As he drifted further and further into sleep, he found himself standing at the edge of a vast, glittering ocean. It was a gorgeous crystal blue sea, with just above, the sun setting the horizon ablaze with shades of orange and pink as the waves lapped gently at the shore.
He watched as the sun’s slow and typical fall towards becoming night seemed to suddenly accelerate. The moon rose briefly before fading as time began speeding forward with days passing every few moments. The sun then replaced the moon and then the moon replaced the sun, over and over.
Lassim lost count immediately of how many days or even years passed, bewildered at the strange dream he was in.
The ocean in front of him then began to churn violently, its serene surface transforming into a roiling mass of waves as he felt himself being pulled along by some entity, his body ethereal and weightless.
He dove into and through the water to its depths, and saw a world filled with endless coral and fish that swam past in giant schools.
He was brought through the constantly changing underwater scene until he landed on the sea floor in front of a rising monument.
It was a white and blue mixed stone obelisk with its surface covered in etchings of watery runes and symbols. Each of the symbols and runes glowed with a bright blue sheen. There seemed to be some sort of ancient power that shook his head and tried to convey a meaning, but he just couldn’t comprehend it in his dream state.
Before he could comprehend its significance, time seemed to slow down to 1.5x speed, allowing him to watch as a titanic battle erupted in front of him.
Two massive sea beasts, a giant lizard-like creature with a long neck and fins for legs, were being chased by a much larger similar beast that had a huge head filled with rows and rows of teeth. Their bodies clashed violently as the tooth beast tried to take a bite of the other’s hide.
Successful, the long neck beast let out a roar that shook the underwater depths while it thrashed around. Its path led it directly to where Lassim was ethereally standing, their enormous bodies crashing into the monument.
With a thunderous crack, the monument shattered into countless pieces, most fragments scattering across the ocean floor, but Lassim’s perspective shifted and followed another fragment that was carried away by the underwater currents.
Time accelerated once more, and Lassim watched he followed the stone as it eventually slowly fell to the sea floor. Then, Lassim witnessed something incredibly as the ocean itself began to recede.
The water pulled back, leaving behind what was once an underwater paradise, but instead everything died and transformed into a barren landscape.
The retreating ocean transformed the area into a desert as the days kept rising and falling repeatedly. The days seemed to last longer as the sun beat down mercilessly and helped transform the former corals and sea floor into sands that shifted and swirled. They formed towered and endless dunes that stretched to the horizon. Lassim recognized this sight immediately.
Surprisingly, the spot where the obelisk fragment had landed was kept as an oasis that formed. Unique breeds of plant life and trees created a refuge around the newly formed oasis with the fragment at the bottom of the pool; its runes glinting faintly with dim light.
At that moment, the dream faded and Lassim awoke with a massive start to a strong tug on his consciousness, pulling him towards something in the distance. The vivid images of the dream seared into his mind with an insistent urging that he couldn’t ignore.
The tug must be something related to that fragment and it was now the second time he’d felt this pull on him while in the southern side of the desert. He knew he was being assisted again, but unsure what exactly it was for. Whatever the reason, it had to be important.
Lassim sat up, his heart pounding. He checked in with Zaphy for the status of the sandstorm outside.
"[The storm hasn’t let up]," she said, her voice a soothing presence in his mind. "[It’s still dangerous to go out now.]"
"[Mari, you feel it too right? We can’t ignore this feeling]," Lassim replied, determination steeling his voice. "[I know there’s something important out there. I have to find it.]"
"[Indeed, I seem to sense that it’s pulling to a location around 4 kilometers away. It feels close! We should go.]" Mari replied with her forever soothing voice.
With a deep breath, he exited the tent, using his [Aegis] technique to create a spherical barrier of ice and water around him that pushed back the dune of sand that covered the top of the tent. He touched the tent with one hand and used his mana to connect it to his magic pouch, storing it away in a flash.
He jumped up with a strong push of his legs which rocketed him up through the dune and into the open. The sandstorm battered against the barrier, the grains of sand hissing as they struck the icy surfaces.
The wind was strong, causing Lassim to move slowly, each step a battle against the storm’s relentless fury. He was completely blinded on the way forward, relying solely on the tug on his consciousness to guide him through the storm.
The intensity of the storm limited his visibility and movement, making the journey feel like an eternity. Nearly every minute that passed, the pull on him began to fade slightly, so he pushed himself to move faster, desperate not to lose the sensation guiding him.
After what seemed like hours of walking down a slope, he lost the pull on his mind. Despite the short distance he needed to travel, Lassim was at least happy to feel the storm finally begin to subside.
When he dismissed his [Aegis] technique, Lassim found himself standing in the center of a massive, dried-out oasis bed. It was probably a half a kilometer hallowed out section where a deep oasis once stood. The sand from the storm had barely filled the deep and ravine-like cracks in the parched earth.
The cracked dirt was dotted with the Stone Whisper Flowers he had been searching for and collecting for his current mission, their bluish-green petals oddly shaking off the sand that had covered them as if they were sentient.
The pull on his consciousness had long vanished by now, but Lassim felt certain that the fragment from his dream was somewhere nearby. His memory from the still vivid dream made him instinctively feel it to be true.
He decided to gather the flowers first near the center of the dried ground, knowing he’d be able to complete his mission with the sheer massive number of flowers here and possibly collect extras for potential bonus merit points.
As he carefully uprooted each flower, he eventually pulled up one by its root and noticed a bright flash of white beneath the dirt where it had been.
Curiosity piqued, Lassim began to dig a bit deeper, his fingers working quickly to unearth the object. He soon revealed a fist-sized white and blue mix of stone with one side completely flat. Its flat surface was covered in the same ancient runes and symbols he had seen on the obelisk in his dream. He recognized it instantly as a fragment of the shattered monument.
Lassim stared at the stone, trying to decipher its meaning but couldn’t make heads or tails even with his spirit sense. It was like the stone was long dead and was your average, run-of-the-mill rock; just carved intricately.
Deciding to take it back with him to the sect’s library or possibly to Elder Taltos for assistance, he attempted to store it in his magic pouch, but to his surprise, it vanished from his hand and reappeared within the center of his inner heart world.
Alarmed, he willed it to get out of his inner space reactively as if it was something dangerous, and it popped back into his hand. Luckily, it seemed to just travel between his heart world like a magic pouch.
"Strange," he muttered to himself, examining the stone more closely. "Why would it go there?"
He then repeated trying to put it away into his magic pouch a few more times before giving up. Whatever made the object special, it was firmly intent on staying in his inner heart world for the time being.
Since it was going to be in his heart world, he decided to ask out loud, "Mari, can you make sense of these runes somehow? I tried scanning it with my spirit sense but it feels dead. Can you recognize their meanings or whatever meaning they might have once held at all?" he asked.
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"I’m not quite sure, but since it’s here with me, I will take the time to study them," Mari replied, her tone thoughtful. "It may take some time to understand their meanings, but we can probably get some help with it back in the sect if it comes to that."
Satisfied for the moment with it secure and being studied, Lassim resumed gathering the remaining flowers.
Once he had collected the last of them, he made his way back to the sect, eager to turn in the mission and uncover more about the stone.