8. Revelations
8.1. Rainbow in the dark, closer to the heart
~ ~ ~ Sheila's dream ~ ~ ~
With a start, the Thief woke up from this horrible nightmare, drenched in sweat and with the piercing shriek stifled inside her throat.
All the gruesome details in it were running through her mind again. She shivered.
With the dreadful uncertainty if the dream was possibly even real, she turned her head.
Feeling incredibly relieved, she realized that it must have been only a dream after all, though a very bad one, because her little brother was lying next to her, being fast asleep peacefully with regular breathing.
There she already remembered: after the discovery of the dead portal keeper and the return to the tavern's secure shelter in the village near the 'Sea of Madness', she has followed her upset brother to his chamber to calm and comfort him - and that's exactly where they still are right now.
Her eyes were filled with tears of joy and relief.
Being perfectly happy, she snuggled up to the sleeping Barbarian closely and kissed the back of his head tenderly.
Then she went back to sleep herself. This time she had no bad dream.
Everything was alright, Bobby was alive and well!
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8.2. Down where I am
~ ~ ~ Bobby's dream ~ ~ ~
Sheila's desperate scream was still ringing out in his ears and the pain of the deadly magic was burning inside his chest.
At the first moment of his terrified awakening, the Barbarian seriously wondered if this nightmare was real and he has died once more - killed by Venger's dark magic.
No, apparently this wasn't the case; he must, in fact, still be alive since his heart was hammering painfully against his chest, his pulse was rapid and he even heard himself gasping heavily for breath.
With a cold shudder running down his spine, Bobby glanced around the dim chamber which they had moved into at the village's tavern close by the 'Sea of Madness' just this evening.
He perceived the sound of Hank's regular breathing from the bed beside him and this brought him certainty that it had been only a nightmare.
His sister and his friends were sleeping in the two adjoining rooms and his admired leader was here with him.
He was safe here - and maybe tomorrow, after seeking out the keeper of the portal, he possibly will even be trapped in the Realms no longer but rather already back home again.
So, no need to worry then... right?
However, this dream did worry him after all; as if his problems with his resurrection weren't already enough to be worried about right now!
That's why it was impossible to think of going back to sleep.
Besides, as he even admitted to himself, he was scared of this dire dream to come back.
Sighing deeply, the young boy got out of his bed as quietly and carefully as possible in order to avoid waking Hank up and tiptoed across the room towards the window where he sat down on the window sill.
Then he absentmindedly gazed at the stars and the 3 moons, in the hope of being calmed down again by this view.
But more importantly, he wished he were able to persuade himself that this nightmare was, in no way, somehow real in the end...
"Bobby?" the sudden, unexpected voice of the Ranger startled him enormously - not to say 'scared him to death'.
As an inadvertent result, he couldn't help wincing but yet turned his head to look at Hank...
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8.3. Back to where everyone belongs?
~ ~ ~ The siblings' common dream ~ ~ ~
During the night, the two siblings woke up simultaneously from the very same terrible nightmare.
Haunted by an inexplicable premonition, they were lying in their beds, shivering with fear, accompanied only by their own racing heartbeats and the deep regular breaths of their respective roommates Diana and Hank - and the excruciating uncertainty whether or not this bad dream were or might come true in some way or another after all.
While Sheila, as an infantile form of self-protection, tried to repress the memory of the dream by pulling the blanket over her head just like she handles her Cloak, even fell asleep again short time later and has forgotten all about it until the next morning, her little brother on the other hand was completely unable to get back to a redeeming sleep, or any sleep at all for that matter.
Instead of drifting off to sleep peacefully, the dream sequences were tormenting the boy - in addition to his distress about his quite recent resurrection - so much that he couldn't stand staying in bed a second longer.
So he decided to rather get up than to keep on lying in bed. Quietly and carefully, so that he won't wake up Hank, he headed to the window.
Sitting on the window sill and looking out of the window, he hoped that watching the starry night sky would finally relieve his mind again.
With mixed feelings he was thinking about the following morning when they are going to set off for the portal keeper Marius...
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8.4. The awareness, death and the healing
~ ~ ~ Dungeon Master showed the siblings the alternate end ~ ~ ~
"Well, my young pupils, now you know the truth about the sea and furthermore the presence of a potential alternative conclusion of your behavior." Dungeon Master told them serious-looking when the vision has finished, not talking in riddles for once.
"But..." Sheila, still shocked about the outcome of this vision, glanced over at her brother who was looking stonily to the corner where the vision of both their possible deaths - the Thief's death was still uncertain despite everything - had taken place just a few moments ago.
"Could I have prevented this... end completely if I had... been gone... way sooner?" Bobby wanted to know, raising his eyes to their mentor now.
"No, Barbarian, this could not have altered the final situation at all." the man replied, shaking his head.
The boy already opened his mouth to speak but their guide anticipated his question.
"Even a faster decision on your part, whether you were willing to be recalled to life or not, would have come to the same result." he explained. "By the time you had eaten those fruits this alternative was already existent. From this moment on, there was nothing what could have changed or even averted this incident. It was predestined."
