Chapter 8: The Dragon Dreams
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Chapter 8: The Dragon Dreams
Doomwing had never been especially gifted in the art of dream walking. Personal interest and then necessity had pushed him toward more practical applications. However, the Sixth Age had revived his interest in the field, if only so he could protect himself from the Sixth Catastrophe. Even so, he had only ever become adept enough to defend himself. He had never, even for a moment, considered confronting Kagami in the ever-shifting and turbulent realm that reflected both their dreams and the collective dreams of everyone else with a soul. He was powerful, yes, and perhaps a little arrogant as befitted a primordial dragon, but he was not stupid or suicidal.
For all his might, in that realm, Kagami would have bested him, and that was before she had become the Sixth Catastrophe. After her... ascension, she would have slaughtered him with the same ease he would have shown in slaying some uppity drake. Even Marcus, so much more adept in battles of the mind and memory, had been forced to admit that all he could have done against her was stall for time. Knowing that he could never win a confrontation of that kind, Doomwing had focused his efforts on defence. His crowning achievement was discovering an ancient rune that could drag both him and his opponent out of the dreaming lands and back into the physical world. That rune had saved his life in the final battle and had allowed them to triumph although they had all paid heavily for the victory.Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only
Now, however, he had a use for dream walking. Antaria had proven she wasn't completely hopeless, so he wished to see how far he could push her. She had the right temperament for physical and magical training, so it was now a question of honing her mind. The issue was the number of hours in the day. Until she became more adept at absorbing magic from her surroundings and circulating it through her body, she would require the same amount of sleep as a regular person. Unfortunately, the time she spent sleeping could not be used for anything else.
That simply wouldn't do.
If he could learn how to dream walk properly, he would be able to instruct her while she slept. Time did not flow at the same speed in the world of dreams, so he could cram an entire's day's worth of learning into her head while only occupying perhaps an hour or two of her sleeping time in the physical world. She would still be able to get enough rest, and he would be able to see if she was capable of learning anything apart from how to stab people or blast them with magic.
The issue was actually learning how to dream walk. There were people he could seek out. One of his fellow primordial dragons, Dreamsong, was a muse dragon. She could weave illusions so convincing that they could take on solid form and substance, making real the things she imagined, if only for a moment. She could also enter the dreams of others and bend the very fabric of the dreaming lands to her will. Unfortunately, they were no longer on speaking terms.
Kagami might have betrayed her and used her teachings to become the Sixth Catastrophe, but Dreamsong had still loved her like a daughter. Even after witnessing the atrocities Kagami had committed, Dreamsong had never been able to raise a hand against her, and she had never forgiven Doomwing for killing her. Oh, Dreamsong understood on an intellectual level that Doomwing had done the right thing, but the heart was not bound by logic, and Dreamsong's heart had always been softer than her scales.
After the disaster of the Fifth Catastrophe, many of the beast people of the world had scattered and hidden themselves from the vengeful wrath of those they had wronged. The kitsune had been all but wiped out and had only found safety by hiding in a land halfway between the physical world and the dreaming lands. There, they had met Dreamsong, and she had taken them under her wing. Kagami had been her most favoured student, and Dreamsong had been so pleased to see the relationship between Elerion and Kagami blossom into more than friendship. Elerion had no longer been a young man then, but what did age matter to Kagami when kitsune could live for millennia if they were powerful enough?
And Kagami had been strong, far stronger than any kitsune Doomwing had met before or since.
Of course, things had fallen apart in the end. Kagami had fallen prey to her own worst fears and had become the very monster that her people had so often been accused of being. And Dreamsong had retreated back into the dreaming lands with what remained of the kitsune, her attention focused solely on the child that Kagami had left behind, the kitsune girl who was also Elerion's last child.
What a mess.
But before Kagami had gone mad, she had given Doomwing a gift. After all, they had been friends. It was a spell book, one that contained a number of powerful spells related to dream walking. He had accepted it happily back then but had never had the time to learn its contents. After she had become the Sixth Catastrophe, he had been wary of opening the book, lest the contents turn out to be a trap. However, with Kagami long dead and his injuries mostly healed, he was confident that he could open the book without putting himself in danger. If it turned out to be a trap, he would simply destroy the thing. If, however, it turned out to be a genuine gift, the spells within would solve his problems.
