Arcana's Path Ch. 06

It was true that she hadn't tried in years, and that dreamwalking was one of the most dangerous magics that existed. Getting lost was a real possibility.

Whilst she was gone, she'd be vulnerable to a follow up attack. Which might well be the intention of whoever had tried to unleash the demon against her.

Rin might be the real target, of course.

"If I'm not back in an hour, send for Rasputin. Remind him that the bastard owes me a life debt." Violet instructed as she gently cradled Rin's head between her hands.

She hadn't expected to even have a first real kiss, let alone one like this.

Violet's lips gently met Rin's.

---

She was standing in complete and utter darkness. Whatever evil had conjured a world for Rin had sensed her approach. It was watching her, trying to decide just how much of a threat she was. What her weaknesses were.

Violet snapped her fingers, breaking the illusion within the greater illusion.

She found herself in a regal country home, within an office. The creature sitting at the desk jerked backwards in shock, grabbing at its chest. "Oh my. I didn't see you come in."

"Yeah, you did." She rolled her eyes, "Dreamwalker. I can see you, demon."

He smiled toothily, "Well, that's no fun. I do so enjoy my... Fun. I suppose you're here to steal my prey, then. I don't think you'll find it as easy as you expect."

"An astagroth." Violet glared at him, "An architect of dreams, nightmares, and high level dimensions. Basically, you're a demonic dreamwalker. We're both creators, but you have the foothold, and Rin has so much hatred to feed you. You have all the advantages."

He laughed, "I do so love it when the exorcist knows the challenge. It tends to make the game more enticing, wouldn't you say?"

"A slog. Painful. Drawn out. Boring." Violet disagreed with the beast, "Oh. I'm also not an exorcist. Not by trade, anyway. Depending who you ask, I'm either a chef, or I'm a witch."

"An amateur." The creature said in disappointment. "I don't suppose you're at least famous?"

She shrugged, "Been a while since I fought a demon. You might remember me, though. Name's Violet. And if you didn't know that, you haven't managed to get inside Rin's head yet."

"Violet." The creature stood up and walked to a window, "There have been one or two with that name who earned themselves a reputation. I do wonder if you're one of them."

"Waterhouse."

The manor turned into blue butterflies as the demon bolted, leaving her standing by the doorway to Rin's dreamland. She smiled at the retreat, and clenched her fists, "Mother dearest, who knows my rage... Watch me. I swear we will save her hide."

---

Dreams can be confusing to traverse for the inexperienced. Those who don't understand them can be lost forever long before they realise that they have become trapped.

It comes down to two principles, really.

First, the rules followed by the dreamworld don't have to even vaguely reflect the real one. Assumptions such as breathing can get you killed or poisoned, and sometimes far worse.

Second, there are no constants. Just because you worked out a rule for how the world behaves doesn't make it universal, and it doesn't make it permanent. A single thought can take you from walking the depths of an ocean, to drowning within it.

The simplest path a dreamwalker can choose is to use their ability to shape the dream to enforce their expectation of reality on the world. Simplest, but not the most effective. Especially not if another shaper of the world is actively trying to bring you harm.

The true masters simply went with the flow, shaping and reshaping only as far as was necessary. They were infinitely adaptable.

Violet struggled to adapt to anything.

She hated change.

She followed a mountain path, twisting and turning. There were momentary dangers along the way, but echo of her fingers snapping only had to crack through the air to return order to this death trap.

The demon had yet to break through the defences and into Rin's mind. It was obvious, because everything out here was a generic fabrication. It wasn't a reflection of something deeply personal for Rin.

Simplistic fears appeared for her to dash. Predictable things. The dark, drowning, old age. Nothing that was even at the surface of the dreamer's mind.

Travel wasn't always essential in a realm like this, but with the demon's lack of creative flair... Finding the centre, where Rin, or an avatar of the way she saw herself, was going to require a trek.

It was also going to actually be at the literal centre of the realm. However, the immediate space around that centre wouldn't be of the demon's working. It would be a manifestation of Rin's heart and soul.

In other words, it was going to be terrifying.

The thought made Violet grin. She doubted the dumb creature had any idea what it was unleashing. It was true that Rin had plenty of hate to feed on. However, the fact that almost all of it was aimed directly at herself...

... Well, walking into a dream would where that manifested would not have been Violet's first choice for a vacation home.

