Dragon Mirror- Ties Between the Veil

Zhao tossed in his sleep, struggling in his dreams. Ever since the fantasy dream, when he saw Raina, he had been trying to force himself back.

He had caught snippets of dreams. Viewings of a giant tree and her standing radiantly beneath its boughs. A handful of moments of her sitting beside his dream sister at a fire. Several times they rode side by side on-

He would wake up whenever startled by the strange sights. Sometimes his mothers housekeeper would wake him, fussing about his need to eat and shower.

Trapped at his parents house outside of Grand Rapids, his skin crawled with the need to escape. He had been under house arrest ever since his parents had flown back from Hong Kong.

Shortly after ensuring everything had been set to rights with their legal counsel, his father had flown back. His mother had stayed.

He wanted to climb up the walls.

Every hour of the day was filled with being browbeaten into studying. Being told to eat his entire meal, being harassed about his mistakes, questioned repeatedly about his choices.

And sometimes there would be days of complete silence, when she left to her office to take care of work.

Those days he would sleep, while the housekeeper Amanda would fret about his schedule.

“You’ve seen how my mother rides my back.” Amanda blushed prettily. She was terrified of his mother. “Just let me have this time to myself, and we can pretend you harassed me the entire time.”

He smiled to offset the stern tone, and Amanda’s hands fluttered nervously in front of her. She was a few years older than him, a pretty brunette with the darker skin tone of someone with biracial heritage.

She had once tried being flirty with him when she was first hired two years ago. He had ignored her politely, but once his mother had noticed, she had been taken aside and ‘set straight’. He imagined that the reason she hadn’t been fired out of hand was because she was an exceptional cook, and knew exactly how his mother wanted things done.

The cliche, ‘Good help is so hard to find!’ had flashed in his thoughts.

He waved his hand dismissively, and the housekeeper sighed quietly in frustration. He firmly shut the door. She would likely knock in several hours to try again.

His shoulders slumped as he turned away from the door. He wished he could talk to Tito about his dreams. Because he had begun to suspect that they weren’t just fantasy dreams. Especially after meeting Kiishthwa LongShadow.

Zhao laid down face down on his bed, kicking the thick comforter to the floor. He buried his face in the pillow and squeezed his eyes shut. He resisted the urge to succumb to his depression and weep.

The assumption that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep dissipated as he dropped into a fitful slumber.

He was staring out across the top of a forest. Glancing down, Zhao realized he was at the top of a sheer cliff face with a river at the base.

“We will need to find the Serro’s Lift, which is maintained by the Charbitian people to aid in trade between this plateau and Silkvetr and Sei’Um, below. Sei’ Um is downriver, Silkvetr is directly north of the Lift.”

He turned and Zhao felt a leap of excitement when his eyes found Raina, sitting her mount next to his sister.

“We could have stopped by Temp’Allah for-”

He felt his face scrunch up in irritation and his sister subsided. Raina looked back and forth between them, a question on her face.

“We will move up along the cliffs, towards the mountains, since the Lift is closer to Temp’Allah.”

His mouth opened to add something- but he cut off when an apparition appeared in the trees.

Zhao felt himself stunned.

That had been Kiishthwa and-

He woke up on the floor, sweating. Blinking, he tried to sort through his muddled thoughts. Had he seen Moon and Tito in the dream with Raina? And had the person who’s head he rode in actually see them?

He SAW them! He had, and reacted!

Zhao nearly jumped off his bed when his cell phone buzzed under his pillow.

He snatched it up, expecting to see Tito’s number, but instead saw a number he didn’t recognize. A West Virginia area code.

He felt his stomach plummet. They were supposed to contact the lawyers, how did they get his number? He felt a chill. What if it was someone trying to write another blog or news article?

It rang for a bit, then he put it on mute.

Laying his head back down, he groaned. A few seconds later, his phone vibrated, alerting him he had a voicemail. He stared at it for a moment before selecting it to listen.

“I figured, since the lady is grounded, it might be prudent to ask for your number. Especially since when we tried to find you in the Astral, it didn’t quite go as planned-”

Zhao gaped in astonishment. Kiishthwa had his number? The message continued.

“We experienced a strange connection to Raina, spotting her before we were blipped out of the dream and back into the voidspace… We were trying to reach you. Anyways, after the failure, Tito gave me your number and now I’m calling you. Call me sometime?” There was a laugh, then a beep as Moon hung up.

He immediately dialed a callback.

“First Nations Repo, We track down anything.”

Zhao made a face. “That's not even funny.”

“True, since the government will just steal it back.”

He let out a surprised chuckle before he could stop himself. He steadied himself by taking a deep breath.

