The cohort erupted from their slumber, shimmering memories forming, the sleepers preparing themselves for imminent peril. They all stared into the darkness, trying to see if a horror was watching them from beyond, yet the darkness still held nothing.
Kade's attention immediately shot to Cassie, who was shivering like a petrified statue at the edge of the statue. She tilted forward, starting to lean over the statue, into the dark water. 'CASSIE!' Kade leaped to grab her, but with a poof of mist. Ike caught her first.
Pulling her back to the solid ground, trying to calm down the pale girl.
Seconds passed like hours, and everyone was still alert... But with no response or escalation from the screen, the tense air simmered down. Everyone lowered their weapons, each holding a question for Cassie...
But she was in no state to answer.
Sunny cast a worried glance at the girl. Sandra stood a little tense, hands tight around her daggers. Nephis and Kade stepped closer to the seer.
"You alright, Cas? Scared the hell out of me," Kade muttered, rubbing the back of his head.
The trembling girl looked around, not registering Kade as she looked around, trying to understand what had scared her so much. But there was nothing.
Nephis was listening to the sea, still unsure of their safety. After a few seconds, she asked Sunless.
"Do you see anything?"
Sunny helplessly shook his head.
"No. Nothing at all."
Ike and Kade helped Cassie sit down in the center of the platform. Sandra, Ike, and Sunny are standing guard. While the brawler and Nephilim comforted her.
Cassie, although pale and slightly shaking. She had no discernible wounds; apart from her mental state, she was spotless—just as normal.
'She's not hurt anywhere.'
Changing Star looked down. Although her face remained indifferent, he could tell that she was a bit flustered. After a second or two, she asked in something that might have been her version of a calming tone. It sounded pretty much exactly the same as usual:
"Cassie? What happened?"
Magically, that did seem to calm the blind girl down a little. At least enough for her to speak in a quivering voice.
Cassie extended one hand and pointed down.
"Th—the head… I saw… Oh gods!"
Kade frowned and questioned the legacy.
"A vision? Is that what having one looks like?'
The tall girl was silent for a moment.
"I don't know. It never happened before."
Both of them turned to Cassie, not sure what to do.
Since there was no apparent danger around, each of the cohort tried their best to calm the girl down one by one. They were making little progress—Cassie seemed unable to speak, her words before being the only exception.
After a while, Nephis sighed.
"Let's… leave her be, for now. Maybe she needs time."
Kade nodded, confusion and concern ingrained in the brawler's expression.
"Okay. I'll keep an eye on her."
---------
The sun rose over the forgotten shore, and the sea receded, chased to its deep, endless chasm that it called home. With the now warmer breeze washing over the sleepers, the salty smell of the parting sea lingered in their scent.
The seer sat beside the new fire, slowly chewing at her crab kebabs, the cohort's attention stuck on the girl.
"Cassie? Do you feel any better?"
Several seconds later, the blind girl slowly nodded.
Kade watched the interaction, grinding down pebbles between his grasp. Cassia didn't look too well. Her face was still very pale, with a distant, dazed expression on it. Her body, at least, was no longer trembling. Kade wasn't the greatest socialite, so he felt a bit unsure of how to approach the girl.
So he tried his best.
"It's great that you're better, honestly--didn't know what to expect after last night... Just is it ok if you tell me--Us what happened?"
Cassie hesitated for a bit before saying,
"I… don't know. Maybe it was just a nightmare."
The cohort exchanged glances. 'People don't normally dream in the dream realm, so how the hell would she have a nightmare?'
If she claimed that, it was most likely a vision instead.
The blind girl, meanwhile, continued:
"I don't really remember. It's all in fragments."
Sandra dismissed her kebab, a slight grimace in her expression as she inquired.
"You can just tell us what you remember. Maybe we'll be able to understand, even if it's not much."
Cassia sighed and tentatively nodded. After a long pause, she finally found the courage to speak.
"At first, I saw a… a boundless darkness locked behind seven seals. Something vast was churning in the darkness. I felt like if I directly saw it, I would lose my mind. As I watched, terrified, the seals broke one after another, until only one remained. And then that seal broke, too."
She trembled a little.
"After that… I don't know. It was as though my mind shattered into a thousand shards, each shard reflecting its own image. Most of them were dark and scary. Some I have already forgotten. The other…"
Cassie fell silent, remembering.
"I saw the human castle again. Only this time, it was at night. There was a lonely star burning in the black skies, and under its light, the castle was suddenly consumed by fire, with rivers of blood flowing down its halls. I saw a corpse in golden armor standing among the fallen, a woman with a bronze spear drowning in a tide of monsters, and an archer trying to pierce the falling sky with his arrows. A wraith wandering endless ruins. A righteous huntress, stalking her prey unseen, .... And a bright spirit being struck down from the heavens—
Finally, she looked up, her face full of horror.
"In the end, I saw a colossal, terrifying crimson spire. At its base, seven severed heads were guarding seven locks. And at the top, a… a despicable demon was being consumed by an angelic light and eternal shadow. I suddenly felt as though the world was finally right... but a guilt tore through me, splitting me apart—until I couldn't even recognize myself in the broken pieces."
Her voice became quieter.
"Then, among them. Rage and sorrow shook my soul—that little that remained of my sanity seemed to disappear. That was when I woke up… I think."
The cohort was struck silent, all for that moment staying unspoken, like Kade, each one trying to make sense of what Cassie had told them. Kade was totally lost; the entire thing reminded him of those chosen prophecy tropes he had watched as a kid.
Yet instead of sparking hope and wonder in the main character and viewer, it just riddled him with confusion.
'Can't things just be simple for once?' Kade mused irritably.
Previously, Cassia's vision about the castle was pretty much straightforward. It showed her a human fortress and even the direction in which it was situated. This time, however, her dream was disjointed, full of weird symbolism and vague, uncertain images, much more like a charlatan's prophecy than a vision gained through an Aspect Ability.
Sunless spoke up, sighing.
"Maybe it actually was just a nightmare. Your previous visions weren't like this, right?"
'Bullshit, that was a vision if I ever had one.'
Cassie silently shook her head.
Sunny scratched the back of his head.
"Well… people don't usually dream in the Dream Realm, but you do. Perhaps seeing a random nightmare once in a while is a side effect of your ability."
The blind girl turned to him, a faint relief written on her face.
"You really think so?"
He hesitated, trying to find the right words. Feeling the weight of his peers' stares.
"Why not? It's a possibility."
----------
Under the pale sun, the cohort packed up once again to reach their next destination, further west into the horde of nightmare creatures. The question of the vision and the future beholden in each of them.
But they had no time to stop; they could only keep moving forward.
[Authors Note]
New book cover, what do you think? :> Thought it was time to try something new, and the Asura's Wrath cover definitely pops out visually. As for plot-wise so far, I'm allowing myself to cruise a bit tbh with that I wasn't feeling the best today--And it allows me to give some time to rethink and plan bigger game changers better.
Also, to keep up with pacing, because I don't want to write on this section of the forgotten shore too long, otherwise it might feel repetitive!
Thanks for reading. your support means the world.