The Dream Sanctum: The Eternal World (8 page)

For a moment Kwin looked slightly impressed,
but then her expression turned serious.

“I admire what you’re trying to do and your
reasons for doing so, but I must ask you to stay away from her. She is a unique
threat to the Sanctum and a dangerous one at that. If we were dealing with
anyone else I would accept, but in this case I must ask you, as a friend, to
keep yourself out of danger.”

Resona was clearly disappointed, but her
expression quickly changed to curiosity.

“What do you mean she’s unique?”

“I can’t explain that now. Let’s continue to
the library. I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking for, but whatever it is, I
hope it will be there.”

No one dared pursue the subject after hearing
Kwin’s tone of finality, and so they continued. As they did so, they passed the
city’s teleporter. A ring had just appeared on the platform, signaling
someone’s arrival. They were about to continue on when they heard a sudden rush
of panicked voices. Kai and the others quickly turned to see five people
rushing out of the teleportation circle, talking frantically amongst
themselves.

“…out of there just in time, thank goodness.”

“I never thought I would see the day. We need
to move farther inland, it might not stop…”

“I just can’t believe it, everything just
gone…”

Kwin walked swiftly over to the group that had
just appeared, and they looked somewhat comforted by her arrival.

“What happened? Have you seen something?” Kwin
asked.

“That’s putting it lightly,” a middle-aged man
replied. “We just came from Crescent Isle. Or… what remains of it.”

“What do you mean?” Kwin pressed sharply.

“The entire island just… sunk,” a younger
woman answered shakily. “The whole ground shook and the water just surged
everywhere, and it swept over everything. We can’t fly, so we had to teleport
out. We got out just in time.”

“We looked back just before we left and saw
the water covering everything,” a second man said. “Buildings, trees, people,
everything. It’s all gone.”

“Understood. I’m glad you are safe. I am
attempting to find out what is going on, so please try not to worry,” Kwin
said, though she looked haunted. She turned back to the others, visibly pale.
“I think we should hurry.”

They walked quickly in the direction of Aqua
Capital’s library. It was not nearly as grand as Golden Capital’s, but under
the circumstances, it would have to do. At least that’s what Kai thought until
they arrived at the library’s entrance to find none other than Semyaza standing
there.

“I thought I might find you here,” she said
disapprovingly as Kwin and the others approached.

“My, you certainly get around, don’t you?”
Kwin snarled.

“I saw you leave the broken city, and frankly
it wasn’t hard to guess where you were going. I thought you were supposed to be
brilliant, and yet here I am chasing after you like the stubborn child you
are.”

Kwin raised her hand, but Kai caught her wrist
and pulled her back.

“Wait,” he urged. Kwin looked surprised at his
boldness, but he ignored her and took a few steps toward Semyaza instead. “Why
are you bothering us like this? Who are you and why are you trying to control
us?”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, I’m not trying to
control
you,” Semyaza scoffed. “I’m just
asking that you stay out of trouble. A ludicrously simple request, but one that
your friend there seems to have an immensely difficult time following.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think any of us feel like
following it,” Kai continued, and though he knew he shouldn’t speak out of
irritation, he thought this was an excusable exception. He was tired of this
woman harassing one of his best friends. “This is just as much our Sanctum as
it is yours, so stop acting like you own the place. I don’t know if you’ve
noticed, but no one likes what you’re doing.”

Semyaza rubbed the bridge of her nose and
sighed.

“I swear, I have
never
had this much trouble with you Sanctum people before this,”
she sighed. “You don’t understand what is going on, and no matter how much you
persist I am not at liberty to explain it to you. But you are misinformed. This
is not, in fact, just as much your Sanctum as it is mine. If it weren’t for me
you wouldn’t have a Sanctum to play in, so for the last time, let me do my
job.”

“If I remember correctly, your job isn’t to
follow a
stubborn child
all over the
world,” Kwin snapped.

“No, but you do make my job considerably more
difficult,” Semyaza retorted.

“Look, I don’t know what your job is and I
don’t really care, but stop harassing my friend,” Kai interrupted firmly. “This
all started when you came after me, so if you want to cause trouble, talk to me
instead.”

“The reason I came after you was because… no,
never mind. This isn’t important. I’ve had enough.”

Semyaza swept over to the doors of the library
and raised her hand. To everyone’s complete astonishment, a steel gate appeared
in the doorway, blocking the entrance completely.

“This library is now closed, thanks to Kwin
and her stubborn friends,” she called to everyone nearby. “If this is a problem
to you, please speak with them.”

Kai felt fury rising within him, but Kwin’s
laughter cut the air like a knife.

“No, I’m quite certain it was you who just
created that gate, not I. Your attempt at manipulation is weak at best, so
spare me.”

“Come to me when you have more than clever
words to throw at me,” Semyaza smirked at her. “I must be off. Run along now.”

