The Dream Sanctum: The Eternal World (23 page)

“We aren’t in trouble, are we?” Lindsay asked
concernedly.

“Not at all. In fact, I think you’ll like
this.”

With a wave of her hand, the great gates to
the world’s grandest city open slowly, and Semyaza beckoned them inside.
Something seemed off somehow, but Kai wasn’t sure what. It took him a few
moments to realize that the city was silent again once more, and for a moment
he panicked, wondering if everyone had vanished again.

But then the city erupted. As Kai looked on in
total astonishment, he saw that every street, stairway and balcony was lined
with people. Tens of thousands of people stood within the capital, all of them
facing the gates, and all them cheering so loudly he couldn’t hear himself
think. Cheering for them.

“What… what is this?” Lindsay asked
breathlessly.

“I wanted you to know just how thankful we are
for what you’ve done,” Semyaza said with a smile. “Dumar and I made absolutely
sure that every single person in the world knows exactly what you accomplished
today, and that your names will never be forgotten.”

Kwin grabbed Kai’s hand tightly in her own,
and as he looked down at her he noticed her eyes brimming with tears.

The clock high above the crowd rang, and Kai
realized their alarms would be going off any second. This was it. These were
their final moments.

“Thank you, again and forever,” Semyaza said
warmly, then turned to the crowds, her arms raised high. “Once more! Give them
a farewell as only dreamers can do!”

As Kai heard his alarm ringing in the
distance, the very sky seemed to catch fire as thousands of fireworks were
released at once, accompanied by a deafening roar as every person in the
Sanctum shouted in approval. But as his vision faded, he turned to look at his
friends. Of everything in the world, they were what he wanted to see the most.

The following night, Kai found his house
busier than he could ever remember. Alastor, Lindsay and Ella sat on the floor
watching a movie, Resona and Echo sat on a nearby couch holding hands, and Kwin
and Sarah sat at the table in the midst of deep discussion, just as they had
been for hours. Kwin couldn’t wait to really sit down and talk with his mother,
and they connected instantly. For the past three hours they sat huddled at the
table, discussing people, places, events and theories. Sarah hadn’t been joking
when she said she had been the bookworm of her time; she managed to keep pace
with Kwin with only a little difficulty.

Resona had been overjoyed to be invited to
Kai’s house, something she had apparently thought he was joking about. But,
sure enough, she arrived with Echo early in the evening carrying eight large
pizza boxes in their arms.

The best part about this party was that
everyone already knew each other – with the possible exception of Echo – and
everyone got along wonderfully. Kai even got to hear Echo speak for the first
time that night, and she had a lovely voice.

As the night wore on the friends became a
little more spread out. Sarah retired to her room after giving Kai a quick kiss
on the cheek and an “I knew you could do it.” Far from looking tired, she
instead looked quite excited, and Kai couldn’t blame her. He knew she was happy
to be able to go back.

Kwin appeared very sorry to see her go, but
she quickly came over to accompany Kai as he watched Lindsay utterly decimate
Alastor in a platform fighting game.

“How do you feel?” she asked quietly so only
he could hear.

“I’m not sure. I’m happy, but I feel… broken.
I thought I would be all right, but now I’m not so sure.”

“You will be. Not tonight, not tomorrow, maybe
not even for weeks to come, but you will be fine in the end. One day you will
start getting ready for bed and realize you didn’t think about the Sanctum even
once that day.”

“I doubt that,” Kai scoffed, but Kwin shook
her head seriously.

“I don’t say that because you will ever forget
it. I say that because that is how loss works. You grieve, you accept, you move
on. But look around you. Apart from Lindsay, you met every single person in
this room in a dream, a wonderful dream. That is not something you will ever
forget, but you will heal, and as you do, all of us will be right here with
you. It may be of some comfort to know that while you may someday accept that
the Sanctum is gone, we never will be.”

“That actually does help a bit,” Kai murmured.
“How are you holding up?”

“Well enough, and only because I’ve told
myself what I just told you at least five times today,” Kwin replied with a
small smile. “But I know it in my heart to be true.”

“You don’t think we’ll all ever move away from
each other and stop talking to each other, do you?” Kai asked.

“Perish the thought,” Kwin answered with a
shudder. “To the best of my ability, I will not let that happen. But after the
bonds we’ve built over the past few months, I doubt anything like that will
ever come to pass.”

“I hope so. I like things the way they are
now, though I wish we were all a little closer together.”

“Well, Alastor did mention that he’s looking
for some new roommates,” Kwin said airily.

