Poisoned Rationality

-Ariana-

I was dreaming.

I knew that because I was floating in the air, several miles above the ground.

Dark clouds surrounded me, lighting up with the occasional bright flash of lightning. I hummed, twisting around.

This high up, the wind lashed at my body, blowing around the thin clothes I wore and tossing my hair all over. Strangely, I didn’t feel cold at all.

A sudden bolt of lightning surged down right beside me, the flash of energy momentarily blinding me.

I felt the ripple of electricity through the air, sinking into my skin and giving me shivers. It coiled around in my body, coalescing into a ball of magic.

That felt weird.

I focused on the new energy, attempting to grab and manipulate it like I would any other magic.

It surged outward, rushing through my arm at a surprising speed, given that I had never used any kind of electric magic before. It seemed almost alive and eager to be controlled, unlike when I was learning to use my own mana, or when Nyx, Nat, and I had been learning how to use raw mana.

Maybe I had an affinity for electric magic?

I looked around me at the clouds. Where was I, even? And how was I floating? I knew this was a dream, but it was still confusing me.

I wasn’t falling either, because the clouds around me were only moving horizontally, and the very faint ground far below me wasn’t getting any closer.

I tried to will myself forward, through the sky, and found that I could very easily glide around. I felt a slight tug at the electric magic as I did so, but it was very slight.

I spent a little while zipping around, dashing through the stormy clouds.

Then I tried going down toward the ground. However, I was stopped by some invisible force right at the bottom of the clouds.

Odd.

After that idea was shot down, I turned my attention to rising higher.

It took a surprisingly long time to find the top of the clouds. They stretched upward for what seemed like forever, until I burst through the top and stared in awe at what was above.

There were so many stars.

Millions upon millions of tiny twinkling lights scattered across the seemingly endless expanse above me.

It was beautiful.

A sudden shift in the air startled me. I looked around to see what had caused it, but saw nothing at first. Turning my attention back to the sky, it became apparent what it was.

An absolutely huge dragon whose body seemed to be made of stars slowly glided down from the night sky. Its long, snakelike body spiraled around toward me until its head was close enough to touch.

It breathed deeply, glowing golden eyes boring into my soul.

“Hello,” I whispered.

The dragon closed its eyes and exhaled, sending a wave of energy across my body. I was sent flying backward, darkness crowding my version.

Sensation disappeared as glowing words appeared in my vision.

[Authority Found]

[Weather]

Welcome, Queen of Storms

And then I fell unconscious.

…

I startled awake in the morning.

“Good morning,” Nyx whispered to me, smiling as I laid in her lap.

I smiled back and sat up, stretching in my seat.

“Morning,” I murmured. Turning to the rest of the party, I told them, “Nobody woke me up for the watch.”

“You were really tired and it seemed best to let you sleep,” Nat explained. “We handled it fine.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I had a really weird dream.”

“What happened?” Nyx asked.

I explained the contents of my dream from the previous night, putting emphasis on the ending.

“So, yeah,” I said. “I”m not sure what an Authority is, but it seems kind of important. And it called me the ‘Queen of Storms’.”

“An Authority is a Concept of a God,” Nyx informed us. She paused for a moment and continued. “Because I’m ascending and the two of us are Fated Ones, you’re also going to ascend. That’s how it works, according to Stella.”

“Huh,” I said.

The rest of the morning passed by fairly quickly, with us having breakfast as the sun slowly rose above the mountains on the horizon.

Over several hours, we drew closer and closer to the town. However, when we were still a fair distance away, a huge group of people surged from the forest and surrounded the caravan. They all wore masks that covered the upper portion of their face that were the color of bone.

Some were on horses and others were on foot, but they all wore ragged clothes and held weapons.

“You’re surrounded!” A tall man whose mask had dark patterns across it shouted. “Give up all your weapons and supplies, and nobody gets hurt!”

There was silence for a moment until Seth, in the front caravan, stood up.

“You picked the wrong caravan to ambush, bandits,” He growled. “Passengers, stay in the wagons. Fighters! Out!”

All the adventurers from the caravans jumped out and drew their weapons, preparing for battle. Calliope jumped down from her driver’s seat, swirling green lines of magic appearing around her arm.

“Skull-Face Bandits! Charge!” The bandit leader screamed, and both sides surged forward.

“Let’s do this,” Nyx grinned.