Closed A Reef and a Croft

[Linie Moonreef]

Timestamp: 7th Winter 516AV
Location: Floating in the Dream World


Here, there. Where was she? Linie found herself floating, below her stars, above her stars. But around her were mirrors. A hallway giving out to hallways of mirrors. Every turn you took there were two more turns, with your reflection bouncing off of each one. Linie was wandering the hallways when her shoe fell off, dropping twenty feet below her and into the stars, which rippled as if they were water as it dropped and disappeared beneath their depths. This is what caused her to realise she was dreaming. It wasn't her shoe she was wearing. The shoe that dropped was a soft pink, almost coral, color. On her body she wore a light pink corset with white lace, a skirt made of thick and many ruffles, as if multiple skirts had been put on top of one another. Her left eye was bruised black and blue, from what who was to say, but her hair fell in perfect waves as if it had actually been brushed-- something that in waking life rarely happened. Above her there was also sky, the mirrors coming up about ten feet and stopping abruptly. But this sky had the full moon floating in it. No matter where Linie went it was in the same spot, following her. It wasn't imposing or frightful, instead it was calming and gave her strength.

As she floated her way around the mirrors, bumping into the wall of her own reflection quite a few times, she spotted a man. He was right in front of her and she called out to him. He was rather tall, with a green shirt and brown pants. She was reminded she was rather fond of the color green. She began floating towards him when she smacked right into another wall. Where was he? She floated down to the left corridor and could see him in all the mirrors lining the walls. But where was he really? Every time she called out to him,
"Hello?"
she came to another mirror where only his reflection was. When the man heard her, it would seem to him that her voice was coming from every direction. Each time she called out it would come at him from a different angle.
"HeeeEEElllLLLoooOOOooo?"
It echoed. Her voice was light and airy, like someone just waking up. It posed more of a curiosity than a need to know, and the more she cried out the less she was taking herself seriously. It was beautiful here, the mirrors reflected each other into infinity. As if she were lost in a different moment in time in each one. Who were all those other Linies? And the moon was above her lighting up it all. Nothing in this place was dark but rather all of it lit with a pale ethereal light. She was at home.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"


The world around him seemed to shift. Night and day fading into the intermingling twilight. Alex found himself floating. Rocking listlessly upon the gentle breeze that carried him. Eyes still lightly shut he simply enjoyed the feeling of being weightless. As his eyes opened slowly a field of never-ending emptiness spread-out before him. Or at least that was how it seemed. Instead what stretched out was a never-ending set of reflections. A palace of mirrors. The corridors lost within the shattering and dizzying array of splintered glass spread across the walls. He opened and closed his hands lightly to try and get a grip on the situation. It was abundantly clear this wasn’t reality anymore. At least not of the sort that he recognized.

Shifting around within the open mass he stared out of what he presumed to be a window into an ever churning and swirling mass of fire. Or at least that was how the clouds looked when the light caught them. No better it looked like he was above a maelstrom of the sky. A floating palace of someone’s design. Gods knew he didn’t have the imagination for this series of constructs.

Leaning on the railing a sound echoed out. A call for greeting. As he began to motion around flittered into life around him echoing out with a lightness that almost mirrored his own voice despite the clear feminine undercurrents. He spoke slowly softly.
“And who are you?” He spoke with an air of command. Almost like he was a little guarded until his eyes caught sight of the source of the voice. And as it drew closer the light began to drain from the sky. The burning twilight settling firmly into the soft wash of moonlight. The pale blue glow raining down on everything as the figure in the distance drew closer. Only then was it that he realized that he was bereft of a blade.

The deeply tanned skin set off a contrast with the alabaster clothing that clung to her frame, the ruffled leaves of skirt floating more akin to if she were in the water than the air. Shoed on only one foot curiously enough, however it was the face that lurked behind the waves that drew his eyes, and the bruising that caught his attention.

