing, Garrett sighed and put the paper down. It was clear cut on the paper and in his mind, but he had a feeling that things wouldn’t work out as smoothly in real life.

There were still six hours before he’d be able to access the Dream again, so Garrett decided to get started right away. The first step was working on awakening his soul spark, and to do that he needed to begin reshaping the energy tightly wound around his soul spark. Moving himself to his bed, he lay down as if he was sleeping and closed his eyes, letting his attention sink deep into his body. For the next few hours he let his attention hover around his soul spark, observing it and practicing fixing the image he wanted to shape it into in his mind. When he was finally too mentally exhausted to continue there had been no changes in his soul spark, but Garrett wasn’t concerned. He figured it would take a long time and was determined to be patient. Letting himself relax, Garrett soon fell asleep, only waking when Ryn shook him an hour later.

“Dinner time.”

Yawning, Garrett climbed into his wheelchair, which Ryn pushed out into the inn’s great room. They had taken to eating with other members of the gang, both to help solidify their place in the group but also to gather information about what was going on. After dinner had finished, Ryn brought Garrett back to their room and then stared at him until he was uneasy.

“What? Want to play cards?”

“No, you said you would teach me how to handle numbers. But you haven’t yet.”

“That’s true. You should learn to read and write as well.”

Her eyes practically glowing with excitement, Ryn leaned forward across the table.

“Can I? You’ll teach me?”

“Of course,” Garrett said, nodding seriously. “Though I’m not sure how good a teacher I’ll be, I’ll do my best.”

Taking a piece of paper, he traced out the alphabet. On another sheet he put zero through nine and then the basic arithmetic symbols. Sliding them across the table, he carefully walked through them with her.

“The first thing you need to do is memorize these. Once you’ve memorized them, we’ll start learning how to put them together.”

Full of anticipation, Ryn dived into it immediately, doing her best to repeat Garrett’s explanations. Initially she was able to keep up her momentum well, but soon Garrett noticed that she soon began to get jumbled up, so he stopped her and said they’d pick up the next day. While his memories of learning to read weren’t particularly clear, he could only imagine it was a lot for someone who’d never had any formal education.

“Can I keep these?” Ryn asked, waving the pieces of paper Garrett had made for her.

“Of course. We should make some flashcards as well.”

“Flashcards?”

Realizing he’d just uttered an Earthism, Garrett winced and drew a rectangular shape on the table with his finger.

“Ah, yeah. Small pieces of paper you hold in a stack. Each one will have one letter on the front and the sound the letter makes on the back. You look at them one at a time and try to guess the name of the letter and the sound it makes.”

“Oh, so it’s like a game? That sounds really interesting.”

Seeing her dagger appear in her hand, Garrett leaned back, unsure what was about to happen, only relaxing when she grabbed a piece of paper off the stack on his desk.

“Whoa, hold up. That paper is really expensive.”

Deflating, Ryn put the paper she was about to cut up back and gave Garrett an annoyed look.

“Then what am I supposed to use?”

“Let’s think about it. I’m sure we can come up with something. And if we can’t, we’ll use some of our silver this month for paper so you can make flashcards. But before that, let’s at least sleep on it.”

“Hmph. Fine.”

With a sigh, Ryn slid her dagger back into its sheath and took the two papers Garrett had given her back to her bed. Laying down, she continued to study them, mumbling under her breath as she tried to remember what sorts of sounds each letter made. Since it was dark, Garrett had her move the candle over near her bed and lay back on his bed, closing his eyes as he entered the Dream.

He’d managed to plant a Dream Seed into one of the robed men the traitor had met with, and he was excited to venture out to try and discover what he could about him. Appearing on the Dreamer’s Throne, he focused on the bright flicker that represented the robed man and tried to figure out where he was. Information began to trickle in through the connection, and Garrett’s mind filled with all sorts of interesting knowledge.

Ruel Torrik. Awakener. Lieutenant in the Swamp Shark gang. Doesn’t like fish. Currently in sewers out by the docks. Hmmm. That seems too far away for me to go and see him. Wait, how am I getting all this information? Would Observe work at this distance?

Activating Observe the Dream, Garrett’s vision surged and suddenly he was staring at a top-down view of a wide sewer system. Six feet wide and easily as tall, the sewer was made from thick stone blocks and was mostly dry, though a small creek of thick sludge was flowing down the middle of the passage. Almost everything in Garrett’s view was the familiar gray of the Dream, though right around Ruel color flooded the world, lighting everything up. Realizing he could zoom in, Garrett edged closer so he could get a better look at the group with the Swamp Shark lieutenant. Four regular people and one other Awakened were traveling with Ruel, and as he watched Garrett began to hear their conversation.

