Coruscare stood quietly on the edge of a surprisingly familiar wild flower field. He couldn't quite grasp the tickling feeling he experienced at the back of his mind, but he had a sense of having been there before.
He noticed movement on the opposite side.
A child, spun happily amongst the flowers. She seemed unaware of his presence at first, but suddenly she stopped spinning and turned to look directly at him. Cocking her head to the side she stood statue still.
In one moment she was hundreds off feet away, the next she was directly in front of him.
They stood staring at each other for what felt like an eternity to Coruscare.
She reached her incredibly small hand out and he hesitantly took it.
She pivoted excitedly and pulled him towards the other side of the meadow.
"You are to make yourself as much a part of the dream as possible. Should her subconscious sense an intruder her mind will attempt to expel you like the body would infection in a wound.", he heard Syll say once more in his mind.
He followed the tiny human child, his head spinning as the meadow warped and warbled around them. Everything flowing together like a wet painting that had not been allowed to dry. It lasted for only a few seconds. When the world started to make sense again, they stood outside a cottage. This place also familiar to him. The feeling becoming stronger in the back of his mind. It was driving him mad.
*How do I know these places?*, he thought to himself, frustrated.
The girl led him into the small home and he could not believe his eyes.
"Ventus?", he said aloud, forgetting what Syll had said in just a few shocked seconds.
The woman with long white hair stood in silent amazement, her eyebrows raised almost to her hair line.
"My lord.", she said quickly and bowed.
He waved his hand impatiently.
"Ventus? In truth? How am I finding you in a child's dream?", he said, his brow furrowing.
"Umm well you see, the thing is, well…. Perhaps you ought to take a seat.", she gestured to the small chair and table. The child had already seated herself, watching the adults with rapt interest as she munched an apple, holding it in both hands.
He slowly sat himself in the much too small seat without taking his eyes off of the little girl.
"Your daughter?", he whispered, his eyes fixed on the girl as she chewed quietly, his eyes fixed on her even as he attempted to turn his head and give Ventus his full attention. +
She smiled broadly and nodded.
He turned back to the girl his mouth slightly open, grasping for words, for anything.
It came out as a deep gargling instead.
"This is Caeli my lord. I had always hoped that you would meet her when she got older.", she said nodding her head approvingly. "I think last you visited she was but a toddler.", she looked at Caeli lovingly.
"Ventus… I'm not sure how to tell you this but, she is a woman now. Wait, before we get to that, are you… here? In truth?", he asked hesitantly.
She nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh yes. Caeli's spirit has been visiting me in the past. Quite a bit more often in the last few days now that I've thought about it. Don't believe me?", she said in response to his slowly shaking head. "Had I been a part of her dreams, a creation of her subconscious, we would have thrown you out on your rump by now. That Dream Catcher allows you entrance, it does not guarantee camouflage.", she said pouring three cups of tea, smiling at Caeli as she handed one to her and setting another in front of Coruscare. She took a seat, the girls now being on either side of the King of Ausia.
"So I am to believe that the woman lying in my infirmary currently is your daughter?", he said amazed. Ventus had been a powerful sorcerer for the Ausia defense and had met Faron, a dragon, whilst serving the continent. They fell in love and got married soon after. They were powerful warriors apart, almost unstoppable together. Ventus's husband was a dragon. That meant the little woman was part drake. That was how he knew the wild flower field, and the cottage. He had visited them before, not long after Caeli had been born. But they had always called her Eli. Everything he had been trying to piece together started to make sense.
The idea made him realize he had not seen her husband. "Where is Faron?", he said, unable to remember when he had seen him last.
"Well right about now, I think he's on a mission to assist Ysera in the hillsides, you yourself asked this of him. Don't forget you promised me it would be the last.", she said pointing a finger at him accusingly but not unkindly.
Coruscare felt a sharp pain in his chest. He knew for a fact that it would not be. Not long from the moment he was visiting in time, the war with humans would come to a close climax, he had begged Ventus and Faron to come to the aid of the Ausia people. And as good friends and warriors would do, they came without question. He remembered it well. It was the day that they would both die and leave a daughter behind.
"Ventus-", he croaked.
She speedily rose a hand to stop him.
"I am a powerful witch, I am aware of the consequences of knowing ones own future before it has come. We are happy, Eli brings us so much joy. I am more than willing to live in ignorance and enjoy what I have when I have it.", she saw the pain on the dragons reptilian face. She reached a hand to grasp his large forearm. "You are a good king. We trust you, and we trust that whatever our fate, that you truly care about us. That is enough. You mustn't torture yourself with whatever knowledge you have of the future.", she smiled sadly at him.
"But Caeli-", he started.
"I will have to leave my daughter at a young age, I know that. I realized it the first time she came to me in her dreams. I have resigned myself to it. All I can do is love her hard while she is here and try to teach her the things she will need to survive. That's all any parent can do really.", she said, the slight shake in her voice betraying her true heart ache. "I will ask this of you now that I have you here my lord. Knowing that she will be on her own, please care for her in anyway that you can. I know that as a king of a continent your life is very busy, that it may seem like such a small and insignificant thing, but I ask you as a loyal soldier, please help her should she need it.",
He clenched his teeth.
