At the river, in that dream, while Aldryn was kneeling to collect water, someone approached him from behind. It was something that never happened before, neither in real life, nor in any of his dreams. The presence quickly drew his attention and made Aldryn turn around.
'How strange... Despite knowing that this is a dream... I feel like its not... Like I am not in control' the blonde tried to think hard about what was happening. Rather than being in his dream, he felt like he was in the dream of another.
There, stood a man that he hasn't seen or even thought much about since he was twelve. That man looked just how the blonde remembered him from his childhood.
In that moment, Aldryn looked down at himself and noticed that he no longer wore the clothes that he used to back in the village, rather he wore the ones that he did in the present. He then looked around himself and noted that they were still in that forest, but for some reason that world seemed more constricted, more narrowed.
'Like a trap' a shiver went down his spine.
"Is this a cruel joke?" Aldryn shouted and waited for the fox to respond, but was only met with silence.
There was darkness hiding behind trees, darkness that was not there before. And the man, the one who stood leaning against a trees begun walking toward him and sat down at the river bank, near Aldryn, who was still kneeling. That man was none other than Imre, the Oracle of Light before him.
'You have to be joking', his eyes narrowed and he briefly considered stepping away.
It was not something that many knew, but Aldryn's father was good friends with the previous Priest. Similarly to how he is good friends with Ildurin. The two of them trusted each other only like brothers would, despite there being no blood ties between them.
'Could this be...' he suddenly remembered a story that Ylvis told him a long time ago.
According to the Priest of Earth, the oracles were all connected. Their future and past were intertwined. They could appear to each other as a vision, share their knowledge and experience.
"Why are you here?" the blonde asked, looking at the older man, wondering if his theory was correct.
He was surprised to see him, but at the same time suspicious. Many emotions that came rushing forward to the blonde.
'Why are you here? Why now? Are you real? An apparition?'. And the most prominent one: 'Was my family's death related to you?'.
But Aldryn found that none of those could reach his lips. Whenever he wished to ask one of them, it seemed that there was no air. The blonde would choke and be forced to shut his mouth to not suffocate.
"Being an Oracle is truly an amazing thing", Imre said and flexed his hand, "You haven't changed much since our last meeting despite how many years passing?" he said with a chuckle and shook his head, as if he found the whole situation funny.
"Is this really happening? Or is it a trick that the fox is playing on me" Aldryn muttered looking around himself, his eyes narrowing, "If it's the Thrae... I am so kicking it out of my body".
At those words, Imre just smiled and brought a knee up, resting his arm and head on it.
"Could this be what they call a lucid dream?" the blonde continued to ponder, not even fully understanding what he was saying "Hmm. Then I should be able to dream of that nice dinner from a few months back", he decided and tried to manipulate the world around him.
"What makes you think that this is a dream?" the older man asked while laughing, his soft brown hair moving with every shake of his head.
"Because I am asleep now", Aldryn said like it was obvious, "And stop laughing at me, this is my dream, you shouldn't be mean to me here, or I will turn you into a frog", the blonde then crossed his arm, but it only caused Imre to laugh harder.
"Besides... I called out to you so many times... And you never once came" the blonde tried to think about this situation, "No way my request reached you just now" Aldryn then nodded his head, as if he made a final decision to define this as a dream, though there was doubt in his eyes.
At this reaction, out of all emotions that the blonde could feel, it was desperation that grabbed him. His mind was only filled with: WhatIfWhatIfWhatIf. What if this was not a dream? What if this was really Imre? What if he could finally find out the truth? What if he could not?.
"Your dream? What if this is my dream and you are the intruder?" the former priest then asked as he looked at the blonde with pitying eyes.
"Why are you here?" Aldryn asked again, feeling as if the other man was purposely tried to delay something.
"I wanted to see you", he said with a shrug.
"And? If you simply wanted to see how I was doing from the other side you would have come by much sooner. But now? Sorry if I don't believe you" the blonde then said, carefully examining his father's friend.
"I am that obvious aren't I?" Imre asked and sat straight, dipping his legs into the river, "I am sorry Aldryn" he said in a soft voice.
Before the blonde could say anything else, the image of the former oracle begun to fade. While it was happening, Imre was giving him a gentle smile, his brown hair moving slightly, as if wind was coursing through it, while his blue eyes were kind. Once the image completely disappeared, Aldryn noticed a strange symbol written on the ground where Imre stood. While his apology was echoing in his mind.