Semyaza vanished from sight. Kai noticed
nearly everyone nearby murmuring to themselves and staring in his direction. He
ignored their looks, walking back to Kwin’s side. Resona looked livid, but
Lindsay looked confused.

“Kwin, what’s going on?” she asked desperately.
“Why are you letting her get away with so much? She’s mocking you and being a
total jerk and you’re just… taking it. This isn’t like you.”

Kwin sighed.

“I don’t want to get into it. Like I said, she
is a unique threat to the Sanctum. Dealing with her is going to take slightly
more tact than simply smashing her face into a brick wall until she learns
manners. With any luck she’ll finish what she’s trying to do here and then
everything will go back to normal. The whole reason I’m working on this myself
is so that I can hopefully come up with a solution to our problem in case she
doesn’t, but I would be more than happy if she found the answer first.
Evidently, however, she seems intent on making sure she’s the only one who can
even start.”

Resona stomped her foot on the ground.

“This is exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing.
She’s pushing everyone around like she owns the place. I thought the biggest
rule of the Sanctum is that no one can do that to anyone else, we’re all equal
here!”

“I have to admit, every encounter brings me
closer to accepting your offer,” Kwin mused. “Remember my warning, however.”

“I’ll try. If she keeps picking on you I’m
going to have to say something. You look really bummed out.”

“It’s not her. At least, not directly,” Kwin sighed,
looking at the library. “No matter where we turn we hit a dead end. If it’s not
a lack of answers, it’s someone preventing me from finding any. Frankly, I’m
becoming discouraged. I need something to take my mind off my repeated
failures.”

“Hey, I just remembered something,” Kai said
suddenly. “That Cloud Skipping event is tomorrow night. Do you think we should
call that off?”

“Absolutely not,” Kwin replied without
hesitation. “Throughout all our adventures we have never circumvented good fun.
So long as the clouds remain in the sky and that miserable hag stays out of our
way, we’ll proceed as scheduled. In fact, it may be a good opportunity to boost
morale. Resona, would you like to join us?”

“Heck yes I will!” Resona exclaimed happily.
“I’ve never been to a Sanctum event before, but everyone’s told me they’re
amazing.”

“They’re brilliant,” Kai agreed. “Hey, you’re
kind of new, right? Since the library is closed, maybe we can give you a look
around the world, show you some of the cooler stuff.”

“That would be amazing,” Resona said, and it
was settled.

 
Kwin
led the way back to the teleporter with Resona at her side. As they caught up
with each other, Lindsay playfully nudged Kai’s shoulder.

“Well well, look who’s being all friendly with
the new girl,” she teased.

“I thought we should give her a nice
impression considering she’s been dealing with people like Semyaza,” Kai
replied defensively as Lindsay raised an eyebrow. “And don’t look at me like
that, she’s taken.”

“I know, right? I got my hopes up for nothing,”
Lindsay said airily, then skipped ahead before Kai could reply.

T
he next day was clear and
bright, the perfect weather for the Cloud Skipping event, and Kai was starting
to feel excited. Apart from Semyaza’s rude interruption the night before and
the apparent disappearance of Crescent Isle, everything had gone smoothly.
There had been no more disasters, and for a short while he had almost forgotten
that there were any problems in the world at all. Resona had become well
acquainted with the rest of the group, and said she looked forward to seeing
them the next night.

Kai now found himself waiting impatiently on
the shores of Lake Sythis where they had woken up the previous evening. They
had stopped there due to the lake’s proximity to Sky Capital; on the clearest
of days it was possible to see the silhouettes of the massive buildings miles
above them. Today, that was where the course began.

Kwin soon joined him, and he noticed that she
was looking more relaxed than usual. The previous night had no doubt served to
calm her as well, and it helped that they had hardly spoken at all about
Sanctum business during their time awake.

“You’re looking a little apprehensive,” Kwin pointed
out as she walked up to him. “Thinking about the event?”

“Yeah. It’s the first competitive event I’ll
be taking part in, and it happens to be four miles above the ground. We’ve been
so distracted by other stuff I haven’t had time to get ready,” Kai replied.
Kwin grinned and patted him on the shoulder.

“You’ll do fine, I’m sure. All you need to do
is stay focused. You have much more training and experience than most people in
here, anyway.”

“That’s true. I guess there are benefits to
constantly risking my life.”

Within a few minutes, Resona and Lindsay had
arrived, and it was time to go. As it happened, Resona still hadn’t quite
figured out how to fly, so Kwin offered to carry her all the way up. Resona
hesitantly obliged.

“Please don’t drop me, I don’t want to die,”
Resona pleaded as they reached about a mile above ground.