---

As her foot landed, Violet found herself in a fabrication of Rin's apartment. She wobbled a moment before finding her footing, as feelings of anxiety and fear washed over her.

"Why the fuck are you in my house!?" A deafening screech hit her, nearly knocking her off her feet.

Violet giggled. Last time, she'd been reading on the couch when that happened. Easier to hold her composure. This time she looked over at Rin standing there in her pyjamas, an overly plain outfit.

Last time she'd offered tea. This time, predictably, there was a nightmare in the cup, just waiting for someone to pay it some attention so it could come out and play.

Violet found that to be... Offensive.

A spear slammed through the heart of the thing pretending to be Rin. Before it could fall and complain something irreverent and uninteresting, she had laid out the head on a pike.

Looking like her love wasn't going to be enough to make her hesitate.

Not when there was tea being tainted.

As Rin's fake bled, the ground shook with each droplet falling. The sound was displaced, as if it were something else striking the ground in sympathy and anger.

Violet rolled her eyes and flicked the air in front of her, shattering apart the image in front of her into floating and spinning shards of glass. She walked through the shredding surface and into Rin's workplace.

The workers all stared at her in unadulterated hatred as she walked towards Rin. Sort of. She was walking in that direction, but it was basically an event on rails, she had no control over it. In her hands was a small box.

She couldn't open or move the box. She was just a witness to this new game, so far. Without any ability to cast or chant any magic. This was an interesting twist, for such an uncreative little shit.

"Welcome to my domain." Rin joked as she arrived at the desk. She pushed the keyboard back to give Violet somewhere to sit and curled up on her chair. "So... Why are you here?"

"A treat for the queen." Violet's mouth moved of its own accord, and placed the box down beside her.

It was extremely irritating to the witch how off most of the details were. Even if it could only access her surface memories, it should have been able to do better than this. It was flaunting that she was in a dream, rather than trying to confuse her as to what was real, and what was not.

"It helps to sell the illusion if the NPCs have thoughts. Especially as that's part of my next line." She broke free of the game, and lit the box on fire.

The piece of the demon that had been hiding in the box screamed and died. It had thought it had learned a lesson by not hiding inside the fraudulent copy of Rin. A copy that was so bad it didn't even have her smile.

Violet smiled at Rin, taking her shoulders as she connected the fake to the real, "I do what I do, because I feel like it. Suppose you're feeling haunted by now. I'm on my way, Rin. Maybe by then you'll be able to define our relationship."

The brightness behind the eyes fled, as Rin recoiled against Violet's presence in confusion and fear.

The witch rolled her eyes, and then turned and dragged on the computer screen to make it bigger, before stepped inside it.

She fell for a long time, surrounded by strange caricatures of 0s and 1s, before landing with a soft and gooey bounce atop of the couch at Rin's house. Which immediately started trying to eat her as if it were a slime or some low effort monster.

Violet stepped out of it easily, and then sat down as she made it back into their couch. She smiled at Rin, tracing the shapes of her face in her mind.

Rin coughed nervously, "Creeper."

"You're beautiful. Just memorising you." Violet grinned, "World would suck so much more without you in it."

Rin glared at her, "Stop it."

"I'm more than happy to pamper you. But if you're going to threaten stupid things, expect me to get as clingy as your little couch trick." She replied, "Hiding in a dream isn't going to help you out, Rin. I can always find what is important to me."

The woman bolted from the couch, and her bedroom door slammed with a sound like a volcano exploding.

It was hardly surprising that she would choose that to be her inner sanctum.

Violet snagged the demon out of the air as it tried to move passed her without a corporeal body. "I didn't show you the way, bastard. You just never really entered into the equation."

"I am a god, here!" The creature yelled, bending the room and imposing a darkness around them, "Who are you to oppose me?"

"Congratulations." Violet said bitterly, "I'm a god everywhere. Fall."

The demon fell to the ground, screaming in agony. She left it to try and work out what she had done and skipped off to the bedroom.

---

"Ooh. Creepy. I like it." Violet giggled as she entered the shadowy room which was more like a fog-filled forest than anything else. She approached the moaning and shifting cloak hovering nearby, taking it and placing it against a hook on the wall.

She shrugged, "So, you hate yourself. Big deal, Rin. It isn't exactly like I didn't know that already. Stop hiding from me, or we're both going to regret it."

