Dreamland

The first sun hung about three times its diameter high in the sky, partly concealed by pink-hued white clouds, while the second sun began to ascend from the horizon, casting a burst of golden light across the scattered eastern clouds.

It was a breathtaking sight!

I smiled, enjoying the sunrise, remembering I thought about it last night, but now I remembered their names too: the two brothers, Ethea and Ghomer, with the smaller one, Ethea, the sister, orbits around Ghomer, the brother.

The weather repeats itself annually, yet it is slightly different year after year because there are two cycles: the annual cycle, or what humans call years, and then the long cycles, the long years. You have to be an elf to count more than three long years. Most humans count only one. The elves themselves call them ethean-years, which is actually a misnomer.

Winter is now approaching, but the humans here have their own way of defining the seasons. First, there's the season of long nights, followed by the season of short nights, and then the daytime season, when the stars seem to chase each other in a daily carousel as the planet comes between the two stars.

Currently, Ethea is still near Ghomer, but it will soon move farther away. Ethea follows an elongated path around the main star, and as it moves farther, the weather gets colder. A complete cycle, an ethean year, also called an elf-year, takes around forty years.

In the next year or two, true winter will begin, lasting for approximately a decade, when Ethea will be far from Ghomer, with some variations of warmer and colder periods within it as the planet comes between the stars or is away from them.

Nobody has seen the real winter yet, except the spawns older than forty who pretend to have seen it. They call it Frigg's years, Frigg, the God of cold, ice, and snow.

This part of the story, the concept of the two suns, has always held my fascination.

I wondered how the game's storyline would develop. Would they continue to simulate the weather realistically? Would they eventually introduce a winter season, as detailed in the book, or would they maintain the current weather pattern?

We were traveling along the road, the coach swaying smoothly, albeit a bit more than I preferred. My thoughts had drifted to the weather when I noticed Thiara stepping into the cabin. She and Spartacius had requested a brief stop to stretch their legs.

As I saw her entering the coach, I jumped down from my perch near Alice and entered behind her. I wanted to have a four-eyes conversation with her, and this was a good opportunity. Well, four eyes was relatively speaking, as White Flower alias Terri was with me as a tattoo, but she was going to keep silent.

I needed to make the most of this moment. Spartacius and the Lynx were now walking behind us, with Spartacius attempting in vain to persuade the Lynx to let him ride instead.

As I entered the coach, I watched Thiara's pretty face as she looked defiantly into my eyes.

“Painting your hair is not enough. I recognized you from the very first moment!”

She made a feeble attempt at denying the obvious:

“But I am Tina! My hair is not painted! This is the color of my hair!”

“Oh, come on!” - I replied, but my tattoo corrected me:

“It is not an illusion or paint; some mage did a transformation spell on her.”

I wondered:

“You paid for a transformation spell only for the hair and the eyes?”

“How do you know that?”

“Why did you not transform your face too? At least your ears or nose!?” - I questioned.

“The mage could not guarantee he would succeed in transforming me back exactly as I am!” - she explained.

“What an incapable transformation mage. Is this the best the kingdom can offer?” I remarked while White Flower was finding excuses for the mage,

"She is young and still growing; depending on how much she grows in between, the transformation back will get you a different person, not exactly the one you look at now!" -while 'Tina' was trying to defend herself:

“I was in a hurry! You know how magecraft is treated in the kingdom!”

“This is useless! So you kept your looks just because you wanted to keep being pretty?” - I asked.

“What's wrong with being pretty? I am not her; I do have different hair and eyes! Can't you see?” - she replied

“You are not a mage and not even level 5! How did you survive in this area until now?” - I questioned, starting to lose my patience.

“I am a mage! I can spell fireball! I had guards!” - she protested.

“It's your ring that does the spell! It will take ages, with your feeble mana input, to reload it. You are not a mage! Was all this your idea?! Don't tell me that you ran from home?!” - I exclaimed.

She looked suddenly frightened:

“Please do not send me back! I want to become a mage! I was just not allowed!”