In response, a mischievous grin appeared on
Kwin’s face. She sped up suddenly and flew backwards into a wide loop, then
plunged downward, her wings folded behind her like a diving falcon. Resona
screamed and clung to Kwin tightly as the younger girl swooped up beneath Kai
and Lindsay, straightening out and slowing down again.

“I apologize, I couldn’t resist,” Kwin laughed
as Resona glowered at her. “You can relax your grip now; I do need to breathe.”

Resona had finally stopped shaking by the time
they reached the Sanctum’s airborne city, and her eyes widened in amazement as
she looked around.

“Is this your first time here?” Kwin asked,
unable to hide her amusement at Resona’s gleeful expression.

“Yes!” she exclaimed.

“You’re in luck. You won’t get to see the city
like this for another whole year,” Kwin said.

Kai was pretty impressed himself. The city was
far more crowded than he had ever seen. Countless banners and strings of flags
decorated every building in sight, and dozens of vendors set up carts along the
city streets to trade their exclusive goods. Some stalls even had games where
dreamers could win interesting prizes, like statuettes made of cloud or rare
wood wing crests, while others were giving away event-themed insignias, banners
and other merchandise. Flocks of brightly colored birds flew overhead while
small puffs of cloud occasionally drifted by, and for once the breeze was
gentle and calm. Every so often there was a distant roar from the crowd
gathering to watch the event, but Kai couldn’t see what was going on through
the groups of people all around him.

Kai heard a squeal from behind him. He whirled
around and saw Ella jumping into Alastor’s arms to give him a hug. In one hand
she clutched a large, detailed figurine, and everyone nearby was staring at her
enviously.

“Thank you! You’re the best!” she cried, and
Alastor patted her on the head.

“No problem, kiddo. If I didn’t win you
something from one of the coolest events ever, what kind of brother would I be?
Oh, hey you lot!”

He waved enthusiastically as the others
approached. Lindsay went immediately over to Ella, and while the girls examined
Ella’s prize, Kwin spoke up.

“Alastor, this is my friend from the real
world, Resona.” Resona looked completely flabbergasted to be in the presence of
both Kwin and Alastor, but she managed a small wave. “She assisted one of my
teachers in middle school. She’s been here for about a month, and wants to
participate in the event.”

“Glad to have you! Seriously digging your
outfit there, most excellent,” Alastor said, extending a hand. Resona took it
wordlessly, but Alastor didn’t seem to mind. “Can you fly?”

“No, Kwin had to carry me here,” Resona
answered quietly.

“Oho, this will be a challenge indeed!”
Alastor replied. “You’ll have to try hard not to fall off, hitting the ground
from this height can be really painful.” Alastor broke off as Kwin smacked his
shoulder.

“As I’ve explained to my friends already,
there is
no consequence
to falling.
You’ll simply wake up like you’ve had a normal falling dream,” she told Resona
forcefully. “Ignore my idiot friend, there’s no need to be afraid.”

“Hey you, come here,” Lindsay said suddenly,
grabbing Kai by the sleeve and tugging him over to one of the nearby booths.
“Ella got a cool gift and now I want one. I hope you know how to play this
game.”

Ten minutes later Kai and Lindsay caught up
with the others. Lindsay was holding a beautiful trinket adorned with feathers
of all colors and looked very pleased with herself. Kai, however, was
interested to see what they were up against, and he pushed his way to the front
of the crowd to find the starting line.

His jaw dropped. Ahead of him, stretching out
as far as the eye could see, were an assortment of clouds of varying sizes and
at varying heights. Some floated right next to each other while others were
some distance apart, making a dangerous leap necessary to continue. Some were
stationary while others moved side to side, up and down or even in circular patterns.
A few of the clouds were tiny and looked like they could only hold one person
at a time, which meant trouble if two or more particularly competitive racers
decided they didn’t want to let the other go first. To make things even harder,
an assortment of walls, hurdles, ropes, swinging spikes and flaming rings
dotted the course.

What caught Kai’s attention the most, however,
was the weather. Every thirty feet or so the conditions over the course changed
drastically. Torrential rain was followed by heavy snow, which was followed by
high winds and blinding sun. What’s more, the different weather patterns
changed and switched places frequently and unpredictably, making it impossible
for anyone to tell what they would be jumping into.

Kwin nudged him gently, jerking him out of his
trance.

“Do you see those clouds that look like they
have a faded, dotted border?” she said quietly, pointing discreetly at a nearby
cloud. Kai looked hard. Sure enough, it looked different from the other clouds,
but only just – it looked ever-so-slightly transparent. “Those clouds are fake.
Illusions, if you will. If you attempt to step on one, you will fall through
and fail the course. That one there is easy to spot and gives many racers a
false sense of security; fakes are significantly harder to discern in heavy
storms.”

She was right. It was hard enough to see in
the calm daylight; Kai guessed it would be extremely difficult to figure out in
the heat of the race.

