Deadsponcelling
By Carly Robb and James Clair Lewis
Deadsponcelling Chapter 7
Sepheroth looked at his sister, "Tippy, shall we finish that song? The one we were singing before we were so rudely interrupted?"
"Ok, Daath. The one thing we can always agree upon : music." She retrieved her lute and they resumed their haunting duet. Tara's musings wandered with the melody, she could almost understand the words, almost know what she was trying to figure out. Almost... her life had been full of almosts... almost got the part in her now famous friends screenplay, almost settled down and got married, almost made it into the college of her choice, almost died on several occasions. Why did she always half do everything she ever tried? Slowly she drifted into sleep.
Tara sat bolt upright in bed. "Damn, what an odd dream." She looked out of the window of her flat in Santa Monica. "Yep, right place. What day is it?" She looked at her calendar, Saturday. "Good, no work. I'm glad of that, I've got a lot to think about." She took a quick hot shower to wake herself up and donned a worn out pair of jeans and her U2 shirt from the Joshua Tree tour and for some reason couldn't find her combat boots. "What the hell... where are my boots?"
She searched frantically for them, an hour later she settled on an old pair of hiking boots. She grumbled at the loss of her combats. By this time she had all but forgotten her dream. She fixed breakfast. More like lunch, but food is food; turkey on rye, mayonnaise, American cheese, romaine lettuce, onion, and tomato with a cup of hot hibiscus tea. She got in her car and realized that she was wearing the ring she had lost months ago.
"Where the hell did this come from? Oh, well, at least it's back." She drove to her spot in the foothills, took her journal out of the back seat of her car and went to sit on her rock. Tara looked down at the path and noticed fresh footprints and decided to go to another spot she knew, just as secluded, but not as soothing to the eye. She sat on a fallen tree and wrote the little bit of her dream that she could remember and gazed out over the surrounding hills. After a few hours of uselessly trying to remember more of her dream, she decided to head home for lunch and a nap. "Why am i tired already? I don't get it, maybe I'm coming down with a cold or something."
Sephera greeted Tara at the door to Tara's Santa Monica loft. "Nice place you have here. Lots of hot water for the shower. Semaj and Daath are in the kitchen, and Malcuth is still up in the foothills with the dragons. I think they might knock some sense into him, yet. Oh, and by the way, I brought your gear."
Tara's heart stopped.
"What the... but... I thought... How did you get out of my dream? What's going on here? Get out of my way. I need to sit down. Now..." Tara made her way to the couch and sat there in shock, waiting for someone else to speak first, trying to gather her wits. She got up and walked into the kitchen, pulled a carton of orange juice out of the fridge and a bottle of vodka out of the freezer and poured more vodka than orange juice into a very large glass and went back to the couch.
Daath and Semaj follow Tara from the kitchen, bringing their own glasses, and one for Tippy. "You did plan on sharing that, didn't you?"
Tara stared at them dumbfounded. "Oh, of course. I always share my liquor with people who follow me out of dreams. What the hell's going on?"
"Well, I think you've noticed that there is a serious problem with Malcuth. The dragons are trying to reason with him right now, and I hope they succeed. I think it is very likely that he might turn Rogue or go completely insane. We don't know how long he was lost out in that desert. The heat may have gotten to him. In any event, we are going to give the dragons their chance with him until tomorrow," explained Semaj.
"NO! HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET OUT OF MY FUCKING DREAM?!? EXPLAIN OR PUT THE FUCKING VODKA BACK!" Tara felt like a trapped animal. Something was wrong here, she knew it, but didn't know how she knew it. "MALCUTH DOESN'T MATTER... WHAT MATTERS IS WHY ARE YOU HERE IN MY WAKING LIFE? YOU WERE DREAMS!!!" She downed half her screwdriver, calmed down a bit and thought to herself, 'what if this isn't my waking life? What the hell's going on? Shit, what's happened to me?'
Semaj poured himself a drink, and settled down on the couch next to Tara, "This is not easy to explain, and I'm going to omit a lot of details that would confuse you. For each of the worlds that you would call real, there are an infinite number of worlds that you would call dreams, and for each infinity of worlds that you would call real, there is one world above that. And there are an infinity of those higher worlds."
"What's that got to do with why you are here? Dreams don't follow people home like cats or dogs," demanded Tara.
Semaj explained to her, "Deadsponcellors are those who are growing out of their original reality into a wider sphere of activity. You have been traveling between worlds of dream for over ten years. Now you are about to embark on a higher level, beyond what you would call reality or dream. The Rogues would take your head to prevent this, and to give themselves your power. Daath saw that several were ready to go beyond in the place where you used to go Deadsponcelling. He knew that the Rogues would also sense this, and conduct a Harvest. And that is why we are here in your world, which is only a dream to us."
Tara shook her head and walked back into the kitchen came back out with a bottle of aspirin, took two and washed them down with a long pull off her screwdriver. "Ok, but that doesn't explain why you are here in my loft drinking my vodka. So I go to sleep and return to my original reality? Is that the deal?" She downed the remainder of her drink. "Am I ever going to get any sleep?"
Sepheroth told her "In sleep people travel to the other worlds, the worlds of dream, but few realize that those are real worlds, structured by different laws of nature," he turned to Semaj & Sephera, "Maybe this would be a good time for us to take a walk through a mirror. While she thinks she is awake in her own world."
"I'm not too sure now if I've ever been awake, but I am remembering more of the dream... er... whatever..." She took another aspirin washed down with a mouthful of straight vodka, grabbed her mystical magical bag o'shit (which is what she called her old beat up backpack) and threw what was left of the bottle of vodka in it and the rest of her aspirin. "Ok, then, lead the way..."