"Is it possible that something from this vision might come true after all?" the Thief was asking anxiously.
"No. Instead of complying with your dark desire for vengeance, you have unwittingly chosen for yourself to endure your grief by your brother's side at the sea. Thus you have taken the peaceful way and not the destructive one.
Now everything is set, the Realm's order will be maintained.
I revealed the vision to you for the purpose of acquainting you, young Thief, with your dark side which is not permitted to appear at the surface under any circumstances - and helping you, young Barbarian, with reprocessing the aftermaths of your resurrection.
Do you understand now how hugely important it had been to show you this?"
The two siblings nodded one after the other.
"You were not even authorized to gain access to this knowledge at all, of course.
It would be much too dangerous for you both and your friends as well as your enemies if you were still carrying this awareness within yourselves and, depending on the situation, making use of it to the benefit or even quite imprudently to the disadvantage of you and your friends.
Therefore I'm going to remove the insight from your minds again!"
"Aw, do you really have to, Dungeon Master? We won't tell anyone! Cross my heart and hope to d-" Bobby abruptly cut off in mid-sentence, biting his lower lip in embarrassment when realizing the significance of this old harmless child's rhyme.
No, he didn't want to think or talk about dying at all, even if it's only meant in the figurative sense.
That's why he glossed over his slip by speaking on hastily.
"Uhh, right, Sis?" he finished almost imploringly, looking at first at his sister and then at Dungeon Master when she had nodded her agreement.
"I'm sincerely sorry but that's impossible! Trust me, it is better that way." he tried to encourage the Barbarian who only uttered a grumble.
However, except for Bobby's half-hearted attempt to get their guide to reconsider his decision, there was no other one coming from the siblings, they had already accepted Dungeon Master's intention (no matter what this 'remove from the mind' was supposed to mean for them in the end) as a given fact - in spite of his more than feeble and unconvincing explanation.
Their demeanor was a striking indication that both siblings were really 'Pure of Heart', as were the other Young Ones as well of course, since they literally trusted their guide blindly and had absolutely no doubts about his loyalty - which, in case of the youngest group member at least, could be explained with the boy's still fairly innocent perception and childlike naive definition of good & evil.
For this reason, it didn't even occur to them to challenge the logic behind their mentor's purposes as to why they had to go through the cruel vision that supposedly provided relief for them, according to his own statement, in the first place when only a few moments later they were going to lose this experience again anyway.
How could they ever receive full recovery & learn the truth then if they didn't even have the faintest idea about this alternate version anymore?
Whatsoever, Dungeon Master will probably keep a secret about that forever!
So, they were pretty sure that their guide had good reasons for his way of thinking and acting, and above all he would never ever cause any harm to them!
"Well then!" the man announced the next moment, with no further explanations.
Without hesitation, he then raised his arms and held out his hands, one in front of each sibling's face.
A bright light appeared in his palms and they were staring fixedly at the light now reflecting in their eyes until they were nearly blinded by its intensity.
All of a sudden, the light faded away from the hands and with that also out of their eyes.
As they were blinking, looking slightly confused, their pupils have reverted back to their normal state.
"Ohh, hey Dungeon Master." the Thief greeted, obviously surprised at the 'sudden appearance' of their mentor.
In fact, the girl had actually forgotten that Dungeon Master has shown up in this tavern room as well, shortly after she followed the upset boy to his chamber where she talked to him at first and comforted him afterwards.
They also couldn't even remember anymore that the three of them had already been talking together previously for some time - and that he had revealed them an alternative ending of the scene at the 'Sea of Madness'!
"Greetings, my two Young Ones." the small man replied, smiling secretly and coming closer to them...
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8.5. Hell's bells: Entering the stronghold
~ ~ ~ Venger watched the vision 'stolen' from the portal keeper Marius ~ ~ ~
"What? Why does the vision stop at such a significant point like this? I've got to learn how it will proceed." Venger yelled furiously.
Two Orc soldiers - exactly the ones who have failed miserably to keep the Barbarian, caged & additionally weakened by the poisoning, under guard a few days ago and were now forced to execute any of their master's arising services as punishment - quickly backed off for fear of impending trouble.
"Master, this is everything I can provide and I am unable to obtain some more information for you after all. May I remind you that you have killed the keeper of the portal?" Shadow Demon reported.
"I'm well aware of that!" he snapped at his loyal servant with a sinister side glance. "However, there must come something more afterwards!
It just cannot end so abruptly with the assassination of Dungeon Master's youngest hero! Will his Club be mine then?
And what of the Thief? Will I take her life as well or will I be able to allure her to me on the dark side at long last so that she's willing to turn against her remaining friends on the very edge of her own imminent death and then join me to destroy them once and for all? I demand to know!"
Exasperated, Venger rose from his throne and paced around the room nervously.
"One cannot even claim for sure whether or not this vision remotely corresponds with reality, my Lord!"