His hands folded across his chest as he focused on the floor willing a ground into being, a solid surface he could stand upon. Something that he could find footing with. And beneath his feet that mirror like substance on the walls began to form a hard floor, only beneath his feet however. Now standing he unfurled his arms.

“I apologize for my candid manner however it’s…A strange circumstance I find myself in. And it’s not every day that I see someone who carries moonlight upon their shoulders. Quite literally.”

[Linie Moonreef]

¤

She was still seeking him out. Turning through this hallway. bumping into reflections of herself and the man, turning through another corridor until finally she was sure it was truly him standing directly in front of her. His form was more solid and the edges were 3D. He was handsome, soft features with a splash of his personality, an underlying roughness that was very unique to him. Innocence lost. It was rather cute on his face. When he spoke his voice soft, delicate. It came from behind her although he was standing right in front of her.
"I be Linie."
She responded to his wary, guarded tone with amusement in her voice. After all he was only a figment of her imagination.
"Who are you?"
She came up to him, standing a little too close. Something was off about him. Something to her felt like he was... Real. Surely that couldn't be true. It was her dream. No, it was only the dreamlike state giving her the heebie jeebies. Linie knew dreams as teachers. Gifts from Leth as you slept to show you something. Some of the more mystical lot from her pod, the ones more inclined to whimsy and card tricks, could make sense of dreams for you. This dream seemed like one of the ones she would need to have be made sense of. Perhaps she would ask Buckeye what he thought when she woke up.

She watched, stepping back from him, as he conjured a place to stand and she did the same. Now they were both standing on a mirrored platform, adding to the reflective surfaces all around her. In her mind she hoped he wouldn't use this opportunity to look up her skirt. His compliment made a grin spread across her face.
"Aye, moonlight indeed."
She looked above her to see the moon hanging exactly where it had been before.
"This dream be blessed by Leth. I wonderin', who are you?" She asked again. "What do you have to teach me, child of Leth?"

Perhaps this was the part of her dream where she was given some ancient knowledge. She could only hope to remember this in the morning. Curious, she poked his chest. He felt solid and that strange feeling she felt when she first laid eyes on him crept up again, threatening to break her mind. Something wasn't right. As if activated by her touch the moon went orange and began dripping, oozing even, small stars.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"


The sound of leather hardened and firm against the soft ring of glass echoed as Alex took a small step to the side. Linie. As good a name as any. However what threw him wasn’t the fact of her attitude but rather the fact that even her voice seemed so carefree by comparison. Who was he? That was a significant question. After all names had a weight to them didn’t they.
“Call me Alex.” He spoke his voice still soft as a rolling breeze though what threw him was the moment she drew close to him. Almost too close. Face mere centimetres from his own. Examining him, rather she was studying him. Evaluating him. Almost wanting to reach a hand up and push her away lightly by a finger upon her forehead she pulled back and away. A look of mild surprise upon her features.

His glance downwards was met with the solidification of a platform much like the one he himself stood on, though unlike the large fissures and cracks that speckled his own. Almost like an uncertainty of purpose, hers was a single crystalline and perfectly reflective sheet. And amidst the swirling of the pinks and purple ruffles of the skirt unwittingly and rather unintentionally he caught a glimpse of a flash of yellow cloth. Taking his attention swiftly from her platform upwards now to the sky. Her words once again cut through the stillness. Moonlight.

His eyes cast skywards as the moon shone down upon the pair of them huge and drawn in. A dream blessed by Leth. Unlike the dreams he’d had before this one was certainly much different to his usual. What could he teach her as a child of Leth? Alex simply hung his head a little and let off that sallow hollow smile that seemed almost genuine.

With an almost accusatory motion she stabbed a finger into his chest, hard enough for it to be felt. The moment she did however the moon itself began to melt. She was as real as he was, or at least as firm in construct. He placed a hand upon one of her bare shoulders now, the heat of his palm radiating. He glanced skywards as he spoke.