Landing on the shores of the lake where he liked to nap, Doomwing called the book to him. It was a small thing, sized for a person instead of a dragon, but his powers were more than up to the task of handling it. A minute burst of power unlocked the seal that held it shut, and he readied ancient runes for protection, destruction, and returning himself to the physical world. He did not fully commit to them - even he could not use three ancient runes of this calibre lightly - but their partially completed forms would allow him to act in an instant if the book turned out to be dangerous.
"Do you want any help?" Daphne asked. The dryad looked down at Antaria, a raccoon clinging onto her back like a monkey.
"Don't." Antaria continued to crawl toward her house. "If you help me, he'll only add extra tasks to my training to make up for it."
"If you're sure." Daphne tilted her head to the side. "But if you want, I can start the lesson now while you're still crawling back."
"That would be fine, thanks."
That night, Antaria crawled into bed. She missed the baths she got to take in the palace, baths with hot water, maids to attend her, and all the cosmetic luxuries she could dream of. Her current bath consisted of taking a dip in a nearby stream after putting up several third-order spells to warn her about intruders and observers. She had neglected to put those up on the first night, and Doomwing had responded by herding several huge wild boars toward her. She'd been utterly exhausted at the time, but she'd still managed to kill them, albeit she'd been forced to drown the last one since she'd lost her sword at some point in the fight, and her knuckles had hurt from punching one of them to death. Oh well. The boar meat had tasted decent enough.
Circulating her magic and absorbing magic from her surroundings as she'd been taught, Antaria felt herself slip into an almost meditative trance. She was still better at circulating magic and absorbing magic when she wasn't doing anything else but having to fight random monsters on a daily basis was rapidly improving her ability to do both under pressure. Sighing, she let sleep claim her.
A dream of green fields and blue skies awaited her, a place free from dragons who confused attempted murder for teaching, a place with hot springs, comfortable beds, and food prepared by professional chefs instead of charred over a campfire while the aforementioned dragon tried to remember recipes from centuries ago.
"Get up."
She blinked. Why was Doomwing's construct in her dream. "No."
The construct padded over and then yanked her up onto her feet. To her horror a chair appeared beneath her, and the rolling fields and open skies gave way to a large library.
"You spend too much of your time sleeping and slacking off. From now on, you will spend at least some of that time learning."
A book appeared on the table in front of her and words began to appear in the air behind Doomwing.
"Today, we will be discussing logistics and why it matters. I will not have some fool ruling in my name. Elerion was a farmer's son, and he still managed to learn enough to be a great king. You are a princess. Assuming your education hasn't been completely awful, I expect you to do better."
Antaria stifled the urge to scream.
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Chapter 8: The Dragon Dreams
Doomwing had never been especially gifted in the art of dream walking. Personal interest and then necessity had pushed him toward more practical applications. However, the Sixth Age had revived his interest in the field, if only so he could protect himself from the Sixth Catastrophe. Even so, he had only ever become adept enough to defend himself. He had never, even for a moment, considered confronting Kagami in the ever-shifting and turbulent realm that reflected both their dreams and the collective dreams of everyone else with a soul. He was powerful, yes, and perhaps a little arrogant as befitted a primordial dragon, but he was not stupid or suicidal.
For all his might, in that realm, Kagami would have bested him, and that was before she had become the Sixth Catastrophe. After her... ascension, she would have slaughtered him with the same ease he would have shown in slaying some uppity drake. Even Marcus, so much more adept in battles of the mind and memory, had been forced to admit that all he could have done against her was stall for time. Knowing that he could never win a confrontation of that kind, Doomwing had focused his efforts on defence. His crowning achievement was discovering an ancient rune that could drag both him and his opponent out of the dreaming lands and back into the physical world. That rune had saved his life in the final battle and had allowed them to triumph although they had all paid heavily for the victory.Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only
Now, however, he had a use for dream walking. Antaria had proven she wasn't completely hopeless, so he wished to see how far he could push her. She had the right temperament for physical and magical training, so it was now a question of honing her mind. The issue was the number of hours in the day. Until she became more adept at absorbing magic from her surroundings and circulating it through her body, she would require the same amount of sleep as a regular person. Unfortunately, the time she spent sleeping could not be used for anything else.
