"Ildra, say goodbye to Lion; you're leaving now." The imperative tone surprised both Ildra and me, but there was no room to resist his order.
Ildra hugged me and placed a soft kiss on my lips.
"See you on the other side, handsome boy…" Winking at me in farewell, she approached the merchant.
The merchant's gnarled hand was raised in front of Ildra's forehead, and the energy of space and dreams began to flow. I could feel my own affinity for the energy of dreams increasing by leaps and bounds. Ildra's body became less clear, first translucent, then just a residual image, and then, like a wisp of smoke, she disappeared into the air; she was simply no longer in the room. The Merchant's eyes looked at me with an intensity that was frightening. His hands were shaking, and he approached me with sure and determined steps, digging his heels in with each step.
He pinned both hands on my shoulders with immovable force, his face less than two handspans from mine. Until then, I didn't realize how old and tired he really was...
"You have to promise me one thing, boy: you won't get out of here alive if you don't..." His gaze was as aggressive as it would be; he didn't hesitate with that level of strength, and with all the energies that his body exuded, the threat was very real.
"Never, ever, not even to your loved ones, not even to your lovers, that you have can handle the energy of dreams." The tone was urgent and imperative; it left no room for doubt... "Poor Ildra will have to die… "It's a shame, but it's necessary... if you know, you can tell it... the destiny of your race depends on it..." There was no regret in his voice, only a veiled emotion like that of a man who is used to making decisions. Difficult, no matter how hard they were...
"Ildrá doesn't know anything... I haven't told her about my other affinities." I interrupted him...
"Swear to me, boy, this is not the time to protect a two-day lover; we are talking not only about your future, but about the entire future of a race, and the future of the races that are to come…" He looked at me. His eyes seemed to be trying to detect the lie in my gaze, and his hands trembled without loosening their grip on my shoulders...
"I... I swear on my honor as a cheater..." I said, looking at those gray pupils that were scrutinizing me...
"Why didn't you keep the box? Won't it be useful to you?" I asked him.
"Too many repercussions... too many responsibilities... the Bolgruts would paint an even bigger target on the Dream Readers' heads... we couldn't safely set foot in Athair again... but you don't understand... you don't understand yet." ..." He began to say.
"Well, explain it to me; we have time..." The wave of information overwhelmed Lion, but he had been waiting for a long time to truly immerse himself in the game...
"I know that now you don't understand... how could you understand... you are the future... a hope..." The merchant loosened his grip and took two steps away from me... what was before were nerves; tension became transformed into a solemnity that emanated from each of his pores. "The time has come for real presentations…"
"I am Irtrum Gaelian Fulder, last of the noble race of Skirms in Athair, and one of only five Master Dream Riders in the entire ring, but before you can truly choose your path, you must understand all that it entails… I know that you will not believe me, and that you will think that this is nothing more than a dream, a fantasy, or a game like the ones you have in your universe, but pay attention to my story before making a decision. "And at that moment, the merchant began to tell me an Infinity of things...
"When the first race arrived in Athair, the Ilures, they were not a race nor powerful with any other type of magic other than destiny and dreams; this magic inherited from their own universe made them create the box of dreams with whom they crossed the then deserted land of dreams to Athair; however, the gods did not pay attention to them; they were not strong, they were not relevant. However, when the first crusade against the beings from other parts of the abyss of the cosmos began, many gods died.
Finally, the Ilures, guided by their mastery of the energy of destiny, created a large loom with all the possible threads of their future, whether there was or to be, and with that knowledge, they spoke to the gods until they were convinced of the need to bring other civilized races to be their soldiers in that bloody war... until then only the beings whose extinction was about to end were transferred to these lands, without worrying about their intelligence, their number or their power...
However, the races in the universes were many, mostly weak, and removing them from the lines of destiny had more consequences than benefits... Therefore, only the civilized races on the verge of extinction would be invited to the world of dreams to determine what they should be according to the future and its possibilities...
