This was a birthday gift for Nyinu from Karhun Asmodian.

It's a crossover of Aion and Blade&Soul.

Drift into Dream

It was that time between sleep and awakening, when Nyinu realised something was off. First it were the sounds, too loud and wild to come from the Silver Tree village, then the faint breeze of Aether, which felt differently, than she had ever experienced, but most importantly, the touch. Instead of her soft and feathery bed she was lying on hard ground with stalks of grass stinging against every exposed part of her skin. Carefully she opened her eyes. Through the trees above her she saw a dark blue sky, a colour that sometimes appeared in Balaurea. Suddenly the sounds of surroundings have changed, as if something huge was running towards her. She jumped to her feet, formed a shield around her and looked in the direction of that sound. A creature that looked like a combination of brax, carnif and a flower bed was rushing at her. She instinctively cast a spell to bind it, but the plants didn't obey, she was forced to dodge. As she was rolling on the ground, she noticed her staff was tossed into a bush near her. Before the creature turned around, she grabbed her weapon, the focus for channeling the Aether. She sent two quick blasts at the creature and when she got familiar with the Aether around, she released several bolts of lightning at once. Nothing but a pile of charred coal remained of the attacker.

She took a deep breath and finally checked her state. She was alive, that was good. Unharmed too and there were no traces of any unusual substances in her body. What caught her attention was, that she was wearing her armour. Although calling is armour would be inaccurate, it was a fine, short black dress enchanted and modified to function as armour. And it did a good job, the enchantment was precisely extended even to the parts of her body that were not covered by fabric. She was glad she had it on her right now, based on her encounter with the creature it might prove more than handy. But she clearly remembered to be dressed in her pyjamas with embroideries of cute snow darus, when she went to bed. So how did she change without knowing about it? Did someone play with her mind? She decided to find the answers later and scanned the area around her properly. She was standing on a road lined with rocks and vegetation. The trees and bushes were similar to what she knew, but something was different. The shapes of the leaves, the patterns in the bark, the colour shades of blossoms. This was not Atreia. Although the Aether was there, it had different taste, currents, touch... and it felt stronger in the direction where the creature ran from. Once more she looked around and set off to the source of the strange Aether.

After few minutes of walk a pair of creatures similar like the first one appeared in front of her. They were about to attack, but something moved quickly between them. She heard several slashing sounds and the monsters fell. A person was standing above their bodies, in one hand she had a long knife, the other was empty, but ready to either defend or reach into one of the pockets on her belt. No claws on her fingers meant she was either Elyos or, given to the nature of Aether here, something completely different.

The two women were staring at each other for few moments, waiting for the other to react. Nyinu had time to take a good look at the newcomer. Her purple straight hair were partially bound to ponytail, partially left unkempt around her face and her eyes were almost unearthly blue. She was dressed into a white tunic with huge yellow ribbon instead of one sleeve, the other one was dark green, the same colour as her skirt.

"Who and what are you?" the woman finally spoke. Her voice sounded young.

"My name is Nyinu," she decided to tell her the truth for now. "I'm a cleric of Asmodae."

"I've never heard of such land, where is it?"

Nyinu was silent for few seconds, contemplating her words: "Can I ask you where are we now?"

"Huh? You don't know? This is Dreamdrift, the creepiest place on the Viridian Coast. How did you even get here without knowing it?"

"The last thing I remember was going to bed. Then I woke up here," the cleric explained patiently. "I had no intention of trespassing."

"So you're not from here? From Dreamdrift?" the purple haired woman was still suspicious.

"No."

"Prove it."

"How?"

"Uh... I don't know. Your Chi feels weird, so if you're a fiend, I'd have to kill you. But if you're not, I'd feel bad if I did."

"Chi?" Nyinu was usure what the word meant.

"Yes, Chi, every living creature has it. So you too. But yours is different, even I can feel that. It's not Dark, don't worry, it's just... weird."

"If it's not dark, it's fine, right?" Something like Aether then.

"Probably... alright, I'll believe you. Nyinu, you said? Nice to meet you, I'm Stin. We should move, it's not wise to stay at one place too long here."