“I’m no child of Leth. I’m simply a man, an heir to a broken throne. Even now as you can see the sky rejects me.” He took his hand from her shoulder and stepped a modicum back breaking contact. As the moon returned to its normal glow of pale ethereal light. “Everything that touches me or that I touch seems to become twisted or broken in some form.” He glanced briefly towards his feet, at the shattered mirror. Not just a reflection now but a reflection of the doubt he felt. Behind him the sky once again seemed to burn in twilight, almost illuminating the outside with it’s glow. Then suddenly that glow began to falter and fade into a stark blackness. A sudden crack of light pierced the darkness behind him. A bolt of lightning illuminating the sheer void for naught but a moment, and then another. And another.

[Linie Moonreef]

¤

"What were you just lookin' at?" Her tone accusatory.
She noticed that look down and up and blushed in spite of herself. Oh no he didn't! Isn't that called Murphy's Law? Something in his soft tones soothed her and she felt safer with him here, despite him being a peeping Tom. He could be a wolf in sheep's clothing; but something to her, despite his... wrongness here, called out as a boon.

His touch was warm on her shoulder, she didn't jerk back when he placed his hand there. But the contact between them scared her. That feeling of something being off came back. How can two people share the same dream? What if they're both here? Alex was his name, who was he? There must be a purpose for this shared dream if they were both real. Still, she had her doubt he was an actual person. This was HER dream, surely there was just some sort of dreamlike, wonder at work here.

His words broke her heart. What has happened to this man that he should feel so dejected?
"There there," by the flicker of lightening she consoled Alex, "Surely it be just a work of this dream..."
Though as the words came out of her mouth she remembered that dreams do in fact have meaning.
"Perhaps.... Perhaps it's just a sign that we were fated to meet."
She crossed her arms and looked up at him.
"If you are no child of Leth and have nothing to teach me, why are you here? Why are we both here if not for fate?"
She was asking a lot of questions now, wondering aloud mostly. After she spoke she looked out the window and stared at the lightening, still striking the empty blackness. It began to frighten her, something about it seemed ominous. She stepped back, away from the window, and her skirts moved like there was a breeze rushing through them.
"Want to take a walk? Maybe we can find a way out of this place. Unless, well, you don't havin' to be walkin' with me. But it would sure be nice to have the company."
She looked up at the big man imploringly, the question poised in the cold light the moon and the lightening were giving off. Each lightening strike lit up the mirrors, each reflection bouncing off of the other. It was beautiful and baleful.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"


Clearly she’d noticed him glancing at the platform as her words rung out adding to why she’d stabbed a finger at him. Though it was little to dissuade the look of both fear and pain in her face as he touched her and spoke. The look of anguish one he knew all too well. Another bolt broke the black ness and pale blue with blinding white As much as he could hear the comfort in her words he couldn’t accept them. He’d done this to himself and others. It would just be the work of a dream. But why would it. Didn’t dreams reflect reality at least in some small format?

He broke away from her as she did him. Perhaps the two of them were destined to meet? Perhaps it was simply a crossed wire from Nysel. What was he there for if he had nothing to teach her? That hollow smile or recognition fell upon his features as he glanced off into the myriad of slowly shattering glass. Each fracture linked from the places his feet touched the ground, and snaking their way along the walls.

Her words cut through the blackness again the soft voice carrying through the empty space and sound of splintering glass. However where she stepped it seemed the world repaired itself. He glanced back over his shoulder towards her. A look of loneliness clear in his eyes.
“If you wish to come with me and explore I won’t stop you.” His words more fragile now still airy but almost like spun glass, the feeling that they were not meant to be heard but listened too. “Just remember that everything could come crashing down around me.” With that he turned his head away from her. His footsteps began to echo over the fractured glass, each footfall causing a new spider-web of fractures and fissures to occur. Though as he walked the blackness grew slightly thinner as in his wake the light began to peer cresting over the horizon, like the dawn. But the light never pierced the black veil that surrounded him. Overhead the faintest light of Leth peered through illuminating the path shrouding him in blackness, but the overbearing shadow never seemed to touch her. Leaving her in an illuminated haven. His voice tumbled out again.
“Perhaps it’s not I who is to teach you something.” He simply offered the words, letting them hang in the air like a chandelier about to fall. Though the next flow was different more dialect than anything else. “Or perhaps, it’s simply a mistake?”

