Tower of the Watchful Eye

Chapter 21

Climbing the stairs two at a time, I had to reach her door before it was too late. They were coming for her and if I failed...

No, I couldn't think that way. She was still alive.

Please be alive, my love...

At the top of the stairs, I slammed through the door into the bedroom. She stood in the middle of the bedroom glowing like an angel, long brown hair, bright blue eyes and pale skin. She truly was a vision to behold.

I approached her and fell to one knee and bowed. "You are safe, Princess. We must get you out of here."

"You're dreaming, Andy," she replied. "Snap out of it."

I stood up. "I don't know what you are saying, my princess."

"We don't have time for you to figure it out on your own," she said as she hurried across the room to close the door. "Think carefully. Who am I?"

I studied her as she walked back to the other side of the room furthest from the door. There was something about her and the more I thought the more a name kept popping into my head.

"Cathy," I said.

"There you go," she smiled weakly. "I knew you could do it. Come on, hit me with a Dispel."

A pounding sound came from the bedroom door as shouts for blood filled the night.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Now's not the time," she answered worried. "I'd rather not go through this again. Hit me with a Dispel."

Power flowed to my hand and I launched a Dispel at Cathy. The world started to shimmer as the bedroom door exploded off its hinges. Cathy and I took a couple of steps back as the horde of fading guards rushed at us. The dream world dissolved leaving us in the open field of my subconscious.

"HA!" Cathy exclaimed. "It worked."

"You didn't think it would?" I asked, worried.

"You can never know," she answered. "With dreams it is difficult to be sure."

"Well, it's handy to know that if one of us is having a bad dream we could always end it," I said.

"I don't think it will work for you," she said as she sat down on the ground under the tree. "Because I am a magical being by nature you can disrupt me with a Dispel and gain control of your subconscious again. But because you are human you can't stop your own subconscious."

"So, that was a previous memory of yours?" I asked as I sat down beside her.

"Yeah, and a really unpleasant one at that," she said.

"But you will still tell me about it," I smiled.

"Only because you'll keep bugging me about it," she smiled back.

"We know each other so well," I joked.

She chuckled. "Here it goes. One of my possessions was a daughter to the King. This was way back at the end of the first era or beginning of the second era. The Tower was in power and anyone with magical capabilities was sent to the Tower at a very young age. The old King was too proud for his daughter to be taken away from him so he kept her powers secret. During her first Demon Dream, I possessed her."

"That must have been back before people really understood demon possessions," I said.

"Possessions have been around forever," she replied. "But yeah, the formation of your Tower was a way to fight back against us demons."

"Then over time they became corrupt," I said.

"It's hard not to become corrupt when you have so much power," Cathy pointed out. "But anyways, I possessed the Princess of Balendar and wanted to celebrate my accomplishment. Unfortunately because of a lifetime of hiding her magic she wasn't very strong and the King was a bit of a controlling tyrant. I ended up just being a prisoner in the castle."