Chapter Fourteen: The Rule of Council

"I know nothing about your Council or its rules."

"Ignorance is no defence. Miss Rogge should have instructed you of The Council by the end of your sixth year of training..."

"I haven't been training for six years," Nick pointed out.

"Your obvious power denies that statement. Her transgressions will be punished as will yours. You will be taken from this place..."

And Nick realised that the man before him was afraid. All of them were. The suspicion emerging from the back of his mind was that he was what they were afraid of. These were the people Cleopatra had warned him of. They would come to harm him and those around him. But they were afraid of him. Nick's back straightened.

"...your mind will be destroyed. Miss Rogge will be placed in eternal servitude in one of the dungeon dreamscapes. Your mother and the girl Olivia will be killed since they have been affected by your power." Nick clenched his fist and lashed out with his will. The man stopped speaking as his throne was tossed backwards by a massive blow.

"I suppose you think you'll be able to do that, do you?" Nick growled. The goons drew their guns and fired, but Nick had seen this stuff in 'The Matrix' and there was not much difference between a computer simulation and a dream. The bullets slowed to a stop feet away from him and hung in the air, spinning gently. Nick swept his hand out in a long arc and one of the goons flanking the spilled throne jerked violently sideways. He crumpled into a heap, his head at an odd angle on his neck.

Images flashed through Nick's brain as the judges' fear grew. He saw people with his talent for affecting the real world being hunted for centuries. For all those years the mass of lucid dreamers like him tried for supposed crimes against the Rule of the Council. Everyone who had come into contact with them had been destroyed to keep the existence of the Greek gods secret from the majority of dreamers and the public at large.

"Kill him!" one of the judges shrieked. "Kill him now."

Nick's anger flared white hot and he lashed out. Three of the goons exploded into showers of white light. Another began to twist slowly until his spine snapped as his head achieved looking a one-hundred and eighty degree turn. The others fired repeatedly, achieving nothing, until their guns exploded one by one throwing shards of hot metal into their faces.

With a wave of his hand, Nick banished Courtney's bonds and helped her stand.

"Thank you," she said in a tired voice. "Why hasn't that one gone?"

The judge that had been on the throne remained standing while his fellows had faded when Nick began destroying the guards. The look of terror on his face was most satisfying. "I'm holding him here," Nick replied, "and now I'm going to pass my judgement."

He walked up to where the man in the black coat was standing and looked him in his black eyes. "I'm not going to kill you; death would be, as they say, too good for you. I'm going to seal you up in your body. You will never have another dream, lucid or otherwise. You will have no powers and, since I understand dreaming is required for sanity, I expect you'll go slowly mad. You'll end your days a gibbering wreck in a madhouse, and you'll always know what power you once had." As Nick finished, the judge's body faded away, vanishing into the air as the others had done. But this one was screaming as he did so.

"We should get you back to your body," Nick said and the dreamscape melted around them. They were left standing in the astral projection of Courtney's kitchen.

"I'm... afraid that won't be possible, Nick," she said.

"Sorry?" He had half-carried her into the lounge by now and suddenly he knew what she meant.

There were dead goons lying around the room; five of them, all naked. He recognised them as some of the men he had just taken apart in the dreamscape. On the floor between them was Courtney's body, lying face down, her hips propped up on cushions. She had been raped, repeatedly from the looks of it, and then her neck had been broken.

"Oh shit!" Nick managed to get out. "You dead! How… but your dead!"

"Never mind now, Nick," Courtney said surprisingly calm. "Take me to Cleopatra and then help your mother. Then you need to get Olivia and get away from here. There's money in a draw in my bedroom. I'll tell you where as we go. You can catch a plane. Go down to Long Island. There are people I know who can help you there."

"H-how can you be so calm?" he stammered. "L-look what they did to you!"

"I suppose it's my body and I'm dead. Being dead gives you a new perspective. C'mon, you have to hurry. The Council will be sending hunters out after you and as long as you're here you're a danger to all those around you."

With a strangled sob Nick summoned his will and drove them upward into the land of dreams.

Nick watched the night passing by the window of the train. He was alone. His mother had been dead on arrival at the hospital and, despite attempts to resuscitate, she had stayed that way. It had been too much; taking Olivia with him would have put her in more danger. He had run without saying goodbye rationalising that he could contact her in her dreams once he was out of her way. So Nick was heading for Long Beach Island, alone with his sorrow.

Courtney had helped Nick "convince" a couple to lend him their first class seats on the plane while they swapped out for his original seating. He was relatively surprised to find a small room with two recliners, a TV, as well as a red button to buzz in a flight attendant. He supposed he should get some sleep, but sleep was the last thing he wanted right now. With sleep came dreams and Nick very much wanted to never dream again. The plane took off and Nick watched the lights of the town fade into the darkness of the countryside.

There was a knock at the door. Nick stood, walked the short distance across the compartment to the door, and looked through the peephole. It was Olivia. He unlocked the door and flung it open, pulling the girl inside and wrapping her in his arms. She said nothing, but dropped the bag she was carrying and hugged him back.

"How did you know I was here?" he asked finally.

"I told you to catch this plane," was the reply.

Nick blinked and pushed Olivia out to arms length. "Courtney?"

"Shut the door, Nick. We need to talk." She walked over to the unused recliner seat and sat down, looking out through the window. Nick closed the door and sat down beside her.

"Is Olivia aware? Can she hear us?" he asked after a short pause.

"Yes, she's been aware of what's going on since I took control of her. You should not have left without her."

"They killed my Mom; I didn't want them doing the same to Olivia. I figured if I was nowhere near her she'd be safe."

Olivia shook her head. "Olivia's mind has been altered by her contact with you, me, and Cleopatra. She's marked; they'll hunt her down as well. If she stayed with her family she would eventually let something slip and they would become targets. She had to run just as you did."

Nick looked down at his hands and began to sob. "This is all my fault," he moaned.

Olivia dropped to her knees in front of him and looked up into his eyes. He looked back and realised he could see a hint of Courtney there. "This is not your fault. You tried your best to save your mother. You could not have saved me. If anyone is to blame, it's me. I should have gone to Cleopatra sooner; I should have told you about The Council. You are not to blame, do you understand me?"

Nick nodded. "I'm going to get them, though," he said. "I'm going to find them, and I'm going to destroy them."

"Perhaps, in time," she replied. "Look, I've got a limited time I can stay here, it's tiring possessing a body like this. There's something I need to do before I go. Sit back." Nick sat back on the seat, wondering what she meant. She reached up and unzipped his pants. Before he could think about it his flaccid cock was cradled in her hand. "I don't think I've ever seen it like this," she commented.

"Look, Olivia, err, Courtney, I'm not sure I can..."

"Nicholas, you need to understand that I don't hold you responsible for my death. Being dead isn't a good thing, but it has opened up paths I never had while I was alive. Consider this a reminder that I'm not entirely gone."

She opened her mouth wide and took his cock into it. Her lips worked down until she could suck in his balls as well and her tongue played over him, seeking some indication that she was doing the right thing. With a sigh, Nick relaxed and his cock began to stiffen. As he expanded in Olivia's throat, she allowed his balls to slip out and closed her lips around his shaft. Her tongue and teeth were doing things to him that could not be ignored. He groaned, knowing that once Courtney had him in her mouth, there was no way he could deny her anything. She teased him and played with him for ten minutes, and then allowed him to build to climax.

Then, as the bliss began to overcome his rational thoughts, he heard Olivia's voice in his mind. "Oh, so that's how you do it," she said.