Into the veil of dreams[pvt]

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As Theo drifted off to sleep at last, his wife sat eons apart from him in the deep meditative realm that passed for her own version of rest. She had learned some time ago now that to reach for a particular mind was as useless as it was frustrating, and so she had begun to set her spirit free to float in the starry night sky and wait. Sometimes she would make a connection, and sometimes not, but at the least she could enjoy the peacefulness of the night sky. Tonight though, a gentle tendril caught at her attention.

One might equate this messenger with a hell's butterfly, but as Sophia was not a shinigami, her connections appeared to her as something like a firefly or faerie. A soft pinprick of gently pulsing light to draw her attention down to the mind reaching out, knowingly or not. Tonight as she focused her energy she realized she recognized this one more closely than any other, and her physical heart soared to finally have reached the one person she had sought beyond all others.

Theocelese would find his dreams likewise invaded by those same lightning bugs, at first only one or two floating lazily in the scenes playing out, then steadily growing into a massive swarm that blocked out all else but their friendly glow. When they began to clear out, the dreamscape would have changed to a vibrant landscape, a grassy field dominated by a huge oak tree dressed in vibrant autumn colors beneath a clear blue sky. The whole environment had a soft, ethereal feel to it, reality distorted like a watercolor painting. Beneath the tree Sophia stood waiting for him, in his favorite dress of deep red. "You finally reached first me," she said with a smile. "How are you?"

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With a long exhale of relief, Sophia slipped her arms around him, resting her head against his chest. Here in this half-dream world that was her own, she could feel the tension ease out of him, letting all that he had become fall away to reveal the man beneath. In truth, it was not just that her presence had lifted it, more like her energy suppressed the veil over his humanity entirely. Those parts of him were not permitted here. "Me, too," she said, closing her eyes. She ran her fingertips across the smooth silk of the black shirt he wore, remembering that night of their anniversary, the happiness they had shared that night. Beneath a tree very like this one, in fact. She leaned into his kiss, not wanting it to ever end. When it did, she leaned back from him, and with a soft laugh, her fingertips lightly undid the top button of his shirt, as she so often had done in the past to remind him he was not in uniform, and it was acceptable to look more relaxed. She rested her palm against his chest in the open V there, against the hollow of his throat, and leaned into him as he lay his head against her.

"Well enough. I am mostly left to my own. He keeps me...alive."

That lack of rage was another effect of her power here. She willed the boundaries of their sanctuary to keep such things at bay, and somehow, they did. Nothing would disturb them there, unless she willed it to be so. She drew back from Kousta, slid her hand in his, and drew him over near the tree. She slid down to sit in the soft grass at the base of the great tree, tugging at his hand to get him to join her. Afternoon sunlight flitted through the gently rustling leaves in all shades of gold and russett and orange, and cast a warm light down on them both, while a cool breeze stirred the long, soft grasses so they sighed gently, and the leaves overhead rustled as the branches swayed.

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Sophia settled within the shelter of her husband's arms, and the long sigh escaping her lips was one of relief, as all the tension seemed to ease out of her shoulders. She lay her head back against his chest, and for a while was content to listen to the sound of his voice mingling with the gentle sighing of breeze through the grass, the rustling of leaves overhead. It was so easy to forget that this was just a dream, and would that it could be so. She would stay there forever if it were possible. But even in dreams, the looming threat of the present, of reality, clung to the edges of this paradise. Distant, but visible, dark and shadowy tendrils of cloud hovered like an omen on the horizon, their bellies glimmering violet periodically as lightning flashed.

She turned away from this unpleasant reminder, willing the late afternoon sky overhead to deepen, a rapid and lazy sunset arriving to cast a hazy orange glow on their private hollow. Soon dusk would fall as well, and with it would come the relaxing glow of fireflies as they lingered in the grasses. For now, though, the ethereal glow of autumn afternoon hovered about the place. Sophia draped her legs over his knees, lying sideways in his lap so she could rest against him.

"I don't know this Alex. But I will search for him, if he means to help us, and see what visions the starlight brings me."

She frowned, thoughtful for a moment, as she tried to recall Solinex. The name was familiar, but she could not summon his face. She shook her head in regret. "I do not remember him. I am sorry he is gone, I can feel how his loss pains you." There was hope, of a sort, though. She had seen enough to infer that souls were not, for the most part, simply destroyed; just moved around. Heroes, even Gods, were reborn on the mortal plane, once their tenure in the Spiritual world was over, it was easy enough to believe the same of mortal souls. There was still a chance that Solinex might yet be found, in this life or the next. She had been found, after all.

"You have more than memories," she said, perhaps a little sharper than she meant. His words cut a little. "I am more than a memory. Barely, but that can't be helped. The past hurts, the loss hurts, but you can't let that cloud your judgement. There is too much at stake. There may yet be a time that could be possible, we can't afford to lose hope." She slid one arm around his waist and kissed his cheek, her palm stroking his back in a comforting gesture as it had a thousand times before. "I will help him as I can. I will look for him. I don't have the skill yet to find him in the waking world, so it must be while he sleeps."

She held him tight as the tide of emotion overwhelmed him, accepting the waves of despair until the fury of it had been spent, all the while her hands stroking his hair, feathering kisses to his forehead. She smiled through her own sadness for him at his question for her, laughing softly at the ludicrous thought of so distant a goal. "Somewhere by the sea, perhaps. Where we can see the sky. What do you think?"

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Sophia noted the hurt in her husband's eyes, but did not know what had caused it. She slipped her arms around his neck and held tight, resting her forehead against his cheek. "I am sorry, love. So many of my memories are still faded. It is painful for me to recall them sometimes. Hopefully with time they will all return." She lay against him, holding him, as his hands caressed her back and shoulders.

"An island would be nice. Away from anything, and everything. Will we truly be able to return to the human world? Start over again?" It was a thought that troubled her often. She was not quite sure what she was anymore, a spirit or ghost or some other ethereal being. She was certainly no longer a Hollow, and for that she was unduly grateful. Those days had been among the worst, and it was likely those lingering memories that made her past painful to rewitness. She smiled, her eyes wistful, as she thought forward instead, to the day when this all would be over and done.

"I want a hammock slung over the water. A grand piano, and all the time in the world to play it. I want a record player, with all our old favorites on it to dance to, in a big room with french doors looking out over the water." She smiled, the image coming to her as clearly as if they were already standing there. "It matters not to me anymore to play for the world. We learned the hard way what fame and notoriety bring. Perhaps some small venues, but I'd rather play for just us." The memory of that particular encounter brought a smile to her face, her eyes alight with the fondness of the memory. She turned to look in his eyes, her own full of love. "I want children, too. We deserve a normal life after all this."

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