The Dream Sanctum: Beyond The End (13 page)

“If you insist, I will not stop you,” Kwin Two said. “I invite the rest
of you to accompany us on a short tour. This may be a mirror world, but no
doubt it is much different from yours.”

“Sounds good!” Alastor responded cheerfully. “You lot have fun, Elvia and
I won’t be long.”

The two walked briskly out of the room, and the others got to their feet.

“Let’s get started,” Kwin Two said, and the vampiric smile she shared
with Kwin crossed her face.

A
s they left the building,
Kai Two and Elvia Two departed to attend to some errands, apologizing profusely
as they went. This made Kai uncomfortable, for he preferred to have more people
in the company of Kwin Two. Despite the mostly warm greetings and hospitality
they’d received thus far, he felt most suspicious about her and Devnon. They
didn’t pose too much of a threat because of their lack of powers, but this was
small comfort as he didn’t have his, either. Kai hoped nothing would go wrong,
especially for Kwin’s sake.

The silence that hung over the group was awkward and uncomfortable, and
no one spoke until they reached the upper landing. Kai recognized the location
and knew the entrance to the Great Library was nearby. He wondered if their
library even had the same books.

“From here you can see most of the eyesore that is our city,” Kwin Two
explained. She didn’t address any of them directly, instead looking down at the
streets with something akin to disgust. “I am not sure what your city is like
or what it holds, but now that you’ve seen this, you’ve seen it all.”

“What sort of material do you have in your library?” Kwin asked.

“Library?” Kwin Two repeated, confused. “Ah, that room. There haven’t
been many books in there for some time. The books and shelves were dismantled
and used as kindling. We have little else to keep us warm. Some of our scholars
rescued a few hundred texts before we could get our hands on them, but I see
little purpose in any of it. Nothing we learn will help us, and it certainly
won’t keep away the cold.”

“Might we take a look inside?” Kwin persisted. “Despite the differences,
I am curious how–”

“No, you may not,” Kwin Two responded flatly. “I do apologize, but some
areas are simply off limits, even for most that live here. Let’s keep moving.”

They continued down another set of stairs, then out toward the main gate.
As they passed the main hall, Kai noticed a thick, steel door that looked as
though it led somewhere underground, something he couldn’t remember seeing back
home.

“What’s that door there?” he asked, and Kwin Two looked as though she
would rather do anything but explain. After a moment, however, she spoke.

“That is our dungeon,” she said in a voice quieter than before. “Here we
are forced to maintain our own rules and punish those who break them. It was
created out of necessity.”

Kai hadn’t thought of that. The rules of the Sanctum clearly weren’t in
place here, but he almost couldn’t process the thought of something like a
dungeon in the Sanctum, much less the Golden Capital. He couldn’t imagine a
dream so grim it needed something like that.

Kwin Two took them around much of the city, though Kai noticed that she
was skipping large portions of it as they went on. She explained that since so
much of it looked the same, there was no point in exploring it. He also thought
her explanations seemed rather rehearsed and monotonous, as though she
entertained guests often and had already tired of it.

They arrived back at the main gate much earlier than Kai expected, at
which point Kwin Two turned to leave.

“I must meet with Devnon now,” she said. “Feel free to explore, but I
must warn you that if you get lost, there may not be anyone around to assist
you. Due to our weather, nearly everyone stays inside a city or town. You will
find little civilization beyond the walls.”

She bowed slightly, then turned back toward the main hall. The others
watched her until she passed through the wide doors, at which point Alastor Two
looked immensely relieved.

“A right creeper she is,” he sighed, and the tension was broken. Kai
laughed, and Kwin smirked.

“She most certainly is not an accurate copy, anyway,” she lamented. “Now
before it gets too cold, I’d very much like to explore the surrounding areas.
Alastor and Elvia can find us later.”

“Count us in!” Alastor Two said quickly. “I’m not sticking around here if
I can help it. You three have more personality than everyone else in this city
combined.”

“So why did Devnon say I look familiar?” Kai asked as they started down
the path. “I mean, Kris is here, but everyone else has a twin here, too.”

