Etude 14: Lento Perdendosi

Aand the last of the stuff from today. They wake up from the dreams, and are all tied up and stuff. Don't worry, they'll manage to get out of it! Meanwhile I introduce Ms. Plot Exposition here...


Armand woke with an aching head and fragmentary memories of some very long dreams. He opened his eyes and looked around. He felt wet. He heard a gentle sobbing, and he looked up. He saw a beautiful woman, her skin tinged with blue, chained to the rock. Her hands seemed to have melded with the rock itself so that it was impossible for her to leave. She was crying, and he realized that the moisture all over him was her tears. Beside him, tied to the rock, was Sarah. She was still unconscious. He realized that he was also tied down. The Sword of Peace was nowhere to be seen. He struggled against his bonds experimentally. They didn't give, and he realized they must have been tied by someone who really knew what he was doing. He looked up at the woman again. Her eyes weren't swollen from the incessant crying. The tears dripped down her face like crystal drops.
"Why are you crying?" He asked her.
"What?" She seemed surprised, but continued to sob. "How can you not know why I am here?"
"I'm a stranger to this place."
"A stranger... Then you do not know. You cannot possibly know how I loved and found the one I was born to love... And then, through my own mistakes, I betrayed him. In his anger, he imprisoned me here. I will stay here forever. I cry because I betrayed him... I know I deserve this punishment, but I cannot let out of mind the thought of how much hurt I dealt him."

...

"That's pretty harsh."
"It is only just." The tears continued to flow. Her voice sounded like it would normally have been melodious, but it had grown hoarse and scratchy from ages of crying.
"Can't I help you in anyway?"
"Only if you know something of the one I love... He is called Rethan. Have you heard of him?"
"No, I have not."
"Then there is nothing you can do..." She seemed to really notice him for the first time. "But why are you here?"
"We got captured by some guy called Abenath who tied us up here. And gave us really weird dreams."
"The dreams were not his doing, they were mine. The tears of any of the Forgotten Folk can be used to enter the Dream Mesh..."
"The Dream Mesh?"
"Yes. It is another part of this land, accessible from all places given the right keys. It is very easy to lose oneself there." She sniffled. "Unfortunately, as one of the Forgotten Folk, I cannot enter it myself. I can only allow others to do so... There is no escape for me."
"Did you see the man who tied us up here?"
"No. I wasn't paying much attention... I was just remembering how happy I was with my Rethan, and what that has come to now."
"Oh. Um." Armand didn't know what to say. He gratefully noticed that Sarah was stirring. "Sarah?"
"Hrrrmm?"
"Sarah, are you awake?"
"I think so. My head hurts. And I'm wet all over."
"My apologies, Sarah."
"What? Who's that?" Sarah's eyes snapped open and she rolled her head upwards to see the woman. "Oh."
"Oh, umm... What should I call you, lady?"
"My name is not important... Not anymore. I suppose you can call me Rosemary. Rosemary for memory..." She leaned back against the rock, tears still streaming from her eyes.
"Sarah, can you get loose from the ropes?"
She tested the ropes. "Nope. Hey, Armand... Did you have some really weird dreams?"
"Yeah."
"What were they like?"
"I don't want to talk about them."
"Oh. Okay."
"Rosemary?"
"Yes, Armand?"
"Have you heard of the Sword of Peace?"
"Yes, of course I have. Why do you wish to know?"
"I was lent the sword recently... But I still don't really know how to use it."
"Ahh." She looked pensive for a moment, and miraculously, the tears paused. "If you are a true wielder of the sword, the sword will reveal everything you need to know."
"That's not helpful."
"The sword is sentient, and it must be awakened to be of use. Otherwise, it is simply a finely balanced sword with a geas."
"Ahh."
"Um, Rosemary?" Sarah asked hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"Why are you here?"
"Because I betrayed my loved one... My dear, dear Rethan... He imprisoned me here, until the day when he sent me someone to free me."