I sighed. Oh fuck, this promises to become one of those headaches!

“You want to become a mage when mages are frowned upon in the kingdom? What do you people have against magic? Magic is everywhere; even when your soldiers get stronger, that is magic that gathers in their bodies! You do have priests and paladins? So what is the problem with mages and witches and the lot?”

To my surprise, she practically exploded:

“They are using magic in an impure form; that is the problem! You pervert nature with your magic; you do not live in harmony with it! Mages and witches pervert and destroy the natural harmony of all beings! The use of potions is not natural; those build up devilish flesh. That flesh is then prone to devilish wishes and carnal desire! This is why wounds need to heal properly and be treated with natural substances, not potions. Only the priests' holy healing and paladins' are natural. Being holy, they do not pervert the flesh.”

“Whoa, stop it, lady! And you want to study magic?!”

“Unfortunately, I have to. I need to be strong! I need to be able to defend myself! I will, of course, have to pay for my sins, but I want to survive and be strong for my parents! They should not suffer because of me!”

“And you came to me?” - I wondered

Her eyes shone when she answered:

“Yes, you know so many places! You can help me get into that city, Serenity, where I could learn their craft at their academy!”

Well, me and my big mouth. I had to tell stories about the world. I sighed.

“How did you trick your way out? How did your parents let you go?” - I wondered.

“Eliza helped me. I have money. I can pay you!” - she replied, becoming assertive again.

Oh, well, and I wondered why Eliza came searching for me in the field and delivered the coach herself in the early morning hours instead of waiting for me at the gate as agreed.

“I could simply rob you and send you back home? Even get a reward from your parents?” - I watched her with an evil grin.

She shrugged, not impressed.

“You will not do that. You are good! You had saved me from the emperor!”

I took a deep breath. She is naive and trusts too easily. I closed my eyes for a moment.

“I sold you. I was the one who captured and sold you for 500 gold.”

I said that in a monotonous, cold, and calm voice, looking into her eyes.

She froze, looking back at me, her lower lip trembling. I watched her, unsure if to continue.

“Do you want now to go home?” - I asked.

She simply started to cry, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles. A deluge of tears ran down her cheeks.

Oh, fuck! I knocked, and Alice stopped the carriage. I got out and looked at her.

“Let me play the coachman for a while, Alice...”

She looked at me reproachfully. She probably heard Thiara crying. She shook her head and sighed. I think I heard her muttering:

“What have you done this time?”

Can Alice be angry with me? Is this possible?

She entered the coach while I climbed on the coach's bank. I took the reins in my hand and shook them. The carriage started to move again. Behind us, Spartacius sat on the rear of the carriage, chatting with the Lynx, oblivious to our struggle.

My tattoo admonished me:

“You have been too hard on her.”

I shook the reins, and the horses started to move at a trot.

“She has the right to know the truth.”

“Was this the right moment to tell her?”

“When is it the right moment? Never. She is pretty. She is damn pretty, and she thinks this will open all the doors for her. Nobody does a thing just for your pretty eyes. They all expect payment in one way or another. Well, maybe, except for guys like the emperor who kidnaps you for your pretty eyes. But I suppose he also expects a payment later on.”

After a short pause, I continued.

“Look, she is a catastrophe waiting to happen. She is level one; she did not do anything in her life except be pretty at parties?”

“I think she is what you call level two. I do feel some magic in her.”

“Yeah. As if that would help much. Let her alone in the woods, and she becomes fresh food very soon. Why should this be my problem?”

“Because you were ready to help her before. She knows her family cannot protect her, and she saw you as the only person who was ready and able to do it. It was not her father's lieutenants who fought the imperial guard and Styxa's coachman. They would have been outclassed there.”

“No good deed goes unpunished, eh?”

I raised my eyes to look at the sky: Ghomer was now up in the sky, running behind Ethea. In about fifty days, he will catch her, and the brothers will hold hands, and there will be a lot of celebrations throughout the continent.