“Why are we waiting? Let’s just go. There are only a dozen guards down there. We could kill them all before they knew what hit them. Besides, no one will know what we found, so we could keep some of the spoils aside for ourselves.”

Identifying the other Awakened through the information filtering in from Ruel’s mind, Garret could tell Ruel was tempted. Panicking, he quickly tried to send a thought back over, hoping he would be able to communicate with Ruel like he had with Gorn in Gorn’s dream. To his relief, there was no problem and his thoughts drifted into Ruel’s mind, causing the Swamp Shark lieutenant to pause mid-step.

“The goal is not only to get the supplies, but also to catch and eliminate one of the Ghoul’s Tooth Awakened. We should wait until the trade is happening so we can catch them off guard.”

Unaware that the words popping up in his head weren’t his own thoughts, Ruel shook his head, shooting a glance at the other Awakened.

“I always tell you, Lerk, you need to think long-term. Our mission is to eliminate at least one of their Awakened, so we need to wait until the trade to launch our attack. If we attack now, we’ll tip them off and give them a reason to start a war. If we play this right, we’ll not only weaken them, but we’ll actually keep them in the dark.”

“Who are we aiming to kill?”

“Either Gorn or Obe. We’re going to call in thirty more members, along with your brother. Between the three of us, we should be able to deal with whichever Awakened they send.”

“What if they send two?” Lerk asked, his tone skeptical.

They won’t, the spy said only one of them is going to come because they’re trying to keep the trade quiet. Lerk would be impressed with my connections and knowledge if he knew how deeply we’ve infiltrated Ghoul’s Tooth.

Smirking, Ruel tapped the side of his nose.

“They won’t. My contact has given us their full plan already and we’ve double-checked to confirm it. Don’t worry about the plan. You just have to help me kill whichever one of their Awakened shows up tomorrow night. Come on, we’re going to scout the area where the trade will be taking place. Everyone, be on your guard.”

Continuing on through the sewers, Garrett saw Ruel stopping every once in a while to consult a map to make sure he was going the right direction in the winding tunnels. The sewers were extensive, and if Garrett hadn’t been watching Ruel navigate through them he would have gotten hopelessly lost in the labyrinth passages. Before long the composition of the walls began to change, and Garrett realized they’d left the sewers and were now in twisting passages that looked to have been added later.

Eventually, Ruel and his group arrived at a section of tunnel that looked even older than the sewers and Garrett began to notice that there were a number of burial motifs carved on the stone walls. The passages were a bit bigger and there were even more branches than in the sewer system. As he continued to concentrate on the three ethereal flowers growing atop Ruel’s head, Garrett could pick up snippets of information from the Swamp Shark lieutenant’s mind, including their approximate location. Slowing down, the group began to creep through the passages, paying careful attention and trying not to get spotted.

“Lerk, can you figure out their precise location?”

“I can try,” Lerk said, frowning with distaste as he knelt on the floor.

Leaning down, he placed his ear against the ground and concentrated.

I wonder how his power works?

Blinking at the question that popped into his head, Ruel’s forehead furrowed and he looked carefully at his Awakened companion.

He can hear the vibrations, right? His soul is taking the shape of a bat like his brother, but he got the tracking and stealth side while his brother got the offensive abilities.

Sure enough, a moment later Lerk stood up and brushed his knees off. Gesturing to the tunnel, he spoke in barely a whisper, forcing Garrett to strain to hear his words.

“The goods should be in a large burial chamber that’s been emptied out. From their footsteps and voices, there are a dozen regular people down there now. Do you want me to get close?”

“No, that’s fine,” Ruel said, grinning, “so long as we’ve confirmed that they’re actually there. Let’s go get the gang ready for tomorrow night so we can come back and crush them.”

Turning around, the group started to leave and Garrett was about to disconnect when a thought struck him. He had already tried using his abilities over Observe the Dream to no effect, but he was curious if he could grow the Dream Flowers from a distance. Attempting to send his soul spark energy through the remote connection, he heard the system’s voice telling him he needed to improve the level of his Observe the Dream ability. With a sigh, he disconnected, his vision returning to his room.

I really need to figure out a way to level up.