ARC 4 - Dreams of War

  That night was… difficult.

  Daisy found me in the Dream, but we didn’t romp or frolic or explore. We sat and watched clouds turn into stars in the sky. Minutes passed before she reached out and prodded me softly. I somehow k was ing, dreading it as she pointed with her trunk at a thread ing from me, one I’d never followed.

  The thread was strong, shining golden with light and love. An old, powerful ohat had taken years to grow s. I didn’t o read the thread to know who it was. I khe first time I saw it so many nights ago. The first time I preteo not see it. I looked at Daisy and shook my head. I wasn’t ready. She sighed and patted my head softly then turned and poi a different thread. Silver and warm with glints of red and blue.

  Angry, sad, hurting. Not a nightmare but… I took a breath and grasped the thread. I knew I should have dohis sooner but there were both bullshit fear reasons along with legitimate worries for why I didn’t. But now? There was more stability, more certainty of my pd my ability to survive without quite so much secrecy. Only the bullshit remained and I had a tribe willing to ‘torment’ me to make me stop letting that win.

  I nodded and stood, leaning over to kiss Daisy’s cheek. “You’re my best friend, you know that?” Daisy smiled and danced happily. “Yeah, I’m gd too. Now, lets go do this.”

  Moments were all it took to cross the vastness of the Dream and find an office. A pretty big one, filled with ets and a huge mahogany desk with a couple of unfortable lookial chairs with very little padding in front of it and a huge fancy plush chair behind it. The figure sitting in it didn’t look fortable though.

  Messy gray hair and wrinkles over a uniform that looked a bit too tight, medals looking like they had to weigh twenty pounds on her chest. She was drinking straight from a bottle of whiskey, not that it would do anything what with not being real.

  I quietly walked in aled down into one of the unfortable chairs and sighed. “You’re not looking so good General.”

  Henna looked up and bli me, her eyes narrowing as she looked me over. “What is—… is this some nightmare? e to tauh my failure to protect her? Is the nurse gonna walk i?”

  I shook my head. “Just me and Daisy.” I pet my baku friend. “I’m sorry about not tag you sooner, I had reasons. Some better than others.”

  She snorted. “This is a dream then, with a baku and a phantom of some kind ing to taunt me.”

  “Not a phantom Henna, a Saint. But I need you to keep that to yourself for now.”

  She looked closer at me and her eyes widened slowly. “By the gods, Esme? That’s really you?”

  I nodded and gave a small, weak smile. “That’s me, Saint Esme Dreamsinger. Had a pretty iing time sihe train. Me and Jaina are both safe and doing well.”

  The General tossed the bottle aside and it turned into glitter as it hit the wall. She leapt to her feet and rounded her desk to pull me into a tight hug. “DAMN YOU! I’ve been g my eyes out with grief all this time and you just show up like this? Like it’s nothing?”

  My arms ed around her body and my face rested against her neck. “A lot has been happening Henna. So much that I don’t even know where to fug start.”

  “Fug start with what happened with the angel.” There was anger in her voice, but joy as well. I felt both guilt at making her wait so long to learn I was alive and a deep warmth that it affected her this much.

  I nodded and took a breath, bag out of her arms and looking around the cluttered office. “Lets go somewhere more fortable first, yeah?” I took her hand and walked through the door and into a garden. “Much better.” I waved my hand and raised a fortable bench from the ground a. “I’ll get to all this, angel first.” I smiled at the wide eyed wonder she held for my powers here.

  I told her about killing the angel, making our way east, meeting Dekarru’s tribe and joining them. I told her about how Carmil had a mortal form now and about our trip to Beaver Valley to get myself firmed as a Willow Creek citizen. I left out details about the sed atad the Fae Lord for now, that was ected to too much just yet.

  “Well, that’s plig things. We’ve been trying to form a defense pact with them for years and we’ve been making some headway. If-”

  I ughed and interrupted her, making her gre at me. “I’m sorry, that’s just so damned funny. You haven’t been making any headway at all. The Elders kly what you want and have been stringing you along for better trade deals.”

  She let out a long and heavy sigh. “Well fuck. There goes that pn.”

  I shook my head. “Okay no, stop. I know more than you on this matter so just let me tell you some things.”

  “Oh? You know more thahere are 4 people in all of Uvtrayl that give me orders, I am the sed highest ranked intelligence officer iire nation, but you somehow know more?”

  “Dekarru is the Oracle of The Green Mother. I’ve met the Elders, all of them. I’ve sat in on a pretty major sessiohey made some big decisions. Was even able to put in my two ts on one major vote. Ohink you’ll be ied in.”