"You dare to call it into question, Shadow Demon? Are you in fact implying that there's even a slight chance it couldn't ever come as far as that at all?" he directed menacingly at the demon.
"I emerge victorious from this vision for I have slayed the little brat and perhaps even corrupted his dearly beloved sister - or simply killed her too.
And now tell me: which part of it do you think does not 'correspond with reality'?! It has prophesied a glorious future for me in the end - and a dark one for my young enemies."
Smirking diabolically, Venger sat down again, taking his triumph over those detested Young Ones already for granted.
Now impatiently waiting for Sheila and, as a consequence, her 'ending' - regardless of whether this should signify her exitus or indeed her fall from grace to the dark side!
Shadow Demon quit making his master realize that this vision was only one of various possibilities and led him to believe instead that everything could happen in the exact same way like they had seen it before.
He on the other hand knew that the course of the vision was solely dependent on Dungeon Master's pupils themselves and their own inner strength.
If the young Thief was going to pause at the sea for only a brief moment, the just received vision would be invalid then.
She would attend the small Barbarian's return from the dead and so there was no reason for her anymore to initiate a baneful vendetta against his master!
In order to avoid the risk of becoming the target of Venger's wrath in case of another potential unsuccessful attempt, the demon disappeared and left the castle.
So he rather decided to carry on spying on the Young Ones and aside from that it has been quite a while since he last paid a visit to the 'Twilight Zone of Spirits and Deceased Ones'...
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8.6. The Guardians of Fate
~ ~ ~ Alternative scenario which is taking place after the Young Ones left the Sea of Madness; staged by the Protectors of the Sea for archive purposes ~ ~ ~
At the time when the Young Ones, now all of them united again, were walking away from the 'Sea of Madness' without ever looking back, a sequence as in a vision materialized right above the water's surface all of a sudden.
This vision performed an alternate outcome of Bobby's resurrection, making them all appear in the shape of ghosts.
But unlike the other version, this one was not going to result in a happy ending...
The male Guardian of the Sea of Madness watched the 6 children go while the vision of the revengeful Sheila was taking its tragic course.
"It was wise of your pupils to enter the halcyon way, albeit they will never learn anything of the choice they had.
After her desperate assault on us, when realizing the bitter truth about the procedure with the poisoned one, I truly expected the young Thief to choose the destructive path." he addressed the person standing beside him.
"The initial version had been the guarantee for the maintenance of the Realm's equilibrium.
After all you, as being the 'Protectors of the Sea and the Twilight Zone of Spirits & Deceased Ones', have knowledge of what would have happened with the Thief and how the fate of the others would have progressed once Venger had murdered the young Barbarian again and gotten hold of his magic weapon.
And more importantly, the child would have been refused to be risen from the dead for another time by dying in this manner. Beyond doubt, this would have spelled doom..." the old man pointed out with a nod and glimpsed at the vision just in that moment when Venger was committing the previously mentioned killing of the youngest and the boy's sister was screaming out in despair.
"The very high peril had always been present that she could not have resisted the temptation." the female keeper objected and sighed.
She caught the now finished vision with her hands and led it close to her heart where it entered her ethereal body as a vibrant light.
In this way the vision was embedded in the memory of the guardians for all eternity.
"Indeed. Even I was wondering myself how strong the young Thief would be.
The dark side within her could have been evoked due to her brother's death, taking complete possession of her.
However, fortunately enough, she had not succumbed to her desire. She's completely unconscious of it, though, but with suppressing this disruptive behavior she has saved not only the life of the Barbarian or her very own..." Dungeon Master agreed and after a short pause he added, "Verily, it never ceases to amaze me how only a few moments of hesitation can make the essential difference between peace and perdition... that life and death are, in fact, just one heartbeat apart.
For the extended moment the Thief had spent with her sorrow was already sufficient to prevent the looming bale."
"Dungeon Master, you have been existing in the Realms for eons by now - and so do we! How can it be then that you are still astonished at the most obvious things in spite of everything?" the male keeper commented in a slightly reproachful voice, shaking his head.
"Well, I daresay even a man of such an old age like my humble self still has got to learn something new every day, just as those young heroes of mine." he admitted with a secret smile...
A/N:
Here it is: the 'conclusion' of this story, kind of at least.
Since there was more than one possible concluding scene for the story floating around in my head, I really couldn't decide which 'end' to finally pick to finish it.
They were all appealing to me equally, every single one in its own way.
So I just posted them all in order to share them with you as well.
I hope it's not all too confusing and/or distracting for you
Anyway, I put a poll on my profile page where you can vote which end you prefer/like better/find more coherent etc.
You can find it in the upper part of the site, below my nickname and by clicking "Vote now!" you'll get to the choices.
Maybe I'm going to remove all but one 'end' at some time then, I don't know yet. Well, time will tell.
But if I do, the ones with the most votes will of course be taken on the shortlist for the 'final end'!
Once again, thanks (in advance) for reading, reviewing & voting!
I hope you had as much fun reading it as I writing it :)