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There is a mystery that's currently unsolved. It's in Avedan's head. It's not like he's going insane (he's quite sure that he's not) but lately his sleep's been pretty eventful. He'd always had dreams (didn't everyone?) but lately, they've been getting more vivid. More lifelike. And, most interestingly of all, more internally consistent.
It's really, really confusing. Avedan is somewhere between wanting to learn more about the internal history present in the dreams, and wanting to understand why they're being so - insistent. He suspects it has something to do with malfunctioning servants, but all of his are working just fine. He checked. Twice. So - maybe someone else's aren't working properly? Or something? He doesn't know, there's zero precedent for eerily vivid and consistent dreams. Avedan tries talking to someone about it, exactly once. They immediately think he's having reoccurring nightmares.
But they're not nightmares. Well. Okay, some of them are, one of the more memorable ones included desperately clutching a woman's hand, begging her to stay with him, just keep breathing, to stay alive. She didn't. If it'd been with someone he knew, he might have thought it was just a simple nightmare. But, no. He's never seen her before in his life. Only his dreams, and not all that often, either. Because there are others, with - happier memories attached to them.
He's started to notice patterns. In - consistent people, consistent places, and most interestingly, consistent personalities. He's pretty sure it's not his subconscious being uncreative (if it were that, he would be naked at work or something) but the bizarre internal consistency his dreams are exhibiting.
It's hard, to figure out if there's a timeline to it all. But there is one thing that's consistent: a city. He does a quick bit of research, finds the city's name (Lapis), and after a bit more research is confronted with the dream's reasonable level of fidelity. As in, it's nearly the same, with exception to what he suspects is construction. And he's never been to Lapis in his life. Just what is going on? He can only think of one way to find out, and that way involves packing up his bags, handing them off to a well-maintained servant, and then heading off to Lapis.
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do_over
do_over
"That - is very weird. If you don't mind my asking - what do you do in the dreams where - you are her?"
secondchance
"All kinds of - stuff. Learn servantmaking, like my teacher isn't on my case about that enough while I'm awake - I like hers better, it's always the same lady, just in one dream Aly's seven and in another she's twelve and then she's eight, you know. Read books, which oddly enough don't collapse like a handful of wet sand when I wake up - I mean, I haven't found copies of the books in real life, but I can still more or less remember them as having plots and content, at least whatever part I dream through. Puppet a little scooter to get around. That's how I got the idea for the chair, actually, although it's a golem."
do_over
There is a long, long pause from Aydanci. Then, abruptly: "What are the three questions?"
do_over
"I would never. I have left my wife's alone, even if she's been gone for - what, almost eighteen years now," he says, sort of testily and vaguely insulted. "So no. That is not the sort of thing I do. Ever. Are you in the chair because you're clumsy?"
secondchance
"Your wife's one thing, a stranger is another, for some people - and - yeah? I mean, it's also faster and less tiring than walking, but - yeah."
do_over
"It's really not any different, for me." Pause. "I'm - if this is a cruel joke to mock my wife it's in extremely poor taste."
(He doesn't dare hope that it's not a joke. Not yet.)
(He doesn't dare hope that it's not a joke. Not yet.)
secondchance
"Why the hell would I - the magpie landed on me before I even looked at you. You checked yourself I didn't co-opt him. What conceivable motive would I have, anyway, stalking some poor widower to claim to have - what, prophetic-after-the-fact dreams -?"
secondchance
"You're telling me it doesn't make sense, I'm the one who has dreams where I'm a girl and live in Lapis and am fluently bilingual in Harthanic on top of the common tongue when in real life I don't know any Harthanic unless the dreams are somehow providing genuine vocabulary and -"
Kib suddenly squints at Aydanci.
"And - was there - a solar eclipse, when Aly was - twenty-three? - and if there was one where were you?"
Kib suddenly squints at Aydanci.
"And - was there - a solar eclipse, when Aly was - twenty-three? - and if there was one where were you?"
do_over
"... Yes. There was. We were on a pier, holding hands, feet in the water. Talking about possibly collecting apprentices to teach together."
There's something sort of bitter, in that statement. She caught the pox, shortly after. (Fuck the pox. If she had to die, if she had to be taken from him with nothing he could do to help her, let it have been a death actually fucking worthy of her.)
There's something sort of bitter, in that statement. She caught the pox, shortly after. (Fuck the pox. If she had to die, if she had to be taken from him with nothing he could do to help her, let it have been a death actually fucking worthy of her.)
secondchance
"It was - dark. Because of the eclipse. But you look a little familiar, just - plus twenty years and some mourning. And better lighting."
Kib swallows, and pets the magpie on his knee.
"One to start, one who can already read and wants to servantmake for any reason better than 'you can make a lot of money at it'...?"
Kib swallows, and pets the magpie on his knee.
"One to start, one who can already read and wants to servantmake for any reason better than 'you can make a lot of money at it'...?"
do_over
"And then if that ones goes well, others after, when we know the ropes a bit better and can more confidently weigh what we do and do not want in apprentices."
do_over
"And somewhat emotional. For me, anyway, it probably isn't so - close to home and personal for you."
He looks somewhere between 'wants to cry,' 'wants to hug Kib,' and 'desperately holding onto whatever dignity he has left.'
secondchance
"I mean - not yet, it's not, I admit that, but - the first time I had an Aly dream a month went by before I had the next one and these days I'm having two or three a week."
secondchance
"...It depends what happens in them? Not usually. The being a girl part is weird conceptually but not while it's happening, she's - accustomed."
do_over
"That's comforting, then."
And Aydanci has run out of things to say that aren't, 'My wife is apparently back from the dead in the guise of a man and all I want to do is scoop him up and kiss him.' He will not be saying that one just yet. Or possibly ever.
And Aydanci has run out of things to say that aren't, 'My wife is apparently back from the dead in the guise of a man and all I want to do is scoop him up and kiss him.' He will not be saying that one just yet. Or possibly ever.
secondchance
"It'll be eighteen years since the stork dropped me this autumn," adds Kib. "When...?"
do_over
"The autumn. It - she was sick for quite a long time before then, months, but that was - when. Do you want the specific date? I try not to think about it -"
secondchance
"I don't know how this works, I don't know if it'd even be meaningful, don't - stress out about it," says Kib quickly. "I don't know what's - happening to me."