Along the edges of the entire course were floating
spectator boxes that were packed shoulder to shoulder. As more and more people
filed in to take their seats, a new box would appear to make more room.

A whistle blew from somewhere behind them.

“That means we have five minutes until the
race begins,” Kwin explained. “That gives anyone who’s not racing time to clear
the starting line and find a seat. Is everyone ready?”

Alastor, Ella and Resona nodded, but Lindsay
shook her head, suddenly looking very uncomfortable.

“I don’t know if I can do this after all. I
don’t think I… I need to leave, I’m sorry.”

In an instant, Kwin was at her side. She took
Lindsay’s arm and gently guided her away from the starting line.

“That’s fine. Let’s take a walk where it’s not
crowded and then go back down to the surface. I think the height is giving you
trouble,” she said soothingly.

“Wait, what about the race? You’re going to
miss it,” Lindsay protested, but Kwin shook her head.

“You are more important than a race. Come on,
easy now.” She looked back over her shoulder at Kai, who had started to follow.
“I’ll take care of her. Do your best, and I will see you soon! Good luck.”

Kai watched them go, feeling torn. Lindsay was
in good hands, and she would probably be upset if everyone avoided taking part
in the race because of her, but she was also his best friend. He sighed and
looked back, suddenly feeling unsure of himself. He knew Lindsay would be
occupying his thoughts until he could see her again.

“She’ll be all right, don’t worry,” Alastor
said, patting him firmly on the shoulder. “There’s no one better to help
Lindsay deal with an issue like that than Kwin. In the meantime, let’s focus on
winning this thing.”

“Would I be right in assuming that you always
win this, too?” Kai asked.

“Actually, no! Kwin always beats me in races
like these. She’s the faster of the two of us,” Alaster replied jovially. “One
of my favorite things about her is that she’s always given me a challenge.”

The starting line soon cleared, leaving about
fifty people ready to go. Kai looked around at his competitors. A few of them
clearly had pre-race jitters, but most of the others seemed well prepared and
confident. Kai wasn’t sure how he felt. He had fought Nightmares and pushed his
imaginative skills to the limit, but he wasn’t sure how he compared to anyone
else. He had only ever fought and trained alongside the best of the best, but
he had never really felt like one of them.

A buzzer sounded and the racers straightened
up, directing their attention to the very end of the line where a man stood
with a flag and a megaphone.

“That’s the sixty second buzzer, folks! Before
we begin, you need to know the rules. If you get to the end first, you win. If
you don’t, you lose. If you fall off, you also lose, and you cannot re-enter
the race. You may not fly unless you fall, and you may not use any special
abilities. You must touch each cloud along the way to count, so no skipping. I
know it’s in the name, I didn’t make it up. If you fall and cannot fly, a
referee will be there to catch you. Finally, as this is a free-for-all, you may
team up or go solo, whatever you want. Just don’t be jerks. Is everyone ready?”

 
A
chorus of cheers erupted from the line. The noise carried to the spectator
boxes where flags and banners started waving, and some of the shorter audience
members stood up, hoping to catch the start of the race.

Another buzzer rang.

“Ten seconds. Get ready!”

Kai took one last glance at everyone around
him. Alastor looked politely attentive, looking no more apprehensive than he
would be if he were preparing to tie his shoes. Ella hopped in place, focused
and determined. Resona was clearly uneasy, but appeared far from second
guessing herself.

“Five!”

Everyone’s eyes were at the end of the line as
the man raised his flag. The last few seconds seemed to take an eternity to
pass, and then…

“Go!”

The racers surged forward, nearly knocking Kai
off his feet. Resona yelped as dozens of dreamers thundered past her. Kai
turned back and beckoned to her encouragingly, and they ran forward together.
Alastor was already multiple clouds ahead, jumping over obstacles with ease,
with everyone else in hot pursuit.

Kai leapt past the fake cloud which had
already claimed three victims, then rushed on. The clouds were surprisingly
firm and springy, giving him a little extra speed to work with, but the
unexpected height it added to his jumps nearly sent him tumbling over the first
wooden barrier. Catching himself barely in time, he stood up quickly and
continued on.

It took him only a few minutes to become
comfortable with the course, and he was soon in his element. He ducked under
horizontal poles and dodged swinging obstacles with little effort, all the
while carefully watching out for more fake clouds. He had just started to think
that the course was perhaps a little too easy when a sudden gust of wind caught
him in mid-jump and nearly sent him careening over the side of the cloud he was
attempting to land on. He waved his arms to try to catch his balance, but he
had been knocked too far.

Suddenly, someone grabbed his hand from behind
and pulled him back onto the cloud. He whirled around to see Resona standing
there, giving him a smile of relief.

“You have no idea how hard it is keeping up
with you!” she breathed. “You really know your stuff. I couldn’t let you fall out
just yet. Want to go together?”