"You want to go out for a walk now? I don't know, it's really late," she said. "Are we going to relax in this way?"
"No," he shook his head. "I don't mean this kind of a walk. Let's go to the unseen. Let's see the fields of dreams. Afraid?"
"N-now?" she exclaimed.
"Yes, isn't now the best time? Who knows, tomorrow we may go our separate ways."
Who knew...
"...Are you sure it is safe to go there?" she said.
"It depends on whom you are with, where you are going… how you can protect yourself and what you are able to see. But yes. Overall, it is easy," he replied. "But... your consciousness is very powerful there. Meaning you can visit different places there only with the power of your thought. This is why it's dangerous for you to go there alone. You can't see many of the creatures there. But if you're with me, it's safer. Let's see where your mind will bring you..."
She reluctantly caught his hand.
The Unseen was inhabited by spirit guardians, beings usually created when people believed in them. They could protect individuals, families and sometimes whole nations. There were also spirit poltergeists, who were often just wild energy, bringing disharmony to people; ghosts of dead people; and fairies, who were eternal and little was known about them. The unseen world had always appeared in human notions in one form or another.
First, Elyre heard bells; the loveliest sounds she'd ever heard. While listening, she imagined golden bells with voices of honey, but when she opened her eyes, there were great trees with fruit similar to cones, which jingled blown by the wind. There were different winds: the Golden wind, the Silver wind, the Red, the Violet and so on; the White wind looked like snow. All of them were like colorful gas making trees sing. Every gust brought a different melody, and every tree sounded differently as well.
They went to an invisible city where Elyre had heard everybody slept on mirrors. There was an old Allyrian proverb "you are so vain you sleep on a mirror" which came from the legend of this city. It proved to be true. The ghost-people in this city slept on mirrors in the air; they wanted to be able to check on their appearance at any time. They were afraid they may look bad while sleeping.
It was a city well known in fairy-tales and Aristhaeus thought it was fun Elyre's mind brought them there.
They stopped in front of a big shop with a large price-list, which read as follows:
Butterfly dust ... only for butterflies;
King's tree leaves ... only for kings;
Honey shadows ... only for shadows;
Very long hats ... for witches;
Invisible grass ... for witch gardens;
Regular items:
A magical precious stone (too expensive);
An irritable forest creature given as a gift;
The merchant appeared soon too. He was a short and plump ghost who was selling unicorns as well, but suspected that they were agents of the Silver Mage and told them that he would never ever sell them a unicorn. He informed them he was also selling dragons, but he wouldn't sell to the Silver Mage. He wanted the Silver Mage to remain one unicornless and dragonless mage. And to make sure this would happen, he was resolved to keep all unicorns and dragons for himself.
"But how are you going to do business in this way?" Elyre wondered. But she didn't want to argue...
After that, Aristhaeus explained,
"This is a realm of pure consciousness not controlled by the mind... When some of the greatest mages wanted to interrogate potential spies, they brought them here because it's easier to tell the truth here."
Of course, Aristhaeus and Elyre couldn't see all the sights, simply because in the Unseen, new realms were created all the time, and old ones changed. Sometimes, poltergeists might play a practical joke on you and make a road disappear or change the surroundings.
Elyre stopped near a cliff. A very usual, brown-gray cliff. It turned out it was actually a giant; well, the ghost of a giant. She had never seen a real giant in Allyria, but this behemoth shook the ground here; rocks were his hair and grass − his eyelashes.
***
Not far from Aristhaeus and Elyre and their leisurely walk, there was one quiet street. It was a small, cobbled street, empty if we don't count a stone as big as a dragon egg on which a petite fairy was sitting. As if made from phosphorus, she illuminated the narrow space. But she flew away. The street was shady because there were high buildings on both sides.
From the window of one of the houses there, someone gloomily observed the firine and the archmage. Elyre's spirit guardian.
It looked more humanly than ever. It wore a golden-blue skirt and a golden-blue shirt, adorned with plenty of trinkets. It had dark blue smoke instead of legs. Its clothes were made of smoke as well; its hair was black, medium-length, unnaturally bent in the air and split in separate locks reminiscent of icicles. The most precious thing was on its neck – the mighty amulet - the source of its energy. The guardian was angry with Aristhaeus,
"He doesn't pay attention to my warnings!" it complained to some other spirits which were in the same room.
"I wouldn't expect him to, dear," somebody replied. "Remember who he is."
Sometimes the spirit guardian wondered whether it had been the right thing to appear in front of Aristhaeus so early. When the spirit had materialized itself in the archmage's dreams, the spirit had already known that Aristhaeus and Elyre were bound to meet.
One purple spirit, who was usually more forward, added,
"Not only does he ignore your warnings but he is also mocking you. He is taking her to our world… If you ask me, he has come so that we could see him. It is a demonstration of power!"
The guardians were all thoughtful.
"Maybe he doesn't realize how mighty I am. He can't be stronger than me, can he?"
"Of course, he can't," a green individual said.
"If you ask me," the purple one exclaimed, "he knows he is not. That is why he hasn't attacked you yet. I've heard about Aristhaeus and his temperament. If he was sure he'd win, he would have taken action."
"Your protective powers are especially designed so they could withstand the Seventh Fire," the green continued.
"I wish Elyre was aware of my existence. I wish I could warn her that this is Aristhaeus."
"Unfortunately, even if you go near them, she would be unable to see you. If you try to use some form of a sign, she probably won't understand what is happening, and Aristhaeus will interpret it for her the way he wants to."
"Yes," Elyre's spirit guardian said. "I have investigated this issue long ago. Sommeis can see us spirit guardians, but other races can only see ghosts."
Elyre's spirit guardian moved away from the window. The smoke that came out of its skirt instead of legs spread around.
"What are you going to do?" the purple one asked. It currently had the body of a man while the other two were women.
"I haven't decided. I am a bit afraid to threaten Aristhaeus for I think that my threats might have the opposite effect," Elyre's guardian shrugged.
"Doing something just to demonstrate defiance, would he?" the green one exclaimed. "That is not very smart but not impossible."
The purple guardian, who was wearing a silver jacket and looked the most like a genie, flew to the window to have a look at Aristhaeus and Elyre and commented,
"As if he doesn't know we are here. What are we going to do with the archmage?"
They went on with the conversation. Their clothes changed colors in accordance with their mood.
When Elyre and Aristhaeus "woke up", it all seemed like it had been a dream.
~Sometimes you really don't know when reality ends and fantasy begins.~