“Did you guys try to find me in my dreams?”

There was a pause, then, “We were actually practicing, since she’s so new at projection.. She was trying to find you on the astral plane, and we both were drawn into a vision of her sister.”

Zhao felt an electric jitter run up his legs.

“You were in my dream. I saw both of you-”

“You were there? Could have sworn it was a vision-”

“No! Listen, I’ve had these weird dreams since I was a kid, and recently Raina has shown up in them. I ride in the head of this other person when I’m dreaming, and he saw you, too!”

There was the sound of barking in the background, and of Moon moving around. He heard a door slam and some static as the man shuffled the phone around.

“Are you saying that you think you’re seeing where Raina is located? Through the eyes of another person?”

He breathed out a wispy “Yea-”, excitedly waiting for Kiishthwa to continue.

“Cuz, that's weird.”

“What the actual f-”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Calm down. I just need a bit to meditate on this, cause this is something new.” Zhao could hear pots and pans being moved in the background, and he scowled.

“Are you doing dishes right now?”

“Clean house, clean spirit.” The sound of running water cut on. “But, seriously, let me teach my young padawan the ropes for the next few days, and we can all meet in your dreamscape, or your regular dreams.”

“But I can’t-”

“Just be patient. You can call me anytime. If I don’t answer, I will call you back. And Tito is doing ok, she’s just bored and an angsty, grounded teenager.”

“So I just… wait?”

“MmmHmmm.”

He threw himself back on the bed, crossing an arm over his face.

“Ok.”

“Ok, see you in your dreams!”

“Not funny.”

“At least I think I am, hey?”

Tito was yet again staring at her bedroom ceiling, fiddling with some colorful ribbons that she had wanted to weave into her newest green wig.

Her mother had relented in a portion of her grounding and taken her out shopping, but still refused to give her back her phone.

She kept replaying what had happened when Moon had tried to guide her in the astral projection. Falling into the trance hadn’t been hard, but stilling her mind to focus on one thing had been difficult when Kiishthwa had taken a step back.

Her intrusive thoughts would jerk her away, and occasionally completely out of the Astral after he had “released the reins”. She had wanted to know why he couldn’t guide her like he had when they first met, and he had shrugged.

“You won't learn. And you were linked to my memories- I don’t know your boyfriend as well as you.”

She’d snapped at him, but doubled down on her effort.

There had been a wild rushing sensation that jerked to a stop as if she had hit a wall. Tito had felt Moon’s presence and he felt confused.

“That doesn’t seem-”

They had jerked forward, and she felt like her whole being was being squeezed into a straw. Her mind was mashed together with Kiishthwa’s presence, and she wanted to scream at the sensation of pressure and being inverted.

She felt him almost as intimately as she felt her own existence. And in that long moment of eternity, they shared one space. Tito struggled to make sense of where he ended and she began as nearly four hundred years of memory tried to suffocate her own short meager existence.

But suddenly they had been standing at the edge of a cliff, under the abutting tree line. In front of them was a group of mounted peoples. Both of them had clung to each other, reeling.

Tito had just stared, slack jawed, recognizing her sister sitting on a tall deer that stood next to a fucking dragon.

Kiishthwa’s hand moving on her arm scared the piss out of her, and she reflexively grabbed his hand tightly.

“Whattheactualfuckisgoingon!”She hissed in a whisper.

He didn’t have time to respond, because suddenly they were being sucked backwards through the dimensional straw again and reinverted.

They were hovering in the void, Tito still clutching Kiishthwa’s hand. She wasn’t in her body, but she was shaking. Kiishthwa also looked shaken and bewildered.

“That was new.”

“That was my sister, in some fucking kind of wild fantasy world!” Moon pursed his astral lips, looking thoughtful.

“Did you think of your sister instead of Zhao?”

“I didn’t-” she stopped. “I don’t think I did.” They had attempted it previous to looking for Zhao and she had gone nowhere. But maybe she had a stray thought?

“I was seriously thinking of Zhao.”

“Interesting. Do you know his number? Maybe I can just call him… until we figure this out.”

Tito snapped a ribbon in her hands, bringing her back to the present.

It was unbelievable that Zhao was connected to someone in another world. But Moon had decided that when she had focused on him and followed the tangible thread to his consciousness, that they had pulled themselves through to wherever Raina had been.

She didn’t even remember looking at anyone besides Raina in the group, except to notice the blue dragon.

Could they possibly communicate with her? Zhao had said that the vessel he occupied had seen them, and reacted. He implied that he was not in control when riding in the other body. And that the other did not seem aware of him.

Tito put a hand over her face. Did the consciousness that Zhao rode piggy back on see through his eyes? All of this was too fucking weird.