Milo was sitting on the deck of the airship when he felt a shift in the energy surrounding him.
At first, it was subtle - nothing more than an intrusive thought about being watched. He had grown accustomed to such intuitions, with Ashtai in his mind. Yet, the feeling grew only more intense, to the point where he felt Ashtai tug at his consciousness.
You feel it too?
“Yeah… Yeah I do.”
We are not alone here.
“... did you hear that?”
I did.
It was little more than words said far away, carried by the wind. But after a moment, they both heard it more clearly.
“LAND THE F*CKING SHIP!”
Milo scampered to the side of the ship, and saw Ezra running in the distance, with Lila clinging onto his back. They were being chased by several people with - were those swords?
Were those… were they drow?
Milo’s head snapped up, looking for the captain. “Captain! Captain, we must land!”
Laeticia’s eyes widened after - likely - reading Milo’s mind. Immediately, she did a series of maneuvers to land the airship as close to Calixa as possible.
“Milo I need your help, use the wind to guide us down!”
“I- I don’t know if I can-”
“That’s an order, not an encouragement!”
Milo exhaled deeply and closed his eyes, reaching out for the wind around him. He had never managed anything more than a slight breeze, and he wasn’t sure how to control more air than that at once. Nervously, he pulled at the wind under the ship, urging it to gently fall to the ground. He winced as the entire vessel shook as if in a storm.
“Gentle, Anani!”
“I’m trying! I’m-”
In that moment, Ashtai’s spirit seemed to envelop his own, until he was barely holding on to a sense of consciousness. It guided his hands, brought him confidence and command and control. Together, they eased the ship close enough to the ground for Laeticia to drop a rope ladder from the side of the ship.
Together, the sprits walked to the side of the ship, watching as Ezra caught onto the rope, Lila still on his back. Both were clearly hurt, but Ezra seemed to have enough strength to climb the ladder nonetheless. On the ground, Calixa single-handedly distracted three drow - she was a whirlwind of punches and kicks, unseeing yet masterfully dodging blows and swings of swords. One by one, she knocked them out, before following Ezra’s calls towards the ship, blindly grasping for the rope ladder in front of her. She caught it after a few awkward tries, and effortlessly climbed up.
Once everyone was safe on the deck, Ashtai pushed the ship back into the sky, calming Milo’s trembling, aware of his shock upon seeing the drow hurt on the ground. Once they were above the clouds, it reached out to Milos’ spirit, trembling and afraid, a flame barely flickering with consciousness.
“They weren’t him.”
Milo’s gentle spirit clearly understood that much. Yet, the living dreamers were so susceptible to shock. Ashtai had realized early that Milo was more sensitive to it than most. Quietly, it started counting, calming its host as well as it could, gently letting Milo take over his own body again. Yet, it knew that the moment he did, he would fall unconscious. It had happened time and time again, with his previous hosts - whenever it would take over their body, it would exhaust them to the point of loosing consciousness, especially after it used them as a conduit for magic. Ashtai re-considered and took over its host entirely, making its way to their companions.
The little one - Lila, was it? - was alive, but had a nasty cut to her side. The other man, Ezra, looked like he had something hit his head - not hard enough to cause serious damage, but enough to cause blood to streak down his face. The queen herself was out of breath, but was smiling - she clearly enjoyed a good brawl. She stretched her arms before finally speaking up.
“What was it that occurred?”
“OW! Careful, you twat!” Lila yelled at Ezra as he checked if his healing spell was working. The bleeding had stopped, thankfully, but he couldn’t quite get it to scar over. They both glanced at the cut. “I’m not letting you bind my chest.”
Laeticia exhaled and brought bandages to Lila, giving her a blanket to hide herself from the others as she removed her shirt. The captain wrapped the halfling’s chest in bandages carefully as Ezra spoke up.
“We were ambushed in the library. Well, maybe not ambushed. They sounded just as surprised that we were there. We got a few books, but not much. Lila was a gem-”
“Yeah I’m a f*cking sparkly ray of sunshine.”
Ezra rolled his eyes. “She guided me out of the library when we realized we were cornered. I didn’t expect you to be so good at avoiding attacks. She dodged three people while backed in a corner like it was nothing. I was able to push my way out too, but with far more struggle. Lila let me go first, which is why she got hurt more than I did.”
“Why would they attack you?” Ashtai asked through Milo, refusing to look at the group, aware his hosts’ eyes were likely red. Yes, it had introduced itself to them before, but it alro realized how unwelcome it likely was at that moment. Besides, they were on the verge of understanding something it had concluded too long ago.
“They kept saying something in elvish.” Lila muttered, wincing at the bandages being wrapped around her. “Something about us ‘having it’ and ‘looking for it’. One mentioned a crown when we started running”
“You speak elvish?” Ezra asked, eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, surprise!”
“Corym’s father mentioned drow serving the Arima, looking for the Crown of Evira, right?” Ashtai hinted. “And yet, he did also say that it wasn’t one team, tasked to find the crown. He mentioned teams, plural.”
The group fell silent for a moment, processing the information.
“Are you saying you think they thought we were that other team? I mean, wouldn’t we know if we were?” Lila asked. “I don’t know about you guys, I didn’t sign up for anything.”
Calixa seemed lost in thought for a moment, rolling her fists. “Milo and his nightmares. He said some were of the crown. His partner who was branded with the symbol of the Arima. Lila, you have the brand as well, yes? I was targeted by the Midnight Sun… maybe they are also a part of the first team?”
“Sh*t…” Ezra muttered. “No, no we’re not a part of some game, that’s insane, that’s… it makes too much sense.”
“How do you fit in, though?” Lila asked.
Ashtai considered the human across from him - nothing about Ezra led to believe he was in any way chosen by the Arima. Quietly, it reached out to his dreams - nothing was there that related to the game they had found themselves to be a part of. He had dreams of love, of protection, and, surprisingly, of understanding what it meant to be human.
The Arima had no hold on Ezra.
“I guess… I guess I’m just here to protect you.”
In that moment, Ashtai saw a blurred image of Calixa in Ezra’s mind, that lasted only a moment. Other figures soon stood by her side, until she found herself surrounded by people, Milo and Lila included.
Ashtai chuckled - how noble of him.
The Nightmare Prince stood, still not looking at its companions. “I am going to get some sleep. That wind spell… it took more energy than I expected.” It took on Milo’s voice and stance. “I’m glad you’re all okay,” it added, before retiring to the room Milo seemed to believe was his.
As it wrapped itselfself in the covers, Ashtai let out a sigh - despite being a dream spirit, it had never goten used to the comfort of a bed, to the warmth of a blanket, to the softness of a pillow.
Heavy realization was powerful - it stilled minds for a moment, quieting dreams and nightmares alike.
Once it had enjoyed the quiet for a few minutes, Ashtai let go of its control over Milo, letting his spirit re-gain his own body, falling unconscious after a brief flash of confusion, and just one word, resonating through both souls.
“Why?”
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