The Dreamer

     "Are you really a human?"

    The voice seems to issue from nowhere. I turn to see my reflection.

    I didn't enter the temple from Estellia. I'm asleep this time. I couldn't think of a place to put the temple doorway that wasn't too conspicuous, so I'm sleeping on a bench at the library. Fortunately, the librarian knows me very well. 

    I must have been dreaming. I thought I got my dreaming over for the night, but apparently I didn't. I head down the hall, wanting to get to the study. I want to try and see if I can write a job I can keep into existence. I've never tried that before. Actually, I've never tried writing anything into existence. I just write about the world I see, and muse on the world that could be. Wow, that was a rhyme, I never thought I'd have any talent for poetry. 

   "Are you going to answer my question?"

    "Who the heck is talking? I know I didn't see anybody come… in…"

     In one of the mirrors, I can see my reflection, only too many details are off. She's wearing all black, while I always where a white shirt. Her hair is pulled up in a bun, while mine is always pulled back in a ponytail. She also looks way too calm and collected, the opposite of how I feel most of the time. 

     "Who are you?" I ask.

     "I'm you." She says, as though it weren't obvious.

     "No, you're not." I say. "I don't look like you at all." 

     "Then why do you see me whenever you look in a mirror."

     I'm about to tell her that I don't, but then I look around I see that my reflection has been replaced by her in every one of the mirrors. "What did you do?" I all but whisper.

   "I did nothing. This is all your doing. You can't expect to claim power without being changed."

   "You mean, into a Nightmare?"

    "No. Not that kind of power." She holds out her hand and produces a small ball of light. "This kind, the power of the soul. The power that lies at the heart of every Estellian, but that not one person would ever dare use. I hear they say it corrupts you, turns you into something evil." She closes her hands, and the light disappears, "I wonder, how willing are you to test that theory?"

    I'm confused. "Are you talking about Lucidity?"

    "Lucidity simply means that you can see that your world isn't real. Any fool can do that. What most won't do is admit that they are allowed to change the world into whatever form they want, so long as no one tries to stop them. Tell me, do you think people won't try to stop you from changing the world to be what you want it to be?"

   "I'm not trying to change the world. I'm trying to save it, to save us from the oppression of the Nightmares. What do you think this temple is for?"

    "If this temple is for the good of humanity," she asks, "Then why won't you let anyone see it."

    "I'd let them, if anyone else slept." I reply.

    "The Nightmares sleep, yet you don't let them near here at all. I see you spend most of your time fighting them." 

    "Nightmares and humans aren't the same." I yell.

    She looks at me, with an expression I can't read. I get the impression she feels that I'm being stupid. "What's the difference then? Would you be able to tell me, with absolute certainty, that a person was a Nightmare?"

    She's got me there. "No, but most people can." 

    "Do you not remember that Lucidity allows people to see the truth? Have you ever considered the possibility that the Humans and Nightmare are but one and the same race? That one was not meant to be food for the other, but that they were in fact meant to live in harmony?"

   "Were they?" I ask.

   "I don't know. History is quite fuzzy, as I'm sure you've no doubt noticed. One thing I must know before I depart. Knowing everything I told you, would you become a Nightmare if the chance was offered to you?"

    Puzzled, I say, "Well, no Nightmare would ever offer me up the opportunity, so I don't see how it's relevant. If I were the kind of human destined to become a Nightmare, I wouldn't be homeless in the Human City."

   "I see." she says, "Farewell, Dreamer."

 

  I awake with a start. The first thing that crosses my mind is how dark it is. I'm not normally awake this late at night, usually I fall asleep at dusk and wake up at dawn. I don't like being awake in the dark. It's like being in the Infinite, only everything can attack you at a moment's notice. 

   Then it hits me. Whoever that was called me Dreamer. As in, The Dreamer. The person who dreams all of Estellia into existence. 

    That can't be right, though. I'm not only a human, but nobody on either side of my family has ever even served a Nightmare, let alone become one themselves. Nobody would choose me as the Dreamer. Not even my parents, the only people who have ever loved me. 

   My brain turns over what she said, and I can't seem to just dismiss it. Plenty of people know how to ignore things they know are false, but I've never been able to do that. Maybe it's because most of the books that I read are fiction books. I know none of them are real, but I can imagine them so vividly that they feel real to me. 

    I try to imagine, now, what it must be like to be The Dreamer. You'd need a room, with a really nice bed to sleep on. You'd need someone to bring you food and water, because of course The Dreamer would have weaknesses stronger than even the strongest of High Nightmares. You'd need something nice to dream about, like home. 

  Not unlike my nighttime Dreams. 

  Was all of this an omen for me being The Dreamer? Am I letting myself be homeless and unhappy for no reason?

  That makes no sense. Humans only control things when they're asleep, right?

  Then again, I did see the Infinite while I was awake. I have been moving the temple from place to place, and sleeping in a bed in my house. 

  Maybe she's right. Maybe I'm not human after all.