Etude 13: Allegro in Modo Ingannevole

More stuff! So, um, yeah, the description of Armand's faint is based on, well, my most recent experience with fainting. Including the conviction about dying. (That was not a fun experience when it happened...)
In other news, most of this etude has been harvested from the sporadic dream journal I've kept for a while. I stopped near the end because 1) my 15-minute timer had run out again, and 2) because I felt like I'd spent enough words on these scenes and I wanted to move on.
Random note: "Allegro" seems to be my most popular base tempo for the etudes.

He thought he was dreaming, at first. A chaotic storm of colors and shapes flashed through his mind, never forming into a discernible whole. He could hear a thrumming behind his eyes. He realized that he was lying on the floor, and that something was wrong. He was tempted to slip back into the half-dreaming state, but a sudden intuition told him that if he did, he might die. He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't control his body enough to open them. He couldn't move. He was acutely aware of how his fingers were curled into fists and his feet were wrenched into an unnatural position. He didn't remember falling. There was a dull, muted roar in his ears, like the sea. The colors continued to flash before his eyes, changing too quickly. They were like the snow on a television set, but quicker and clumped into groups. He couldn't open his eyes.
"Armand!" It was Sarah. "What happened to him? I have to go help him! Abenath, I can't just leave him there --"
"Relax," came Abenath's voice, cool and commanding and almost entirely different from his voice just a few moments ago.
"But --"
"You have eaten of the prickle berry... You should be feeling its effects about now."
"What? I... I don't feel so good... I'm dizzy..."
"And I invoke the right of debt. You have eaten my food without payment, and you have nothing to repay me with." Damn it, that was his intention all along... Why can't I move?
"Now sleep." And he heard the thump of a body hitting the floor. Footsteps came his way, the heavy clump of Abenath's boots. "So you were trying to escape, my cunning one. I think you will find it a little more difficult than that." And then he felt a strange powder sprinkled over him, and there was again only blackness.

...

Sarah woke briefly with the feel of water rushing over her. "What?" She tried to move her head, but was stopped by a throbbing headache. Someone ran a hand through her hair and over her face, cool and soothing, and she slipped back into unconsciousness. She didn't notice the sobbing of the chained siren above her in the cave.

Armand was in a building with cream-colored walls. There were stairs leading up and down and around, and long hallways that didn't stop. He knew he had to get out, somehow. He was dressed in his usual clothes, not the clothes that the Seraiel had given him. The Sword of Peace was nowhere nearby. He picked a random direction, and set off again.

Sarah lazed on a raft that floated down a black river. There were others with her, but she didn't feel the need to look at them. One of them was poling the raft along the river. They were making good time. She didn't know where they were going, but it didn't matter.

Out of the corner of his eye, Armand saw flashes of people. They were chasing him. If he didn't escape, they would catch him. He grabbed hold of a banister as he passed it, then swung himself up onto the staircase and clambered up it, taking the steps by twos. He was not yet out of breath, and he was running faster than he'd ever run before.

"It's time to take a break," said a voice beside Sarah. "Sarah, do you want to take over for me?"
Sarah turned to look at the speaker. It was her best friend. "Sure thing. But I don't know where we're going."
"Wherever the river takes us. Don't worry about it."
"Okay."

There were definitely people running after him. He could see them whenever he looked behind, but he couldn't make out anything distinct about them. Just the impression of people. The stairs seemed to go on forever, and all the landings looked the same. Then, as he was about to pass the next landing, he caught the glimpse of a large open hall past it. He turned around and jumped down the last few steps and started to make for the opening. The corridors opened into a huge cavern, with a tower built of what looked like inflatable plastic. There seemed to be bricks and crevices between the bricks, and windows in it. He had the idea that maybe he could hide in there somehow, hide away from the people who were chasing him... He dashed to the tower, and around it so that it was between him and the people. Then he began climbing it.

Along the way, Sarah met an ostrich at one of the landings along the river. It was taller than she was, and its black feathers gleamed in the sunlight. After a moment, her friend convinced it to come on board, where it laid an egg. "Yes! Food!" Exclaimed her friend. She turned to Sarah. "I think it'll lay one for us every day. We won't need to worry about food anymore for the rest of the trip!" She seemed to notice something. "Here, let me do the poling again. You look tired. Why don't you rest some more?" Sarah just nodded and let go of the pole. The raft continued to drift lazily down the river.