That simply wouldn't do.
If he could learn how to dream walk properly, he would be able to instruct her while she slept. Time did not flow at the same speed in the world of dreams, so he could cram an entire's day's worth of learning into her head while only occupying perhaps an hour or two of her sleeping time in the physical world. She would still be able to get enough rest, and he would be able to see if she was capable of learning anything apart from how to stab people or blast them with magic.
The issue was actually learning how to dream walk. There were people he could seek out. One of his fellow primordial dragons, Dreamsong, was a muse dragon. She could weave illusions so convincing that they could take on solid form and substance, making real the things she imagined, if only for a moment. She could also enter the dreams of others and bend the very fabric of the dreaming lands to her will. Unfortunately, they were no longer on speaking terms.
Kagami might have betrayed her and used her teachings to become the Sixth Catastrophe, but Dreamsong had still loved her like a daughter. Even after witnessing the atrocities Kagami had committed, Dreamsong had never been able to raise a hand against her, and she had never forgiven Doomwing for killing her. Oh, Dreamsong understood on an intellectual level that Doomwing had done the right thing, but the heart was not bound by logic, and Dreamsong's heart had always been softer than her scales.
After the disaster of the Fifth Catastrophe, many of the beast people of the world had scattered and hidden themselves from the vengeful wrath of those they had wronged. The kitsune had been all but wiped out and had only found safety by hiding in a land halfway between the physical world and the dreaming lands. There, they had met Dreamsong, and she had taken them under her wing. Kagami had been her most favoured student, and Dreamsong had been so pleased to see the relationship between Elerion and Kagami blossom into more than friendship. Elerion had no longer been a young man then, but what did age matter to Kagami when kitsune could live for millennia if they were powerful enough?
And Kagami had been strong, far stronger than any kitsune Doomwing had met before or since.
Of course, things had fallen apart in the end. Kagami had fallen prey to her own worst fears and had become the very monster that her people had so often been accused of being. And Dreamsong had retreated back into the dreaming lands with what remained of the kitsune, her attention focused solely on the child that Kagami had left behind, the kitsune girl who was also Elerion's last child.
What a mess.
But before Kagami had gone mad, she had given Doomwing a gift. After all, they had been friends. It was a spell book, one that contained a number of powerful spells related to dream walking. He had accepted it happily back then but had never had the time to learn its contents. After she had become the Sixth Catastrophe, he had been wary of opening the book, lest the contents turn out to be a trap. However, with Kagami long dead and his injuries mostly healed, he was confident that he could open the book without putting himself in danger. If it turned out to be a trap, he would simply destroy the thing. If, however, it turned out to be a genuine gift, the spells within would solve his problems.
Landing on the shores of the lake where he liked to nap, Doomwing called the book to him. It was a small thing, sized for a person instead of a dragon, but his powers were more than up to the task of handling it. A minute burst of power unlocked the seal that held it shut, and he readied ancient runes for protection, destruction, and returning himself to the physical world. He did not fully commit to them - even he could not use three ancient runes of this calibre lightly - but their partially completed forms would allow him to act in an instant if the book turned out to be dangerous.
"Do you want any help?" Daphne asked. The dryad looked down at Antaria, a raccoon clinging onto her back like a monkey.
"Don't." Antaria continued to crawl toward her house. "If you help me, he'll only add extra tasks to my training to make up for it."
"If you're sure." Daphne tilted her head to the side. "But if you want, I can start the lesson now while you're still crawling back."
"That would be fine, thanks."
That night, Antaria crawled into bed. She missed the baths she got to take in the palace, baths with hot water, maids to attend her, and all the cosmetic luxuries she could dream of. Her current bath consisted of taking a dip in a nearby stream after putting up several third-order spells to warn her about intruders and observers. She had neglected to put those up on the first night, and Doomwing had responded by herding several huge wild boars toward her. She'd been utterly exhausted at the time, but she'd still managed to kill them, albeit she'd been forced to drown the last one since she'd lost her sword at some point in the fight, and her knuckles had hurt from punching one of them to death. Oh well. The boar meat had tasted decent enough.