“It’s not that. Devnon’s always said the same thing about Kris, too. He
must not like whoever Kris reminds him of, because he’s always been a bit nasty
to him,” Alan explained. “I have no idea who it could be, though. There’s only
one other guy who looks even remotely like Kris, and he’s at least thirty years
older and doesn’t even live around here. It’s a mystery I’ve never been
interested enough to solve.”

As they continued on, Kai noted that while their new friends were not
exactly alike, their similarities were striking. Lindsay Two quickly warmed up
to the others, and was soon chatting with the others as though they were
long-time friends. Kai was content to listen and take in what information he
could, but he was more interested in their surroundings. Kwin was also quiet,
and as the others continued to talk, she drifted over to Kai’s side. She appeared
content, and Kai took that to be a good sign.

“There is one thing that intrigues me about this cloned world,” she said
in a low voice so as not to interrupt the others. “In our Sanctum we can do
nothing to harm the world or anyone in it. In this world, however, it is like
there is no separation between the dreamer and the world they live in, so they
are free to do as they please.”

“But these aren’t dreamers like us, are they?” Kai replied. “They’re just
copies. I mean, they’re real enough, but my guess is that they exist on the
same level as the world itself.”

“That’s certainly a possibility. I have a strong suspicion that the rules
that prevent us from harming one another also do not exist here. What’s more,
look at the trees, the plants and the buildings we’ve passed. They seem to have
been affected adversely by the weather. Everything on our side remains pristine
and well-kept, this world seems to be in a constant state of decay. I could be
wrong, but at this rate, the world will eventually come to an end.”

“An end? What do you mean?” Kai asked tensely.

“Not a literal end, but consider this. They are using wood and books for
fires, and possibly animals for food. At some point the world will be drained
of all its resources and recorded knowledge. There will be nothing left, and
they will all suffer for it.”

The combination of this realization and Kwin’s ever-blunt way of phrasing
things made Kai shudder. The thought that everyone in this world might
eventually be without food, shelter or warmth was terrible, and he began to
wonder just what they had stumbled upon. Already it was far more than he had
bargained for.

“That aside, I am curious to explore the rest of this world before our
departure,” Kwin continued as though she wasn’t at all bothered. “Since the
people living here are clearly managing their own settlements, just think of
the possibilities. There could be entire cities and towns here that don’t even
exist in our world.”

“How about we show you a map and you can figure it out the easy way?”
Alastor Two jumped in helpfully, waving a piece of parchment in Kwin’s face.

Kwin took the parchment and stopped walking to study it. Kai stared over
her shoulder, and after a few moments he realized this map looked almost
completely different from the one he was used to. While the main cities were
all the same, he noticed that almost everything else had been altered. The
forests were much smaller and covered different areas, a large number of new
towns and villages dotted the map, and large portions of the land were
completely blank. There were no marks over these areas except for
hastily-scrawled text that read, “Deadlands.”

“Why is there so much missing?” Lindsay asked, also having stopped to
look at the map.

“Mostly because we don’t have enough resources to spread around,” Alastor
Two answered. “Unlike your world, here we all rely on food and shelter to live,
so pretty much everyone has settled permanently in the big cities. No one ever
travels that far because there’s just no point, so there are no recordings of
it.”

“There’s also pretty much nothing there,” Lindsay Two continued. “It was
a long time before I got here, but when things were better, people did all
their logging away from the cities so things would still look pretty. But
that’s not how it is anymore.”

“So is it like this all over the place? This cold weather and
everything?” Kai asked.

“Mostly,” Alastor Two replied. “Sometimes the weather goes easy on us,
but otherwise it’s pretty much what you see now, or much worse.”

“It gets worse?” Lindsay asked quietly.

“Oh, wait until you see our storms. Rain, thunder, lightning, hail and
snow like you’ve probably never seen! But we get by.”

Kwin made to start moving again, but before she walked too far, she stopped
again, looking as though she had been struck by a sudden realization. Kai
looked at her expectantly as she turned Alastor Two.

“Since we will be spending plenty of time in each other’s company, I
believe we should resolve our naming issue. The ‘two’ nickname is starting to
get old, and I haven’t even been using it.”

To Kai’s surprise, the others didn’t seem fazed or offended; in fact,
they looked quite eager to go along with her suggestion.