"Nice to meet you, Stin."

The purple haired one put her knife into a sheath behind her waist and started walking towards the stronger Aether. Nyinu frowned, if this was the creepiest place, that behaviour was too careless. She didn't know if she could trust this Stin, she seemed crazy at least, but right now she had no choice. After not even a minute of walk another group of the flowered bizzare creatures appeared. This time Nyinu was used to the differences in Aether and bound them. Stin disappeared into shadows like an assassin and reappeared in the middle of the group, where she put something on the ground. Then she jumped away and the area exploded. Thanks to Nyinu's spell the blas hit all of the monsters, who were now disorientated. She sent lightning and earth blasts into the group, trying to not hit Stin, who was flashing among the creatures, giving them more or less serious cuts. All this happened within seconds.

"Wow, you're really good!" Stin said when the danger was over. "I've never seen anyone fighting like you. Sure, there are some who can make blasts from Chi, but those roots... and you're not even empowered by Dark Chi, but you're as good as Jinsoyun, maybe better."

"Who is that?"

"She's..." Stin's face became sad. "Someone very bad. And very powerful. I must to kill her, but I have to get much stronger than I'm now. That's why I'm here, let's go."

"What happened between you and this Jinsoyun?" Nyinu asked while walking.

"She killed my master. And my friends. She made Lusung betray us. And she marked me with Dark Chi. It spreads like a poison and it will corrupt me, slowly. If I won't find cure in time, I'll die. Or turn into a fiend. Or something worse. That's why I'm in hurry."

"Can I take a look at you? Removing poison is one of the things I've practiced well," Nyinu offered.

"It's not normal poison..."

"In this place, I'm not normal either."

"Well... alright..." Stin sighed and stopped. "How long will it take?"

"Just a moment," the cleric closed her eyes and concentrated on the young woman's body. The differences in the Aether were not making the diagnosis any easier, but after the time spent here she was able to filter most of them out. Finally she found what was she looking for. Deep inside Stin's soul was a flower shaped dark place, which slowly hauled in other parts and transformed them. Nyinu focused her cleansing Aether on that place. But instead of making Stin's soul clean again, the darkness lashed at her, breaking her concentration, depriving her of breath for few heartbeats.

"Are you alright?" she heard Stin's worried voice.

"What... was that?" Nyinu asked when she caught her breath.

"That was the Dark Chi, this one is called Mark of Black Rose, Jinsoyun likes roses."

"I'm sorry, Stin, it was too strong for me."

"That's fine, I've heard Dark Chi is something I have to get rid of myself anyway," Stin tried to smile, but her expression froze. "Get down!"

She bumped into Nyinu and both of them fell to the ground. Something flew right above them. They immediately got up and readied their weapons, Nyinu begun forming a shield. The attacker turned and flew towards them again. It had humanoid shape and was covered in rags, but parts of it were almost transparent.

"What is that?" the cleric asked.

"That's the reason why Dreamdrift is so creepy. There are spirits and some of them are not friendly at all. This one was probably awaken by your attempt to remove the Dark Chi. Or we were talking too loud, both are possible."

"How do we kill it?"

"I don't know, beat it until it stops moving?"

"Cover me," Nyinu rolled her eyes and her staff started glowing. Sparks and tiny bolts formed around her. She called upon the lightning and when it answered, she sent it at the angry spirit, who was occupied by Stin and her blade. The spell injured it, but it wasn't enough to kill it. And the spirit changed its target, it needed to eliminate the one who hurt it more. Nyinu reached inside her for every part of her power. At the moment when the spirit raised its hands to attack, she released the spell with a loud shout. The spirit imploded. After a heartbeat or two the Aether on the place of the spirit's demise twisted and formed a rift. Without any warning it pulled Nyinu in.

She woke up in her bed, dressed in her favourite pyjamas, her head was spinning and her mind clouded. The dream she just had felt so real. But it was just a dream, she was in her home and nothing indicated she has left it during the night. Nyinu got up and went to her bathroom to start with the morning hygiene. But when she looked into the mirror, she saw a black tattoo in the shape of rose.