The Vampire & Her Witch
Chapter 776: Adrift in Dreams (Part One)

Chapter 776: Adrift in Dreams (Part One)

Stars twinkled in the night sky like jewels scattered across a soft blanket of the deepest, darkest blue that Ashlynn had only ever seen in Nyrielle’s eyes. All around her, the only sounds were the soft splashing of waves against the sides of a wooden boat, and the creak of the boat itself as the gentle waves rolled beneath it.

When Ashlynn asked Nyrielle to guard her dreams and keep her from harming herself at night, she’d asked her lover to show her the places that she had never been so they could build new memories together in dreams. She had meant it as a way to ensure that she didn’t touch on anything that would trigger the hurt and pain of learning what Jocelynn had done to her, and at first, Nyrielle had obliged.

The first night, Nyrielle had taken Ashlynn to a place known as the Thousand Spires, a strange land that seemed to belong to a different world where great columns of stone rose from the earth like spears pointed at the sky.

Each spire was more than five hundred feet tall with some reaching heights ten times greater than their smallest brothers and they were studded with caves that were home to anywhere between five and fifty people. Vast rope bridges stretched between the spires like the threads of a spider’s web and at night, walking across the bridges felt like walking among the stars themselves.

"This is a real place?" Ashlynn asked as she stared in wonder at the strange rocks and the homes that had been carved into the cliff faces of the giant spires. "You’ve been here?"

"Most Eldritch Lords come here at least once in their lives," Nyrielle said with a light laugh as she guided Ashlynn along the network of rope bridges. "Don’t worry, I’ll catch you if you fall," she added when she noticed her lover taking tentative, hesitant steps.

"The Thousand Spires home to Makya, the Eldritch Emperor for the past three hundred years," Nyrielle explained. "He belongs to the Soaring Clan and his wings are even larger than mine," Nyrielle said with a light laugh. "But I didn’t bring you here to talk about him or to share my memories of meeting him. I came to show you how the people of the Thousand Spires paint with sand."

"Paint with sand?" Ashlynn asked, blinking in confusion. "Do they mix it with glue so it clings to the canvas?"

"No," Nyrielle said, leading Ashlynn into a small cave filled with jar after jar of brightly colored sand and lit by hundreds of candles. "The Soaring Clan create vast paintings in sand that stretch hundreds of paces across and can only be truly seen from high above," she explained. "And when the winds come, the paintings blow away as though they were never there. Then they begin again, creating something beautiful and new."

Slowly, Nyrielle walked over to the wall in the cave, taking a small woven basket and filling it with several different jars of colorful sand before returning to Ashlynn in the center of the cave.

"Tonight, we’ll paint by pouring sand," Nyrielle said, offering the basket to Ashlynn. "Choose your color and I’ll show you how..."

That night, Ashlynn vaguely recalled that there was something important she should be thinking about, something that had been weighing on her heart and mind, but no matter how hard she tried, the thought slipped through her fingers like loose sand.

But once she gave up trying to remember what she was forgetting and lost herself in the process of ’painting’ with Nyrielle, the focus that it took to create shapes and patterns blended with Nyrielle’s affectionate closeness to create a night that she would always treasure.

Day after day, after Dame Sybyll brought home a worn and exhausted Ashlynn who could do little more than eat a simple meal and allow Nyrielle to help her wash before falling into bed, Nyrielle guided her into dreams of distant places and amazing sights across the Eldritch world.

After the third night, when they shared a sumptuous meal delivered by servants who wore nothing but body paint while they watched sensual dances performed by veiled beauties who juggled fire as they swayed to the beat of the drums, Nyrielle began to pull back on the amount of power she used to cloud Ashlynn’s mind.

The combination of physical exhaustion and time between the present and the moment she’d learned the truth were quickly wearing away at the sharp, dangerous edges of Ashlynn’s pain and rage, leaving behind deep aches that would take years to fully heal, but lacked the ability to overwhelm her senses.

Now, after the fifth and final night of training, Nyrielle used no power at all when she brought Ashlynn to the largest lake in the Eldritch world. A lake so vast that it held dozens of islands large enough to host a village, and there were several places on the lake where a boat couldn’t see the shore or any of the islands.

"Who’s territory is it this time?" Ashlynn asked when Nyrielle led her along a winding forest path covered in fine gravel that crunched beneath their feet. "I’m starting to feel like you’re boasting of the powerful people you’ve made friends with in your travels," she teased before blinking in surprise when they exited the forest and arrived at a small cove overlooking the lake.

There, a small, spindle shaped boat lay half out of the water, filled with familiar supplies and equipment for an excursion on the calm, moonlit waters of the lake.

"We’re going fishing?" Ashlynn asked, looking at Nyrielle in disbelief. "With a picnic basket?"

The gesture was incredibly sweet and exactly the sort of thing that Ashlynn had come to expect from her doting lover but it also touched on many of her memories of home. She’d never gone fishing in such a small boat before, her parents would never have taken such a great risk, but she’d fished off the back of larger ships in Blackwell Harbor several times, and on a few occasions, she’d also gone with Jocelynn to fish off the family’s personal pier in the harbor.

Thus far, Nyrielle had avoided anything that would have brought reminders of Ashlynn’s home or family, but this time, she felt like she’d been thrust directly into echoes of the place she missed the most and reminded of the things that might be lost to her forever, with no warning at all.

"Why?" Ashlynn asked as her eyes grew moist. "Why would you bring me to a place like this?"