Lucid Three, Chapter Ten

(Anything in asterisks is meant to be italicized.)

Masdann appeared in the shadow of night, not far from a small campfire. Lyryka's dream had changed and a faceless woman with the warmth of Summer was dying in the cold, crying out for Lyryka but Lyryka couldn't reach her. He sat down next to her head and placed his hand gently on her forehead, subtly entering her dream and altering it.

So as not to confuse her or give her false hope, he let the woman die. Then Lyryka was in the cold and Cruce was carrying her to the edge of a great chasm. She struggled but he was stronger and he tossed her into it. As she fell into the darkness, her light court wing lit up and she remembered that she had wings. That's when she flew up and out of the chasm and away from the ice, through the very earth itself to Scotland and Christian's MacKeltar's castle. He had brought more of her Library from the White Mansion and needed help organizing it.

He opened his eyes and looked down to see her smiling just the littlest bit. The other Shadow court princes were his brothers and could take care of themselves, but Lyryka and Rae were his older sisters. Lyryka was a quarter of a million years old, but had been kept locked away for so long that she still seemed so young and innocent. Rae was just a child, only a year older than himself. He would protect them in the best way he felt he could: only pleasant dreams. After all, they were his sisters and he protected what was his. It was an instinct he knew only existed within him because he had been made from Jericho Barrons's essence.

Now that his job here was done, he could return to the other woman he would do anything to protect. He touched her shoulder once she had reached a good stopping point and pulled her out of it. She smiled up at him.

"Was that a dream or a possibility?" she asked.

"A bit of both," he said with an incline of his head. "You may be his weakness, but I believe it would take more than just mentioning it once for that to occur." The look in her eyes told him she would make it real. "You were saying?"

She looked at him blankly for a moment before she shook herself a little. "Even having Barrons speak on your behalf and vouch for you isn't going to keep them settled for long."

"Barrons vouches for me?" he asked interestedly.

"Vehemently," she told him. "Which for him is a muscle twitching in his jaw, but it's still vehement."

Masdann smiled at the floor as she took his arm and they started walking again.

"Oh, don't tell me the two of you are going to start a weird bromance," she said as she rolled her eyes and he laughed softly. "Look, that wasn't the only reason I came to see you."

"Oh?"

"You have his essence so my guess is you would probably be comfortable being alone for the rest of your life."

He considered this for a moment before he said, "That much is true for him, but I am also Fae. I think it perhaps lessens my need to be surrounded by my own kind."

"So you do require companionship?" she said.

"I suppose I do on occasion," he said with an incline of his head.

"Then I will incentivize you to accept your queen's invitation," she said as if it being his queen's invitation should be incentive enough and it irked her that it didn't seem to be for him. "We've been looking at Cruce's notes, and the former Unseelie King's. It would be much easier if Lyryka were here to help us sort through the Library but Christian requested—well, not so much requested as demanded—we not call her back, even though we're all fairly certain she'd pause her exploring in an instant at my request. He seems to both hate undoing her organization while simultaneously enjoying it, like he doesn't want to undo it because it was something she touched but hopes she'll sense how much we're screwing it up and won't be able to resist the urge to come back and—doesn't matter. The Fae can't be left alone. If left alone for too long, they'll die. But they'll go insane first. I admit we don't know that for sure anymore, what with the new elixir, but for now we're going to continue to operate like it's true."

"What are you getting at, MacKayla?" he asked curiously.

"Barrons and I have been discussing it for a while. I don't like you being here all by yourself, Masdann. It's not healthy for a Fae. We're not making you an entire court because even Cruce realized that was a bad idea, but we can't have you going mad from isolation, not with the power you possess."

"Then what are you making?" he asked, not getting his hopes up.

"A princess," she answered with a smile. "And seeing as you come from the essence of Jericho Barrons, she'll be made from my essence. She won't be me, but she'll come from me. That's why we've been studying their notes. I had to talk Ryodan into helping. Had to build him a sex dungeon even though he could have just as easily made one himself." He arched an eyebrow at her in surprise and she blushed and looked away. "Barrons told him about the one I made for he and I. And they both think *I* talk too much." She shook her head in exasperation and he smiled. "It was actually a request your brothers made, one the royalty of the other courts strongly echoed as there would be more princes than princesses once each Light court has both a prince and a princess again, so we started with them. All three wanted someone to rule their courts beside them and all three courts have princesses now. We saved yours for last, hoping we could have it perfected by then."