“Is that true?” Lindsay exclaimed, having overheard
Kwin’s last statement.

“Graduate first, there’s no way in hell Fred
will agree to that kind of daily commute,” Alastor replied, and everyone
laughed.

The clock neared midnight and everyone agreed
that it was time to go. After they spent a few minutes helping with cleanup,
Resona, Echo, Alastor and Ella walked out with cheerful waves and promises that
much more hanging out would be done in the near future. As the door closed, the
house fell silent, and the three remaining friends sat together on the couch.

Kai wasn’t sure how he felt. Though he was
comforted by Kwin’s words, he wasn’t ready for them to leave. Despite the fact
that they lived so close, and that they were sitting right next to him now, he
didn’t want to be alone. He was so used to meeting everyone in his dreams that
the prospect of having a normal dream again in his nearly-empty house was
almost frightening.

“Hey… do you guys want to spend the night?”
Kai asked hesitantly.

“Thought you’d never ask,” Kwin replied
immediately, and Lindsay giggled. “But I don’t have any sleepwear.”

“You can borrow a pair of mine. I’ll just go
across the street and grab some,” Lindsay offered.

“Don’t you think they might be a little big on
me?” Kwin asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Probably. But it’ll be cute, so that’s okay,”
Lindsay replied cheerfully, and before Kwin could argue, she got up from the
couch and skipped to the door and out into the night.

“I hope we will not be imposing on your mother
like this,” Kwin said.

“Not at all, I’m sure,” Kai chuckled. “She
adores you, couldn’t you tell? Besides, if there’s one person who can
understand how we feel right now, it’s her.”

Soon, it was time for bed. Kwin managed to
fight her way into a pair of Lindsay’s pajamas, and Kai had to admit that
Lindsay’s guess was correct. He helped them make the bed in the upstairs guest
room to share, then after many reluctant goodnights and hugs, walked back to
his own room.

He sighed. Even though his friends were in the
room next door, he felt isolated again already.

But then he shook his head. He wasn’t going to
let himself feel this way for long. He still had his dreams. He hadn’t spent so
long trying to master the art of lucid dreaming for nothing. Sanctum or not,
the only limit still was his imagination, and intended to make full use of it.

With a smile on his face and a new purpose in
his heart, he drifted off, eager to see what adventures this night would bring.

A
young man stood alone in
the
center
of
a vast, golden hall. Lining each side of the wide room were organized rows of
armored guards standing perfectly still. On the second floor balconies lining
the room a host of archers stood at the ready, their arms raised in a stiff
salute, their eyes keenly set upon the young man's face.

He walked forward as the great castle doors
shut behind him, heading towards the two thrones sitting on a raised platform
at the end of the room. Beams of dazzling sunlight lit the room, and as he
looked around, he could see the silhouettes of curious palace children in the
shadows, anxious to get a look at him.

As he approached, a young woman stood up to
greet him. She had a smile on her face, and she held her hand down to him as he
approached, walking up the stairs to the thrones with him.

“Kai! Welcome back, My Lord. Your return is
most welcome.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Last time I was here
everyone was trying to kill me.”

“What?”

“Oh, uhm, nothing.”

As they sat down together, a bell rang from
high above and everyone assembled in the room burst into cheers and applause. Kai
couldn’t help but smile; things were working out much better this time.

Kai was no time traveler or magician – he was
inside a dream. Over the course of the past few months he had been practicing
the art of lucid dreaming, the ability to control his own dreams and retain
consciousness while asleep. It had taken him some time, and he had made a
number of mistakes, but he felt he had made excellent progress. This was due
largely in part, he felt, to his journeys throughout the Dream Sanctum. They
had tested his mind, expanded his imagination and made him push his abilities
to the limit.

With his ability to enter the Sanctum now
severed, he had decided to return to his dreams of old, particularly this
world. It gave him a certain feeling of nostalgia, as this was the first place
he had ever created. As he looked around at the fine details in the stone and
diversity of the people around him, he felt pleased. It still needed work, and
plenty of it, but it was a start. And he had all the time in the world.

His thoughts were interrupted by the young
queen next to him as she reached over and touched his arm.

“My Lord, we have business to attend to now
that you’ve returned. Or should we postpone that for later? You must be hungry
and weary after taking your trip to slay the dragon.”

For a moment Kai looked confused, but then he
remembered – that was his character’s backstory. After his last disastrous
attempt in this world that almost saw him executed, he decided to put heavy
focus on an actual story for himself.

