The Newt and Demon-8.77 - Fenian in Trouble... Again

Bringing Khahar back to the mortal realm was about more than just giving an old friend a trip down memory lane. If Theo dug deep into his thoughts and motivations, a task that was becoming more difficult by the day thanks to the Tara’hek, he would see the truth of his selfishness. The alchemist had peeled Khahar away from his world, granting him his “mortal” status once again, because he wanted to show that he could. A part of that was a need to shame the Middle Realms, just as the Warriors of the Shard had shamed the heavens.

Khahar’s lack of ability was set out for all to see, even if that group was only the three current Throne Holders. But Yuri wasn’t a man who took a kicking for long. He was the kind of guy that would take the beating, then formulate a plan to come back and kick twice as hard. After their dinner, he focused hard enough that Theo thought he might pop a blood vessel. Then, he folded the void in on itself, displaying the mastery that a man holding the title of Arbiter should’ve had.

“They grow up so fast!” Tresk had remarked.

Now, standing in the Dreamwalk, Theo reflected on where they were, and how far they still needed to go. It wasn’t enough that they should be strong when the change came. The Throne Holders needed to be competent. They couldn’t have the weird ties like Khahar had just severed. Each member had a job to do, and if they couldn’t do that job, they were dead weight. It was hard not to think about the idea that someone might one day come for his job, but the alchemist persisted.

"You're awfully pensive today," Tresk said. Approaching Theo, she had summoned an image of a generic scene. It was a forested landscape with snow-capped mountains visible in the distance.

"And you don't really need to ask me what I'm thinking about," Theo said, shaking his head. “I’m worried about Fenian. Not just because he's not here to fill his role as the Herald, but… What kind of trouble has he gotten himself into this time?”

"If there's one thing I know about Fenian, it is that he's always got a plan," Tresk said. "I know. The last plan he had was a suicide mission, but maybe this time he's thought things out a little better."

There was only one reason Theo could think of for Fenian to disappear, and he really didn't want to consider the implications. There were too many problems when it came to reincarnating a soul. He knew that currently, Death held the power to make that happen. But it wasn't a secret that Death and Fenian weren't on the best of terms. That meant the elf would need to force the matter, and it was hard to see that scenario ending in anything but the most probable bloodshed.

"You need to stop thinking about Fenian as a damsel that needs rescuing," Tresk said. "If he got himself into this problem, he'll pull himself out, or we'll find ourselves a new Herald."

Theo nodded. It might’ve been a grim thought, but she was right. The sector would persist, and they needed someone to manage the mortal realm. It was the most important of all the planets in the sector. The alchemist stretched out, then reached his hand as though to pluck something from the air. Tresk gasped, but he just shrugged.

“It won’t let me,” Theo said, showing that nothing had appeared in his hand. “As much as I try, the Dreamwalk won’t let me imagine the power of that time realm.”

“Thank god for that,” Tresk said, huffing. “You wanna make the gods our enemies? Now that me and Fate are besties?”

“You’re not best friends with Fate.”

“Yeah, I am. We’re the same height.”

“And the same emotional maturity,” Theo said, a smile spreading across his face. “Actually, I think she might be more mature than you.”

“Maybe. But no one out stabs the Tresk.”

It had become a tradition in the Dreamwalk to attempt to push it further than ever before, but the personality of the imagined realm had grown completely rigid as of late. Theo had a few things he wanted to do the next day, and one of them involved a few wild stabs in the dark and then an attempt to retrieve Fenian from wherever he was. That first required them to terminate the dreamwalk early so they could catch him while sleeping.

After having a pleasant breakfast of leftovers, Theo and Tresk found a relatively quiet part in the city and sat upon a log. The marshling had already made vague efforts to locate the elf with no success. She claimed that, through great concentration, she might be able to figure out what she called "where his dream trails were." Apparently, people were constantly putting off a streak through space that she could see. Even if they weren’t dreaming, a part of their mind could be half-way between waking and sleeping.

“Daydreaming doesn’t count, does it?” Theo asked, trying to understand his companion’s logic.

“I dunno. Maybe if I try hard enough,” Tresk said, shaking her hands out. “Buckle up. Let’s see if we can’t follow the trail.”

Although Theo doubted the concept of a dream trail from the start, Tresk was like a bloodhound. She sniffed out a trail right away, following a strange strand of magical energy not unlike the way Fate plucked the golden threads. Unsurprisingly, that trail headed straight to the system’s seat, and then, more worryingly, into the heavens. With the alchemist’s help, they pinpointed the location he had arrived at. Both of them winced.

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“Sometimes, I hate when you’re right,” Tresk said. “What the hell are we going to do?”

“Heh. You said what I was just thinking,” Theo said, scratching his chin. “Fenian went to hell. Can you lock onto him through Death’s Gate?”

