Leonidas struggled to open the stable doors, wiping a layer of sweat from his brow, breathing heavy and his skin colorless, his clothes now drenched and dripping. He leaned up against the outer walls of the building as the three came up to him. “What happened in there?” Cid asked flinching his head back sharply.

  “I got him into a better mood to talk,” Leonidas replied, trying to catch his breath while running his right hand up and down his left arm.

  Benkei opened the door, taking a step back and his mouth falling open for a moment before regaining his composure. “Those are some pressure points you used, Doc.”

  “Like I said, I know a few tricks,” said Leonidas, handing Benkei back his knife before he began stumbling towards the inn, “If you all don’t mind, I think I’m going to call it a night.”

  “You need help getting back to your room?” Benkei asked.

  Leonidas waved it off. Not looking at the warrior as he spoke. “I’m fine, I just need some night air, I’ll be all right.”

  Barely hearing the startled conversation behind him, Leonidas made his way to the inn. The labored breaths growing worse as each step demanded more of an effort for him to keep his balance. His muscles screamed in pain with every stride, the world spun randomly as he moved, his eyes opening and closing rapidly to try and reorientate himself. The scent of food and ale made his stomach turn. Reaching the base of the stairs, he rested much of his weight on the railing to help negotiate his way up the steps.

  Once at the landing he leaned against the wall, unable to regain his balance without some form of aid. Arriving to his room, he grabbed the door handle and with what strength was left in him, pulling the handle down. Opening the door, he collapsed onto the floor with a hard thud. He tried to force himself to crawl further, desperately searching to find the chamber pot under his bed. As his hands shook terribly, he lifted his torso high enough for his head to hover over the pot and vomited a black bile into the recess.

  Once he finished, his strength left him and rolled onto his back. His breathing began slowing down as the room began spinning, voices of those long dead speaking to him in words he could not make out. His eyelids twitched violently as his skin shivered as the world became black.

  ***

  Leonidas’ eyes slowly opened to a room he had not seen in years. The sound of a desert wind hissing from the other side of a thick stones piled neatly in forming the outer wall of his bedroom. Woven tapestries hung from the crevasses of the stone pieces depicting several armed warriors fighting a giant troll creature. Shelves of books and rolled parchments line much of the wall. Streams of light poke through the holes near the ceiling, angling down to fill the room with light.

  He slowly sat up in bed and finds himself in a large bed, a soft feather mattress with a fine linen sheet covering his body. Four posts held up a thin canopy which kept dust and bugs away during the night but allowed the cool air to flow through unabetted. Through the thin fabric, he saw a woman sitting before a tall mirror flanked with two long wax candles alit and illuminating the air around her. As if an aura emanated from her very being, ethereal something beyond this world.

  Her long fingers gentle held long locks of her ruby hair as she moved a brush down in a smooth motion, the rest running down in rippling burnished clusters down her supple back. She hummed a soothing song as the long elegant tattoos stretching from the base of her neck down to her calves moved as if they were alive on their own. Wearing solely a linen skirt from the waist down, Leonidas first thought he was looking at the living form of the goddess of love and passion, Amoria, herself. And for a moment, he was stunned to move near her.

  Then she turned and looked at him with a focused but welcoming gaze. Her eyes a bright violet, her irises swirling with arcane energy. A short inhale as a smile graced her face. “Finally awake, I see,” she said coyly to him, her voice refined and erudite, turning back to the mirror and brushing her hair.

  “Morning, Soliana. Didn’t keep you waiting too long, I hope,” he said, moving to a chest of drawers and taking out a pair of linen pantaloons to wear.

  As he fitted them on, she put her brush down and turned to him. Rising from her seat and gently holding him in her arms. “Not at all, I figured you could use the rest after our last trip to the Crystaline Caves.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Was I that tired?”

  “I’d daresay you were comatose, Leonidas.”

  “Well, not sure how to handle that one.”

  Soliana giggled. “I wouldn’t worry. Besides, it was fun watching you sleep.”

  “You make a hobby out of this?”

  “Sometimes. Especially, when you’re snoring.”

  “I don’t snore,” Leonidas said adamantly.

  “It’s cute, though,” Soliana insisted. “They’re soft and gentle like.”

  “I do not snore,” Leonidas repeated, though he was beginning to laugh at the conversation.

  “And what, pray tell, is the noise then?”

  “It’s the house settling.”

  Soliana put her hand to her mouth and began laughing loudly.

  “It’s not that funny!” the doctor insisted.

  “It is a little,” she said, tears now welling in the corner of her eyes.

  “All right, now you’re being rude.”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t help it,” Soliana said, waving her hand in front of her face.

  The doctor grabbed the end of Soliana’s hair and began dusting her face with the tips. “Give you something to giggle at.”

  “Stop it, you silly person,” she said, playfully smacking his shoulders and chest.

  “After you, you naughty little minx,” the doctor replied, now tickling her nose.

  A knock came from the door to their bedchamber with a high squeaky female voice calling out from the other side. “Not to intrude, but if you’re going to roughhouse, please break your own stuff and not the rest of the library, and do remember, sound does carry and we can hear everything,” said the woman.

  Both Leonidas and Soliana looked at each other. “I shudder to think what else she and Sapper have heard,” Soliana said to Leonidas, looking a bit worried.

  “I think I know the answer, but you’re not going to like it.”

  “Oh gods,” Soliana said, her face now flush with embarrassment. “Oh gods!”

  “I think they heard that, too,” Leonidas replied. Soliana smacked his shoulder harder than before.

  “This isn’t funny.”

  “It kind of is. From a certain point of view.”

  Soliana waved the comment off with both hands and walked over to her dresser to grab a long dress from a drawer. “I am not having this conversation.”

  “I think we are,” Leonidas said, followed by his head sinking into his shoulders and his mouth tightening up into a grimace as he saw the look on her face. “All right, never mind,” he said in a strained voice.

  Soliana stopped, taking a deep breath and calmed herself. “I’m sorry, I’m … still getting used to all this. Being around people. Sharing a living space where it’s not just myself or … him.”

  Leonidas walked over, wrapping his arms around her waist gently. “It’s all right. It can be a little jarring at times. But it’s not bad once you get used to it.”

  “Yeah?” she asked, looking up into his eyes.

  “Yeah,” he repeated comfortingly. “Though we should probably get dressed before we go see the others.”

  “Shame, but such is life,” she said, kissing his cheek and finishing getting dressed and putting her hair into a long fishtail braid.

  As he threw on his clothes he said, “There always this evening, you know.”

  Soliana chuckled. “That’s what I like about you. Never missing a moment to seize the opportunity.”

  “You miss a few, you learn not to take for granted the ones which come your way after.”

  “Very true,” Soliana said. “And I’m glad you didn’t miss with me.”

  “I am, too,” he said. “I really am.”

  He finished dressing himself and reached to open the door when he felt a sudden congestion in his chest causing him to cough violently. After the first effort to breath in, the coughing was so intense he felt a sudden shift in his surroundings, sweat now covering his skin, and a heavy feeling of weakness afflicting every muscle in his body. As his mind became aware of his surroundings, he realized what had happened was a dream.

  He was not back in the Outlands. He was not living at the Library of Xhel and the other Leonidas known as The Sapper. And Soliana … Soliana was still dead. Something no dream could ever change.