#61

In Mina's dream, lights snapped on. She sensed at once that they were mystical in nature, but they made the same sound as large electronic ones, like those of a sports stadium. She was still in the woods, still next to the half-finished cairn. That lured her into believing she had merely nodded off and was now awake.

Someone was walking towards her. She could hear hir approaching her, because hir footsteps were snapping an inordinate amount of twigs. It was all around her; like she was caught in an arena. She only felt slight menace, but it was enough. Somewhere, there was a bee-like buzzing, which bobbed towards and away from her, which only made things worse.

That's when ze stepped out. Ze seemed to be a he, but he was a wizard of some kind.

He was clad in dark robes which flowed around him, yet never snared a single stick. His entire body was covered in these robes, and the cloth wrapped around his head was draped downward, as if the top of his head was a fixture for a curtain. It was mercifully different from the red guards, as there were clear eye-holes; but behind those holes, there was only blackness.

The air seemed to gibber then as the bees quieted down. It was as if someone just out of sight would inhale sharply, but never exhale.

The wizard—she knew he was a wizard, just because—began to reach up to his mask. He was going to pull it off, and as he did, he slowly revealed nothing but a skull...

She didn't react, because despite the menace she wasn't scared. The skull's jaw began to move as the wizard spoke, but it didn't move with synchronization to the words; and the jaw made a terrible scraping sound that almost removed Mina's ability to understand what he was saying.

“You must paint the heroes for your passage,” he said simply.

She had the distinct impression that his name was “Kirk”, but it was a distortion of that; something much more ancient. This man had undergone a change of sorts, once, long ago.

“My passage?”

The skull nodded. “To the faerie-realm, to the Peluda-land, the Gargouille-keep. There you will be able to escape this fissure, in time.”

Several sheets of canvas, and her painting supplies, appeared in front of her. Just as she hated drawing, Jacob had hated painting—she only half-remembered that. The wizard vanished, and she was left only with images to paint.

She worked long through the endless night, constructing the images of five vaguely visible men before her. The first resembled Amos, but perhaps a bit younger; another recalled a young man very similar to images she'd seen of Jacob's friend Lex. There was a man of darker complexion, very handsome, and a shorter man who had clearly spent much time working out, who had grey hair and grey eyes. The last was a blond man, who was smiling widely, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. His shirt was tight and revealing, and appeared to be pink.

When she was done—a task that took much less time than she had anticipated, yet still carried over an eternity—the images faded, and the skull-faced wizard returned. “Your payment has given me access to other lands.” There was a pause as he bowed. “I will take you now to the place where I met the unknown.” Seconds after saying this, he flickered, and was gone. In his place was a tall and dark-skinned woman. She was also dressed in robes, but these ones made the wizard's seem cruel and inelegant. They glowed a faint green, and the glow was echoed by her smile.

“When you have completed your task, I will bring you to good company, and good friends.”

Suddenly the dream-logic staggered and Mina was able to speak. “Wait!” she asked. “Who are you? Both of you!”

The woman smiled. “My companion was Kurq'wes of Old Kanpallia, of forty thousand years past, though he was born to another century, to another name. I am known by many names as well. In his company, however, you may call me the Queen of Domdaniel.”

The exposition was too much for the dream; too true for any sort of fantasy, really. It broke apart and Mina opened her eyes.

But she wasn't in the woods anymore.

She was now somehow atop a windy hill in Scotland.