“Ah, yes. Dragon. Right. Actually, I was
thinking I might take a walk around the castle to see how things are. You may
give word to prepare a feast for this evening in the meantime.”

A look of excitement passed over the woman’s
face and she dashed for one of the doors on the side of the hall.

Taking this opportunity to have some alone
time, Kai walked through another door, dismissing the guards that wanted to
accompany him. He wasn’t sure how they’d feel if they saw him changing around
the entire construction of the castle with his mind.

He inspected his handiwork as he walked
around, making minor changes here and there. He created a few rooms here and
there, added a few decorative rugs and changed the uniforms of a few servants
who rushed around him to prepare for the evening.

Kai quickly began to feel restless. These
minor changes weren’t doing anything for him. In fact, the world itself wasn’t
doing much for him. A few months ago he would have been amazed by just how huge
this world was, how many places there were to explore and how complex
everything was for a dream. It was a world created by someone who clearly had
an eye for detail.

And yet Kai was quickly becoming bored.
Compared to the Sanctum, he felt like anything he could create would never
match up. He also thought about the fact that, since he was creating
everything, there would never be any mystery.

With his motivation all but gone, Kai decided
it was time to move on. He suspected he needed to wake up for school relatively
soon anyway.

He made his way back to the hall. No sooner
had he done so than the queen ran up to him.

“I’ve asked for all the preparations to be
made, and I’ve been promised that our dinner will… what is it? I’ve seen that
look in your eye before. You’re thinking about traveling again.”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s just that all my
travels got me thinking, that’s all.”

“Well don’t think too hard. I don’t want you
to start getting any more ideas about leaving until you’ve spent at least a few
months back at home!”

Kai chuckled and smiled at her.

“Of course. I’ll go to my room and get some
rest before tonight.”

He headed up a flight of nearby stairs behind
the thrones and through a set of double doors, then walked into an empty room,
shutting the door behind him to escape any prying eyes. He took one last look
around him at the old room, then closed his eyes. He had one last place to go.

When he opened them again, the scene had
changed completely. He was now standing on a bustling city street. Cars passed
slowly up and down the cobblestone street, pausing intermittently for crowds of
laughing and talking pedestrians. Sleek buildings towered overhead and signs
blinked from all directions, illuminating the night. It was a city rife with
activity and fun, but Kai only had one thing in mind.

He crossed the street and headed up a few
blocks towards a large building that looked like a casino. He headed through
the glass double doors, through a small waiting room and another set of doors.
The sounds of laughter and the clinking of chips and glasses met his ears, but
the room was empty. The carpet was a deep red and lights dotted the ceiling and
windowless walls.

To any other person this room would appear
dull. There was no furniture, no equipment and no people; it looked like an
elegant storage room. But to Kai it meant something more. This was the room in
which the golden door had first appeared. The room was completely bare now, but
as Kai looked closely, he could almost see it.

As he stared around the room he almost felt
like he was about to take his first step into the Sanctum again, that he was
going to crash land inside a dusty old room where a young girl was to greet him
and show him the way. He felt an ache in his heart. It was going to take him a
long time to come to terms with the fact that he could never go back.

After a few more minutes he turned to leave.
As he started to walk through the double doors, he took one last look at the
empty room behind him. He froze.

An elaborate golden door stood in its frame in
the center of the room. It looked incredibly out of place, but oddly inviting.
Its intricate designs gleamed in the light, and it seemed almost to beckon him.

For a few moments Kai stood still in shock.
The door remained there, unmoving. Kai’s mind whirled.
That isn’t possible. It can’t be there. The Creators said so herself.
I’m only seeing this because I want to. My mind made this. I need to get rid of
this
.

And yet there it stood. As Kai regained his
composure, he felt an incredible longing. The door seemed to reach out to him,
calling him to it. Kai wanted nothing more than to answer that call. The
Sanctum had been a large part of his life over the past few months, and giving
it up was one of the worst things he had ever done.

But then he smiled and shook his head. He had
to come to terms with it on his own. As amazing as the world had been, he was
not giving up everything by leaving it. He thought of Kwin, Alastor and Ella
and realized he had taken the most important parts of the Sanctum back with him
into the real world. That was all he could ever want. He couldn’t go back.

The door seemed to understand. It flickered,
then faded away. Kai would not see it again.

He took one last look around the room he had
created, the room that had inadvertently changed his life forever. The lights
seemed to fade, and as he listened, he could hear the sound of a distant alarm
clock blaring determinedly over the sound of the crowds and traffic. It was
time for him to go.

Kai snapped his fingers, and the world
vanished.