Chapter 7: Dreams & High-end Living

The carriage door was opened by a man dressed in a vintage gentleman's suit. He seemed to be in his late 40s. I thought he looked real nice.

"This is Dakari", Ola said after we got down from the carriage.

"He shall be our butler. I've interviewed him and not found him wanting."

I honestly didn't know what to do with a butler. I wasn't rich in either life times. I carried out the ritual like greetings and walked over to the house, eager to get some sleep. Only to have an old man run after me to hold the door open.

Ola only looked on in amusement then walked in after me leaving Dakari to pay for the carriage and bring in the luggage.

"You'll pay him back, won't you?" I asked, a little curious about their peculiar arrangement.

She responded after we settled down on the couches in the Livingroom, "He receives more than enough funding to run the household for the month. That includes paying for the carriage." Admittedly, after thinking about it some more, I could see why having a butler was convenient especially in a house this big.

"He will also make sure you are always on schedule. I have my maidservants that will dress me and you'll have Dakari."

I nodded, noting how unforgiving she was. It must have shown on my face because she added, "I forgave your tardiness today but it doesn't mean you won't be late again tomorrow. You've shown me it's possible and so I have taken steps to prevent it."

I held back a sigh and projected the sentiment Γ Enlightened ˩ as I nodded. She smiled, pleased with herself. A woman in maid's uniform walked in and served the both of us tea then went back to bring us dinner.

All this pampering felt so wrong to me. I suspected Ola knew this. After getting a read on her sentiments, I confirmed my suspicions. She held no malice. All this was her, gradually introducing me into the habits of high end living. From her point of view, she was someone that willingly brought herself to nothingness in order to build what was truly hers. I am someone that's never been anything more. She anticipated that our wealth would grow fast and this was her giving me a crash course on navigating the social ladder while balancing it against my personal wealth. I suspected she was a noble's daughter from some far off lands.

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After dinner, I climbed up to my room. It was a decently large house from my perspective. Four bedrooms, each with a bathroom of its own, a large Livingroom, a Kitchen and a dining-room. After a quick shower, I changed into my pajamas.

I was already exhausted so falling asleep wasn't that hard. I opened my eyes and found my projection seated on the same highbacked chair from last night with the same pen still on the table. I was glad that the palace and everything within remained consistent, even though it only raised more questions.

My projection still seemed semi-transparent but the blurred nature was gone. I sighed […more questions and no answers]. I put the issue on the backburner and decided to look into the ability that should have manifested after comprehending the essence of dreams.

I stood and walked to the border of the palace, between two of the columns and looked out into the formless dream. I was about to switch to my sixth sense but then noticed specs of light below the castle that stretched into the distance. The longer I looked, the more defined the scenery below the castle got. We were suspended over the skyline of the Capital and it was beautiful. I willed my self over to the noble's side of town and I had to hand it to them, they had style. The streets were empty and an eerie silence weighed heavily over everything. I willed myself onto the street for a stroll as I pondered over what this was.

[ When I went to bed, it was still pretty early in the night, even if it wasn't, there's no way a city with hundreds of thousands in population would be this silent… This is only a projection of the city. The one thing every dreamer agrees on is what the city looks like. The one grand sentiment that everyone resonates with. ] I willed myself into one of the noble's houses in search of signs of life. A 10 year old girl was asleep on the couch but no one else was here. I presumed that this place only projected those that fell asleep in the physical world.

Walking back out, I started considering my options for whom shall serve as my guinea pig. I willed myself to the low-class parts of town and walked back to the building that was a crime scene earlier today. The room still had blood on the walls…and I think I could also see pierces of flesh on the furniture. I walked back to the corridors and into a neighbor's room. It was a studio apartment, Livingroom and bedroom all in one. He slept soundly even with a gruesome murder across the hall, […taking 'minding your own business' to a whole new level huh, buddy]. I thought as I placed my hand over his forehead.

I didn't know what to expect, but when my vision blurred and a second later found myself outside the room, I instinctively knew that I was experiencing his dream. I reopened the door and this time, I found him awake, tinkering with a broken water heater. He didn't seem to mind that I walked in so I took a seat on his bed as he worked. It didn't look like he had any intentions of initiating any conversation with me so I spoke up first.

"Any idea what happened next door?"

He didn't even consider the question before answering, "Woman found dead. The end."

"Aren't you afraid you'll be next?" I switched to my 6th sense only to be met with a resounding Γ Frustration ˩. The broken water heater stressed him more than the prospect of death.

He said nothing.

Figured that's as much as I was ever going to get out of him and willed myself back to the palace. I leaned back on my chair glad that the ability didn't turn out to be a dud. This was such a convenient method of getting the information I needed. Unless the dreamer was lucid, they would be inclined to believe everything that happened was within the realm of possibility. I also had suspicions that causing a strong emotional reaction could potentially wake the dreamer. [Sad that I don't have the address of a target with abilities in mind...]

[…speaking of which,] I thought as I pulled out the inventor's address from memory.[I wonder what the inventor thinks of divine dreams]. I summoned a full body mirror and after adjusting how I looked, willed myself onto the street address and made my way to where the inventor rested. After I placed my palm on his forehead my sight blurred and a second later I was in what looked like a work shop. The inventor, covered in oil, leaned over a wide table as he considered parts of his invention's schematics.

