Blink had thought that sleep would be difficult. With the looming possibility of reapers tracking her through her dreams, the prospect of rest suddenly became unnerving. In spite or her fears, her exhausted body slipped easily into slumber, her weariness compounded further by the hours of work the Professor put in before allowing her to retire. Blink knew little about the strange technology of this new world, but the weapons that the writer and the inventor set up reassured her.
Even as a little girl, Blink had always remembered her dreams. Now they were dark and troubled, warped by sudden images of strange figures with metal masks. When she finally opened her eyes again, it took her several moments to realize that the dreams had ended. Her heart was pounding and she looked around in a daze, searching for the danger. The professor’s workshop was unchanged, though she could see the dim outlines of her friends shifting nervously behind a false wall. On the streets outside, machines still roared, carrying goods and passengers along, blissfully unaware of the threat closing in. Blink tapped her sheathed blade of the floor, warning the professor and Baird to hide. As she got up and moved to her place in the center of the room, she heard a hissing thud. Her friends, so easily seen in the wall moments before, were gone.
The air rippled and a pair of reapers stepped from the shadows, their blades glittering in the light from the gas lamps. Their faces were blank, and strangely impassive beneath their helms. The first stepped forward, his heavy boot landing squarely on a hidden pressure plate. All around the room, hidden springs launched slender bolts and wires, spinning a fantastic web of shining copper and leaving Blink in an empty space at the center. The reapers jerked in pain as several of the light darts hit their leather and plate armor. For just a moment, they tried to pull free before canisters of bottled lightning came to life, filling the room with a blast of energy. The burst lifted the reapers off their feet, hurling them back into the unyielding stone wall. Blink followed the lightning, plunging her blade into the first reaper’s throat before snatching away the second’s mask. Then, without a sound, she was gone.
Safely away in the wood outside the city, Blink threw the reaper into the iron hard trunk of a great oak, snatching up the thick chains and wrapping them around the man’s chest and neck. She vanished a second time, returning in barely a second with the professor and Baird. The reaper was awake, straining against the chains as it thrashed, caught in the grip of a crippling migraine.
“Want this back?” Blink asked, kneeling down and holding out the stolen mask. “Want the pain to stop?”
The man swore, peering at her through scrunched up eyes. “My mask! Give it to me and I will kill you all!”
Blink raised her eyebrows as the trapped reaper lashed out with a telekinetic shove, the force of the strange magic feeling like little more than a soft breeze. “Really?” she asked, resisting the urge to loosen the man’s teeth. “Is that really supposed to make me want to give this back?”
“Damn you!” the reaper snarled. There was a loud smack as Blink’s fist connected with his chin.
“How do you travel between the worlds?” she asked, drawing her blade to menace his throat. “How do you come here through the dreams?”
“Dreams,” he said, his head beginning to loll unnaturally. “Walk the dreams….”
Blink’s eyes widened as the man coughed and closed his eyes, his form beginning to waver. She tried to grab the man by the neck, but her hands passed through him like smoke. Chains clinked together, loud in the still forest, and the man was gone. Blink shrieked in fury, lashing out at the tree with a telekinetic storm. The mighty forest giant groaned and tipped, its roots making the ground bulge wildly as the professor and Baird ran for cover. The woman relented and the tree sagged back into place. She flicked her blade, scouring a deep scar into the bark where the reaper’s neck had been.
Baird hurried past her to gather up the chain as the professor put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on,” said the old man. “We should get back before something else happens.”
The writer yelped as Blink grabbed his shoulder, instantly transporting him back to the workshop. The dead reaper was still on the floor and the dozens of slender wires were undisturbed. Baird dropped the chain and fell back, nearly knocking over a small work table as the unexpected magic left him disoriented. The professor fared better and slipped through the wires to examine the body. Blink joined him, removing armor and pouches as if they would slip through her fingers.
“Damned nonsense about dreams again,” Blink grumbled, searching the dead man’s armor for secret pockets.
“Look in his mouth,” Baird said, finally regaining his composure. “I thought I saw the other guy swallow something before he disappeared.”
“I’ll be damned,” whispered the professor, gingerly opening the dead man’s mouth. “He’s got a false tooth. There’s a powder in it… smells like sleep root.”
“Sleep root…” Blink muttered slowly. “Sleep root knocks you out quicker than a hammer and puts you in dreams before you hit the ground.” She lifted her mask and massaged her temples. “So they do use the dreams, but how? I was dreaming all last night and I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t even know I was dreaming until I woke up!”
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