“I’m with you on that,” Alastor Two said. “I say we fight for who gets
the rights to our names. Lindsays, you go first.”

“No!” the girls said together, the same indignant expression on their
faces.

“Well it can’t be me! My clone isn’t here, what am I supposed–?”

“We could always agree on temporary names until we depart,” Kwin
interrupted gently. “It may be confusing, but it will be the least… painful.”

“Works for me!” Alastor Two said.

“All right. Do any of you have any preferences as to what you’d like to
be called?”

“I’ve always liked the name Luna,” Lindsay Two said thoughtfully.

“I’ll be Alan,” Alastor Two concluded. “The others aren’t around, so we
can just choose for them. Elvia can be ‘Emma,’ and Kai can be Kris. I know he
hates that name which is why I’m giving it to him. I also think we should avoid
naming our short and evil friend, she’d probably look down on this sort of
thing.”

“Agreed. She seems to be more devoid of humor than a moldy sandwich,”
Kwin replied.

“Doesn’t look much better either,” the man now named Alan said, which was
met with more laughter from the group.

“I think we will get along splendidly,” Kwin told the group with an
amused smile. “Now that we have all established our new identities, let’s cover
some ground.”

F
or the first time since
their arrival, Kai felt completely lost. He felt as though he were walking
through a completely foreign land. The plants that remained were drooped over
as if lamenting the lack of sun, trees stood gnarled and leafless, the patchy
carpet of grass was a sickly shade of grey and a hollow indent in the ground
nearby indicated where a stream had run dry. The chilly wind blew up dust and
made him shiver.

Around fifteen minutes later, Kai spotted what appeared to be a gate to a
small village through the trees. He nudged Kwin, who nodded and started to head
toward it. The rest of the group, still lively with chatter, followed along.

At the gate, Kai realized they were coming upon another depressing sight.
This village was in an even worse state than Golden Capital had been. Buildings
made of sticks, straw and mud seemed to be near collapse, hastily stabilized by
a mess of support beams sticking in all directions, and the only light came
from a number of bent metal lampposts with candles inside. However, in contrast
to the capital, there were people out and about rather than hiding in the
alleys around fire pits. Only a few reacted when Kai and his friends entered,
then quickly glanced away as though anxious to pretend they didn’t exist.

“Welcome to Paradise Village!” Alan announced warmly, and the others
stared at him.

“Really?” Kwin asked, and Alan nodded.

“They’re all like this. Check it out.”

He pulled out the map again and held it wide open in front of them,
struggling to keep the wind from blowing it away. As Kai looked more closely,
he realized that each town and village had a strangely cheerful name; he could
see “New Hope Settlement,” “Victory Plaza” and “Pleasantville.”

“Is this a joke map?” Lindsay asked seriously.

“Nope! This is actually Devnon’s work,” Alan explained, lowering his voice
as he looked around at the cloaked figures in the streets. “Ever since he came
into power he’s been taking on this big rebranding effort to make himself look
good: renaming all the towns, organizing church-like gatherings, all sorts of
stuff. Basically, he’s trying to convince everyone that things are great and
that it’s all a result of his work. Of course, no one believes it, but it goes
to show how mental he is.”

“Are you not a supporter of Devnon, then?” Kwin asked curiously.

“That’s hard to say,” Alan answered. “He’s not too bad a guy, he’s just
kind of strange. He’s the type of guy you get along with better the less time
you spend around him.”

“He makes me nervous. He’s got the type of smile that says he’s hiding
something,” Lindsay said quietly, looking as though even speaking such things
aloud would get her into trouble.

“It seems to me as though he is attributing his success to the effective
employment of fear and propaganda,” Kwin guessed. “I don’t know too much about
him, but in an effort to remain inoffensive, I will only say that I find it
difficult to trust him.”

“You’re in good company, honestly,” Alan replied seriously. “But that’s
for another time. Let’s keep exploring. Is there anything you’re looking for
specifically, or are you just curious?”

“If at all possible, I would like to find any information on the sailors
from our side of the world who came here before. To our knowledge none ever
returned, so I’d like to find out why.”

Alan and Luna exchanged worried glances, but they passed in an instant.