She pulled him to a stop and looked up at him. "I'd never be so cruel as to say that she can't join you here until you agree to join my council; she's a gift. A thank you for helping Barrons rescue me from Cruce. If all goes well, she'll be able to traverse and manipulate the Dreaming with you. But I would hope it would incentivize you to rethink joining my council. You didn't have someone to fight for before, but you soon will." She glanced around the castle and added, "Perhaps even provide the necessary motivation to finish your castle. Or you could let her finish building it. (It could be that she loves decorating as much as I do.) You could even finish building it together. But you're not living alone, Masdann. That's an order from your queen."

He smiled at her and was silent for a minute. "Forgive me, but I don't know what to say."

She laughed and said, "Well, don't thank me just yet. I drive Barrons absolutely bugfuck crazy sometimes."

"When can I meet her?"

"She's not quite finished and ready," MacKayla told him as they continued walking. "Soon, though."

"Is there anything you wish to see while you're here?" he asked when they returned to the entry hall. "Any possibility or dream?"

"Barrons once told me that he dreams even though he doesn't sleep," she said with that tone she got when she was snooping. "Is that true? Does he dream?"

"It's somewhere between lucid dreaming and day-dreaming," he answered with an incline of his head.

"What does he dream about? Can I see one of his dreams?"

He smiled and said, "Out of respect for him, I won't tell you much. Sometimes he dreams of memories, sort of relives them. Sometimes he dreams of his son. Ever since he bought the bookstore, he has dreamt about the woman in the mural. Then you wandered in one night and his dreams became about you more than anything else."

"Well, it's at least good to confirm how long I've been under his skin," she said with a satisfied smirk. "But you're not going to let me see one of these dreams, are you?"

"No, I'm afraid I will not," he said with an apologetic smile. "However, I believe I could concoct one for you, though it wouldn't strictly be one of his. It would be based on your shared desires."

"Really? You can do that?"

"Given time, yes. I've been experimenting and I believe I've found a way that would allow you to experience it with out me having to be present to facilitate it. Return in a couple weeks and I should have it ready. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Is there any desire I'm keeping hidden from myself, for whatever reason?" she asked after a moment of thought.

"Are you afraid you might be repressing something?" He understood that this was sometimes what dreams were; repressed desires and emotions.

"I just want to make certain," she eventually said. "There was a time where it looked like the earth was going to be swallowed by black holes. A few nights before we thought we were all going to die, Barrons told me I should go off-world with the other human colonists. Transfer the True Magic to another Fae and live, even though it meant leaving him on earth because, um, he's—"

"Because his resurrection is tied to the earth," he finished for her with a nod. "Go on."

"He told me to live, find a husband, have children, chase those dreams I'd once had." Her gaze grew distant, as she relived that night.

"That must have been very difficult for him to say," he prompted after a moment.

She shook herself out of her reverie and said, "Yes, it was. I reminded him of something he had taught me: things I can live with, things I can't live without." She smiled a little. "He told me to unlearn it. I told him I would die with him because I wasn't living without him."

"Are you concerned this might have been untrue?" he probed, uncertain of what she was getting at.

"No," she immediately answered. "There's no 'getting over' or 'moving on' from that man. I know what I told him is true. I will happily die beside him rather than live in abject misery without him."

"Then what is it you wish to be certain of?"

"I told him those weren't my dreams anymore and they're not. He's my dream. I just want to know if there's any desires I'm hiding from myself that may have crept into my dreams."

"I will spend some time looking and let you know," he assured her.

"Thank you," she said with a nod. He was about to tell her her thanks wasn't necessary when he felt another presence at his borders. This time he felt for who it was.

"It seems your consort has arrived and is eagerly anticipating your return to his side," he told her as he patted the hand that rested on his arm. "Would you prefer to fly or sift to my borders?"

She smiled wryly again and said, "He is somehow one of the most patient and impatient men I've ever met. We'd better sift."

"As you wish," he said with a nod before sifting them both there. She took his hand when they arrived at the wall of fog and he held it up as if he was escorting her onto the dance floor of a ball.

"Masdann," Barrons said with a nod, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards when he saw them. Masdann returned the greeting and shook his hand when he offered it.

"What was it I said earlier about a bromance?" MacKayla muttered to Masdann who smiled.

Barrons arched an eyebrow at her and she shot him a look that said she would explain later.

"I'll see you in a couple weeks, then?" she said as she moved to stand next to Barrons, taking his proffered hand.

"In a couple weeks," he said with a nod to them both before he disappeared into the wall of fog before flying back up to his castle, a smile creeping across his face.

There'd soon be a princess gracing his halls.