Knowledge
In the small hours of the night, Daydream breaks into her university's library to find the tome her dreams have been pulling her to.
Daydream guards the little flame cross to her chest, careful not to burn either paw on the candlewax or fire. While she can see in the dark well enough, the signs of the library and the books are coloured, and she needs to see that to know where she’s going. While walking the library floor with an open flame is dangerous in the vein of being found, she knows well the consequences of climbing the bookcases. That month in detention and community service was the longest she’d ever lived, even including time spent at home.
Upon coming up to the door to the restricted section, she sets the candle down on the nearest flat surface and kneels next to the locked door. Use what I have given you, and your path to me will unlock, the voice from her dreams echoes in her mind. She places a pad against the lock, and a bright flash of something blue and green errupts from her paw, making her flinch back. The lock clicks gently, and the door, as if welcoming her inside, opens without a sound. Her mind rushing, she grabs her candle and quietly steps inside.
Blood rushes through Daydream’s system as she pads down the rows and rows of prohibited books, almost tasting the dark magics and rituals and history long forgotten in the air. For a moment she’s not sure if the heartbeat she’s hearing is hers, but it has to be, it must be, right? She barely has time to shake the thought away before she finds exactly what she’d been sent to retrieve.
A lone book, shackled in place. A dark blue cover, decorated in gold, the front a painted landscape of somewhere not of this world and it’s planes. There’s a crawling up her spine, an icy dread, just being in the mere presence of this book. It was locked up for a reason, doesn’t that mean it’s bad? Oh, but she’s been promised so many things, so many good things, and not at the cost of her soul or mind or body like fiends or fae would weigh against limitless knowledge.
She reaches out to it, that sea blue light flashing again and freeing the tome from it’s chains.
My knowledge and my power is yours, Daydream at Night. What knowledge will you give me in turn?
“From the stars above and the seas below…” she breathes, gently dusting off the tome with a paw, as careful as one would caress a child’s cheek. “…I give you all I have learned, all I have experienced, all my memories of my life before this moment. Take all of it, so I can learn everything anew.”
The moment she finishes her well practiced offer, the world falls silent, before everything begins to disintegrate around her. For the first time in perhaps years, Daydream feels peace.