"Ventus we need your help.", he rasped. The child of two of his very good friends, his very best warriors, who would be slain in the future due to his command, was lying in his infirmary, very likely dying.
The white haired woman saw the fear in the dragons face.
"Tell me. How can I help?", she asked. "Is she going to be alright?", Ventus braced herself for what he would say next.
"We can't be sure. The grove cannot improve her condition. Despite their tending, our medicines, her state remains the same. Alive but unconscious, febrile and painful. Her wound is serious but her comatose state is concerning. She has been with us for days and has yet to wake even once. Her hair has gone almost entirely white since her arrival. Syll cannot make sense of any of it.", he said hastily before remembering that the child beside him was Caeli herself. He gave her a glance to find her still mutely watching them as she used both hands to warily tilt the tea cups edge to her mouth for a drink. Despite the atmosphere, he couldn't help a small chuckle and a smile when she accidentally spilled some on herself.
In a typical motherly fashion, Ventus stood, thinking scrupulously as she absentmindedly retrieved a hand towel and handed it to the little girl.
Coruscare watched as the child, ungainly, dabbed at her face and lap where the tea had spilt. After she felt she had sufficiently tidied herself she folded the towel, which took her quite sometime, and set it on the table. When the little girl realized she was being watched she sat on her hands embarrassed and beamed at the dragon.
Ventus watched everything transpire, the dragons question forgotten for a moment as she observed her darling child with a warm smile.
Coruscare found the whole thing humorous, and even sweet. Such a small creature to act so adult.
"You said her hair has turn white?", Ventus said, a sudden realization occurring to her.
Without looking away from Caeli, Coruscare nodded. The girl giggled as the dragon continued to gaze. Without thinking he reached out carefully to tickle the side of her neck with his knuckle resulting in more bubbling laughter. He felt it in his heart like someone was pouring warm liquid into its chambers causing it to swell. He laughed to himself then turned to Ventus nodding again.
"Her hair has always been auburn but I knew that once she reached adulthood that it would change. Both myself and her father with white hair, I just assumed her human side would lose the fight against the part of her that is her father.", she said.
"Lose the fight?", he asked.
"Oh yes, I was human before I was witch. Much of my human side has dissipated since then. I expected the same in Caeli, her father is so strong and stubborn, I just assumed it would happen.", she responded.
Coruscare thought for a moment.
"Does Caeli know that she is part drake?", he asked Ventus carefully.
"Well of course she does, why wouldn't she know -", Ventus paused. "Unless we made her forget.", she whispered.
She felt a sharp pain in her chest, the only reason her and Faron would do such a horrible thing would have been to protect her.
"Oh goddess above, Coruscare. We must have made her forget. I knew that we would be separated when Caeli was young but if she were very young, people would hunt her down for her lineage. Should I think she would be in danger from the humans, especially with the way they've begun abandoning and renouncing the Old World, we… we might have thought it was the only way since she would be unable to protect herself.", she said sadly.
"Could the spell make her ill?", he asked softly. Could that be the other variable Syll had talked about?
"It should not. Although there are stories in my covens history of something called "self sickness". In all the instances I remember it was when those who were demigods and deities were unaware of their lineage. They became sick due to the fact that they were naive to their own power and immortality. The self begins to split, divide, and fight for control of the body. If the halves are not reconciled, it can result in their death. But Eli is no demigod, nor a deity, I birthed her myself. Yes Faron and I are very powerful but not in a godly way.", she said.
"Unless she is that powerful?", Coruscare asked, doubting even his own words. Although he saw strength in Caeli as she fought the fevers and the pains, he could still sense that she was human.
Then again he had not sensed that she was part drake either.
"I suppose it's possible. If she is as strong as she would need to be in order to induce this self sickness than I hope you intended to befriend her. Her power would be greater than Faron or I.", she said.
She shook her head slowly.
"If I did what I'm thinking of, she must make the realization on her own or recall her memories from being a child to discover the fact. You will find when you return that it will be impossible to tell her. Even should you try to shout it you will find the words stuck in your throat. It's a security measure to prevent anyone from disclosing the fact to those that would harm her.", she replied softly. "But you can help her Coruscare, guide her, teach her, protect her if you must, although I'm not sure she'll let you.", she laughed at the last part, watching as Caeli tried to reach a freshly baked tart from the chair she had scraped across the floor to stand on in order to reach the window sill where it sat cooling.
Ventus became serious once again.
"She is effectively killing herself. Her human portion unaware of the danger it is putting itself in. She will surely die Coruscare if she is not helped.", she said lifting the child to reach the tart.
"What can I do? How can I make her understand?", he asked hurriedly and with a deadly calm. He had stayed too long as it was, he had felt his connection to his body waning, and quickly. As each second passed he wanted more and more to stay right where he was with the girls enjoying the wild flowers and sunlight.
Just as Ventus went to speak, Coruscare found himself abruptly awake, panting as ice cold water brought him back to his world, his time, his body.
He looked down to find that the girl was gone, he swung his head around, frantic at her absence.
He saw Syll with a bucket and the unconscious girl lying on the bed opposite him, the sun had come up.