Cera obeyed.
The Awakening
Cera dreamed of walking barefoot through a forest. It was not like any forest she'd ever seen, but more like one from a picture book. The trees grew so tall that they disappeared into the clouds. Their trunks were so wide that she fancied she could hollow one out and make a nice little home for herself.
Of course, that was absurd. The trees were alive. She could hear them whispering, their voices drifting down from the unseen canopy. They spoke in a language she didn't know, and of things she didn't think she could understand. But she didn't need to hear them speak to know that they were alive. She could feel the life moving through them, as surely as she could feel the blood pumping in her veins.
She drifted close to one, a particularly large and beautiful tree. A fine mist coalesced around its roots, the tallest of which jutted up so high that it was beyond Cera's reach. She laid her head on the flat side of the root, finding it surprisingly warm and supple. Pressing her hand against it, she went still and listened until she heard the steady thrum of its heart beating.
"You're awake."
The forest fell away as her eyes fluttered open. Greeted by blinding light, she moaned her discomfort and snapped her eyes shut at once.
"Is it too much?"
The warmth left her, and she felt the ground beneath her shift. Seconds later came the sounds of rustling fabrics, and then the warmth returned. Cera moved toward it eagerly, gripping at it and drawing it against her until she was enveloped by it.
"Open your eyes."
She recognized the voice, but her mind was too muddled to draw a name to the surface. She knew that the voice could command her, yet the words held only the weight of suggestion.
"Too bright." She did not recognize her own voice. It was hoarse and throaty, yet also oddly lovely. It was so strange that she went on talking just to hear herself speak. "I had a dream that I was in a forest, listening to the trees."
"And what did they tell you?"
Something brushed against her hair, and then ran down her back. It was gentle and soothing, just like the voice that spoke to her.
"I don't think they were talking to me. I'm not so important. But I am quite thirsty. Do you have water?"
"Open your eyes and I will bring you some."
She couldn't deny the request. As soon as she'd recognized her thirst, she'd been struck with the demanding impulse to drink.
With only the barest hesitation, she opened her eyes once more. Light shot across her field of vision in a sharp flare, but she endured it and allowed her eyes to adjust. After a few seconds of squinting and blinking, she found herself staring at a long, serpentine creature with blue scales.
A water dragon.
It rested atop sparkling water, its head turned toward Cera. It watched her through its diamond eye, as still as a predator preparing to strike.
"It's only embroidery," said the voice.
And the moment he said it, Cera could suddenly see the threads that the dragon was composed of. It wasn't even a particularly realistic-looking dragon, and yet for a time, it had seemedsoreal.
She looked away from it, her eyes finally falling on Isael. His name came to her the second their eyes met, and yet she wasn't afraid or even perturbed to find herself lying next to him.
No, lyingwithhim. He washoldingher.
Perhaps that was a bit strange.
But she was his concubine, wasn't she? Or was that a title for after they... Or had they already lain together? Was that why they were in bed now, in such a familiar position?
"You're drifting again," he said, his hand coming up to grip her chin.
"Everything is so confusing. I feel as if I... Am I still dreaming?"
Her sense of the unreal was compounded when his lips curved into a smile. More than that, they parted, revealing a hint of perfect, gleaming teeth.
"I have wondered that very thing all morning," he said. "But no, you are very much awake now."