A Dreamer for All

[Mongrel]

The world of dreams is real. It is but another level of our existence. All travel in this dimension when their minds leave that of the realm of the wakened. It is a deeper and unconscious world, but one that lives and breathes nonetheless. The brain does not know the difference between what it experiences when awake or asleep. It is all reality in the minds of man--merely different layers--and although the seam between these realities is perceived to be something as basic as "falling asleep" or "waking up," the journey is in all actuality like that of sailing a ship off the edge of the world.

We are fortunate that we do not realize that truth.

Most people wander through the world of dreams as silent observers, watching the reality of this surreality unfold before them, having no more control over it than a statue in a garden watching the masses bustle past.

Others have moments of control--lucidity in a world of haze. Fate itself placed into their very hands, if only for an instant. They are able to be playwrights writing for the stage of their own consciousness. However, the quill can so easily be torn from their fingers and ink spilled so thoroughly upon the page as to blacken their view of the world of dreams and restore them to what is so narrowly refer to by so many as the "real world."

There is another group, however. There are some who would call them Dreamwalkers or Chimaentals or one of countless other names given to the very few who can travel effortlessly between these two worlds and manipulate both as if they were the same. They are the true artisans of the mind, masters of manipulation, bestowers of nightmares, and granters of the sweetest dreams. After all, it is the motive of the Dreamwalker that determines the unsuspecting dreamer's fate beyond the world they know and can control.

And what would be the fate of Brother Prime be in the world of dreams--since a Chimaental had decided it was just about time to test what it was that the man truly BELIEVED.

[Brother Prime]

"Our thanks are with You for the continued life You have given us. While others succumb to the plagues that seem rampant in Myrken, our numbers have been spared, by Your grace. May we live in Your sight forever."

Prime rose from the side of the bed, brushing the dust from the rented room's floor from his knees. A perusal of the dusty mirror upon the wall showed the healing of the newest Tribute. The final piece in a frighteningly beautiful artwork that spanned his entire back. Centered above his hips was the last of the eyes, larger than all the rest, cut carefully to form ridged scars. The iris painstakingly tattooed with violet ink. It was healing well, and stood to be the most breathtaking of all of them.

A lean nude form would slip in between silk sheets. He had of course brought these from home, the tattered cotton of the inn's linens simply would not do. Rest was important to the Brother, comfort meant a better rest.

Eyes would flutter closed, as the silk was drawn to his chin. Having said his prayers, he would sleep, so that he coul rise tomorrow, fresh, renewed and ready to serve Him for another day.

[Brother Prime]

Surveying his back in the mirror, Brother Prime frowned deeply.

Gone.

All of them, gone. Only a few lines of scarred tisuue remained, enough to make is seem as though they have been caused by nothing more than a brutal beating.

He would be displeased, surely. Prime had his reasons, to keep the Order safe. To keep any of them from believing Ariane Carnath-Emory, should she regain the memory of the few days past.

Still, it was with quaking legs, and shuddering flesh, that Prime knelt beside the bed for his evening devotionals.

"Forgive me, for I have done something terrible. I have allowed someone to remove the marks of faith You deemed me worthy to receive. I promise You I shall return them to my flesh as soon as it is safe again for Your children."

"Please look at me with favor still. I love You with all of my heart, and know that those many years ago it was You who chose me. Know that I will serve You always with joy in my heart."

Prime slipped once more between the sheets, in hopes of a dreamless sleep.