  She blinked and stared at me. “Wait, you said you were a Saint? Like, an actual Saint? Champion of a God?” I nodded. “That is… huge. There hasn’t been a Saint in nearly three turies I think. Wait, who? Who’s your patron? The Green Mother? Blue Father?” I shook my head and she suddenly brightened up with a spark of hope. “One of Uvtrayl’s gods?”

  I felt my smile dim. “No. Henna, I’m sorry. But yods were killed by the Thundering Pantheon some time ago.”

  Her smile faltered, but instead of dying pletely it just turned sad and small. “Yeah, yeah I kind of figured that’s what happened. Blessings don’t happen anymore and our Oracle lis weaker with every geion. I guess I still had some hope, but…” She shook her head. “But who then?”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but the sky darkened and starts swirled and a thundercloud desded. The starry sky smiled. “Me.” Then faded and the daytime returhe brief visit from my Goddess ending suddenly.

  “Her.” I said with a soft smirk. “Vei’Ryn, the Dreamer. She’s new. She’s also the ohat gave you all those dreams about me, I think anyway.” A blush on Henna’s cheeks made me smile. “Look, things are happening, and I’m a part of it whether I like it or not. But I think I help make it all better, make things trend towards positives.”

  Henna trembled. The effect of seeing a god for the first time, even in an indistin, was hitting her hard. I let her process it for a few minutes until she recovered enough to speak. “This is a lot to take in.” She took a breath and rubbed her face.

  “How about some practical, aable intelligence?”

  She smiled. “Now you’re speaking my nguage.”

  “Do you know what’s happening in the Empire?”

  “Emperor fell sick a few days ago. ents are worried his daughter will cause trouble before he recovers.”

  “Dead. Not sick. She’s taking the throne soon.”

  Henna stared at me. “How you know that?”

  “Willow Creek has better intelligence agents who’ve had more time to work their way into the Empire than Uvtrayl. Our people say that it looks like he had either a heart attack or a stroke, but we think it possible that his daughter just got tired of waiting for power.”

  Henna tapped her . “Princess Kalianna is an old sperial dominance propo. Thinks the world should be under one fg, theirs specifically. Typical ‘we’re stronger united’ rhetoric, but it’s always just about power.” She sighed. “Gods, what are we going to do? She might actually get the Empire directly involved in the war.”

  “Oh, good here too. Between how badly the war has turned for them and the sudden instability in Baradash with the Emperor’s ‘illness’, the Prime Minister is looking to end the war.”

  She stared at me. “How do you-? Gods, no wonder out agents ’t get anything out of Willow Creek, their intelligence agency must be leagues better than ours.”

  “To be fair, yours is new, isn’t it? I ’t imagihe Hegemony would let you have one of your own while they still ruled you.” She o me in agreement. “But the news eves better. He’s not just looking to end the war, he’s looking to switch sides.” Her eyes went wide and I held up a hand to keep her questions at bay. “The Fae Lord that lives in Willow Creek is getting flooded with powerful demons growing strong off of the battlefields. They are barely holding the tide bad have been doing… something, I don’t know what, to make the Prime Minister sider allying with Uvtrayl. Potentially even being a new Uvtrayl territory. The Pitrak people are apparently tired of fighting and the leaders know that the Empress is likely to start quering again. Especially with their biggest enemy weakened by civil war.”

  Henna took a deep breath before speaking again. “Shit. They want to hop to the new big pyer to make the Empire think twice about trying to start things?”

  “That’s the pn, as shaky as it is.” I smiled and leaned against her shoulder. I missed her. Fuck I missed her a lot more than I’d realized.

  Her arms ed around me. “Hey, you okay?” Daisy squeaked at us and flopped her head into my p. I smiled as I pet her softly a Henna hold me.

  “I’ve—, I’ve been hurting a lot. Even with things goily in so many ways, there is so much pain just boiling right underh me and it keeps ing and I don’t uand so much of it.” I rubbed my fato her neck. “I’m not Lietri anymore, I know I used to be, I’ve gotten a few memories back. But the person she was? I’m not her, and I’m scared about the why and the how.”

  “Trauma ge people a lot, I’ve been there myself and seen it first hand too damned many times to t.”

  I simply nodded softly, I khat wasn’t it and I was terrified to think about what was really happening. The ideas I had were all pretty fucked up and I just had to trust Charon was right that I could trust Vei’Ryn.

  I shook the thought off. “You know, there is some mood hat I think you might like to hear.”

  She smirked down at me. “Oh? Gonna tell me that I get to see you again soon?”

