The Dream Sanctum: The Eternal World (2 page)

K
ai and Lindsay arrived at Alastor’s
mansion late the next morning. This time they had refused Frederick’s offer of
transportation and elected to wait until Kai’s mother was free. By some lucky
chance she had been planning to drive out that way already, and gladly offered
to take them. Kai wasn’t sure if her familiarity with Frederick had impacted
her decision at all, but the way she glanced around Alastor’s driveway as
though searching for a nearby predator somewhat cemented his suspicions.

Ella, having readjusted well to her old home,
was spending the day out with some local friends. In the meantime, the other
four had decided to get together for some fun. They hadn’t all been together
there since Ella’s welcome back party, and it had become a tradition of sorts
to meet up before attending big events in the Sanctum.

As they walked up the stairs and down the hall
to Alastor’s room they heard a raised voice coming from within. As they got
closer they recognized the voice as Kwin’s, and she sounded angry. Kai and
Lindsay looked at each other hesitantly, then opened the door.

Kwin was pacing back and forth, clearly in the
middle of a passionate rant. Alastor leaned casually against a nearby bookcase,
nodding occasionally as he waited for her to finish.

“And of course when they need something from
me, it’s ‘Oh Kwin, you’re so
smart
and
amazing
, please help us, what you
have to say is so
very
important to
us.’ But if I’m not backing them on something or making them look good I’m just
some uneducated peasant who has dared to question the almighty education and
research institution of the Sanctum. These conceited pseudo-intellectuals of
Golden Capital are going to be the death of me and any remaining semblance of
sanity and reason that still exists in the world.”

“What’s going on?” Lindsay asked, looking
shocked at Kwin’s irritation.

“People with their heads so far up their own
rear ends they can’t read the books they claim make them such experts on
everything,” Kwin replied agitatedly. “These idiots are so transparent they
make ghosts look like shadows. Oh, they claim to be so well read and insightful
when in reality they just repeat the same drivel ad nauseam using different
words so they make their contrived opinions seem new and exciting. They suffer
from the worst cases of confirmation bias and infuriating sanctimony I have
ever seen.”

“If I may help translate,” Alastor offered,
standing up straight and walking over to them, “Kwin and I have been doing some
research on the Sanctum and its psychological effects. When she presented our
findings to one of the largest research groups in Golden Capital, she was
basically laughed out of the room.”

“And what was their refutation? What was their
evidence? Nothing, of course!” Kwin seethed. “When it comes to who has done the
most research there is only one person in the entirety of that self-absorbed
excuse for an organization who has possibly read more than I have, and that’s
only because he’s
literally
seven
times my age. They should be forbidden from even pretending they have anything
to do with intellectual advancement. They’re the paragons of closed-mindedness
and willful ignorance for the sake of self-preservation.”

“If it’s any consolation, when it comes to the
court of public opinion you win by a landslide,” Alastor said, patting his
small friend on the head and ignoring her piercing glare. “To be honest, that
explains their reaction. If you agree with them, they want you because you make
them look good. But if word got out that you disagreed with their theories, I
have no doubt that most of the Sanctum would agree with you without question.”

“When it comes to much of the Sanctum’s
population I have my doubts as to whether they can comprehend any words more
than three syllables long, and this presents certain complications as I uncompromisingly
refuse to dumb myself down for them,” Kwin muttered.

“Understanding is irrelevant, that’s the
beauty of fame,” Alastor smiled. “You’re pretty, you’re immensely popular and
you sound smart, and that’s all it takes. Frankly, if we wanted to really mess
with them, we could call for a meeting in Golden Capital. We’ll invite them,
give them the front and center seats, then propose our findings right in front
of them. They’ll be forced to either acknowledge your brilliance there or come
out against you in front of everyone in the world.”

“If you honestly expect to cheer me up by
making me imagine a number of people experiencing the most humiliating shame
and rage they’ve ever felt in their lives as the result of a move that is both
needlessly underhanded and entirely vindictive…” she paused for a moment, then
a familiar, malicious grin broke over her face, “then I must say you know me
very well. We’ll make the arrangements later.”

“And if I said I was just joking?”

“Then you made a mistake in telling me. Don’t
worry; it will be delightful.”

“What sort of research have you been doing?”
Kai asked Alastor, hoping to stay on a subject that would keep Kwin calm while
still sating his curiosity.

“Oh, it’s fascinating stuff!” Alastor said
brightly. He walked over to his desk and grabbed a stack of papers that were
covered in his sloppy, hasty handwriting. Kwin, looking all too eager to accept
this excuse to change subjects, took a breath and sat cross-legged on the floor
with the others.

As Alastor sat down to join them, Kai picked
up one of the loose papers. It was titled “Occupant-Reliant Universe Theory,”
and was covered in notes and scribbles from both Alastor and Kwin. Lindsay took
the page from his hand and he looked down to see that their notes spanned
multiple notebooks, sticky notes and other pages stuffed hastily into large
textbooks.

“This is incredible… all this is yours?”
Lindsay asked, looking in amazement at the piles of papers and books before
them.

“It is,” Kwin said nonchalantly, though she looked
quite proud of herself. “It’s a mixture of theory and research on a number of
subjects. As it happens, research surrounding the Sanctum in general is quite
rare. The field of history is the most popular, and it only just became so in
the past few decades. World exploration stopped at the Sanctum’s borders, as we
all know, and its psychological effects are all but completely unexplored.”

“I don’t understand how people can be so
content to know so little about a world like the Sanctum,” Kai mused. “I mean,
it’s so much more amazing than the real world, and people think it’s just about
as old, so why wouldn’t people want to learn more about it?”