Tresk thought about that for a while, but eventually just closed her eyes and gave it a try. She probed around the edges of the gate, then thrust her Dreamer’s senses into it. Even though he wasn’t looking with his own eyes, Theo immediately felt a burst of bright colors that nearly blinded him. Only when she had turned down the brightness, narrowing her senses to living mortals instead of the endless billions did they see a light on the horizon.

“Woah,” Tresk said. “You see how far away he is?”

Looking around the scene as best he could, Theo nodded. The sea of potential dreamers, something he assumed were the dreams of lost souls, had spanned out into infinity. Now there was nothing but the darkness and the single point of light. Yet, Tresk didn't wait for any command. She locked onto that thing and entered its dreams just as quickly. The haze that descended on them was punishing.

Tresk groaned under the weight of the consciousness, the dream swirling around her like a strung-out vortex. It took Theo a few moments to realize what was happening, and he pulled her out of the dream as quickly as he could. The marshling fell backwards over the log, landing with a thud on the ground.

“Time dilation,” Theo said, blinking away his stupor. “Maybe the most potent I’ve ever seen.”

“Ah, crap. That’s why everything looked like a confusing smear. We were watching Fenian’s dreams over the course of… how long was that?”

Theo rubbed his face, his mind having trouble parsing the images. But the longer he thought about it, the more they made sense. He remembered dreams of blood and battle, and of the haze that enshrouded the elf. Thousands of years of endless fighting against chimeric horrors and a goal that seemed to belong to another.

“I can’t tell,” Theo said. “The only thing I can parse from that smear is that Fenian is fighting in there. He’s in some kind of battle trance.”

“So, how are we going to pull him out?”

Theo was still doing his best to parse the information in his brain, even if he drew on the help of both Tresk and Alex. He couldn't really understand everything that was going on. But a quick estimation would put the time dilation of Death's Gate as one of the most extreme he had ever heard of. It was far more potent than the paper world, meaning that Fenian had spent an ungodly amount of time there.

“I think he’s been there for a few thousand years,” Theo said, trying to make sense of his mental math. “At least a few, maybe way more.”

Tresk tapped her chin, doing her best to keep up. “Training montage?”

“We can’t even guess. I’m just going on the information we got from his battle trance,” Theo said. “I’m just assuming the passage of time based on the way time flowed in his dream. His motives are impossible to guess.”

As concerning as that was, at least they now knew that Fenian was alive. Well, mostly. It was hard to call a millennium-long battle trance as a good thing, but his heart was still beating, and he hadn't lost his mind entirely. Although the dream was chaotic and almost uninterpretable, it still seemed coherent enough to tell the alchemists that the Herald was alive and he still had his mind.

Tresk didn't take the news so well. “Oh, we can't even help him,” she asked. “Why wouldn't he ask for help with something like this? I'm sure we could have whipped him up something useful for the trip.”

Theo shrugged. “I did whip ‌up quite a few useful things for him, actually. Return potions, attribute potions, combat potions. A lot of stuff he took from my stocks.”

“And you didn’t think that was odd?”

“No. He’s always taking a few things here and there. 15 Return Potions was kinda weird, but whatever. Thought he was just preparing for death like he always does,” Theo said. “Since the Return property saved him before, I figured that’s what was on his mind.”

Tresk finally stood pacing on the spot as she shook her head furiously. “We gotta go talk to somebody. Maybe we can go see Death himself. We could use an excuse to get there. I say that we're checking on the progress the Warriors of the Shard have made.”

Theo finally regarded the topic with the seriousness Tresk had been giving it. She was truly concerned about how Fenian was doing, and didn’t seem eager to let the topic go. He gave her a sharp nod, formulating a plan in his mind. Checking on the heavens was within his authority as the Dreamwalker, even if the Seal of Passage was created to prevent them from passing into the heavenly realms. He could request special passage from the system, and since he had done her a solid recently, he expected her to accept.

“Let’s go,” Theo said, sending a subtle mental message to Alex. It didn’t take the dragon but a few moments to descend from the skies overhead.

Without hesitating, Theo wrapped them in his aura and folded the void on itself. An instant later, they were standing on the system’s platform, looking upon the empty places where the gods should’ve been standing.

“Special passage request,” Theo said, barely waiting for the system to form before speaking. “I’d like to visit Death’s realm.”

The system regarded Theo with a confused expression. “An interesting request.”

“I believe a mortal is trespassing,” Theo explained.

“A mortal, or the Herald?” she asked.

Theo’s eyes twitched. So she already knew, which was pretty annoying. “By the authority of the Dreamwalker, I’m requesting passage to bring him back.”

“The Seal of Passage is still broken,” the system said. “You can just go.”

“We’re looking for permission, lady! We’re not bad boys!” Tresk shouted.

“Could’ve fooled me,” the system said with a shrug. “Fine. Go with my blessing. Bring your lost lamb back.”

“Thank you. We’re almost ready for the reset, by the way,” Theo said.

“Take your time,” the system said.

Theo and Tresk shared a look. They both nodded at the same time before the trio, including Alex, plunged through the Seal of Passage and angled for Death’s Realm.