“I will remember my wings, and I will always be lucid in my dreams from now on”, Devin informed Balthazar in no uncertain terms as if he could initiate himself into Dreamwalking through sheer force of will and bypass the need for a mentor and all the other things that were usually part of the process. A moment later, he looked at the white-haired mage questioningly and asked, “That’s what you call it when you know that you are dreaming, right? Lucid, I mean”, he clarified. He wasn’t particularly familiar with Emea, but if Emea could give him wings, at least when he was asleep, he would learn everything about it – and he would eventually learn how to move things from here to the waking world as well!
“Why can’t you use magic here?” he then wanted to know. “Does it have something to do with ether?” While he was absolutely clueless when it came to how the world of dreams worked, he was familiar with magic, to some extent at least. The cycle before, he had started to attend university. His goal was to get a degree in Magical Theory, because magic was totally awesome. University had already helped him so much! It had made him realize that Becoming was the best choice if he wanted to get fully functional wings – and that he should definitely not subject himself to Rakvald’s fleshcrafting stuff again.
Body parts that had been attached with Grafting often didn’t work perfectly!
When Balthazar continued on the path without smashing a mirror, Devin lowered his arms again and blinked a couple of times before he breathed a sigh of relief and followed the mage. He didn’t attempt to hold his hand again, mostly because he was rather busy thinking about how he could make sure that he still had his wings when he woke up.
After a while, he noticed something though, stopped for a moment and furrowed his brow. “Are we walking in circles?” he asked. A moment later, he realized that this was not the case. They weren’t moving in circles and constantly returning to the same place; they were moving in circles and downwards – closer and closer to a door that was located at the end of a long hallway.
When Devin saw that door, his eyes lit up, and he turned to face Balthazar. “This is my dream, isn’t it?” he asked softly. “I know why there is a maze in it now – and what’s behind the door! I had the maze built in order to make it harder for people to find my treasure chamber! Come on! I’ll show you!” he urged Balthazar and gestured for him to follow him.
Normally, Devin wasn’t particularly eager to show people his treasure. He was a very greedy man and afraid that someone might steal from him. This was a dream though. Until he found a way to move stuff from Emea to the waking world, none of the things in it mattered – apart from his wings, his beautiful, glorious, marvelous, amazing wings that he never wanted to let go again!
With that thought in mind, he opened the door – and let out a piercing scream. A moment later, he was sliding down a rainbow-colored tube – or slide, or whatever – so quickly that his heart began to beat faster and threatened to jump out of his chest. After a while, he relaxed though, and the screams of fear turned into screams of pure delight – because sliding down the tube was fun!
“Wheee!” he exclaimed and threw his hands in the air when he finally reached the end of the tube and landed in … a field of grass? It wasn’t just a field of grass, it was bouncy like some sort of trampoline, and it was completely devoid of any kind of treasure! Jumping up and down, mostly because he couldn’t not jump when he was on a trampoline, the Mortalborn took a look around, the look on his face darkening more and more.
“What kind of shit is that?” he asked Balthazar who was probably not far behind him, moving aside a little so that the mage wouldn’t crash into him. “I thought there’s always some sort of treasure at the end of the rainbow! I thought that I would at least be a successful treasure hunter in my dreams!” he complained. Devin had gone on a couple of treasure hunts during the past arc, and all but one had been unsuccessful. Someone else had usually gotten there first. He had either been greeted by an empty treasure chest, or there hadn’t been anything at all. It had been absolutely frustrating!
In fact, Devin found the lack of treasure chests frustrating that he almost woke up then and there, despite the fact that he had been so excited about having wings before. Balthazar could see that the Mortalborn’s form in front of him flickered for a moment. In the waking world, Devin abruptly punched the person that was sleeping in bed next to him very hard before he stopped moving again – and started to snore incredibly loudly!