“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about, but we’ll see what we can
find!” Alan said, then turned and led the way down the main street.

Exploring the village didn’t take long. Everywhere they looked they saw
broken buildings, makeshift campfires in the streets and passersby determinedly
avoiding their gaze. Kai felt as though he had stepped into an impoverished,
post-apocalyptic world, and every second they stayed made him feel more
uncomfortable.

Kwin seemed to feel the same way, and after turning down another street
that had absolutely nothing of interest, she sighed impatiently.

“Would I be right in assuming that most places in this world are in such
a state?”

“Pretty much,” Alan affirmed. “Even Devnon doesn’t have much. There just
aren’t many resources to go around, and management of what we’ve got is as poor
as you can imagine.”

“This would be much easier if there were any written records around. To
think that books have been burned to keep people warm distresses me. At any
rate, let’s move on. We won’t find anything else here.”

They left through the gate, and were about to take the path back toward
the Golden Capital when Lindsay stopped, pointing over toward the shore.

“What’s that over there?”

It took a moment, but Kai eventually found what she was pointing at.
Their view of the shore was obstructed by the tangled growth of the forest, but
on the sand not far from the dull waves of the ocean he could see the wreckage
of a boat.

“That’s nothing, just a bunch of junk the waves washed up,” Alan said
dismissively, but Kwin was intrigued.

“I hope you don’t mind if we investigate this ‘junk.’ It looks more
interesting than anything we’ve come across so far.”

“I really don’t think there’s any need to–” started Alan, but Kwin was
already walking through the trees.

As they approached, Kai could see that it was much more than just a bunch
of junk. The cracked and worn body of a ship was stuck in the sand, beaten by
the wind and water. It was smaller than the ship Kai’s group had traveled
aboard, but not by much. What interested Kai the most was the fact that the
wreckage did not appear very old; ripped furniture still lay strewn about on
the deck, much of the paint still coated the hull and most of the windows were
still intact.

“This is most interesting,” Kwin said quietly as she walked around the
ship. Kai followed her, noticing that Alan and Luna were now visibly nervous.

“I think we should probably head back before the storms get any worse,”
Luna offered timidly, but Kwin paid her no attention. She continued to inspect
the ship, pausing at random intervals to look more closely at something here
and there, but it wasn’t until she reached the back of the shipwreck that she
stopped completely.

“Well now. It would seem we have found a clue.”

Kai and Lindsay hurried over to her and saw that she was looking at the
name of the ship, still visible in dark paint. Some of the letters had been
worn away, but Kai could clearly see
Wave
Rider
painted elegantly across the wood.

“Wave Rider? What clue is this?” Lindsay asked, puzzled.

“I recognize this ship. I never saw it in person; it has been missing
since before I was even born. I read about it some years ago. A well-known
explorer and his wife took this ship to explore the unknown parts of the map.
In other words, this ship is from our side of the world.”

Instead of looking pleased with their find as Kai would expect, Kwin had
a dark expression on her face, one that he would almost identify as anger. Sure
enough, she turned back to the other two standing a few yards away, and though
her words were innocent enough, her tone was unmistakably annoyed.

“At what point were you planning on offering this information?” she asked
coldly. “I had a feeling you were avoiding something.”

Alan sighed while Luna looked away awkwardly.

“Look…
we
don’t mind you
exploring and looking around. It’s Kwin Two who has a problem with it. She told
us to make sure you don’t go looking into anything you aren’t supposed to,” he
said.

“And you’re telling me this out of the goodness of your heart, I
suppose?” Kwin retorted without missing a beat.

“It’s true!” Luna protested. “It’s just that she’s really close to
Devnon, so if you do anything she doesn’t want, even if it’s harmless, she’ll
come after you.”

“We just don’t want any trouble for you, basically,” Alan continued. “I
would have liked to have been more up front with you, but we had just met, so I
didn’t want to press anything unpleasant.”

“Perhaps it would have been better to do so sooner than later, especially
since your efforts at hiding anything were… less than exemplary,” Kwin replied,
and to Kai’s surprise, she grinned. “You have my full attention. Why is it so
imperative that we are kept in the dark?”

