Chapter 3

My gasping breaths seemed to rattle the very walls as panic's icy grip held fast. Had her baleful stare truly been but a phantom of troubled sleep, or something more?

"Lad? Be you taken ill?" came Barta's soft call from across the room. I started, meeting his gaze with eyes still wide and wild. His fair features creased with concern as he glided nearer.

"Peace, friend. 'Twas but a dream giving chase. See how the fire yet warms." His touch, light upon my arm, grounded frazzled senses back to this place - this time.

Slowly, shuddering breath by breath, my racing heart found steadier refrain. I nodded weakly, rubbing sweat-damp brow. "Forgive me, I...a vision most unsettling came upon my rest."

Barta's eyes held questions yet he asked none, simply clasping my shoulder in solidarity against terrors of the night. The elf's calming aura soothed fraying nerves like balm. But her awful visage lingered behind closed eyes, carved into skull as if branded there with black iron.

Though Barta's calming words gave solace, behind closed eyes that matron demon's visage yet lingered - more vivid than flickering firelight. Her baleful stare followed even into wakefulness, hooks barbed deep in memory.

Rest would not return easily on wings so ruffled. I lingered awhile by low flames, watching their dance 'til flames grew faint and ash took form surreal. Only then dared weary bones seek slumber's fog once more.

...

High atop her ebony throne, Lilith surveyed her domain with slow, chilling gaze. Her underling's question pulled those pits of obsidian from shadows' shroud, pinning pallid wraith in place.

"A disruption stirs in the mortal realm, an unwanted presence that festers like rot beneath still waters. Its presence nudges where it ought not." Her wings writhed, talons clenching 'til black ichor wept free.

Memories danced amidst the scholars probing stare - a soul glimpsed in twisting dreamscapes, bearing witness what no mortal flesh was meant. Its escaping scream had shattered trance, dragging her back from the borderlands between.

Lilith's tongue flickered over sculpted fangs, tasting vibrant fear upon the air. "This lurker in the mists piques my interest, fragile thing. Its essence burns so bright, untainted by despair...as of yet. See that it finds what it seeks not amid dreaming's shores. Its light shall darken, in time."

A wicked smile twisted her lips. "And its suffering shall feed my delight, sweet nectar to gladden these long nights. Now leave me - I have diversions of my own to attend." Bones creaked in bow before the scholar withdrew, bat wings rustling silks in passing.

Alone once more, Lilith let loose a velvet chuckle that curdled the very blood. Her new pet would learn very soon - there was no escaping her eternal gaze, nor the exquisite torments it bore hidden within. The games were only beginning...

****The Next Day****

The new day slowly emerged from night's receding shadows, rousing slumberers from troubled dreams. I stirred to melody of morning song - tiny feathered throats lending beauty to each sunrise's gift, regardless horrors past.

Barta and Hilda bustled about their morning tasks, graceful elf and sturdy badger lending only calm and comfort. Over eggs and tea (brought forth with a smile by our hostess stout and kind), companions conversed of plans for the day ahead.

"Rest you took seemed fitful, friend - your spirit appears burdened still," remarked Barta, fair features furrowed soft in concern. "Pray, share your woes if any ease or counsel they might find."

I smiled wanly, searching words to convey terrors which lingered beyond sleep's broken gates, e'en now harrowing depths of memory. "Ghosts of the night do linger long, as ghosts are wont, though break of day banishes their worst effects. A disturbing vision came upon my slumber..."

"Such as?" Barta and Hilda asked simultaneously.

I took a slow, steadying breath before relaying night's foul phantasms in hushed tones befitting their unsettling nature. "A dark presence invaded my dreams - a winged woman of terrible and fatal beauty, yet with a soul as black as the starless void. Her eyes seemed windows straight to all the cruelty, malice and depravity of which this world holds conceivable.

When her empty gaze found mine, I felt utterly bare and forever immobilized under its weight. It was as if she peered through flesh and directly into the core of my being. I've never experienced a feeling so intensely chilling...or felt so powerlessly vulnerable. The terror seemed to linger in my bones long after waking in a cold sweat."

Barta and Hilda exchanged a pondering look but remained silent, allowing me space to continue at my own pace. Sipping the soothing tea, I went on. "Strangest of all, this vision came with a sense that the encounter was...meaningful, in some way I can't explain. As if our paths were destined to cross again, though to what end I can't fathom."

Releasing a long exhale, I managed a weak half-smile. "Forgive me, I know not why these dreams should disturb me so. Perhaps 'tis but a remnant of mysteries still shrouding my arrival here."

By their understanding countenances, my hosts required no apologies. After a thoughtful pause, Barta and Hilda glanced at each other and spoke. "Ye, it was some rubbish dream lad, forget 'bout it!"

(Early chapters on p atreon.com/JoyBoyTheSun)