"Get out."

Violet rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Get the fuck out of my house!" A roar from a Titan blasted over the landscape, dislodging trees and dirt and flinging spittle all over her face.

She smiled and reached into the ether, taking Rin's face gently in both her hands. She leaned forward and lightly kissed her nose, and smiled at her, "You matter, Rin. I'm not always kind. I'm not always right. Sometimes I feel how you feel. That everything I touch turns to shit. But I'm not here, burning away the last days of my life just to save you, just because you're some project. I know you never will... But I love you. I will always love you."

---

Kitty shoved the man in the alley into the wall, bending his arm behind and nearly breaking it. "Don't like being followed, cop."

Tom writhed painfully, "Assault on an officer."

She twisted.

"Fucking bitch!" He cursed, and winced, "Fine, fine! What do you want!?"

Kitty let him go, "Ya were the one followin' me. Some shit about this thing?"

He followed her hand to the dragon sitting curled up across her shoulders and stared at it. He swallowed nervously, and shook his head. "Actually... I wanted to talk to you about Arcana."

"She's mine now, asshole. Ya ain't never gettin' her back."

"She left the clinic before the doctors could sign off on it." Tom snapped, "I bet she didn't tell you. She's not okay. She's -"

"Dyin'. Didn't see the point in sittin' around and dyin'. She ain't copin' that well, neither." Kitty crossed her arms, "I ain't stupid, cop. She's runnin' out of time. So if she wants to pretend she's fine, and do stupid shit wit' me, that's what we're goin' do. Plenty of time to cry at the funeral."

He stared at her like she had three heads. "You... Knew."

"She's Arcana. What else would ya expect?" Kitty rolled her eyes, "She ain't never goin' admit she's weak. She don't want no pity, so I ain't givin' her none."

Tom frowned, "Are... You okay?"

"Fuck no. My girlfriend is about to die. Because her mum's a bitch, and because I somehow had an army of fuckin' demons in me." Kitty sneered, "Who the fuck would be okay wit' any of that? But Arcana ain't expectin' me to dump that on her. So I won't. I'll be her cold-hearted bitch of a girl. Because it's what she needs."

He visibly relaxed, "You're nicer than I thought you were, mundane. Maybe you're not entirely terrible for her, either. You take care of our Arcana, you hear me?"

"She ain't yours." Kitty sneered down at him.

He shrugged, "Nope. But she isn't all yours, either. She's her own free spirit, in the end."

"You're wrong. And an idiot." Kitty walked away from him.

Arcana wasn't free.

She just liked to pretend that she was.

---

Choosing food without any guidance was one of dating life's great traps.

The most that Arcana had was that Kitty had wanted a burger once. She'd also eaten an English Breakfast, and a gourmet five course. It wasn't exactly a telling selection of foods.

She didn't even know if Kitty disliked sashimi or she'd just wanted comfort food at the time.

It was moments like these that reminded her that she'd only known the woman for a handful of days. That though she felt inseparable and was excited to give every single day she had left all to Kitty... In a lot of ways, they were still basically strangers.

They were basically playing one very fast speed dating game.

Road trip food.

That was the only thing Arcana could come up with. Something easy to hold, and eat, because they weren't going to be in a restaurant or anything. They were about to take off on a grand adventure.

Not that Arcana could tell if they were just going off on a grand adventure or if they were eloping. The context sort of mattered. She understood that Kitty had proposed something incredibly romantic, but the woman was probably just trying to accommodate how weak she was at the moment.

Lying always made everything so complicated.

She may have gone a tad overboard with what she had found for them. She'd started out just with fish and chips because it was a staple roadtrip food from her childhood.

Then she'd panicked that it was too basic. So she'd tossed together a half decent salad in a lunchbox so there was a choice of something more. Right before she realised she'd never even seen Kitty eat a salad, and it wasn't exactly something she saw someone like her girlfriend eating.

So, Arcana had ended up adding a boxed burger to the pile of food that was somewhat sweltering in her arms as she waited around at the park for Kitty to come screaming in on a new bike.

She was going to look like a ditz or overly attached girlfriend now. Three whole meals was just -

"Adorable." A voice whispered in her ear, causing her to jump and scream.

A steady hand helped to catch the food as Kitty cackled at her. "Shoulda seen ya face."