"A man shall visit you tomorrow," I begun, my voice artificially enhanced, sounded sonorous as it resounded across the dream scope. The inventor looked up to see a man, curved out of stainless steel with the front part of the torso made of transparent glass, within which, cogs and gears served as entrails. I projected a blend of Γ Tranquility˩ and Γ Creativity˩ as light seemed to glow from within my eyes.

His eyes trembled almost destabilizing the dream. "Calm yourself." I reflexively said to him, almost losing the aloof façade. For a second there I was afraid of getting expelled from the dream before talking to him. After he seemed to have composed himself, I continued,

"Your creativity pleases me. A man shall visit you, he shall help with your recent project. Consider him and all his resources a gift from me. Listen to him on matters of design. On funding. A woman; a peerless genius on all matters pertaining to wealth creation shall aid you. Listen to her if you wish to grow. Consider my words, for it would be a shame to have such a gifted man fall into mediocrity."

He placed his palm across the left side of his chest, bowed deeply and said "Thank you for your generosity…How may I address your lordship?".

I smiled, hoping he remembers the important parts when he wakes up.

"I'm simply your patron. Nothing more."

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I willed myself back into the palace after which I felt a strain on my incorporeal body. I crossed it off as this place's equivalent to exhaustion.

[I'm a little worried since he seemed a little too receptive of my offer…another thought for the backburner.]

An attempt at willing myself to fall asleep resulted in dissipation of the incorporeal body. Answering one of the puzzles I've had since the night before we got to the capital.

I was so tired back then that all I wanted was to do was sleep. My desire to sleep became my will to sleep as soon as I switched to my incorporeal body resulting in immediate dissipation. Back then, I thought messing with my growth hormones exhausted me so much that I couldn't maintain my incorporeal form.

I was woken by a rhythmic knock at the door. I dazedly walked over to find a fully dressed Dakari.

I let him in and walked to the bathroom, I had a long day ahead. I came out to find Dakari holding my change of clothes, after which an awkward 15 minutes ensued. Well at least for me it was. Dakari handled it like a champ! Handing me my drawers with a straight face like it was normal for a guy to hand another guy his drawers then fix his tie after buttoning his shirt.

My face was beet red by the time I went down for breakfast with Ola and the Lawyer. As I sat down, Ola looked at her wrist watch and smiled. "5 minutes early. Good work Dakari." The gramps bowed with the whole hand ritual then left for the door. I thought he had other things to attend to outside until the door bell rung only a few seconds before Dakari got there. "I told him I expect a guest at 9am. It's 8:58am." she said, proud of the people she's assembled.

[Nutjobs. All of them.] I sat down with a sigh. I've been doing a lot of that lately, I idly noted. But I guessed it was only natural since I was surrounded by people suffering from chronic competence. The Lawyer got in and I couldn't help but feel that he was overdressed for the occasion.

"You look lovely, Mr. Lanre"

[…a sentiment that only I shared apparently.] I got up to greet the good sir as well. He was young, a bit older than I was but young nonetheless.

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Breakfast proceeded without incident. Mr. Lanre and I got in the carriage and very little conversation was held. Seemed Ola briefed him on what she needed.

"Lemme guess, 40% and that she's always right when it comes to money?" I asked.

"Everything, Mr Zeraki, she said 'I'm right about Everything'."

I switched to my 6th sense and saw that he actually wasn't as confident as the image he projected seemed to be.

"Take it from me, she's only concerned about the business side of his life. She has no interest in his private affairs, making the 'Everything' part of her statement ambiguous." I said, but he still seemed troubled. I figured Ola saw something in him to trust him to come up with the documents involving her money so I let him stew in his thoughts as I grew anxious as to how much the inventor remembered of his dream.

We got to the work shop only to find a sharply dressed man seated by his invention pouring over his blue prints. I switched to my 6th sense and saw the Γ Excitement ˩ sentiment battling for supremacy against other sentiments of joy.

"Good-morning sir," I raised my voice slightly more confident about this than I was a couple of minutes ago. He looked up and beamed a smile at us then asked in a cheery tone "Are you the one sent by my patron?"

[…looks like he remembers enough]

"I'm not sure who that is but my partner is a peerless genius on all matters pertaining to wealth creation. Funding shouldn't be a problem should you choose to sign an agreement with us." I said feigning ignorance.

"He used those exact same words. This meeting was destined to take place." he whispered to himself. [ great, another lunatic in my life.]

"Well sir, I do have some ideas of my own that will reduce production costs and my partner will make sure we milk as much profits from this as possible. All we ask for is 40% stakes on it."

He mused over what I had just said. The profit split seemed to cause some emotional distress but after thinking about it a bit longer, he resolved himself to take the leap of faith.

We spent the rest of the day tweaking the blue prints and scheduled a time to test the prototype a week from then. We cut down on the materials used by 75% and ended up with a bipedal contraption. He seemed reluctant to believe that only 2 wheels sufficed because of balance, but went along with it still. He argued that there are still many things to learn and if there's a remote possibility that I'm right, it shall open new avenues for his future inventions.

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We got back and I left Mr. Lanre to brief Ola on the days events as I took a carriage back to the City's port. Most factories were located along the sea's coast.