"And this one will make me a fully fledged Mage?" Lord Andrew gestured at the circle of runes sketched out on the stone floor. He felt he was about to burst with anticipation, it had taken years to put this plan into motion.
"It's hard to be certain" the seer said from the embroidered throne. "But if the auguries are correct, Andrew of House Dunnan, then yes, this ritual will do what you think. The power contained within this ritual will be unmatched. You will be empowered to challenge the greatest Mages in our reality."
"And what of the sacrifice?" Andrew asked. This was what had concerned him all along. His son would have to die, and he couldn't bear to think-
"There is no sacrifice." The Seer was adamant. "I have been studying a way out of this, and I have called in the Mage-Lord of the other plane itself to assist me with the ritual."
"You mean-?" Andrew shot from his chair.
"Yes." The Seer's voice was solemn. "As soon as the power is transferred, He will return to His plane. And when He does, you will be able to follow. Nobody will be able to stop you."
"That sounds… enticing. But why would a Mage-Lord return to His own plane as soon as he got power? Is there something I should know?" Andrew's guts churned again. "I am finding it hard to take you seriously. Something feels wrong here."
"There is nothing to fear, Andrew. All will happen as I have said. Now stand at the centre of the circle, the blood ritual will begin in a moment."
Andrew nodded and stood at the centre of the jagged circle of runes. The Seer moved to his son and began the ritual, channelling power through the child's body. Andrew focused, the power of the ritual washing over him. He felt his skin tingle and his hair stand on end. It was working, he wanted to shout out in triumph, he wanted to jump up and down and hug his son, he wanted to rush the Seer and burn the unturned leaves in his fingers. But he held it all in, he was a master of self-control, he was a man of his word, and he was about to become the most powerful Mage in the history of their reality.
White light exploded from the bundle of leaves, and Andrew fell to the floor. He tried to get up and run, he wanted to escape the burning light, but the substance within the leaves had worked their magic. Andrew's legs crumpled from beneath him, and his body became numb. When he opened his eyes, he found that it was night time outside his room, his son sleeping beside him.
"There you are." Andrew tried to stretch but only managed to lift one arm. "You naughty boy, sleeping in the room when I told you to stay in bed."
His son's face was a picture of innocence, but it was clear to Andrew that he had already gathered some power from the ritual. Andrew bit his lip and looked at his son's face again, feeling a spark of pride at his son's level of accomplishment. "Come on, you'll soon be asleep" Andrew whispered. "We have a long journey ahead of us, so you better get some sleep now."
His son's head drooped towards the pillow, but he made no attempt to close his eyes. "I was hoping we could talk a little before I sleep."
"Well you're stuck here until morning, so there's not much I can do about that. I think it's best if you sleep now."
"But it's not bedtime." The boy's voice had the same tone of strength that Andrew knew he would find in it as he grew older. "And we haven't told you my bad dream!"
"What bad dream?" Andrew was taken aback. "I told you it was quite late, we'll talk about it in the morning. Go to sleep."
The boy simply shook his head, "I want to tell you now."
"Alright," Andrew said with a note of surrender. "What was your dream about?"
"Well," the boy's eyes went dreamy, "It was about my friend. He was trapped in a whirlpool, and nobody could get him out. He was stuck in the middle with whirlpools all around him, and he was pulling and pushing on the edge trying to get out but he couldn't. So I got in the whirlpool with him. I pushed on the edge and it broke through, so then the whirlpools surrounding us all stopped moving. So right then I swam to him, and I grabbed him, and he was crying, 'What are you doing?' he said, and I said, 'I'm your friend now, I'm going to take you to your home.' And he said yes, and he grabbed my hand, and we went out of the whirlpool together." The boy's eyes had grown wide, he looked at his father and began to talk faster. "And then on the way back we passed a ship, and we saw a man on the deck, and he jumped down and swam out to us. He said 'I'm your friend too, and we're going to take you back home, but please don't swim so fast.' But we didn't, we just went really really fast, and it was wonderful. It was the most wonderful, amazing dream." The boy's words had lost the dreamy tone, but his conviction was unshaken "So I was going to tell you about the ship, but I guess I'll just talk about the whirlpool, okay?"
"That sounds nice, a ship and a whirlpool, and a friend." Andrew nodded to himself. "I'm glad you dreamt about this, now go to sleep. I'll see you in the morning."