  I looked up and gave her a soft smile. “Actually, Willow Creek might appreciate a high ranking military officer ing over to help oversee the cooperation of our militaries.” Her eyes widened again. “I told you they were stringing you along, but the idea of a warmonger Empress has made the appeal of an actual defensive alliance much greater.”

  “I really hope this isn’t actually a dream.”

  “It is, I’m the saint of a Dream Goddess, that’s how I do this.” I snapped my fingers and the flowers in the garden all ran around and danced for a few moments before returning to their beds and behaving like normal flowers once more. I stuck my to at her as she stared at the dispy.

  She ughed. “How do I report this? I had a dream and things are looking good for us?”

  “Make a call to Beaver Valley. The Elders are all still here. Ask to speak to the oracle Dekarru, I’ll let her know to expect the call. Ask her if the things Stareyes told you are true.”

  “Stareyes? That seems a fitting, if somewhat familiar niame.”

  I blushed. “Well, I mean, we’re a little bit close. Not too horribly much, she’s just carrying my first child is all.” Henna raised a brow and tilted her head. “Look, I joihe Green Mother’s Path and we have a lot of sex in our tribe. Jaina is probably going to be the one pregnant. Then maybe Luvetra is she’s okay with that, oh and now that Carmil has a body, I wonder if she get pregnant too?”

  “Okay, whoa, slow down. You got an ORACLE pregnant?”

  “It was ever so slightly an act, that her of us regrets. She’s extremely happy that her lio tinue and I kinda dig the idea of kids.” I smiled at her and sat up fully so I could lean forward and kiss her cheek. “Why? Are you jealous? I could fit you in on the impregnation schedule if you really want.” I teased and watched her face turn red.

  “You certainly got more forward.” She said after clearihroat and posing herself.

  “Yeah well, things are weird and I’m leaning into it. Also, kinda hard to feel all weak and powerless after staring down a Fae Lord and very possibly influeng a vote that steered the courses of potentially three major nations.” I shrugged. “I mean, there’s more but I want to tell you some things in person.”

  The General smiled softly and pulled me against her. “Same, things are a bit crazy right now and I o talk to you about it. But it sounds like maybe I talk with you about this stuff in person. Because gods, Esme, I found out why you’re such a big deal here. But…” She chewed on her lip in thought for a moment. “Maybe it would be best to talk to this oracle lover of yours about it too.”

  “You found out? How? What? Why?”

  “All I’ll say for now is that I’m not the only ohat assumed the angel had finished you off. Lips loosened up after people marked you as dead. At least they did for someoh my tacts.”

  I sighed in annoyance. “Okay, fair is fair. If there are things I want to wait to say in person, they you get to do the same. But really, our nations are going to be allies soon as long as Uvtrayl doesn’t get greedy. We’re going to insist on a defense only agreement. You start things, you finish them yourself. You antagonize someoil they attack you? Also on your own. We’ll help with outside aggressors but we’re not going to up your messes for you.”

  “Wouldn’t that include the current war?”

  “Yes. But, allying with us will give you some major diplomatic muscle to get Pitrak to switch teams officially.” She frowned and stared into the distance for a few moments. I knew what she was thinking. “I know, people are going to be wary of making friends with someohey’ve been at war with for so long. But you’re intelligence right? Spin it. ‘Pitrak finally has the ce to break away from their Imperial Dictators and stand with Uvtrayl in the name of freedom!’ makes food story yeah? How about ‘The Pitrak Republic has lived with the Empire’s boot ohroat feions, as Uvtrayl had the Hegemony’s boot on our own. It is our duty to help our brothers and sisters find freedom as we have. Together will we stand as a bastion against tyranny!’ Just add in some bits about how the tries of the ti band together to fight as allied nations against the expansionist military assholes starting with Uvtrayl, Pitrak, and Willow Creek and people should be very on board. Especially if you push the idea that f this alliah your neighbors will help prevent further war in general since people will be hesitant to fight our bined might.”

  She smirked at me. “You sure you’re in the right profession? Pretty sure the Prime Minister would kill to have someone like you w for him in PR.”

  “Oh gods, no thank you. I may be involved in politics more than I want already, but at least I have some say in things like this.” Then I tilted my head and sighed. “Damn, you’re waking up. Remember, call Dekarru in Beaver Valley in a few hours, she tell you this was all real.”

  “I will. But before I go.” She pulled me into a kiss, deep, passionate, and powerful. I felt my body tremble at her touch, making the moment she vanished a me alone on a ben a Dream pathway feel like having ice water dumped on my head.

  “Dammit.”