IN THE MOUNTAINS OF FIRE

By Dolores J. Nurss

Volume VI: The Rift

Chapter 25

TRUTH

DREAM NOTES

I dreamed of trudging down a slushy road as Zanne, within an aimless crowd of refugees, choked on the smoke in the sky and the throat, of burning cities, slowly losing myself.  I drew the sense of perceiving from multiple viewpoints from several other dreams.

I also dreamed of using the box to navigate.  That box has appeared in other dreams, as well, in different worlds, and it always has a mysterious quality to it, more than just a simple piece of electronics.  It resembles an old-fashioned portable radio before portable radios became pocket-sized, and before they expanded again into boom boxes.  It symbolizes, I think, tuning in.

I almost have a memory, something connecting that radio to my father.  I can't quite grasp it. I think it had multiple dials, and could pick up more than radio stations.  My Dad was a powerful telepath, by the limited measures of Earth standards, and had some oracle-like qualities—what he called his "fey sense".

Deirdre's part opens up with pure dream, starting with a jumble between Til's shoreline cliff and the mountains of the Charadoc till it resolved into the latter.  The first few paragraphs, in fact, come verbatim from my dream notes—even the dialogue, Cyran saying that e knew I didn't like the leaf, and me saying that the problem was that I do, now.  Except I did gradually splice in new stuff with the old, such as Makhliya being the one to beg Cyran to ground Deirdre (in the dream e just knew that e ought to, but couldn't) and a few of the references to events of recent chapters.  I did dream of Cyran reminding me that Lufti couldn't be one of my "lieutenants", but at that time, on waking, I didn't know why.  I feared then that he might have died, and that the dream referred to this.  And Kiril did come up to us limping, and I did ask Cyran for that second leaf.  Only years later did I dream of Lufti going mad, explaining the cryptic reference to Lufti not really being there.

At the time I was exhausting myself with a junior college workload three times the recommended maximum.  Ashamed of not attending a full-college, I wanted to expunge the brand of "underachiever" that I bore, by seeing just how much I could learn if I pushed myself to the max.  I learned that my physical and mental health would buckle long before I reached an intellectual limit.  More to the point, I learned that these also count in determining one's potential.  I didn't use greenfire or any other stimulants; otherwise I probably would have broken sooner.

Although I didn't dream of Suleya's departure, I did dream of why Sanzio D'Arco would have to believe the sincerity of Cyran putting someone under St. Dymphna's protection, and also why Cyran could never abuse this.

In my dreams later on the timeline Sanzio had that scourge.  So I wrote of his plans to acquire it.  More on that later.

Daba'oth I have dreamed elsewhere, just the one long and vivid dream at the end (so far) but I know his nature very well.  So I have added him in as a character, portraying the sort of person I knew in the dream's memories.

            I dreamed of Damien speaking to us about the dead.  But I wrote the words.