[Linie Moonreef]

¤

Glass began breaking beneath his feet. It crept to her side of the platform, breaking and falling apart, until it reached her feet. There it would be repaired. It began a battle of wills, the glass shattering up a few inches and then being repaired a few inches to the other side only to break again and so on. It was unlike anything Linie had ever seen before and fascinated her. She stepped closer to him, testing to see if it would encroach on where he stood, fixing the spot in which he stood. It didn't, there stayed fissures and cracks where he stood.
"Hmph..." She thought out loud. "Ye remember where I walk the world is whole again. I'll be fine thank you."

They began to walk, he shrouded in darkness and she consumed by light. Perhaps it was her innocence, her carefree spirit, and her lust for life that was such polar opposite to Alex's pessimistic, sullen, distrustful view of the world that made them such opposites in this dreamworld. They walked in silence, turning this way and that through the hallways until he finally spoke again. Once in Fratava.
"You speak mother language?" She asked in Fratava as well. "Despite that, what you mean mistake? You call me mistake?"
Her Fratava was broken, but easily could be understood if he knew enough of the language. She switched back to common.
"Aye, if you be a real as I thinkin' ye are then we have something to learn here. From each other. Maybe I was wrong askin' you what you have to teach me. Perhaps I am to teach you too. I still think it's fate. There's a reason we're together Alex."

They began closing in on a ladder. Above them the ceiling was becoming much more... muchier. Eventually the moon could no longer be seen. Sticking out of the stone ceiling was a ladder which lead up to blackness. The very top, about ten feet up, was illuminated with light. A faint breeze could be felt coming down from the hole in the ceiling where the ladder was.
"Do we be goin' up? Or continue on here?"

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"


It was a fair comment that where her feet came to rest the world became whole. Perhaps she would be fine. Though it became clear soon that his gamble on another language was one that spoke clearly to her. Though her use of the language was a oddly a little more broken than his own he paused a moment his fingertips reaching out to press against one of the glass panels.
“I know enough to converse.” His paused hearing the creaking and shattering of the glass as it turned into dust from his fingers. “I never called you a mistake. I meant the situation. Nysel, the god of dreams may simply have accidentally crossed our paths. But what do I know…” They continued to walk as he lowered his arm from the wall, trails of sparkling shards of light trailing behind his fingertips.

“I know were both real. Mostly as I know I’m real, and I never see anyone I don’t know inside my dreams. As my dreams aren’t even that, just relived nightmares…” He glanced towards her so she could see the honesty in his voice and eyes. “As for the reason were stuck here together I couldn’t tell you. I don’t take stock in fate. I can’t for good reason.” His reasoning there was if he did then he was destined to be alone forever, a burden on everyone and everything around him.

Did they go up or did they continue on. As the light drained he stared at the ladder, the reflective surface he glanced at. His fingertips touched the shining and almost translucent material as it cracked and began to crumble before him. “If we do go up then sadly I believe it would be better if you took the trip first. You’ve less of a chance of falling that way.” It was only after he spoke he glanced in her direction and recalled the skirt… “Though given your choice of attire I’d suggest we simply continue on…” he turned away from the ladder, a now gaping hole where he’d gripped it, the solid glass turning into shards of crystalline sand.

He continued on towards the wall, looking down at his hands he sighed as he stepped up to what he assumed to be one of the glass walls. “Perhaps you should go up the ladder and see what you can find…After all I’m more likely to break it than ascend it.”

