The chantrix broke her Reverie and brushed the face of the prince, convulsing even now after hours of being locked into the eternal nightmare. The soft green glow of the cantrip Somaran - the laying-on-of-hands - flickered and faded from her, the warm soi washing out of her hands as the spell ended. She sighed and gripped her cane, turning to the princess.

"Milady Aurora..." She hesitated, shaking her head, gossamer wings flexing. "He has remarkable strength of dream. His soi should be all but snuffed by now under the weight of Arhimanes' phantasms."
Aurora's blue-white stare pierced the chantrix. "But you cannot cure my brother."

The piskey bowed her head. "No. And truth be told, I believe that nothing can."

Aurora shook her head, white tendrils of hair twisting in the air. "That cannot be true. That such a plague should exist..."
"...Would spell Oneria's doom, my princess. That is true. The fact that it forebodes terrible things can in no way disprove it." The chantrix hesitated a moment before laying her hand, still warm with spent soi, on her shoulder, cold as ice even through Aurora's robes. "Your Highness... I am sorry, but if you do not act, then more than your brother will suffer under an Eternal Nightmare."

Aurora nodded, silent, before walking over to a slab in the middle of the castle, the soft footfall echoing like that of a giant. The stone was of hewn marble, bathed as Aurora was in dancing patterns of light through stained glass, and Aurora brushed her hand against the engraved writing on the stone, cold as her hand, cold as the broken heart of a Sidhe. And she sang the writing on that slab, in a voice crackling with the blue of her soi, causing the hairs on the Chantrixes neck to stiffen and bristle and all else to become still:

_
"Always there's been an umbry pall, over all, of Oneria -
There will one day be a great fall, terror's call to Oneria.
Endless nightmare engulfs the land, by the hand of a true evil-
He would have all bow to his clan, to his plan and his dark will.
Yet despite the darkened times, or I mind because of them -
Six heroes will know their kind, and will find their vocation.
Lucid dreamers they will be, they shall see past Mundania,
They will know that they are fae, and then save all Oneria."_

Welcome to the Chronicles board, Renyard! It's great to see yet another writer showcasing his work!

Now, I have only one (well, OK, twO) gripes with this story. The first is, of course, it's length. It is just a bit too short..... but since it's part one, I'll accept it for now.

The other is the use of some of the words such as chantrix etc.... they add a nice mood to the story, but might be a bit more difficult for others to understand. But that's just a quibble really, I quite enjoyed it!

Congratulations again Renyard! Hope we'll see more of your work soon!

-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

Well, my only quibble (I love that word) is with the poem, it seemed to lack rythm. But then again, I don't know poetry very much so :p.

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"... For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause..." - Willaim Shakespeare, Hamlet

(This message has been edited by Celchu (edited 04-30-2002).)