¤ What to Expect

Jaysen opened one eye, finding the sudden silence in the room disconcerting. He was a light sleeper, a habit drilled into him after years of training as a bandit. Not that he actually made use of this special alertness, especially during the occasional ambushes on some of the richer citizens of Ossyria. Oh, no sir.

There was a warm weight at his side; sitting up, Jaysen saw that it was Silver, whose head was on her arm as she slept, leaning on the small space next to him on the bed. Her blue Maro had slipped off her head, uncovering tousled silvery curls.

What an intriguing girl this was, Jaysen thought, watching Silver lazily. The few people that he had travelled with before were either always freaked out by his dramatics, or simply got irritated, bewildered by his quicksilver thoughts. Either way, they simply stopped talking to him, thinking that he would never be serious.

Never had he met someone so able to deal with his flippancy, and to give back as good as she took. It was actually fun being able to rake your own brain for comebacks for once, instead of just trying to make someone respond.

Jaysen gave a little deprecating smile at some secret thought.

Lifting a hand, he picked up the blue Maro, and made to set it neatly on the bedside dresser. Just then, Silver stirred. She started to twitch violently, strangled sounds fighting to escape her throat. Shocked, Jaysen dropped the Maro and shook the sleeping girl hard by the shoulders. ‘Silver! Silver, wake up!’

Her eyes snapped open, as she stumbled out of her nightmare. There was blind panic in them, turning their usual dreamy cast into a grey storm of confusion. Recognising Jaysen, Silver clutched at his supporting arms urgently, gasping wordlessly.

‘Ssh, it’s okay. I’m here. It’s safe here, Silver.’ Jaysen found himself murmuring a string of meaningless words, trying hard to calm down the girl. He felt strangely helpless, not knowing what was happening to her, or how to comfort her. He patted her shoulders awkwardly.

‘Hedwig.’ Silver managed to say. ‘It’s Hedwig, I-’

There was a soft polite cough coming from the doorway. Breaking away from the peculiar embrace that they were in, Silver and Jaysen both looked quickly to see who it was.

Ida walked into the infirmary hesitantly, her hands wringing around her Fairy Wand. ‘Um. Sorry for taking so long,’ she said.

‘It’s alright. I was out cold most of the time.’ Jaysen assured her, looking at the cleric closely. Jaysen thought she looked as if she had been crying; her green eyes were rimmed with red.

Ida noticed how frantic Silver looked. ‘What happened?’ she asked, concerned.

‘I, ah.’ Silver started to say, then stopped, feeling a little foolish. ‘Nothing much. It- It’s just a nightmare.’

‘You said something about Hedwig.’ Jaysen said. ‘It sounded really important.’

‘Ah.’ Silver hesitated a little, then went on to tell them about her dream and what she suspected of Hedwig.

‘So, you are saying that Hedwig had something against… her all the while?’ Ida said, bewildered.

‘I don’t know.’ Silver said, troubled. ‘It is just a dream after all. But it felt so real, just like what Salmer described in his journal. And it makes some sense, doesn’t it? Hedwig working so hard to stop my Project from going forward; she must really hate Ah, A- I mean, you know.’ She stumbled over Aurora’s name, the spell still making her unable to say it out loud.

‘But now that we got back the necklace, she can’t stop us now, right?’ Jaysen tugged out the garnet necklace from the pocket where he had kept it. He held it out, the heavy pendant dangling and sparkling in the sunlight that spilled into the infirmary.

‘I hope so.’ Silver sighed. ‘For all you know, Hedwig might just keep the journal, despite what she said.’

‘Sounds just like what she would do. What do you expect from a person who throws an axe at an unsuspecting girl!’ Jaysen said disgustedly.

Ida only stared out of the infirmary’s window, preoccupied by her own thoughts.

¤ Reading Dreams

By the time the trio left the Potions shop infirmary, it was already evening by Orbis’ reckoning. They made their slow way to Hella’s house, Silver and Ida supporting Jaysen the best they could. They were greeted by an anxious looking Elma, who helped them bring Jaysen into his room. There, he collapsed gratefully on the bed, blessing the bed, the pillows and all their fluffy feathers. Before the girls even left the room, he had already fallen back to sleep.

In their room, Ida also settled into bed quickly, not talking much. Silver had noticed her melancholic mood earlier on, but did not question her silence. She would tell them soon if she felt like it, Silver knew.

Now, Silver stared out of the window, lit with the eternal sunlight of Orbis. The dream had brought to light aspects of this whole Project that she had never contemplated before. She was sure that the dream was not merely a by-product of her imagination. It had felt real. Too real, she thought, shuddering as she remembered the swish of the Dankke axe flying past her.

Then, there was the matter of Aurora. Silver felt very certain now that Aurora was in fact the girl of the statue; the description provided by Salmer (and the girl in her dream, a little voice inside her muttered) matched the sketch from Hella. And surely Hedwig had a hand in whatever downfall that Salmer said would happen to Aurora.

Oh, but how foolish it would be, to write that the proof for these facts was a dream! All of her librarian’s training rebelled against this, but Silver knew that this time her instincts could be trusted.

Slowly, she took out her journal from her backpack, opened it up on the bed, and started to write, recording the day’s events and her new knowledge. Only the strict discipline of her librarian’s training forced Silver to keep awake until that job was done. But it was not long before she, too, succumbed to weariness.

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Links to previous chapters:
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This is one awkward chapter. Sighs. What I said earlier about vague allusions and myself still applies.

<3 Thank you for your support, people. It would be a horrible day when no one reads this anymore.
Chocolate cookies this time then! *rattles jar* I ate half of the batch though. Couldn’t resist