Bridge of Memories
Basin of Stars
This is a tale of the last day of the Dream before the Great Loss. It begins uneventful enough in
Cloudsbreak. Ialura was going about her daily routine, gathering the eggs in the chicken coup, churning the butter with her
sisters from the cream gathered by her brothers during the morning milking, and
preparing the evening meal with her mother singing in the kitchen of their small
country home. All gathered and as always the meal was mixed with the laughter
and smiles often shared in her family. Then suddenly a great sadness filled her
heart and formed into a single tear, traveling solemnly down her now pale cheek,
a droplet of pure sorrow, marking the beginning of an end. Excusing herself from
the table she went up to her room to rest, suddenly feeling quite ill. The
concern apparent on her family’s faces was dismissed as a touch of the flu that
was going around the shire.
She sat down quietly upon the edge of her bed and decided to see if she could find some answers to what troubled her in the dream. She quickly fell into a fitful sleep. Awakening into the Dream, she found herself alone in the Threshold of the City. All seemed as it was when last she was here, except for the apparent lack of other dreamers on a night when the rooms of Threshold are usually packed so tight you are forced to become friends due to proximity. A small seed of despair had been planted in her heart. Unable to find a single soul she decided to see if any of her friends could be found at their house in the Basin. Stepping through the portal to the planes of the Basin the seed sprouted and entangled her heart. She stood horrified at the sight laid out before her. The ground was littered with essence of her fellow dreamers. Despair turned quickly to fear, almost swallowing her soul. She built up her resolve and fought back the almost uncontrollable desire to run from this horror before her. She instead began to gather up the essences, hoping against hope she could find someone who could help her restore her friends. Tears cascaded down the hills and valleys of her once lovely face, like a raging river now contorted into a mask of sorrow and fear. She wiped them on her sleeve and started to fill her cloak with essences. She gathered it up and headed for the house in hopes someone there could help, if there was someone there. As she passed from portal to portal she gathered more and more essences until her cloak was full and her arms could carry no more, vowing to return for the others as she pushed on.
With her vision blurred from the tears, the salty taste finding its way to her now drawn and pale lips as they traveled her cheeks she stumbled under the weight of her burden. She pressed on, almost feverish with despair. As she reached a small bridge, crossing over a gently flowing stream, she took a moment to rest. Legs shaking, chest heaving, her head was spinning, searching for some reason for the death that lay scattered about the City. Then she felt it, deep with in her. Like an iron fist squeezing her heart, stomach tied in knots, sheer terror overcame her. Then it swept through the plane, a pure wave of Chaos. The second to tear through the Dream Plane this day. Desperately she dove into the waters. The essences of those she carried scattering over its surface. Her attempt to avoid the horror that the Chaos would bring, was doomed to fail as all attempts made earlier had. But before it hit for the second time this day a lone tear formed in the well of her eyes and wound its way down her cheek, to break free and fall to gently join the waters of the plane as the wave of Chaos overcame her. The last dreamer had fallen. Somehow in that instant, all of what she and those she carried, became infused in the waters that flowed under the bridge. Mingling together, the only thing that would survey the utter destructive force of the Chaos, was their Memories. It is rumored that if one stands upon the bridge and looks out upon the waters they will see the Dream as it was before the Great Loss, as it was seen by the eyes of all those souls that make the gentle waters under the bridge their home.
Researched by Midhir
