Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.
You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.
Click here
"I met her a couple of times, but as far as I'm aware, no one has seen her in the last decade."
"What do we need to do?" Efi placed her cup on the table and reached for her pack. "I brought some gifts. I wasn't sure what a Dream Walker would like."
"Gifts aren't required, but she appreciates them. All we have to do is relax and clean up. There's a bathing chamber with a hot spring in one of the tunnels, and plenty of beds. When we're ready, we go to sleep. She does the rest."
"Do the dreams you have here always come true?"
Leho lifted one shoulder. "If those are the kinds of dreams you need to see. Sometimes they show possibilities or the past. It depends on what she thinks you need to know."
"That sounds frustrating." The words were out before she thought about it. Efi glanced around. What if she'd insulted the Dream Walker? She was always talking before she thought!
"Relax." Leho laughed. "The Dream Walker's not easily offended. She knows better than anyone how frustrating her magic can be. Just remember, there's a reason she's showing you what you see. Even if it makes little sense, pay attention. It could be the key to something important later."
Efi stayed in the bath until her fingers and toes wrinkled. Now that she was here, she couldn't help feeling trepidation, and she was delaying going to bed. What if there were no answers? Or only things she didn't want to know. Or that made no sense for years to come? What if she was one of the people who didn't come back?
Don't be a coward, Efi. Sighing, she rose, dried off, and wrapped herself in a decadently plush robe. With nothing else she needed to do, she was out of excuses and climbed into a soft bed.
Full, clean, and warm, Efi relaxed and fell into a dream.
Not her dream, but that of hundreds of thousands. A consciousness of the world. Or maybe the magic.
She drifted high over a world of peace.
One land
All the magics, beings, and creatures lived in harmony.
Lovers bound together, their magics flowing to join in a circle of two colors.
Xov and Xau.
A woman's soft voice spoke the words in Efi's head. Xov and Xau need to balance. Two magics can become greater than was they could each be on their own.
The world trembled down deep in the earth, shaking all the land.
On the surface, in a city in the middle of the land, a portal opened. A jagged rip in the air. First horizontally, then the gap opened up and down. Power burst from the tear, leveling buildings and throwing people off their feet. Through the portal, a war. Fires and explosions. People screamed and ran.
Refugees, dirty, bloody, and dressed in rags, poured through, escaping the destruction of their world.
Those who opened the portal, touched by magic, followed, but fell without closing the gateway.
Destroyers came through with machines and a craving to force submission from the untouched world.
Pairings were split. Bonds snapped. Those who wielded magic forced into new relationships.
Xov sundered from Xau.
The world out of balance.
Revolution.
Silver magics rose and fought for the first time. Unity and peace shattered as the magic twisted into a purpose never intended.
Earth tremors deepened. Ocean waves rose to towering heights. Volcanoes erupted, spewing ash and lava into the air, carried on hurricane winds that circled the planet.
The world split -- one land riven into five, separated by the ocean that rushed in to fill the empty spaces.
The portal closed, but not completely, and magic drained from the world.
Silver magic fled, hiding within the few who would carry on. Hiding deep in the earth and in mystical realms, the silver magic bided its time.
The dream shifted.
A man. Big and dark-haired, with blue eyes too bright.
A life unfolded before Efi. She stayed with the blue-eyed man. They lived in a home of rocks. No trees. He kept her within sight at all times. She never left the stone building. Her magic flowed around her.
The dream forked. No blue-eyed man. She remained free, but a sense of doom weighed on her soul as her magic died.as did the world as the last traces of silver magic faded.
Another shift.
She faced fortress of white stone. A sharp, agonizing pain lashed her back. Again. And again. Screams echoed in her mind.
Silver magic swirled from where she lay on a shiny floor in a bloodied heap. The magic spiraled out a window. Her spirit lifted from her pain-wracked, broken body. Agony vanished, replaced by contentment and wonder. She floated after the magic and once again had a view from high above the world.
Below her, everything changed. The separate lands moved toward one another, reuniting.
Silver magic settled in the air and over the land.
Efi sat up, gasping for breath.
If she stayed with the blue-eyed man, her magic healed, but she lost her freedom. If she kept her freedom, either way, she lost her life.
Three possible futures.
Two resulted in death.
One saved Xuterias.
