The Realm of Dream
-"That challenge was even more stupid than the one about retribution," Peri grumbled. "A whiny replica of myself going 'I'm your innocence! Welcome me back and come home to Candlekeep!' Yeah, right. And lo and behold, it wasn't my innocence after all but one of Bhaal's avatars who tried to shred us in pieces."
- "You were not all that innocent even in Candlekeep," Imoen said. "There was always this darkness in you... I guess there was no escaping the dreams and the knowledge they gave you, even though our life was easy and safe."
- "Yes... I wasn't ten yet when I knew what killing feels like. And that I could do it if I wanted. What was more disturbing was that I enjoyed it so much in my dreams," Peri answered.
- "Tamoko has explained to me a bit about how the cosmos is organized in Kara-Tur," Sarevok said in a pensive tone. "There is the realm of mortals, or the world as we know it, the one you are always charged to save, Peri... but the other realms are just as real, like our planes. One of them is the realm of dream, Yume-do, she called it. Mortals go there when they sleep, and what happens there, really happens. And it has as much significance as the events of this realm."
- "I feel it to be true," Peri said. "I always did."
- "But... let's say I dream of losing my family heirloom," Keldorn said, frowning. "It is still there when I wake up."
- "You are forgetting that Yume-do is just as real as this world," Sarevok replied. "It really happened in Yume-do, though you may have the heirloom back the next time you go there. The realm of dreams is more fluid - a place where things shift constantly, a place of potential and what could have been."
- "Tamoko yer lass in yer previous life?" Korgan asked.
- "Aye, dwarf. She was my one true love, and I drove her away to death because of my madness," Sarevok said, and took a few hasty steps, thus indicating that he wasn't willing to discuss anything anymore.
- "He misses Tamoko so much..." Peri sighed. "I can sense the magnitude of his regret, even though he doesn't want to heap it on me."
Imoen squeezed her hand.
- "I remember thinking how anyone could love Sarevok. When we buried Tamoko. Now I understand it well," she said. "Will he go to Kara-Tur, if he survives this business?"
- "Yes, and I will follow him," Peri said. "I wish we could leave already. There is nothing for me in Faerun, and even less for him. I want to see those lands of intrigue and beauty, and I want to see his soul at peace, perhaps finding even some happiness."
- "That is all very well, and I wish you monkeys the best of success, but there is one half-dragon to dispose of first," Edwin said, despite Sarade tugging his sleeve.
Peri just smiled, though. Edwin's insults were almost comforting in their familiarity.
- "I'm aware of that, Edwin. We will see about that in a minute."
- "What kinda lass was this Tamoko of his?" Korgan asked, still intrigued about who could leave such a mark on the big warrior's soul.
- "Imagine a combination of compact, slender beauty... er, by human standards, and lethal, agile skill in battle. This with absolutely fearless and noble soul, loyal and proud of the ways she was brought up. She was an oriental warrior, a samurai, and lived by their code even after falling from grace because of disobeying her lord. She was not like the people of our lands... the ways of Kara-Tur are different and so was her thinking. She had a fire to match Sarevok's." Peri suddenly felt like crying, and her chest was aching. Something in her wanted so badly to go where Yoshimo and Tamoko were from - the sharp, volcanic mountains rising abruptly from the sea, the pine forests, the rice pads, the plains. The pagodas of the temples, the walled cities, the bamboo groves and crystal rivers. Once in the year, the short time of cherry blossoms, the time a samurai was supposed to think about when she committed seppuku, the honorable suicide. All that Sarevok had told her... and Tamoko to him in her turn.
Yoshimo's stories had a more urban flavor to them. The shady yakuza families just as loyal to each other as the families born by blood ties. The smuggler captain Pan Chu and his feared fleet of wakos preying on the merchant ships... the illegal gambling houses in the back of respectable restaurants. How the secret societies kept their meetings and others tried to spy on them. How if you needed the services of a ninja, you left a donation to a temple of the goddess of stealth, and a member of the leading Takeshi ninja family found you. Even though these shady characters were dishonorable in the open face of the society, indeed the ninja didn't exist if asked of a honorable Kozakuran, they also had their own honor code, just as strict as the one of the samurai and the clans.
- "Is Peri sad?" Minsc asked with concern. "Minsc is ready to do some more butt-kicking, but Minsc doesn't want Peri to be unhappy."
- "No, Minsc," Peri smiled. "Peri is merely lost on thoughts on what she wants to do once this is done and over with. So let's go and show the scale freak! Now I at least have something to do all this for. I have a goal... I want to see Sarevok at peace of mind, and preferably happy, and I want to see Kozakura."
She took a look at Sarevok. Cespenar was sitting on his shoulder and patting his bald head. Peri smiled.
- "Let's go, then. And hope we finally find some enlightenment."