"You little... Fucker!" Arcana stamped her foot.

The woman shrugged casually, and headed to a bench with the food. She spread out her arms as she sat down, the same woman who casually sprawled out on Arcana's couch after chasing down a dragon on a highway.

She couldn't help but grin.

Arcana slid in beside her, "So..."

"You spiralled." Kitty finished for her and tore a corner off the paper bag to pull out a hot chip. She held it out to Arcana, who took the opportunity to eat from her hand, surprising Kitty who may have expected her to just take it.

She smiled at her, "You know me. What food do you actually like?"

"Pretty much anything that's bad for you." Kitty replied, eating a chip herself, "This is fine. Oh, bike's over there. Got it outfitted with a couple carriers."

Arcana shook her head, "You saw me all stressed and decided to give me a heart attack? The legends of your kindness have not been exaggerated, I see."

"Shuddup." Kitty rolled her eyes.

The dragon on her shoulders swiped Arcana's next chip, with a self-satisfied purr that would have been eye watering to a sailor who could understand it. Kitty lightly tapped it on the nose and held one out and let Arcana eat from her hand again. "Well, this thing is gettin' way too comfortable. How do I make it piss off?"

"Train it." Arcana shrugged, "It's like any pet, really. Be firm, but not a dick. You're the one in charge. You make the decisions. It is all about the relationship between you and the dragon."

"Which nobody notices."

"Humans are great at not noticing things they don't understand." Arcana shrugged. "How many times have you shrugged off shadows in the house at night that you know shouldn't have been there? Ignored seeing things that surprised you enough to stop and second guess yourself?"

The latter might not actually apply to Kitty, but the point should get across.

"S'pose. But you lot also wipe minds. Like with Marduk." Kitty pointed out, "There's a line somewhere."

Arcana shook her head, "That's old fashioned. I mean, Tom's a jerk. He likes wiping minds. It's a dominance thing. Did I mention we had a really bad breakup? He only grew up after he could no longer get in my pants. Anyway... Mostly we just ignore it. If only the crackpots are talking about it, then it just becomes some crazy conspiracy."

"Right." Kitty frowned, "Lizard people?"

"There is a species of dragon that likes hanging out in sewers 'n stuff." Arcana shrugged. "A few, actually. We try and keep their numbers down, but they're sorta like rats. And then there's the Lacertas..."

"Hmm. Vampires?"

Arcana shuddered, "Gross. Undead are just gross. You think it'll be all sexy and stuff but they really are just cold and clammy and falling apart. And really intent on using you. Abusive bastards."

"There's a story there." Kitty grinned, "A wild one. Undead things are really... And ya slept with one... And I slept with you. That's... Kinda feral."

"I did not sleep with him!" Arcana complained, and then her face dropped, "I didn't realise he was undead until I kissed him. And then I fought like crazy to get the fuck out of there. It was just... Eugh."

Kitty giggled, "Ya still kissed a corpse."

"You're just trying to stop me eating so you can hog all the chips." Arcana stuck her tongue out. Which Kitty immediately latched onto. She was soft, salty, and warm.

"I'm better than a corpse."

Arcana blushed furiously, "You suck at flirting."

"So, if like, vampires happen. That mean that other crap does? Zombies? Werewolves?"

She thought about it for a moment, "Zombies? Sure. Its taboo, but there's some freaks out there still. Kinda like serial killers. Rare, and totally newsworthy when a necromancer pops up. Werewolves happen too, but just as rare, and it's an illness. A curse that we know how to break. Howling at the moon? Take two of these and call me in the morning."

Kitty's eyes lit up, "Fuck. You're not messin', are ya? There really is all this magic shit."

"You had a literal army of demons hanging out inside your soul." Arcana rolled her eyes, "Most people never even meet a demon. A soul sucking fucker who just wants to eat you to death and put a dozen babies in you. How are you surprised other things exist?"

"I dunno. It's... Interesting."

She laughed and shook her head, "Never going to understand you. But sure. Lots of stuff exists. Most of it has been moved into reserves and stuff, so it doesn't go extinct. Other stuff is more groceries than scary, as you learned the other night. And you've met demons, witches, and faeries."

"Dragon trainer still tops the sexy chart."

Arcana smiled sheepishly, "Aw. Thanks... And... Well, thanks for not going crazy over Ardet-lili. Like everyone does."