“Because the Sanctum’s current community of
‘scholars’ and philosophers is more concerned with appearance than actual
work,” Kwin sniffed. “They put on robes and carry around books they haven’t
read so they can pretend they’re more enlightened than the poor, ignorant
masses of the rest of the world. It’s really quite archaic.”

Alastor nodded.

“Beyond that, I think people are just content
to let a dream be a dream. They can go in whenever they want and do incredible
things, so why waste precious sleep time on boring things like research?”

“Well, their loss!” Lindsay said cheerily,
then turned back to the page. “What exactly is Occupant-Reliant Universe
Theory?”

“I’ll let Kwin explain that one since she’s
the one who came up with it. It’s actually quite wonderful,” Alastor said,
looking excited.

Kwin cleared her throat, looking very much in
her element.

“The currently accepted theory of the Sanctum
is that it is a separate universe that our minds somehow gain access to.
Basically, instead of a normal dream that happens only within our own minds,
the Sanctum is a dream that we enter and leave, much as a person would walk in
and out of a room. The room does not need us inside it to exist.”

“That makes sense,” Lindsay said thoughtfully.
“If it existed in our own minds then that would mean everyone else would be
inside our heads. And then you’d have to answer whose head the Sanctum really
exists in. I mean, it’s not in our heads already or we’d know it, right?”

Kwin nodded approvingly.

“Those are the sorts of questions people have
been trying to answer for a while, but I’ll touch on that later. The current
theory is widely accepted because it makes sense. It’s logical. The problem is
that we know so little about the Sanctum that we can’t apply the logic of our
world there as we do here. My idea goes against almost everything that’s
currently accepted, and this is where the ‘occupant-reliant’ aspect comes in.

“I believe the Sanctum is at the very least
partially reliant on the presence of people within it in order to exist.
Essentially, the room depends on at least one person being inside it at all
times to exist as we perceive it. I believe that the framework for the Sanctum
may exist in some form separate from our unconscious, but that it is dormant
and imperceivable without us.”

Lindsay nodded, her expression one of intense
focus, but Kai was already starting to feel confused. This idea immediately
brought a multitude of questions to his mind. However, he avoided asking any
questions just yet. He looked at the stacks of papers and reminded himself that
Kwin and Alastor together had probably already thought of every possible question
he could come up with.

“To expand on this, I believe that the Sanctum
is the catalyst for a mental connection of sorts,” Kwin continued. “We know
there must already be one regardless; there’s simply no other way to explain
how we can interact in a dream with other people. But the Sanctum has shown
that its existence is not entirely inflexible. The Sanctum operates almost like
a mind itself, but since it is not a living thing, that change must be
influenced by the only other factor involved: us.”

“To put it into simpler terms, think of a
computer program,” Alastor chimed in. “It has a default state, and it can
change and adapt, but without any user input nothing happens. It goes idle
without any commands.”

Kwin took a quick glance at the papers in front
of her, resting her finger on a particular note, then continued.

“To further support this theory, remember what
happened during the incident with the Nightmares. Our attempt to remove them by
waking everyone up at the same time failed, but we did see a noticeable
reaction from the Sanctum. The shadows vanished and everything seemed to reset.
It was almost as if the Sanctum was confused by its sudden lack of occupants
and didn’t know how to react. In addition, it showed that it could be reset. It
was almost as if the power had been cut and it was forced to restart.”

“So basically what you’re saying is the
Sanctum is like a program, and that our minds connect to each other
through
that program?” Kai asked slowly.

“Correct. Think of it like a network. The Sanctum
is the core – the hub, if you will – and that’s the dream we all enter.
Everything beyond that, however, is us. I would go so far as to say that we
provide its power. I believe that when we all disconnect simultaneously, it
nearly ceases to be. It is a modifiable program, and its existence is dependent
on people using it. Without dreamers inside, it is a car without an engine, a
carriage without a horse. Basic in form and function, but entirely useless.”

Lindsay seemed utterly blown away by this revelation,
and Kai had to admit it made a lot of sense. Their entire strategy against the
Nightmares was resetting the Sanctum back to its default state. That they and
the other dreamers had the power to do something on that scale was incredible.

“What about
how
we all connect, though?” Kai asked. “How do we see and talk to
other people in our sleep? That type of thing should be impossible unless
people can actually be psychic.”

“The answers to those questions are beyond any
of us. Figuring out how the Sanctum works may be an important part of answering
them, however, so that’s what we need to work on first. Whatever the case, it
gets me thinking that the human mind is far more powerful than we currently
imagine.”

There was a pause as everyone fell silent, thinking
about what they had just discussed. Kai was full of questions, but they were
questions he knew no one would have the answer to. If there was any possibility
that humans had any semblance of psychic abilities, it would turn modern
science on its head, and it was possible that the Sanctum held the key to such
discoveries.

With the meeting evidently over, Alastor
looked around at the others.

“Who’s up for a swim?”

The others all immediately voiced their
approval and stood up, eager to make use of Alastor’s enormous indoor pool.

“Wait, what else is in those notes?” Lindsay
asked, looking at the massive stack of papers that had yet to be sifted though.
“We’ve hardly talked about any of them!”

“More complex ideas, nothing you’d be
interested in,” Kwin said, moving to put the stack away on Alastor’s desk.

“Try me!” Lindsay replied confidently.

Kwin tilted her head slightly, raising one
eyebrow, then pulled a few papers with sticky notes from the stack.