Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 432

Chapter 432: Eerie
Anaisa flinched as she stared around at the scene that looked frozen in ice. No one moved. Not the monster, not the people, not a blade of grass on the ground.

An utterly eerie stillness.

“Was it a mirage we saw, or does he know we’re here?” She asked in a whisper.

The nearest human, a wart-faced deformed parody of a woman, turned her head slowly to look at the trio of newcomers.

“That’s not unnerving in the slightest,” Anaisa muttered. “Do we try talking to it, do we run, or just continue like normal?”

“I don’t think there’s any danger of the dream coming apart,” Trace said thoughtfully. “Oftentimes it’s the dreamer realizing it’s a dream that destabilizes it the quickest, but this is by far the most stable dream I’ve ever set foot in.”

“Is that good or bad?” Ben questioned from Trace’s other side.

“I don’t know yet. Let’s get going.” Trace pulled them forward.

Anaisa noticed that he didn’t try to blend them in as he had before. There was no going at normal speed. He flew them along faster than would be possible in the real world.

Wind should have been whipping at her face as the landscape whizzed by, but there was nothing. It almost felt as if the world were moving while they were still.

Eerie indeed.

Forward, towards a mountain in the distance, and then over it. Then they reached the edge of an enormous chasm, black, lightless as if it had cut off all sunlight from reaching even a hand’s breadth inside.

“Neither of you are afraid of the dark, right?” Ben said in a serious voice. Anaisa’s eyes flickered over to him, unsure if he was teasing or not.

“Doesn’t matter,” Trace said. A firefly the size of a house cat appeared at his shoulder, shining brightly.

“Neat trick,” Ben’s eyes widened, and Anaisa’ quirked a smile.

“He’s full of those.”

Her husband’s creative solutions to all manner of problems continued to amaze her, even after all their years together, in dreams and out.

No matter the problem, he seemed to have some way around it that surprised her.

She smiled as he lifted them from the edge and began the descent, accompanied by the cheerful firefly, but her smile quickly faded as the darkness intensified.

It was ominous, here in the dark. The walls of the chasm were too far for her to see clearly, so even with the firefly’s full power lighting the trio, it was as if they were sinking into an endless void.

The feel of the dream’s gravity grew, slowly but perceptibly. It left Anaisa feeling heavy and sluggish if she tried to move or raise her fingers, and wondered how Trace was holding up under the weight.

If he felt it at all, or if he was fighting it on her behalf, and it would have been much worse otherwise.

No one spoke as they fell, deeper and deeper. The slight flickering of the insect’s bulb and the slow breaths that Anaisa took were her markers of time.

And time passed very slowly. Just how far down was this?

Of course, in a dream, time was all a construct. Was the Emperor extending this experience on purpose to intimidate them?

Or was he putting as much distance between them and an escape as he could manage?

Either thought was chilling.

Just in case he was watching, could see them up through the darkness, she schooled her expression into one of neutral curiosity.

Nonthreatening and polite.

It was a face she’d practiced often in the capital’s social circles, where real friends were few and far between. Best to be gracious to everyone and offend no one, so far as it was within your power.

Which, truth be told, it rarely was.

The air was dense, and cool. Anaisa blew out gently, wondering if she would be able to see her breath. But of course, normal physics did not apply in dreams, did they?

Time continued to pass, and she looked down at her toes.

Normally, she hated looking down, to see how far there was to fall. With nothing below her feet and their descent, so far as she could tell, continuing, she hated it even more.

Eventually, the floor below came into view.

It was grey, almost so colorless as to appear a strange sort of bleached lavender. The firefly’s light struggled against the press of the oppressive dark, as if being eaten by it.

Three more luminescent insects joined it, surrounding the humans and expanding the circle of lit floor.

Perfectly flat, perfectly smooth, almost polished if it weren’t so matte.

Anaisa shivered as the hair at the back of her neck stood on end. Something wasn’t quite right.

But of course it wasn’t! She was in a dream with a wight Emperor bent on destroying the human race!

Turning her head slowly, she looked over her shoulder, squinting into the dim area at the bottom of this crack in the earth.

There, the Wight Emperor sat on a great stone, his back to the humans. Hunched, as if deep in thought, or perhaps even asleep.

Silently, Anaisa squeezed Trace’s hand, tugging slightly in her direction, and the humans turned to face the creator of this terrible place.

There never was such solitude in the world as what the Emperor had created for himself here. And they had just invaded it.

Anaisa’s mouth went dry at the thought they might be unwelcome, but surely the lack of rage was a step in the right direction. If only she had the kind of magic that let her read thoughts, or sense moods, this would all be so much easier.

But alas, the only powers she had were her wits and her will.

She fully willed that humanity would survive.

Standing taller, she glanced at the two men and cleared her throat.

“Greetings, great Emperor. We return to discuss peace between your realm and humans.”

She curtsied deeply, though his back was still to them.

For a moment, it seemed as though he did not hear. His back did not move, and he did not appear to be breathing… but one didn’t need to, in a dream.

And then, a rumbling voice filled the empty space.

“Audacity.”