Dream World - Elaine

My, it felt good to use magic again.

Once I’d managed to capture both of us into my dream world, things became so much easier from there. Everything I was creating from that point forward was only in my head, so there was less strain on my mind whenever I moved our bodies to somewhere else in Aereth.

However, Liz’s problems are still Liz’s problems. My capabilities in this body were limited in comparison to my past self. That said, when I felt the familiar ping in my mind that someone unfamiliar had slipped into my dream world, I mentally prepared myself to face Trem in this weaker state.

“Stay here,” I said, already preparing basic defenses for my world. “I think we have company.”

“Company?” Milo asked, his arms crossed in a hug, “You mean there are other people who can use magic?”

“In this world, there’s only one that I know of besides me.” As Milo experienced a small panic attack, I expanded my vision so I could see the whole kingdom in a small glowing sphere.

“Who might that be?” He asked as I studied my circular map. Zooming in closer, I saw someone was walking towards the farmhouse. Someone who wasn’t Trem.

Is that..?

“Elaine?!” I heard Cypher scream from the other side of the farmhouse’s dilapidated doors. “Is that you?”

I dropped all defenses, forgetting whatever I was planning on saying to Milo.

“Cypher!” I screamed as I swung the doors open. She looked just as stylish as ever: her thick black hair falling all the way down to her knees in one long braid, and an elegant night blue dress that twirled about as she looked around. What is she looking around for, I thought, I’m right here..?

Oh, right. I’m in a six-year-old’s body.

“What the-” She said, about to give up on looking for me.

“It’s me, Cypher! Down here!” I hopped up and down energetically, trying to make eye to eye easier. She looked at me in horror, backing away a little.

“What happened to you? Why are you a toddler?”

I stopped jumping, already tired. “Long story, but I have good news.” I moved to the side and revealed Milo in his glorious self (quickly moving his finger out of his nose).

“Milo!” Cypher ran up to him next, lifting him up a few feet into the air in a giant hug. “I thought you were-”

“Hey, spoiler alert! I was getting to that!” She turned back to me, still cradling the tiny Milo close to her like a baby.

“Oh. You’re telling him about Aereth? Well, that explains why you’re in the farmhouse.”

“Excuse me, miss,” Milo said, noses practically touching each other as Milo looked at her, “Can you please let me down?”

Cypher frowned. “Right.” She said, lowering her back and placing him to the floor. “Have you forgotten everything?”

He frowned, crossing his arms, “Well, I don’t remember you.”

She nodded, sitting down so we could look at her eye to eye. “That makes sense. You only saw me once for a few minutes, back when you were really young.” She held out her hand with a massive grin, “I’m Cypher, the ancient mage of reality.”

Hesitantly, he took her hand. The second he did, a wave of blue light pulsed over and through his body. Frozen in time, Cypher turned to me while kneeling on the hay, already wiping some dirt off of her dress.

“We have to talk.”

- -

“So how is he alive?” She asked, the happiness I saw in her eyes vanishing fast. “No, wait. Better question: how is he a kid again?”

I straightened my back, realizing exactly how serious she was acting. She was obviously glad to see me, but something must have happened where she was… something that drained her spirit.

“When Milo died, a portal sprouted out of his body. I went through it and ended up in this girl’s body, and Trem walked through it as well.”

She squinted, worried about what I left out, “Who did Trem become?”

“Milo’s dad. Worse, he has the bracelet too, so his powers will probably fully return within a couple days.”

“That’s not good,” she said what I was thinking, “doesn’t explain how Milo’s still alive though.”

“From what I know, it’s like all the time that passed by in Aereth didn’t in this modern world. Sending Milo to our world put this one on pause, and when he returned no time had passed. Besides a couple dreams and what I’d explained to him so far, he doesn’t remember anything. It’s like everything that happened to him in our world is now a forgotten memory.”

She nodded, a grim face was the only thing I could read from her. There was only one thing I could possibly ask her right now.

“Where did you go?”

She broke her eye contact with me, trailing to the floor again. “Trem… when everything happened, when he tried to kill us all before escaping our grasp, I had managed to make an act of it all. Before any of it could have happened, I knew we would have lost to him. With the powers that Hoshi’s-” She cut herself off, “with the powers he gained, there was no way we’d be able to stop him on our own. I created a mirror dimension and hid as many ancients as I could in there, replacing them with mirror images in the real world. Those are what Trem killed, but there are still other ancients alive. Plus, we’re training new successors.”

“Who’s still alive?” I asked, now a little bit of hope leaking into my mind of darkness, “What do we have to work with?”

“Well, there’s me...” Cypher laughed for a second before finishing. Not a laugh to a joke, or a laugh with a friend, but a laugh of embarrassment, “And also Dokyeom.”

Whatever hope I had immediately faded away when I heard his name as our only source of backup.

“That’s all?”

“Yeah.” She said.

“Like, just two? You and the idiot?”

“I-I mean, we had Isle! She was with us, but then she started freaking out and left my world before I could tell her against it! Now… well, I think she’s in this modern world as well.”

“Isle?!” I screamed. Isle, as you may not know, is the ancient mage of creation and destruction. She was the one that built Aereth from the ground up with a wave of her hand, like a piece of art. Cypher and I, while strong as ancient mages of reality and time, have nothing on Isle. Having her back after all this time would be amazing.

“Well yeah, Isle, but I haven’t been able to find her! The only reason I was able to find you was because you made a dream world, and I could hear it from a couple miles away!”

“Well, couldn’t we send some kind of message to her?” I asked, in search of any sort of hope we’d get our hero. “Do you have a crystal on you?”

“I might, but I’m sure she doesn’t. She made it very clear the last time we saw her that she wanted to stay hidden.”

I sighed, but I wasn’t ready to give up. With Cypher, Dokyeom (unfortunate, but an ancient nonetheless), and even Isle, my fight against Trem was looking stronger now than ever before. I was not ready to waste the first hint of power I’d been given since the prophecy for Milo. This was our chance to finally break the loop, and maybe even save a friend in the process.

But for now, it was time for some ancient hide and go seek.