The world came into view as Fina opened her eyes. It was like watching the pieces of a stage-play set fall and snap into place. Unnatural, blunderous. Every new glance brought something else into view. A familiar peace swept over the young woman as her bedroom's features locked into place. It was strange—a new detail seemed to fall into place wherever she looked—but it also felt natural. She first recognized argent walls etched with subtle veins of silver magic energy that slipped and flowed about from one feature to another. A small screen that buzzed and sparked until it showed a high atmosphere image of a world draped in clouds. A nearby shelf, which she had not noticed in her reverie protruded from the opposing wall. A vase with translucent aegean flowers rested flat upon it. Only a distance away, a worn-out doll sat drooping upon the shelf. She'd had it all her life; one of the only companions she'd ever really had.

Fina paced over and held the doll in her arms. She had been so young back then, the only girl of her age among her people, and now that she was older the time of plush dolls and crystal flowers seemed so distant. Yet, here she was In a sanctuary like none that history had ever known before.

"Am I.. home?" Her soft voice dared to ask the question. Was she back among her people? Was everything she'd endured a nightmare?

Two impulses tugged at her. Both were so painful as to break a lesser woman's heart. She wanted to stay; to rest right here forever in the safety of her home. A more mature and intensely decent part of her knew that was not possible. But maybe...

As if to tempt her further, two spectral figures began to race about the room in an improvised game of tag. Diaphanous children yelped with joy as they ran around. A young girl in a simple robe scampered apace. Behind her, a slightly older boy shifted and gave a dramatic, stomping chase like he was a dangerous hound on the prowl. The girl screamed with playful delight.

The boy eventually managed to reach her and scooped her up into a hug that elicited a joyous yelp before he raised her up over his head and began swooping her around like a bird. Not that either of them had ever seen a bird outside of the images in the archives. He placed her back down on the ground. The girl ran and ran about the room once. Her flight grew faster and faster as the taller boy followed. He smiled warmly at her; even here within the shrine walls, she held an oddly adventurous spirit. Round and around and around. It hardly even mattered if she was being chased in earnest. It was enough to run and feel free.

The boy, feeling it time to fulfill his part in their pantomime, traced a loose finger in the air before him. A shimmering light followed in its wake until the beam seemed to split into a makeshift portal that he slipped into. The girl continued to run and laugh; she stopped only when the boy appeared before her in an unfurling of magical light as he emerged from a separate portal and hugged the girl in a tight embrace.

She gave him a weak little swatting. "You said no magic," she sniffed. "You said no magic!"

"You were running so fast, Fina, it was the only way I could catch you," the boy said.

The girl crossed her arms. "I woulda got away!"

"I'll always find you," the boy said plainly. "Tag, hide and seek. It's my job to look after you."

The girl ambled over to the buzzing screen and its flickering view of the world below. She tapped the screen as if a firm enough push would take her through to the other side. "Even down there?"

The boy smiled. He stood tall and gave a playful formal bow. "Even down there."

"The Elders say we can't go there," the girl said. "They say it's super scary and dangerous. Is that true? You're smart, Rami.. Is it really like that?"

The young boy drew closer to the screen and regarded it closely. The world below was so far away. Yet his eyes lingered and he began to see… something, a fundamental truth he never realized before.

"It looks… hurt," he said. "Not scary… Just… sad."

The girl walked to his side. She tugged nervously at his sleeve. "Can we help it?"

"Maybe one day," he admitted before offering her a brotherly smile. "Now, why don't find a really sneaky spot this time? Bet I'll find you easily!"

The girl ran off but stopped for a moment in front of Fina. Somehow, she had intruded upon the dreamworld and a young but deeply familiar face was looking at her.

"Do you want to play too? We could stay here forever and play and be happy!"

It would have been so easy to stay. Every single part of Fina's heart was yearning to stay put and play childhood games, safe within the shrine's iridescent walls. The burden she carried could melt until there was nothing left but the happy times of yesterday. Before they'd grown older. Before Rami left.

That world was gone now; any version of it that remained was a fantasy. Fina was sentimental but she was wise beyond her years. Wise enough to know that what her younger self offered was a falsehood. There was no true comfort to find here; only the illusory and fading trap of nostalgia.

Fina shook her head. Not in the face of nightmares, not in the face of the cruelest beasts, not in the face of her own doubts. Not even when tempted with the comforts of simpler times. She could not stay. There was nothing for her here; the ghostly images from before were little more than memory. Her people were counting on her. The world was counting on her.

The room trembled in anger around her. How dare she abandon this paradise? The vase and its aegean flowers tilted to the side and shattered into thousands of indescribably small silver splinters with all the body and coarseness of dust. Fina gasped, looking down at the doll in her hand as it seemed to similarly dissolve into the barest of pewter grains. Whatever comfort this room had held was lost forever as fixture after fixture dissolved into the Silver moonstone essences that upheld it. Soon there was nothing left to support her.

Fina fell downwards into darkness, and a stream of blazing comets plummeted besides her. Silver, Yellow, Red. Magicked fireballs streaked downwards and brought terrible fire to the world. It was the worst thing that Fina could imagine. There was nothing but fire. A few moments longer and she would fall into the inferno. Her heart longed for her friend; for the kind young boy who once lifted her like a bird. If he was here, he could carry her up above the blaze. Without him? She was doomed. She closed her eyes and awaited a demise that never came.

Fina felt a sudden weight beneath her feet and a new hexagonal room came into view as she opened her eyes once more. She was surrounded with equally argent walls that extended upwards with intricate circuit-like etching all throughout. Glimmering looking glasses hung on each side of the adjoining walls. Obscured faces flickered in their resplendent light; Fina could see their eyes, all of which focused on her. Flickering blue flames illuminated the rest of the chamber although they drew no heat. Beneath her feet, the intricate principal glyph of her people's magicks shimmered.

Fragmented voices rang directly in her mind. Shattered warnings danced through her very being; the admonishments of the Elders cautioning her on what would lie ahead. They danced through her in broken whispers.

... Fina.

They are not...

They are broken...

...cannot be saved.

Find Rami…

crystals… the matrices…

The final warning was the firmest of all: 'Do not let them into your heart.' Time seemed to freeze about her; no more falling stars. No more children at play. No more audience chambers and their turquoise flames. There was nothing but the enfolding burden of her mission. Silence fell.

Eventually, she heard something else. A pair of unfamiliar voices brimming with warmth and concern.

How is she, Vyse?

Breathing's more regular now. I think she'll be alright..

Fina made her choice. She stepped forward towards those voices, towards the unknown… and woke up.