“I don’t know all the details. Kwin Two doesn’t like me that much so I’ve
been kept in the dark myself,” Alan sighed. “I just know that there have been
people who made it here from your side of the world before, but that what
happened to them wasn’t very pleasant.”

“So, she knows everything about them…” Kwin said softly. “I will have to
speak with her.”

“Oh, please don’t,” Luna said anxiously. “If you get on her bad side,
it’ll mean trouble. It doesn’t matter who you are. Devnon treats her like his
daughter, so if you annoy her…”

“What would you suggest I do, then?” Kwin asked, sounding irritated
again. “I will not leave this place without answers.”

“I know you’re anxious about this, but there’s not a whole lot we can
do,” Alan explained. “Look, how about we just head back to the capital for now
and we can figure out what to do later? We can show our foul friend that
nothing went wrong so she’ll be less suspicious of us, and what want most right
now is for her to leave us alone.”

Everyone fell silent, and Kwin looked deep in thought. Kai was unsure if
he should speak, but he had to admit Alan’s proposal seemed like their best
option, even if the last thing he wanted was to get close to Kwin Two again.
Lindsay also seemed nervous at the idea, but didn’t say a word.

“I suppose that will have to do for now,” Kwin finally relented, and the
others seemed to relax.

“Excellent. Let’s go find some shelter. I know of a few buildings that
actually don’t have holes in the roofs. Then when the storm clears we can go
back to the capital and meet your friends.”

They trudged back up the shore toward the forest path, Kwin looking
reluctant to leave such a large clue behind. Kai made a mental note to check
out the ship again whenever he had the chance; if it was indeed a recent wreck,
that would mean there were probably more items on board the ship they could
examine.

The walk back was mostly silent, but not uncomfortable. They started to
move faster as the chilly wind picked up and thunder boomed loudly overhead.
Kai looked forward to sitting next to a warm fire while they waited out the
storm, but mostly he hoped they could leave this dark world soon. As much as he
liked his new friends and sympathized with their plight, he felt like they
could only run into trouble if they stayed much longer.

As if on cue, Lindsay stopped suddenly, looking anxiously around her.

“Where’s Kwin?”

At her words, the others quickly looked around. Kwin was nowhere to be
seen.

“Oh hell. That’s not good,” Alan groaned.

“We need to find her before someone else does,” Luna said hurriedly. “She
can’t have gotten far!”

As they turned back in the direction of the ship, it seemed Luna was
right. Before they had traveled even a quarter mile they spotted a set of
footprints on the shore, leading toward what appeared to be an entrance to an
underground tunnel. An old wooden door, almost hidden completely by a pile of
rocks and seaweed, had been opened to reveal a short set of stairs that led
down into a room lit by torches. Kai could only guess what was down there, but
knew it couldn’t be anything good.

However, as he started to walk down, Alan pulled him back.

“Don’t go in there,” he said. “This is one of the shoreline burial sites.
You won’t find anything you want to see in there.”

“The… wait, what?”

“It started a few decades ago. There’s supposedly miles of tunnels along
the shore. The bodies of criminals who were put to death were thrown in there,
but also… well, the point is, you don’t want to go in there.”

“We have to get Kwin, though!” Lindsay protested, though she looked as
though she would rather do anything than enter the tomb.

As if on cue, Kwin’s voice drifted up from the darkness.

“You should all come see this. I think I’ve found something big.”

After exchanging nervous glances, the rest of the group hesitantly made
their way down the stairs. As they came to the last step, Kai looked around in
surprise. The room was surprisingly well-lit and larger than he would have
expected. Multiple coffins lined the walls, most of them empty, and a few small
tables were crammed into a corner. The room was otherwise bare, much to his
confusion.

It was Lindsay’s gasp of shock that brought him to look about, and he
noticed Kwin standing near one of the open coffins. This one, unlike most of
the others, was not empty.

Kwin stood not three feet from the body inside the coffin, and as he
approached, Kai noticed that something seemed different, almost wrong. The body
seemed charred, as though it had been burned in a horrible fire, and its arms
were raised in front of its face as though trying to prevent something from
hitting it. Its legs were bent strangely, and Kai guessed that, somehow, they
had been broken.