Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 427

Chapter 427: Waiting game
Trace warred between patience and anxiety in deciding when to take a second foray into the Emperor’s dream.

On the side of patience, he was determined to let the monarch calm as much as possible before endangering his wife and the prince again.

On the side of rushing, he wanted to have all this over with as soon as possible and get home. He also knew he couldn’t endure the flow of this much magic through him forever.

If only they didn’t waste so much time searching for the dreamer. It seemed counterintuitive; the Emperor was enormous, he should be easy to locate even in such a gargantuan dream. But he was oddly elusive. From the outside, Trace could not locate him.

From the inside, he still wasn’t confident he could do so quickly.

Mia lingered nearby, looking contemplative. For once, Ford wasn’t right next to her, being occupied with moving the latest batch of bodies from view.

The wights would clean the coverlet, but for some reason had an aversion to moving the slain monsters, so if the humans wanted to keep their dwelling space comfortable and corpse-free, it was up to them. Anaisa was arguing the humans’ case to the ethereal beings.

“How are you holding up?” Trace asked his niece with a glance.

The tale of the magic almost breaking her mind didn’t sit well with him. Anaisa had been explicit in how much the young woman had suffered, and how much they had all feared losing her.

“I’m all right,” She said bravely. “I came to ask after you. You seem tired.”

“I’m fully rested,” He told her, which was a partial truth. He’d slept until he woke naturally, which most people would consider rested.

“I meant your mind,” Mia observed. “I… mine almost broke, under the magic. And you’ve been using a lot more magic a lot longer than I was.”

“Our gifts are different,” Trace assured her. “I can hold up a lot better than you can, although I’m curious about why it was so much for you all at once. How do the trees enhance it, exactly?”

“Instead of just being pulled in a direction, I can see the entire path there. It’s a lot of images for my mind to take in all at once, which is why it got overwhelming.”

“I see,” Trace glanced at the Emperor. “I wonder…”

“I can’t see a path to peace, or anything like that. Things become clearer, sometimes much clearer,” She glanced at Ford, and Trace did as well, “but I can’t look for concepts. Something physical.”

“Thank you for explaining, but I wasn’t thinking anything like that,” Trace let his eyes go back to the enormous orb that only he could see. “I was wondering whether you would be able to tell me the way to the Dreamer, even if I don’t bring you along.”

“The Dreamer?” Mia repeated with a hint of confusion.

“When I enter a dream, sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes very difficult, to find the one who created the dream. Getting there is most of the time we spend there, and it’s draining.”

“If you brought me into the dream, I’m sure I could locate the path easily,” Mia blinked in thought.

“But without entering the dream… could you see it?”

“I couldn’t see paths that didn’t exist yet when I tried to see if Martin could make one, but that wasn’t so close to the trees…” Mia paused. “Hold on, let me see.”

She closed her eyes, and her brow furrowed. Trace waited patiently, but could see the tension growing in her posture.

“If this is too much–” He said after she grunted with effort.

“No, just–” She grimaced and opened her eyes, frustration filling them. “No. I can’t see the way to the Dreamer. I’m not even sure how all that works, to be honest, so I can’t find the path.”

Trace pursed his lips in thought.

It would be wildly irresponsible of him to take his young niece into the Emperor’s dangerous dream, not to mention an additional drain on his power to keep a third person with him and safe from the dangers created there.

Still, he had some things he might want to try that would not expose her to quite so great a risk.

“Thank you for trying, Mia,” He said simply.

“I want to help–”

“You’ve already helped a lot. Don’t put more on yourself than you need to,” He chided.

It was not her burden to bear, and he didn’t need to weigh her down with his theories until he’d mulled them a little longer.

“But I–” She tried.

“Why don’t you tell me more about the things you tried with Martin’s gift you mentioned a moment ago? Others’ magic is always fascinating to learn more about.”

Trace smiled warmly and turned back to face the Emperor as Mia began speaking. It seemed more like thinking out loud than actual narration of fact to him, but he enjoyed the reminder of home.

Surrounded by his niece, nephews and his own children was where he truly wanted to be. Even if his nephews were all grown up now, soon enough there would be a new generation of little ones to create noise and bustle.

Pushing gently at a portion of the dream that pressed outward, he continued to listen to his niece’s explanation of how badly she wanted to use her magic to help. To be part of saving everyone and righting the mess she had created.

“You didn’t create this mess, Mia,” He interrupted her.

“What?” She blinked.

“If you hadn’t run off, I wouldn’t have been in the cave when the wights were. They wouldn’t have taken me, and there would have been no Dreamwalker to contain the Emperor’s terrible fury when he saw his subjects returning with the stolen tree. They took me to prevent disaster, but they wouldn’t even have known that was an option, if you had not gone in the first place.”

He cut her a gentle glance and saw her eyes filling with tears.

“Wrong as it was for you to run away, you shouldn’t feel bad for it now. Your tantrum may have saved the world.”