"You don't believe me." The boy stubbornly repeated as his head slumped on his pillow. "But it's true. It was a ship."
"I'm sure it was. Now go to sleep."
"The whirlpool was full of whirlpools, it was scary with all those rooms, and I wanted to get out of there. And when the ship took us out of the whirlpool we started going in the direction."
"You lost me. What direction?"
"Well we swam while the ship went so slow, and the man said we had to go slow, so I swam slow, because I didn't want to miss any of it and come back again, but then we started to go faster and faster, and i asked the man how long did it take to walk on land, and he said it took twelve years. Then I said twelve years, and he said yes, and about how the ship went so slow. But I went faster."
"Went faster? But I thought that you-"
"I did, but then I started to get tired. The ship stopped because we couldn't go any faster, but I kept going slow, but I realized that after I'm done I would have to swim a lot to get back. So the ship sped up a bit, but it was so slow still, but I kept going. I got to the edge, I wanted to jump out, and then I saw you running."
"I was running?"
"Yeah, you were running to the window. I was like 'Why is he running?' But then I looked out and saw. I held my breath and then I swam down."
Andrew was speechless from his bewildered silence, "So you're telling me… you dreamt about all of this?"
"In fact, I dreamt about that whole time."
"How much of it was real? What was real?"
"Well the ship was real."
"The ship was real. Which means…"
"Yeah, I dreamt my sisters were killed, and I dreamed that I lost my mind, and I got stuck in the whirlpool and-"
"Are you sure? You don't dreamt that much."
"No. But I got tired and tired. But then I stood still above the water and there were so many… so many feelers, so many tentacles grabbing onto me, and pulling and none of it was real."
"Except for the ship."
"Except for that. The ship was real."
"The ship was real. Is that another sign from the whirlpool? Did you go to the ship to get help? What did you do with that ship?"
"I went to get help. I made it, I swam right away. The ship was like so bright, soft, and warm… I almost fell asleep. But then- then I saw a really really big eye. And I looked out of the door and saw- a lot of people. It was amazing, there were kids and adults, a whole city. And people were calling out names and saying 'I'm your friend, I'm your friends and we're going to take care of everything for you.'"
Andrew was full of questions but it was too soon for him to ask them, so he asked the one thing that would keep him awake for hours. "Show it to me."
The boy's eyes flashed wide, the dimmed flame of determination grew in his eyes, "I can't show you."
Andrew's face contorted with anger and passion, "You've got to show me. You've got to show me everything! You've got to show me your friends, you've got to show me the whirlpool, show me the ship, you've got to show me the city." The red that had risen on Andrew's skin when he spoke sunk, "You must show me. You're the only one who can."
The boy slowly shook his head, "I can't show you. I lost everything. I'm never going to see it again."
Andrew looked down. He reached out to his son with his hand, the boy looked at the hand, and slowly clasped it in his own. "That's okay. I don't need to see it. I know what it's like." He gave the boy a small smile, "But I need to know, I need to know everything about it."
The boy wiped his eyes and sniffled, "But I don't know everything about it. I don't know any of those answers."
"But it's okay." Andrew assured. "I'll just ask your mind all of the questions you can't answer, and we'll figure it out."
The boy brightened, "You're going to ask my mind?"
"Yes, that's why I need to know about the ship and the whirlpool and the city, and everything else."
"Okay, but I have to ask first. How have you been, what's your name?"
"You've got to tell me. I'll ask my mind, and I'll ask the whirlpool, I'll ask the ship. I'll ask all of them. You'll see." Andrew promised. He looked at the boy, who seemed confused from being asked the same questions repeatedly. He cleared his throat and brought the boy back in focus, "If there's anything I can do-"
"Okay, okay." The boy sighed and closed his eyes.
"Though I've got to warn you." He continued, "The girl in the whirlpool is waiting for you there. You saw her, right?"
"Oh, I haven't told you about her yet." The boy said, his eyes still closed. Then he opened his eyes, "That's right, I haven't." He looked down, "But I'm sure I'll see her again. It was okay, she was nice."
"Your friend is there. I'm sure she'll be waiting, too."
"You saw her, too?"
"Yes. But I think she left." Andrew looked down, "I'm sorry."
"I can't wait to tell my friends!"
"I'll tell you all about it at breakfast, okay?" Andrew smiled, "Now I've got to go to sleep. And so is my son."
"See you in the morning, Daddy." The boy said, closing his eyes once again.