Circulating her magic and absorbing magic from her surroundings as she'd been taught, Antaria felt herself slip into an almost meditative trance. She was still better at circulating magic and absorbing magic when she wasn't doing anything else but having to fight random monsters on a daily basis was rapidly improving her ability to do both under pressure. Sighing, she let sleep claim her.
A dream of green fields and blue skies awaited her, a place free from dragons who confused attempted murder for teaching, a place with hot springs, comfortable beds, and food prepared by professional chefs instead of charred over a campfire while the aforementioned dragon tried to remember recipes from centuries ago.
"Get up."
She blinked. Why was Doomwing's construct in her dream. "No."
The construct padded over and then yanked her up onto her feet. To her horror a chair appeared beneath her, and the rolling fields and open skies gave way to a large library.
"You spend too much of your time sleeping and slacking off. From now on, you will spend at least some of that time learning."
A book appeared on the table in front of her and words began to appear in the air behind Doomwing.
"Today, we will be discussing logistics and why it matters. I will not have some fool ruling in my name. Elerion was a farmer's son, and he still managed to learn enough to be a great king. You are a princess. Assuming your education hasn't been completely awful, I expect you to do better."
Antaria stifled the urge to scream.
Chapter 8: The Dragon DreamsDoomwing had never been especially gifted in the art of dream walking. Personal interest and then necessity had pushed him toward more practical applications. However, the Sixth Age had revived his interest in the field, if only so he could protect himself from the Sixth Catastrophe. Even so, he had only ever become adept enough to defend himself. He had never, even for a moment, considered confronting Kagami in the ever-shifting and turbulent realm that reflected both their dreams and the collective dreams of everyone else with a soul. He was powerful, yes, and perhaps a little arrogant as befitted a primordial dragon, but he was not stupid or suicidal.For all his might, in that realm, Kagami would have bested him, and that was before she had become the Sixth Catastrophe. After her... ascension, she would have slaughtered him with the same ease he would have shown in slaying some uppity drake. Even Marcus, so much more adept in battles of the mind and memory, had been forced to admit that all he could have done against her was stall for time. Knowing that he could never win a confrontation of that kind, Doomwing had focused his efforts on defence. His crowning achievement was discovering an ancient rune that could drag both him and his opponent out of the dreaming lands and back into the physical world. That rune had saved his life in the final battle and had allowed them to triumph although they had all paid heavily for the victory.Read latest chapters at novelbin.com OnlyNow, however, he had a use for dream walking. Antaria had proven she wasn't completely hopeless, so he wished to see how far he could push her. She had the right temperament for physical and magical training, so it was now a question of honing her mind. The issue was the number of hours in the day. Until she became more adept at absorbing magic from her surroundings and circulating it through her body, she would require the same amount of sleep as a regular person. Unfortunately, the time she spent sleeping could not be used for anything else.That simply wouldn't do.If he could learn how to dream walk properly, he would be able to instruct her while she slept. Time did not flow at the same speed in the world of dreams, so he could cram an entire's day's worth of learning into her head while only occupying perhaps an hour or two of her sleeping time in the physical world. She would still be able to get enough rest, and he would be able to see if she was capable of learning anything apart from how to stab people or blast them with magic.The issue was actually learning how to dream walk. There were people he could seek out. One of his fellow primordial dragons, Dreamsong, was a muse dragon. She could weave illusions so convincing that they could take on solid form and substance, making real the things she imagined, if only for a moment. She could also enter the dreams of others and bend the very fabric of the dreaming lands to her will. Unfortunately, they were no longer on speaking terms.Kagami might have betrayed her and used her teachings to become the Sixth Catastrophe, but Dreamsong had still loved her like a daughter. Even after witnessing the atrocities Kagami had committed, Dreamsong had never been able to raise a hand against her, and she had never forgiven Doomwing for killing her. Oh, Dreamsong understood on an intellectual level that Doomwing had done the right thing, but the heart was not bound by logic, and Dreamsong's heart had always been softer than her scales.After the disaster of the Fifth Catastrophe, many