Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 420

Chapter 420: Exploration
Convincing Ben he was dreaming took some time, but eventually, the three humans stood at the edge of the Emperor’s dream world.

Terrified.

Well, at least, Anaisa was. She didn’t know how the men were feeling. Straightening her shoulders, the former countess put on the air she did when she needed to get something unpleasant done.

Cool, aloof, in charge. Emotions in check, in the back of her mind.

No temper today. She locked that as firmly as she could in the darkest corner of her mind. She refused to be provoked into ruining these negotiations.

There was nothing to be angry about. Her sons were safe, for now, and her husband was by her side, helping her work to keep it that way. Everything was as well as it could be.

If she showed even the slightest hesitation, she knew Trace would send her back to her own dreams. She knew that if he weren’t exhausted beyond comprehension, she wouldn’t have been able to convince him in the first place.

“Stay close to me,” Trace warned the pair. “I will do my best to keep the dream calm, but I get to make the call on when to pull you two out. It might be because I can’t sustain it, or it might be because I can see or sense changes you cannot. I need absolute trust from both of you. Follow instructions, no hesitation, no questions asked.”

“Understood,” Ben nodded slowly, as if committing the instructions to memory.

“I’ve always trusted you,” Anaisa tilted her head from side to side, as if stretching for some sort of cardiovascular exercise, not diplomacy.

But for all she knew, they would need to begin running from something or someone as soon as they entered the strange, glowing world.

“No hesitation, no questions,” Trace reiterated. “It’s an enormous place. I don’t want to lose either of you inside it.”

“Of course,” Ben nodded again.

“Will it be difficult to find him in there?” Anaisa frowned. Trace hesitated before speaking.

“He’s large and powerful, but of course, that doesn’t always translate to what is inside the dream. I’ll be able to identify him, but it may take time. Don’t disrupt anything, don’t fight anything if you can avoid it. We aim to be a soothing, calming presence there.”

“I’m extremely calming,” Anaisa interjected.

“You’re calming for me, not for something that sees humans as traitors and liars.” Trace sighed. “Everyone ready? Let’s go.”

Anaisa held her breath, though it wasn’t strictly necessary. One didn’t need to breathe in dreams, but she’d never broken the habit.

She was always secretly afraid that if she learned to quit breathing entirely here, what if she woke and forgot how in the real world?

Passing through the barrier into the Emperor’s dream was very different from going into Trace’s world.

Trace’s dreams seemed to almost crave her presence, pulling her in when she came near, inviting her like a warm embrace, eager and jubilant.

The Emperor’s dream… was oppressive and uninviting, to say the least. It was like pushing through tar trying to get inside, even with Trace pulling her with him. He held onto Ben with his other hand, maybe it was the effort of pulling two others that made this so difficult?

Finally, they burst through the barrier and into the red, burning world.

For that, is in part, what met them. Look-alikes of their cities, their towns, the entire plane of human existence, burning, full of terrifying creatures of all kinds maiming and killing the grotesque caricatures of humans that inhabited them.

“We’re not that ugly,” Anaisa frowned, looking at the person nearest to her. They had the sneer of an evildoer, with long, greedy fingers snatching and stealing even as their world was falling to pieces.

It was a gross and revealing picture of the Emperor’s impression of them, and Anaisa didn’t like it one bit.

“Come,” Trace didn’t waste any time, pulling them along at the quickest speed they could naturally move. Anaisa knew he would try to blend them into the dream as it existed, so as not to risk waking the Emperor.

That would prove a challenge, as they were neither horrifying in appearance or dripping with stolen jewels, greedy mouths stuffed with pilfered foods.

The journey through the streets of the city they came to was fraught with danger. One creature looked a bit like Webster, and Anaisa flinched as she realized how different the animal was under Grandpa’s control.

Other beings were far worse. Trace gave those a wide berth as they slaughtered their way through the crowds of treacherous humans.

The strangest part was the noise. Despite the terror of the images, there were no screams. No humans mourned the lives of others being mangled and killed indiscriminately, simply scrambling to take what they could of the deceased possessions while trying to avoid the same fate.

Horrifying.

Anaisa would have demanded them all be imprisoned for both their crimes and their heartlessness. It wasn’t natural to behave in such a way! It wasn’t decent!

It wasn’t human, she reminded herself. They needed to show the Emperor who humans really were, and make him believe that they would uphold, to the best of their ability, a new treaty to keep the peace of their world.

“Surely he doesn’t actually want to infect the entire world with these monsters,” She mused, and Trace threw her a brief look.

“I have no way of judging that, but it seems he believes these are preferable to a human infestation.”

“Infestation?” Anaisa’s eyebrows rose.

“One of the monsters used that word. One that could speak. Not the most flattering description of us, is it?”

“I should say not,” She frowned slightly, but chose not to take offense. An emotional response to such deep betrayal was natural, and becoming offended by the words he chose to express his rage would serve no one.

Calm, she reminded herself, was what was needed in this situation. Calm and level headed analysis of the benefits of peace, and perhaps even the merits of an alliance.

A human lunged at her, trying to snatch her wedding ring off her finger in their lust for gold, and she glared at them.

Perhaps, just peace, for a start.