Armand managed to find a hole between two of the bricks, and he squeezed into it. The material of the tower was faintly rubbery, and he worried that it might pop at any moment and collapse underneath him. Inside, the tower resembled a huge bouncy castle, except with more floors and windows. It was a tight fit, and he crouched inside, catching his breath. He hoped that the tower wasn't shaking with his panting and giving his position away. After a moment, he crawled to the hole on the opposite side, and peeped out. He could see the people clearly now. At first glance, they looked like normal people, but out of the corner of his eye, their forms morphed and became long, spindly, and bony. It was as if they were strange aliens in disguise. He suddenly knew that they were trying to make him one of them. And damned if I'll let them, he thought to himself. He just had to hope that they would bypass him and allow him to leave the tower.

Somehow, the raft drifted under the surface of the river. Sarah found that she could still breathe normally. There was thick seaweed above, blocking the view of the surface. A strange, ethereal light filtered down through it, its rays broken by the seaweed clumps. The shadows shifted back and forth in a calm, serene swaying motion. There was a row of stores and restaurants at the bottom. Her friend pulled her along, and whispered something about an errand. And then she was alone, facing a small pizza restaurant.

Suddenly, as if a breath of wind had blown them away, the aliens were gone. Armand breathed a sigh of relief, but he waited for a little longer before climbing out of the tower. He could no longer see the corridors that he'd been running through earlier. Now he stood on an open plain, with a gray sky above and flesh-like grass at his feet. There was something familiar about the place, but he couldn't figure out what. A sudden sound made him turn to look behind him, and he saw a mass of the aliens. They were closer than they'd ever been, and he started running again.

Sarah walked into the restaurant. There was a small bar to one side, with a television set suspended over it. It seemed to showing some sort of basketball game. There was one other customer, a blonde-haired man sitting at a table for two. He was reading a newspaper and munching on a slice of pizza. He looked vaguely familiar. Then he raised his head to look at her, and her breath caught in her throat. She recognized his face from movies and television, and from vague dreams in her middle school years. He smiled at her, and beckoned her to sit down with him.

Armand was starting to feel the effects of all the running. His breath caught painfully in his throat, and he had a stitch in his side that refused to go away. He wanted to stop, but he knew he couldn't. The plains had given way to corridors again, this time of plain, unadorned concrete. There were cracks in the walls, and patches where chunks had been ripped off. Some of the aliens seemed to have scattered somehow. At any rate, there seemed to be fewer of them chasing him. He turned a corner and paused for a few tense moments to catch his breath. And then he started running again.

She was back on the raft, and the celebrity she'd recognized had joined them. He seemed charmed by the ostrich. She knew she'd finished her errand, but she couldn't remember what it was. It was so much easier just to drift down the river on the raft, lazing on her back and watching the clouds.

And then there was a crash and a tangle of limbs, and Armand found himself underneath one of the aliens. "No! Get away from me! I don't want to become one of you!" He screamed, but the thing just blinked at him curiously, and then touched his face. He felt his flesh melt away and resculpt itself into some new form, felt the rest of his body rearranging itself. And then the alien was gone, and he was left alone in the endless corridors, sobbing.

The raft turned onto a more violent part

[What I want to happen here: more dream stuff. Armand has to stop fighting and go with the flow. Sarah has to actually fight the dream. Both get out.]

Etude 12, even more continued

Stuff! This goes right at the end of the previous post. I think Abenath needs a better name that doesn't start with an "A", if only to make it easier to do AutoComplete.

"Yes?" asked the stranger.
"Um, nothing. I just, um, wanted to remind my companion that we still have a very long way to go and shouldn't waste our time or yours."
"But I have not had visitors in a very long time. And I'm certain that both of you need a chance to rest and recuperate from the reaver assault."
"But --" Armand shook himself mentally. "By what name should we call you?"
The stranger smiled. Armand thought his teeth glittered oddly in the wan winter light. "Call me Abenath, and I am at your service." He bowed to Sarah. "And might I have the pleasure of knowing your names?"
Sarah blushed a little bit at the bow. Armand wanted to kick her again, harder. "Um, you can call me Sarah. And my friend is Armand. We're searching for our true names."
"Ahh, and that is why you need to consult the Eyes. A worthy cause, indeed. But the two of you seem somewhat ill-prepared for the ordeal. Perhaps I can be of assistance?"
"Oh, of course! We need a lot of help." Sarah giggled, just a little. Armand felt the urge to kick Sarah grow into an urge to strangle her. Why is she telling this guy everything? We don't know anything about him! He could be lying through his teeth!
"Well then, if you would follow me, I can take you to my humble abode. I do not often have guests, but I do have enough room to accomodate both of you." And Abenath began to lead the way through the forest.

