Rivers of Reverie

9. The True Face of the Dream

"Are you sure you really want to take first watch?" Sanya asked her, puzzled. "You haven't slept a lot, these days ..."

Liryl smiled. "I told you already, I feel better now."

Sanya could not hold back a worried grimace. Indeed, ever since they came back from the Spring Mountains, her friend had been looking renewed. She should have been happy for her, and yet something felt wrong. Liryl told her many things about her encounter with the myrri, but nothing of what she told her explained her change of mood, or her claim that she had found a solution to her problem. Even worse, her friend seemed dangerously evasive whenever she questioned her about the more specific details of her tale. The idea that Liryl was lying to her sounded preposterous, but this did little to alleviate her suspicions.

"Fine," she gave up in the end. "I'll go rest for a few hours. Please – if you can't stay awake anymore or you need help, don't hesitate to call me, got it?"

"Yes," Liryl nodded firmly.

Sanya sighed and lay down amid the supply bags, trying to get the last suspicions out of her mind.

Liryl stared in silence at her friend for minutes which felt interminable. She would have wanted to find the words to apologize, but there was nothing at this point she could have said to explain the meaning of her actions to her friend. And her time was running out with every passing second. In the distance, the first houses of Fys Narhal started appearing on the horizon.

***

Paying care not to cause the slightest noise, Liryl sneaked out of the head priestess's house with one of her vials and filled with guilt. Guilt for having betrayed the trust of her friend, and now of the people of Fys Narhal, too. But, at this point, it was too late to have second thoughts.

The road from the village to the base of the mountain seemed to be deserted, but she moved with upmost caution nonetheless. What she was about to do was strictly forbidden, and she did not have the slightest idea of what would have happened to her if she had been caught.

Nor did she have time to indulge in these thoughts, as her ears caught a soft noise amid the silence of the night.

... There's somebody over there!

Immediately, Liryl hid amid the closest patch of vegetation and waited, her heart hammering in her chest so hard that she had trouble breathing. But no matter how long she waited, nobody showed up. Just her, the stars, and the sounds of the forest.

Could I have misheard?

Albeit hesitantly, she came out of her hiding and went on her way. However, she quickly realized that she was not wrong, after all – there really was somebody in her path. A nymph, lying down next to a sword. Liryl looked up closer. Judging from her equipment, she had to be a sentinel.

Probably she was here to oversee the path to the mountain ...

Liryl crouched down and put her ear next to the other nymph's lips. She was still breathing.

She's ... sleeping.

For a moment, Liryl considered the idea of bringing the sentinel back to the village, but in the end she shook her head in resignation. What would she have said, if they had seen her? Even if she had managed to justify herself, she would have wasted her only chance. And this was something she could not afford.

Suddenly, the sleeping nymph started producing pained wails. At first Liryl started, thinking that the latter had awoken, but her eyes did not open. She kept wailing, shaken every now and then by light shivers.