Part 4
Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT: The Dreamer's Tasks-TALIA
...
Dreamworld...
Sleepy low winds blew gently through the eerie blue-violet shaded bushes and trees in the enclosed Dream Forest. Talia held her staff closely with a firm grip as she walked cautiously through the land. She felt restless, knowing it meant that a nightmare or two were running rampant somewhere in the forest.
More than usual lately, Talia thought in a hurry as she moved quickly to finish her duties, eager to return to the High Realm. Suddenly, she spotted a couple of formless black shadows lurking in a niche of teal-colored lumber. She proceeded to follow, though the dark beings spotted her and glided away quickly.
Upon reaching them again, after a few leagues, with ease Talia cast a few spells and the creatures were banished into nothingness. She smiled and sighed with relief, once feeling that no more dark presences were left to kill.
Eager to complete any remaining tasks, she journeyed further into the Dream for a short while to check over the Dreamworld entrance that lead to the fairy lands of Faiara, as well as the world.
Carefully, she peered into the tree-surrounded enclosure and wondered if the fairies would allow her mother to visit again tonight. She waited to see if anyone would come through...
..
More than a year ago, although her fairy mother Nino had not been a part of most of her life, Talia had developed a favorable relationship with her. She had discovered a bonding interest in her fairy mother, after a fairy guardian protecting the Dreamer Statue portal had communicated with Talia permitting Nino to visit; from there, the fairies had allowed such encounters every now and then to happen, especially as a favor after Talia herself became a mother.
Nino, content to have a second chance to be maternal, had gotten to see her grandchild a few times. Those were also the times she would most likely visit the Dream, too; if her grandchild happened to come along with either parent, she would make sure to arrive despite it being so late in the Faiara while Talia guarded the dreams.
Even so, her mother was still somewhat flaky as a grandmother and did not always visit them. But Talia had grown to love and except her over time, especially since the fairy made her little one happy.
..
Not wanting to wait any longer, Talia closed her eyes to concentrate on her next destination. In a light display of bright speckles, a colorful butterfly formed, and she teleported to the main sector of the Dreamworld in front of a pointy crystal temple with a crescent moon symbol above: the Tear Shrine. Talia grinned, pleased with herself for having been able to get out of the forest without any problem.
After so much studying and practicing, she was now nearly a full fledged druid. For the exception of being able to only teleport within the Dreamlands and not yet to-and-from the High Realm, she had far improved in her teleporting abilities and priestess magic.
..
Before Talia turned to go inside the shrine for the portal to the High Realm, she remembered that she needed to visit her dreaming-self at the outer edge of the Dreamlands. A task she never looked forward to doing, but it had been far too long since she had checked the tabernacle and her Sleeper within.
In an instance, Talia found herself near the canopied bed where she had half-awakened well over two years ago when she first became the Dream Priestess.
Snow poured lightly from the blue-gray sky above, over the gorge's edge that lead to a distant edge of the Dream. She stared down at her past, watching herself sleep, making her feel only half-awake and half-alive, but mostly disturbed, even though she knew it was all in her head. It was just the sight of herself sleeping forever that always bothered her, thinking it unnatural.
But now, there was something else that disturbed Talia more than her seeing herself being eternally asleep: her memories.
..
Until recently, she had been feeling slightly dazed. She realized she had been repressing thoughts and feelings that she had had when she was still ordinary-when she was mortal.
Or did she started to lose her memories and not thinking clearly after she became immortal? Perhaps, becoming so forgetful only because she became an immortal priestess, and didn't realize it? she did not really know what to think.
Certain feelings, thoughts, memories from the past seemed to be coming back to her lately; she reflected now all over again, as she had first noticed weeks ago.
Her friends that she had not thought about, for some reason, came to mind all of a sudden. Clear, vivid thoughts of her journey and recollections of all that had happened along the way.
..
Talia continued contemplating as she watch herself sleep. Even though she was the one who was awake, she felt as though she had been half asleep for ages.
The sleeping Dreamer laying there, before her, in her white priestess gown and veil as usual, unaffected by her own current uneasiness or by the passage of time. However, watching the sleeping Dreamer, whom remained in the same exact place after all this time, with her journal still tightly wrapped in her arms, Talia's mind began to search for answers for her change of character.
It's just not like me to forget, she thought anxiously. Though she realized suddenly that the past did not matter, at least not anymore. She was happy-very happy-and now all she wanted was to get home before that too would also drive her crazy.
..
Talia forced herself to stop pondering and soon went back to the portal for the High Realm, arriving at the castle hours early before dawn.
She paced quickly through the dim corridors towards the Eastern towers. Her white laced druid robe with a crescent moon embroidered on the back, swayed weightlessly behind her, as she attempted once again to teleport, hoping to get home sooner, but failed; instead, she continued the long walk through the corridors.
The castle was quiet, as always, but Talia was careful as she opened the door to prevent any loud noises from occurring. She then walked to a small bedroom near the side of the entry where she found Aydan sleeping in a chair, beside a white bassinet. His arm perched over the plush bassinet's side. Talia smiled happily as she put her staff down, pulled off her druid robe and straightened the plain indigo gown underneath.
She tip-toed closer to her sleeping son and gently kissed him.
The now over a year old boy yawned softly, slightly opened his soft brown eyes, and turned away. She carefully stroked his nearly full head of brown hair, making him turn again, this time he was smiling at her and grabbing her hand in a sleepy way.