...

Abenath's home was beside a large cave that was continually dripping with water. "That's not plain water in the cave, you know. It's salt-water. And sometimes sighs and wails are heard within the cave, which is how it gets its name." He stopped to open the door of the hut, which had jammed. He kicked it, and it burst open. "Here we are. Modest, but more than adequate." The inside of the hut looked, strangely, as if it was larger than the hut was outside. It was rather cozily appointed, with rugs on the stone floor and lamps burning merrily on the tables and walls. The flames of the lamps were not orange, but a ghostly-looking pale blue. At one end was a large fireplace; this roared with warm, yellow-orange flames. In the center was a table with an arrangement of flowers on it. To Armand, something looked subtly wrong about the flowers, but he couldn't put his finger on why. Abenath ushered both of them inside, then shut the door behind them.
"Come, let me make you something to eat. You must both be quite hungry."
"Oh, yes. I think we missed lunch because of the reavers."
Armand just glared at Sarah. Or maybe she isn't worth kicking... He surreptitiously put a hand to the hilt of the Sword. It wasn't vibrating in warning, but there was a difference in its usually calming thrum. And, when he snuck a glance at it, it seemed to be glowing only faintly. I guess it's still low on energy from everything we've been through today. Meanwhile, Abenath had set up what looked like an English tea. There was a teapot -- clay, but brightly painted with bold flowers -- and cups, and bread, butter and jam.
"Come, come. The bread is fresh-baked today. I have to do it myself, you know. No-one else around here to help me with it."
"That looks really good!" Said Sarah. She was soon seated at the table, piling her plate with slices of bread.
Armand was more hesitant. "Sir, I don't think we can repay you for this food."
"Oh, no matter, no matter. Don't worry about it. I'm always glad to help." Abenath handed a jar to Sarah. "Now this is honey from the flame bees. It's sweet and warm, and there's nothing else like it. That's my last jar. I got it from a friend who keeps flame bees, but he hasn't been by in a while. Probably can't find the place anymore." He grinned at Sarah. She smiled back, and dipped a knife into the jar and spread the honey on her bread. Outside the jar, it seemed to glow and sparkle with a red inner fire. She was lifting it to eat when Armand stopped her. "Wait."
"Huh?" She looked confused.
"I don't think it's safe to do that."
"Of course it's safe! Nothing here is poisoned." As if to prove his point, Abenath spread the honey onto a slice of bread and bit into it heartily. "See? Perfectly all right."
"No, it's not that. Mr. Abenath, we cannot afford to be in debt to you."
"I already told you, don't worry about it."
"Yeah," said Sarah. "He seems nice." And she bit into the bread with gusto. "Mmmm... This is really good!"
Armand stared at her. Then he turned to Abenath and said, "I'm sorry, but I'm not hungry after all."
Abenath shrugged. "It's up to you. But you don't know what you're missing." He turned his attention to Sarah. "Now, try some of this jelly... It's made from prickle berries. Usually they're too sour and bitter to eat, but there's a special process that turns them into the most delicious jelly." Sarah gleefully went through all the spreads that Abenath suggested to her. Armand wandered around the room, refusing to sit at the table. When he thought Abenath wasn't looking, he went back to the door and started examining it. The door on this side looked different than the door that Abenath had opened from the outside. It was made of a different material -- some black wood, polished finely, rather than the rough boards of the previous door. And it was latched, and there was a deadbolt drawn across it. He reached out to open the deadbolt, hoping to get away. There was a sudden spark, and he felt a warning vibration thrum through him, and then darkness reached out to claim him.