Tale: Dream Thoughts

“So I have Death visiting me while I’m awake and now you’re visiting me in my dreams?”

Your mind wanders. Your mind seeks. She is inbuilt into you.

“Of course Death is. She brings us to life then kills us and reincarnates us. Unless you’re unlucky. What are you doing here in my dreams?”

Like I said, child. Your mind wanders and seeks. You were designed to hunt down beings such as myself. My children mostly. Only Death herself was supposed to ever come after me.

“You didn’t answer my question. I don’t want to see you right now.”

You believe that, do you? Your deeper thoughts betray you.

“Stasis, go away. Can you not see how much shit I’m in right now? I am constantly in pain or on drugs, often both. My skin is peeling off. My armour barely stays attached. My insides are fucking disintegrating. It’s horrible.”

You deserve an audience with me. Voice your anger. Release it.

“You’re not listening. Go away. I hate you. Leave me and my dreams alone.”

You are not dreaming though. You are hiding from nightmares and terrors, lurking in the back of your mind.

“Okay, fine, I haven’t been sleeping well. But I need to sleep and this stupid conversation is getting me no closer to that goal. I’ve just dozed off and here you are, gas-bagging at me. I could have been having a decent dream for once!”

You were going to have the same nightmare you always have. The same dream where you are tied up and-

“Don’t remind me. Please. I know. The same dream where they do the same awful things to me. I don’t want to remember that… Listen, Stasis. Us mortals don’t live very long. Not just mortals like me, all mortals. A hundreds years is nothing compared to you. And right now, I don’t have much longer to live.”

A pity.

“As if you care. Way I see it, I have two options. I try and squeeze as much out of my life as possible before I die, or I take a massive dose of painkillers and end my life the way I want to. Not that it matters either way, I’ll be seen as dying dishonourably.”

There is always a third option.

“Oh? And what might that be? Got something better to offer me? Doubt it.”

I can fix you. Make you whole again.

“At what cost? You want my soul, don’t you? Your kind always do, so your stupid kids can try and find a way to both join the Cycle and keep their Deitic powers.”

Yet you willingly give your soul to the Cycle. You know that you will soon be leaving it. Death will keep you as a pet by her side. A ferocious beast, forever hunting down my more disobedient children.

“You still haven’t told me what this will cost.”

No matter what happens, one of us Three will claim you. You will not return to the Cycle like so many before you. I am simply giving you options.

“Hmph. You are just giving me the same deal Death offered me.”

She is to blame for your predicament.

“You both are. I am not interested. Please, leave me alone. Let me live the rest of my bleak, short, miserable life.”

Perhaps I shall find other ways to persuade you.

“Whatever. Get out.”

Very well, child. Very well…