[Linie Moonreef]

¤

"Aye, Nysel."
She said thoughtfully. She remembered the mystics from her pod talking about this god, but wouldn't remember him without hearing the name for herself. Now that he mentioned it, maybe he was right. Maybe it was just a random occurrence. But something told her otherwise. Someone or something was pulling the strings here, she just knew it. For them to be such polar opposites, one harming one healing, there was something larger at play here.

"Relived nightmares? Sounds terrible. You've been through a lot, haven't you?"
It would seem her assertion from earlier was right, innocence lost. Still, whether he knew it or not he still had some of it left. In his kind but quiet demeanor he held some of that innocence left. Without it he would be much more crass, more prone to anger than allowing himself to follow some girl through the maze of this mirror world. There was a bit of good in everyone, perhaps he couldn't see that.
"There be good in everyone." She stated simply. "I think you should be knowin' that."

Why was she trying to fix him? Something in her wanted him to feel better, to not be so in this rut that he found himself. There was a darkness to his soft features, one that she had noticed earlier but was making itself known in his words.
"I don't know why we're here either. Maybe 'up' will tell us why."
She shrugged. Who knew? Linie watched as where he touched the glass ladder it crumbled. He was right, he should go first. But she had an idea.
"Why don't I go first, grip the ladder from the top and send my energies through it. Like strengthenin' it while you come up? I think this should work. It's just like mediatin'."

She climbed to the top, this time being none the wiser to flashing her panties to him as she was more focused on solving the problem at hand. When she finally reached the top she found herself in a garden. Above her was a glass dome five stories high from the ground, through it she could see the stars. There was no telling how large the garden was, but from the exit of the ladder there was a path leading through trees and foliage. Flowers abounded everywhere and from a distance she could hear water trickling.
"Aye, I'm here! It's beautiful! Come up now!"
She gripped the ladder and began to mediate, focusing on sending her energies through the ladder, all the way to the bottom. Would it work?

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"


She had no idea. As he stilled himself in the room he let her take a look at the surroundings instead opting to slide himself down the wall, watching the spider web of cracks change into a pattern of fissures emanating from his back against the glass. His head hung low as he sat there listening to her. There was good in everyone. He stopped her right there.
“Not everyone. There are some that just can’t be saved, no matter how hard you try.” He looked towards the ground watching the cracks spread out openly from where he sat. As she spoke about ‘up’ being a potential way to find out why they were there. Alex extended an arm slowly towards the ladder offering for her to try out her plan. There as a little bit of a tone of pulling the strings, so to speak in her voice and Alex just let her try out her idea. Allowing her who won’t shatter the ladder with her footsteps.

She climbed and Alex sat feeling the world starting to crumble around him. Much like in reality but with more visual display. Everything began to fall to pieces. Though when he voice once again cut the silence he glanced upwards to see her features and hands gripping the ladder holding it solid. What harm could it do trying to go up there? He shrugged to himself and gripped a hold of the ladder pulling himself up with it. And as he gripped it instead of turning to that crystalline dust it simply cracked. Splintering where he’d gripped. Perhaps he could do this then?

He gripped hold of the ladder and in several fluid and swift motions he slipped out through the opening at the top. Or at least his head popped out briefly a few inches from Linie’s own, before he sung his body out with him. The ground held. The cracks forming but minor, with the proximity to her the world held stable and solid enough for him to not worry too much. Despite the rain of shadow over him.

Before he could react however a bolt of pure electricity struck the peak of the dome. For a moment his world stood still, his body almost instinctively made a dive to cover Linie, expecting the glass to shatter and cascade like shards of bladed rain, however the sparks dissipated illuminating each of the panes and sending a shower of light upon the pair of them turning the dome into a beacon. In the distance Alex spotted something, with the five stories of the dome, the area of it was easily double that to help support the massive weight of it. And in the distance of the dome Alex spotted something he shouldn’t have. A spectre. A looming ghost from the far reaches of Alex's mind.