With only moments to decide, Lidia imagined taking that small hand into hers. At once, her soul unseated itself, sliding towards a spot in her pocket. As everything darkened and receded from her sight, the last sensation from the world outside came from her body sliding towards the ground.
She awakened in a place both familiar and alien.
The diamond-hard black sky above was darker even than the unnatural night outside, but everything else was bathed in rosy twilight. She instantly recognized the pattern of grey flagstones below and the faint hum of magic above.
She bolted upright. She was back in Candlekeep at one of her posts atop the wall's towers, where she had spent countless hours watching the road from the east.
Not far away, however, was the young prophet's ghost. Amuana lifted her feet from the flagstones and floated towards Lidia, regarding her with a shy smile.
Lidia stayed seated so she could talk to the girl face to face. She asked, "What are you doing here? Am I dead?"
Not yet.
The voice spoke inside her mind again, but the ghost didn't open her mouth.
Amuana's thought continued: For the moment, we are two souls lingering in the gnomon's paused shadow, held between one moment and the next.
"Then, if we've got time to talk, please tell me why you've brought me here."
We haven't gone anywhere, she replied. You are still confronting the Shade Lord. And through the wardstone, so am I. Together we have a chance to defeat him, once and for all.
Amuana started floating away but then looked back. She said, Come, and I will show you.
Lidia followed her to where the battlement looked down upon the keep's courtyard.
This view of the fortress was much eerier. The lush gardens were gone, replaced by hard, barren red gravel. Several holes in the ground opened to the void. The only building left standing was the keep itself, its vine-covered stone walls and blue-roofed towers tinged that same twilit pink. And unlike the actual fortress, where privacy came at a premium and was always filled with the hum of people, the dreamscape was empty and silent.
Amuana pointed towards the keep's entrance. The magelights that stood watch over the doors now glowed an eye-searing violet-white.
The voice spoke again: Here, you can travel anywhere with but a thought.
Lidia shut her eyes and pictured the spot the girl wanted to go, calling up a memory of the last time she'd been to the real place. The sky had erupted in a blaze of color before the night set in, and Gorion had waited for her there, urging her to bid farewell to her home for the last time.
She opened her eyes, and she and Amuana were in front of the massive wooden doors to the keep itself, where the small wooden bridge descended to the red-graveled courtyard. The harsh light made everything seem ghostly.
Lidia turned to Amuana. "What do you need me to do?"
Through your father, your soul is linked to the Astral Plane. I can use that connection to meet Amaunator there and draw upon his power.
"But they're dead."
Gods are dead the same way the world in winter is dead. A spark of life still sleeps in both of them.
The prophet's ghost pointed a translucent hand towards the entrance. She said: Open the doors, and I will take you where we need to go.
Lidia stared doubtfully at the gate; in the real keep, these doors were barred on the inside. But if she could move here with thought alone, then maybe…
She gave the left door a decisive push. It swung open as quickly as a garden gate.
There was something beyond that door that Lidia could not see or comprehend; it only manifested itself to her as a brilliant, green-tinged light shining through the door. Her ears immediately filled with the tormented screams of a multitude. She stumbled forward as though that light was determined to draw her in. She clung to the doorway, crying for help.
She felt a will stirring beneath the mass of voices. She could feel its gaze upon her, rising from the light like a single blank eye. Its anger swelled and loomed over her, for she denied it. It did not speak, but instead, her soul reverberated to its thought like a note through a plucked string. How dare you. How dare you…
She felt Amuana's touch again, and the image of a place appeared in her mind. She took that thought and made it her own, her only thought being a hope, however frail, of escape.
At once, Lidia found herself in a silvery void. Everything was maddeningly silent, including herself; to her dismay, she could feel no heartbeat or breath moving beneath her skin. As soon as she had that thought, she felt bodily sensations again, as though reality was trying to grant her some accommodation. But in that silence, she could hear nothing but the blood in her ears. As she focused outside herself, her form unconsciously stopped pretending that her mortal body had traveled here with her.
She looked around her. The void was everywhere about her, above and as far as the eye could see. Nestled in the silver haze here and there were bright points of light that resembled stars, but they were not arranged in any way she could recognize. There was no sign of life and almost no motion. But off in the distance, a single long tube, its ends disappearing into nothingness, whipped and shuddered without wind.
Amuana clutched her hand, pointed downwards, and said: take us there.
Lidia looked towards her feet and found that they were floating above a massive slab of golden rock. She focused downward and descended, connecting with the ground without a sound.
She thought she saw something floating above her head and turned to look, focusing on staying where she was. It was a thin, silver cord that faded into nothingness and drifted behind her as she moved. She looked behind her and discovered that the cord was connected to the center of her back.
It connects you to your body, Amuana said. I must stay with you, or I will never be able to return to the temple again.
Lidia surveyed where their feet had landed. The golden rock was floating in this void, rough, cracked, and slabbed. Something was touching the edge of her mind, and she picked at it rather carelessly.
She suddenly found herself in the black dragon's lair again, but there was no dragon, and instead, the space was filled with golden light. The sun poured through the domed roof, causing the golden altar to shine.
Lidia was one among a crowd, all seated in wooden chairs, wearing maroon robes emblazoned with a golden sun. Many were silver-haired, their faces stern and weary and solemn.
At the front of the altar was a tall man of about sixty or so, his robe woven from golden cloth; his head was crowned with golden rays, and he held a similar headdress, similar to his in shape but much smaller. Likely the chief priest of this temple, long ago.
His deep voice resounded, "Let thy voices sound the glorious songs of our Lord!"
The congregation sang a forgotten hymn, slow and sad and weighty in a tongue Lidia didn't recognize. From among them came forward a little blonde girl, wearing a small gold robe akin to the high priest's. Though her face carried the same seriousness, she stepped much more lightly, and the room's mood seemed to shift; a new light came into the congregation's eyes as they beheld the child. Lidia thought she saw several of the older members smile.
The girl's eyes met hers, and the vision ended.
Lidia found herself back in the Astral Plane. Amuana was still at her side, holding her hand and standing thoughtfully over a crack in the rock, her ghostly form identical to the vision Lidia had witnessed.
It is time, the girl said. She looked up, her gaze solemn, and continued: We are standing upon what was Amaunator. I can draw upon his power here, but I cannot carry it back to the temple. Lend me your soul and hand, and I will finish the work. I cannot do this without your consent.
Lidia parsed what she was saying. There was a reason that most magic was either filtered through the Weave or granted by divine favor. "This plan is risky. What will happen to your soul?"
If we emerge with the deed undone, Amuana said, the Shade Lord will kill you and raise your body to serve in his army, and I will languish in the temple without hope unless another defeats him or my lord rises from the dead.
Lidia saw her point. "I'll do as you ask. Only finish it quickly."
Without warning, everything swirled about them suddenly into a grey haze. Lidia felt her heart pounding again, felt the teeth digging into her limbs, felt an incredible swell of heat and light rising from the deepest part of her being—
The girl's voice said sharply, Stop resisting.
Lidia opened her mind and let go.