"I brought your sword, and that good pair of boots, You really should throw those things you've got on your feet into the trash," Sephera smiled, and handed Tara her stuff, then went to the mirror, and waited for everyone to get ready. "The Hall of Mirrors awaits us!"
"Cool. Thanks, Sephera.," Tara took off the hiking boots and put on the boots that she had been wearing before, and took her sword, ran back into the kitchen and grabbed the one pound bag of almond M&M''s that she hadn't opened yet and put them in her bag. "Ok, now I'm ready"
Daath walked into the mirror like it was water. Tara entered next, and was followed by Sephera, and Semaj. It was the Hall of Mirrors again, but somehow different, as each seemed to glow with a spectral light. Semaj explained, "Tara, you see a hall of mirrors, because that is what your mind can grasp. When you know this place for what it is, then this dream, too, shall pass."
They turned into a side corridor, and an alligator was poking its head halfway out of one of the mirrors. "Hello. Aren't you the alligator I spoke with yesterday?" asked Tara.
The alligator responded, "Yes, I am, I thought I would wait and hoped to speak to you again; another of your kind, but not your kind, came through here with evil intent. He is no longer a threat, I just figured you might want to know."
"Thank you, alligator. I appreciate that, and I appreciate you. Do you think that in your next incarnation, that you will be a dragon?" Sepheroth asked.
In response, the alligator stated, "I can only hope, for no one really has a choice in their reincarnations."
Tara was utterly amazed, "You're still in here? You waited for us just to tell us that you killed someone? Sheesh, thank you, though." She turned and walked towards the mirrors, coming to a fork.
Daath stopped Tara at the fork in the Hall of Mirrors, and turned her back the way they had come. Now over a score of mirrors separated them from the alligator, "He is a deep one, that alligator, most philosophical." Daath waved a salute, and the alligator trumpeted a response before backing into the mirror from which he had partly emerged. "See how the mirrors magnify in possibility, Tara?"
The mirrors multiplied as they looked back, and Sephera added, "See the perspective that the mind creates to comprehend this reality, Tara? Come let us move on." Sephera led them down the fork for some distance, "Semaj, is this the right one?"
"No, it is just a bit further along." He led them past another score of mirrors, "Here it is. This is the one." They entered the mirror, and saw a crystal bridge spanning a vast snowy crevasse amongst towering mountains. Winds whipped through the canyon below at a dizzying speed. As Tara set foot on the crystal bridge, it was transformed into a flimsy rope bridge over a raging river in a steamy jungle. "Do not be dismayed by changes like that, Tara. Your mind is merely making adjustments to the fluctuations within the reality we are traversing."
Down below them they saw a group of white water rafters, and above them they saw a raven and a dragonet circling. Daath waved to the dragonet. As they stepped off the rope bridge, it returned to its form of a crystal bridge over a snowy crevasse. Before them lay a tunnel into the mountain. As they entered it, mirrors appeared on either side. Daath led them past the mirrors to one at the very end. Although they had walked only a few yards, miles of mirrors lay behind them. Daath smiled at Tara, "I think you are going to like this place."
Semaj led them through the mirror, and they walked out on a wide balcony in a high rise overlooking a vast futuristic metropolis. It was a city of glass and steel with towering buildings set apart by wide sections of garden. Hovercars streamed through the airways, and one landed near them, "Taxi!"
They got into the luxurious taxi which was equipped with a mini bar, "Hotel, restaurant or directly to Mirror Central?", asked the cabby.
"Hotel Chandler." Semaj told the driver, "We always stay at the Chandler when we slide through here."
"Nice place, the Chandler," remarked the cabby as they took off, and entered the air traffic smoothly. He examined them through the rearview mirror, "Have you been spending a lot of time in the fantasy realms? Looking for some relaxation here in civilized San Francisco? I know of some private clubs that can cater to any taste...."
"Thank you, but the Chandler will do fine," replied Semaj.
"No problem." The cabby flew through the crosstown traffic with ease, and soon they approached a moderately sized high-rise, and landed on the roof. Daath handed the cabby a credit card, and the cabby swiped it, and gave it back to him. "Have a nice stay at the Chandler." They got out, and new passengers got in. The cab took off.
Tara looked around bewilderedly. "The future? Ah, never mind, I won't ask." She followed the others while staring dumbfoundedly at the changes that had been made in the past-- well how was she supposed to know how long?
A tall, handsome, blonde man in scarlet and orange silk robes approached them, as they entered the roof lobby, "Ah, Semaj! So very good to be seeing you here again. We have kept your usual suite of rooms available. May I have the pleasure of escorting you to them?"
"So, you're a regular here, Semaj? Quite interesting," Tara was still dumbfounded from the shock of realizing that she was no longer in her own time.
They entered a central elevator, dropped down a few levels, and then moved sideways, coming to a full suite of apartments. "Semaj, won't you please avail yourself of our tailoring facilities? The fantasy garb of you and your companions is soooo gauche."
Upon going sideways in the elevator, Tara thought to herself, 'ooo... wonkavator... cool...' and wondered where the button to make it fly was. As they left the elevator she looked at herself and muttered, "but I like my dress" and pouted.
The concierge gave Tara a quizzical look, and continued to fawn over Semaj who was persistently guiding him toward the elevator entrance. Sephera rolled her eyes, and Daath smirked, drawing his sword, and began to clean it, so that the concierge could not help but notice. Finally, the concierge got the hints, and left.
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