of the beast people of the world had scattered and hidden themselves from the vengeful wrath of those they had wronged. The kitsune had been all but wiped out and had only found safety by hiding in a land halfway between the physical world and the dreaming lands. There, they had met Dreamsong, and she had taken them under her wing. Kagami had been her most favoured student, and Dreamsong had been so pleased to see the relationship between Elerion and Kagami blossom into more than friendship. Elerion had no longer been a young man then, but what did age matter to Kagami when kitsune could live for millennia if they were powerful enough?And Kagami had been strong, far stronger than any kitsune Doomwing had met before or since.Of course, things had fallen apart in the end. Kagami had fallen prey to her own worst fears and had become the very monster that her people had so often been accused of being. And Dreamsong had retreated back into the dreaming lands with what remained of the kitsune, her attention focused solely on the child that Kagami had left behind, the kitsune girl who was also Elerion's last child.What a mess.But before Kagami had gone mad, she had given Doomwing a gift. After all, they had been friends. It was a spell book, one that contained a number of powerful spells related to dream walking. He had accepted it happily back then but had never had the time to learn its contents. After she had become the Sixth Catastrophe, he had been wary of opening the book, lest the contents turn out to be a trap. However, with Kagami long dead and his injuries mostly healed, he was confident that he could open the book without putting himself in danger. If it turned out to be a trap, he would simply destroy the thing. If, however, it turned out to be a genuine gift, the spells within would solve his problems.Landing on the shores of the lake where he liked to nap, Doomwing called the book to him. It was a small thing, sized for a person instead of a dragon, but his powers were more than up to the task of handling it. A minute burst of power unlocked the seal that held it shut, and he readied ancient runes for protection, destruction, and returning himself to the physical world. He did not fully commit to them - even he could not use three ancient runes of this calibre lightly - but their partially completed forms would allow him to act in an instant if the book turned out to be dangerous."Do you want any help?" Daphne asked. The dryad looked down at Antaria, a raccoon clinging onto her back like a monkey."Don't." Antaria continued to crawl toward her house. "If you help me, he'll only add extra tasks to my training to make up for it.""If you're sure." Daphne tilted her head to the side. "But if you want, I can start the lesson now while you're still crawling back.""That would be fine, thanks."That night, Antaria crawled into bed. She missed the baths she got to take in the palace, baths with hot water, maids to attend her, and all the cosmetic luxuries she could dream of. Her current bath consisted of taking a dip in a nearby stream after putting up several third-order spells to warn her about intruders and observers. She had neglected to put those up on the first night, and Doomwing had responded by herding several huge wild boars toward her. She'd been utterly exhausted at the time, but she'd still managed to kill them, albeit she'd been forced to drown the last one since she'd lost her sword at some point in the fight, and her knuckles had hurt from punching one of them to death. Oh well. The boar meat had tasted decent enough.Circulating her magic and absorbing magic from her surroundings as she'd been taught, Antaria felt herself slip into an almost meditative trance. She was still better at circulating magic and absorbing magic when she wasn't doing anything else but having to fight random monsters on a daily basis was rapidly improving her ability to do both under pressure. Sighing, she let sleep claim her.A dream of green fields and blue skies awaited her, a place free from dragons who confused attempted murder for teaching, a place with hot springs, comfortable beds, and food prepared by professional chefs instead of charred over a campfire while the aforementioned dragon tried to remember recipes from centuries ago."Get up."She blinked. Why was Doomwing's construct in her dream. "No."The construct padded over and then yanked her up onto her feet. To her horror a chair appeared beneath her, and the rolling fields and open skies gave way to a large library."You spend too much of your time sleeping and slacking off. From now on, you will spend at least some of that time learning."A book appeared on the table in front of her and words began to appear in the air behind Doomwing."Today, we will be discussing logistics and why it matters. I will not have some fool ruling in my name. Elerion was a farmer's son, and he still managed to learn enough to be a great king. You are a princess. Assuming your education hasn't been completely awful, I expect you to do better."Antaria stifled the urge to scream.