So that these races could gain strength and their bodies could be compatible with the magic existing in Athair, the tutorial and the temple of the goddess of magic were created. In this way, the consciousnesses of these beings could be what they were destined to be without suffering. Damage or other effects. But for this, they would need guides, help impossible in the original mentality of the races, and that is why the Dream Riders were born, those capable of walking through the world of dreams with their own bodies, those capable of providing the new races with the merits and skills they would need to become stronger and survive in the world of Athair...
The first inhabitants of these lands, the Ilures did not transform into soldiers; they were the first Dream Riders, and they helped the ancient races reach Athair. The Primal Dragons, the Elves, the Angels, the Calius, the Derethan...
In the event that during their journey during their stay in the world of dreams there was no one who achieved affinity with the energy of dreams, the Ilures presented them with the box of dreams to guarantee that at least one of them precursors among the new races left a lineage capable of transforming some individuals into Dream Riders...
In this way, every time a race was about to transcend and transform into soldiers of the gods, their Dream Riders paved the way for the next ones...
The Ilures just as they arrived one day, they left, The legend says that they merged with the lines of destiny of the loom to mark history differently; this new energy in known magic was called Telluria...
Something incomprehensible for the majority but important and relevant for everyone...
Before their departure, the Ilures established the universal laws of their pact with the gods. In order not to break the balance, the new races would have to learn and develop on their own; that is, they could not inherit the knowledge that the previous ones left behind, only the same book. Of magic for everyone, a book that very few knew how to read or understand, but which was the basis on which each civilization would be built.
However, the departure of the Ilures was not so traumatic; each race in each generation awakened one or several Dream Riders, so when the time came for their civilization to advance so much in Athair that their strength was notable, and they could transcend, they could lend many hands to the races chosen to replace them.
Each new race had to find its own path to transfer its consciousness, but the number of Dream Readers ultimately determined the number of individuals of the new race that could be saved, since they depended on their energy for their dream bodies to form. And were rescued to pass the tutorial tests...
A few thousand years ago, a greedy and expansionist race found the relic called the box of dreams, monopolizing it. In this way, the number of Dream Riders that were born in each generation decreased drastically, and there were races that did not see a single Dream Rider among their people.
In the end, the few Dream Riders of the races that were about to ascend agreed not to accompany their peers and remain in Athair to help the arrival of the new inhabitants.
But the Bolgruts did not stop there in their plans; they began a global hunt to eliminate all the Dream Riders they found, including entire lineages of ancient dream merchants, whether they had manifested the affinity, and they did not hesitate to kill all of them. A race of new inhabitants just because one of them had awakened affinity in the dream world...
Thus, today only 5 Dream Riders were spread throughout the ring of lands that was Athair, each one occupied in a different quadrant of the ring, with many continents and races in their charge...
Although the Dream Rider's job did not give combat power, nor a special strength, and depended exclusively on the strength of the individual himself, they were respected and hidden by the rest of the races, although for their survival they already spent most of their time in the land of dreams, since even there the Bolgruts could not follow them.
As for the magic they could exercise, this was based on materializing in the world of dreams the possibilities that existed in the real world but which the new races lacked: abilities, objects, possibilities; they could transfer the consciousness of an inhabitant. From Athair to the world of dreams or vice versa and they themselves could walk with their own bodies through the world of dreams.
Irtrum himself was a magician of the seventh circle, whatever that meant, a powerful entity in his own right. He came to the dream world once again to help transition the first humans who would do as pioneers before the arrival of the main bulk...
With his own power, he could only help about 2000 individuals at a time... but things would change if he could count on the help of the other five masters or powerful precursors at his side,... but by that time, he still had three years to find and gather them. ...
The most curious thing that happened this time was the first arrival of a new entity... an entity attached to the consciousness of humans, with its own capacity and that in the end, did much of his work... this was Data.
"Well, now that you know everything, or at least everything you need, will you agree to be this old man's disciple?
"Congratulations to the player for finding a master; do you wish to learn the craft of Dream Rider?"