After a few moments of caressing the baby, Talia looked down at Aydan. She eyed his free arm and saw something glowing that was partly covered by his hand. For a moment, she wondered if it was the stone of a wedding ring, but then sadly realized it was not.
She still had been hopeful that Aydan would come to his senses and marry her, especially now that everything seemed to make sense again. Though still disappointed, she kissed him anyways, purposely waking him up in the process.
Aydan stood up still half asleep, put down the glowing object and kissed her ceaselessly. He held her as she pulled him into the common room out of the baby's room.
"Was Dameon good today?" Talia whispered cheerfully as they moved towards their room.
"Yes. As always-We should have more, my love..." Aydan yawned back as he shut their door and embraced her again, balancing himself as he got over being tired.
Talia glanced boldly at him and moved her left hand over his as her response to his request for another child. She waited for him to ask her now, more than ever, after the baby had become a year old a few months ago, wasn't it about time they marry?
..
They had had this discussion countless times before. She wanted to formally marry as was customary for mortals in her realm; but he had said it was unnecessary, which was true since they are immortals and he had promised to spend eternity with her anyway.
However, though Talia did not know it, Aydan had truly wanted to marry her after she had insisted the first few times. The assurance of a mortal ceremony, that they would remain together forever even after fulfilling their duties to the gods, seemed right for them. He wanted to spend his immortal life with her and had begun to plan their wedding; however, so long as she really wanted to marry him.
Over a month ago, Aydan had been able to finally stop himself from giving Talia anymore love potion. The potion had gone terribly wrong, obviously, from the start. It had backfired on him, preventing him from stopping, he realized upon further research: an after effect of such sorcery.
It had been his fault for trying to give it to her in the first place, and then taking it himself was what had created the problem. Even making it had been a mistake, for the potion enticed its possessors to use it.
It also did not help that he had warlock bloodlines, which had made it somewhat amusing to see her on the potion at times, which he hated himself for.
In his desperate moments, he had contemplated chopping off his hands to stop himself, but reasoned that no one would be around to chop the other one; yet, he felt hopeless no matter what he attempted. And overall, Talia would have probably wondered why he would have done such an unthinkable terrible thing, hence that would have not been a levelheaded solution.
But he loved Talia and Dameon too much to not try and deal with his faults and mend them as soon as he possibly could.
And finally, with the help of an old warlock in the Mainland, he had finally found a counter potion. Though, the lasting effects were undeterminable. Now, he would have to be patient and wait for Talia's true feelings to unravel if they hadn't already.
Recently, he had asked Talia when she had truly fallen in love with him, careful not to say his true reasons for his question. She had laughed at first, and told him 'never', but then she estimated around the time her grandmother had died or possibly before that; though, she wasn't exactly sure.
He was still doubtful of her answer. For as much as he wished and hoped it to be true, he was sure that he would have noticed her feelings towards him or he never would have considered using a love potion.
..
Talia yawned softly in his arms as she waited for a proposal. But Aydan now thought carefully of other news he would have to tell her instead.
"Aydan, darling love...I love you," she said, yet disappointment, as she turned to their bed to lay down. Before she closed her eyes, Talia sat up suddenly and looked at Aydan who was still standing in place. "What was that thing you left in the baby's room?"
"Oh, I was going to wait to give it to you after you rested, my love. I'll go get it..." Aydan said as he left and came back with the item. Talia's eyes widened upon seeing the familiar trinket. It was the dream relic.
"It took us a while to pry Agea apart. But we had-"
Before he could finish Talia jumped up to kiss him and took the relic. Seeing it again brought back many fond memories of her friends during their journey to collect the six relics to form Agea, years earlier. She knew immediately that as Dreamer it would be hers now to guard.
"Where are the other relics, my dear lover?" she asked, still excited over getting the relic back, hoping she would see them all before they went back to their enchanted guardians in the continents.
"My love, the Oracle will send Leana and Trin to deliver the other relics tomorrow. But I will be protecting the fire relic for now since you killed the dragon that guarded it..." Aydan paused and thought if he should tell her the other news the Oracle had told him. He decided that he should go on. "Talia...I have more to tell you."
"What? What is it?" Talia asked concerned from the nervous look in his eyes.
"The Queen of Thais married over a moon ago."
"You mean Alicia? I can't believe she married! What news!...Do tell who she married! I think it's a prince! I never thought she would marry!" Talia grasped the news in disbelief. "Aydan, tell me who! Tell me!" she insisted, having always thought that she would marry first; Alicia never seemed that interested in getting married, after all.
"Talia, she married...Devin of Elden," Aydan finished, now fearful of what her reaction would be.
Talia shut her eyes to think. She had not thought of Devin for so long, and worse, she didn't know why.
"Aydan...did you ever look for him as I had asked to you moons ago?" Talia asked hoping he would say 'yes'. But at least she knew where Devin was at last; though, it shocked her that he was now a king.
"No, I did not... Why are you asking me this now?" he answered knowing exactly why Talia had not asked him before. He knew that he would have to someday, and perhaps soon, tell her the truth of what he had done to her.
"I do not know. I don't remember asking you before if you looked for him. And now with Devin and Alicia getting married, well..." Talia stopped and saw Aydan's worried eyes. For their sake she decided not to go on with the past. "I'm...I'm happy for my friends' marriage..." Talia ended with a smile as she drew Aydan towards her.
...
Later that morning, Aydan woke up when he heard Dameon moaning. He looked at his dear love to make sure she had not yet awakened from the boy's cries.
When he returned, he came in without making a sound. At an angle, he could see that Talia was crying. She clutched the hand with his mother's ring tightly.