After that, Aldryn opened his eyes and noticed that it was morning.
"What was that?" the blonde asked, lazily looking around his self.
"What was what?" the Thrae suddenly spoke, on full awareness, thinking that the priest felt something that it missed.
"I thought you did something. But I guess I just had the strangest dream. If it was a dream at all" Aldryn explained, "I spoke with Imre and he apologized to me"
"Imre? Who is that?" the fox then grew curious, as there were very few things that it didn't know about its host.
"He was the Oracle of Light before me. We spoke briefly and then he apologized and disappeared, but there was mark left behind", the blonde said in confusion, trying to recall the strange symbol.
"A mark?", the Thrae then asked, trying to bait out more information.
"Yes", Aldryn said and then suddenly begun searching through his small bag for a piece of paper to draw on.
Once the necessary items were found, the blonde did his best to remember the dream. He drew the symbol and while it was somewhat similar, it was not the same. In total, it took Aldryn ten times to recreate the drawing. Despite it being rather simple, the image from his dream always seemed to flee. Right before Aldryn could remember the shape, it seemed to have slipped to the back of his mind.
The final drawing was simple, it contained the general shape of a human skull, with a thick line coming out of it.
"A snake", Aldryn had to comment to make it more obvious.
There was also the general shape of a bird clutching the skull with one leg, the talons causing cracks to form all over. While the other leg was in the air, as if the bird just landed. It head was bowed and its beak was opened, as if the bird only came down to swallow the snake.
"Why did you drew this?" the Thrae then asked urgently.
'That kid... It definitely wasn't just a dream', the fox decided, knowing that the blonde didn't know the meaning behind this symbol.
"This is what Imre left behind. Why? Do you know what this is?" the blonde asked urgently.
'Was this a warning... Did that man... Imre, was it? Tried to tell me to look out for those people. Or was he imply that Aldryn should go after them' the Thrae then shook its head.
"It's an old symbol of a dark society. People who serve a Dark Thrae, a Demon in all its sense. I pray that we never meet any of them" the Thrae explained in a somewhat shaky voice.
"A Demon?" the blonde asked and looked at the paper, fully understanding what his companion was saying.
"Aldryn. How did Imre die?" the fox then asked after it made Aldryn burn the symbol.
"Nobody knows", he shook his head, "He disappeared two months prior to his death and not even his body was found. But Ylvis", the blonde then took a deep breath, "he said that he could feel Imre's pain prior to his death... like... a Lot of pain."
Seeing that the Thrae said nothing else, Aldryn stood up and begun walking away from the forest. It was unusually quiet for the two of them to walk without saying anything. After some time, the blonde grew tired of walking on those egg shells and boldly asked.
"Do you think they killed him? That this group is strong enough to kill one of us?" he said, referring to the other priests.
"Yes. Those people... Scavengers they used to be called…they use dark magic Aldryn. And not dark as the shadow magic that Shyra uses, but truly dark one. The type of magic that burns your soul when used."
This information caused even Aldryn to hesitate in mentioning his next question.
"I have never seen this symbol before in my life. Do you think that it really could have been Imre? That they were somehow related to his death" he asked, trying to think why would a dead priest come into his dream only to show him this mark.
"There are too many things going on right now. Forget it for now. Even if you want to do something about it, those people are strong and they move in groups. They are specialized in assassination and ambush. Not even we are a match for them now" the Thrae tried to reason.
'As much as I wish to help you child... The best I can do now is try and protect you from them' the fox sadly thought, angry at its own lack of power, 'If only I had my old strength' it looked at its claws and considered them dull.
"I guess" Aldryn the said defeated, "Sorry Imre, but if its revenge that you want, come back again when I'm stronger and there are less things going on around" he then sighed and stretched his arms behind his head.
'There were more pressing matters', he though to himself.
His first priority had to be finding Shyra. Despite her seemingly chaotic movements, together with Zevram, Aldryn managed to understand a certain pattern. What Shyra was destroying were what seemed to be random temples to the naked eyes. But in truth, all of them had one thing in common: all of the temple had believed in the old deities, all of them were led by apostles.
Those people were different from them, since they all believed in different Gods. But there was no animosity between them.
'Though with the way Shyra attacks them... I doubt they will offer us tea'
With this knowledge, the two of them quickly found out possible other targets. Without even noticing it, Aldryn made his way back to the mountain. There, Ylvis stood waiting for him at the entrance to the tunnel.