Chapter 33

“The storm isn’t letting up…” Laurence commented as he looked out the window, the house he was residing in barely holding up to it.

With a slight sigh he looks back at Demea who is still pacing back and forth, trying to figure out anything.

“I don’t get it, at least with Teach I knew what his storyline was, where he fit into the lore… but this? This feels like two clashing storylines.” she comments as she paces back and forth, her tired eyes now looking frantic. “A vanishing boat… a winter storm… god why can’t I remember it?!” she cries out, frustration boiling over now as she throws her book on the ground.

“Easy there, just take your time, even if you did work on the story for this game it's not uncommon to forget certain details.” he calmly says, trying to ease her mind. “Heck it could be that you’re just remembering details of a dream, not actual lore.”

Demea pauses, her eyes lighting up as she slowly looks over at Laurence, slightly scaring him in the process.

“What did you just say?” she asks, trying to get him to repeat himself.

“Uh, not actual lore?” Laurence replies, now growing slightly more concerned.

“No! Before that!” She yells out, something about remembering…” she begins, only pausing as her mind is too scattered right now, it was like trying to put the pieces of a mismatched puzzle together.

“The details of a dream?” Laurence slowly replies, cautious of how she’s going to react.

Demea stands there quietly, racking her brain for a moment over the word “Dream” and why it was making her feel this way.

It was as if she was remembering something, yet not fully, something in the lore of the world yet an easy to miss part.

Then it clicked, like a puzzle piece finally snapping into place.

Loudly she began laughing to herself, internally questioning how she couldn’t have seen it sooner, all the clues and hints were there!

It was maddening, having the truth snap into place after having forgotten it for this entire duration.

“Demea?” Laurence questions, wanting to move closer to her, but too afraid to.

“I get it, I finally understand what went wrong, I know what’s happening here now.” she mumbles a bit hysterically, still trying to collect herself. “No wonder this place isn’t how it normally is…”

Quietly she moves to pick up her book, the look of clarity and insanity in her eyes only increasing as she does so. “Tell me, Laurence, what do you know about the power system here?”

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He looks a bit confused as he thinks for a moment. “Well… it's not exactly clear cut but there’s natural magic, advanced, and memories, right?”

“Those are the basics, yes.” she begins, flipping her book open to a certain page. “That among a whole deeper myriad of interconnecting lines and variants… but the big concern right now is the idea of dreams, specifically why they’re powerful.” She looks at Laurence once more. “Did you know everything in this universe is intrinsically tied together? Even things that are polar opposites like fire and ice are considered two sides of the same coin.”

“From what I was reading in the temple I gathered that, but what does that have to do with dreams?” Laurence asks, now crossing his arms as he tries to connect the dots.

“Well, what would you put on the opposite end of memories? It's not nothing, or the slow pain of forgetting memories over time, or even using a rite to harvest someone's memories, because those are all still tied to memories.” her voice trails off a little as she looks down at a page in her book with a curious look. “It’s Dreams, Dreams are the otherside of the coin, the creation of vivid scenes that hold just as much dense power as memories.”

“Dreams, really?” Laurence slightly scoffs, shaking his head a little. “A Dream is responsible for all this?”

“It’s not as crazy as you might think, several creatures and spells have been born from Dreams.” She begins once more, flipping to a new page in the process. “In fact, everything we’re experiencing right now fits the idea of a certain Dream based spell perfectly.”

Before Laurence can even retort she walks and holds the book out to him, the page open to the spell in question.

Outside of the text describing it there wasn’t any other indication of how it worked, no sigils, no magic circle, not even an element or materials.

[Demenzeir]

[Demenzeir is an area of land that has been overrun with magic, usually the kind created from Memories or Dreams flooding from a subject.]

[The magic of this area typically gives it an almost dream-like quality, objects and areas vanishing, creatures appearing and disappearing, even the inability to use standard magic contact methods.]

[This spell was not fully discovered until _____ by V____ A_____, though it has been documented as early as the first age.]

[If one finds themselves stuck in this area the best solutions are, try to exit the boundary or deal with the host.]

[Once the host has been dealt with everything will vanish, just like a dream, though until that occurs it is incredibly dangerous to pass through as standard logic does not apply there.]

Laurence couldn’t believe his eyes, what the hell was all this? He’d some crazy spells studying at the temple but this? This just seemed too crazy.

“Where did you get this?” he asks quietly, trying to process all the implications the spell could have moving forward.

“From one of The Forgotten’s old books, Yuria and Regis helped me translate it.” She states matter of factly, now looking out the window and seeing Regis approaching the house.

“This changes everything! We barely understood magic as is- oh my god, what does this mean for other spells and the like?!” Laurence starts heavily questioning, jumping a little when he hears the door open up.

“What it means” Regis begins, lightly dusting off her armor in the process. “Is that from here on out we’ve got a lot to learn, especially if we want to understand anything my Lord left behind.” Quickly she downs a flask of something, sighing after doing so. “Now then, pack up you two, let’s get moving.”

“Wait, we’re leaving?” Demea asks, slightly afraid of venturing back out into the frozen wasteland. “Where would we go?”

Regis just smiles and looks back to the door. “To meet up with an old friend.”