1 Chapter 1
Dane sat at the back of a pickup truck, his personal PTV, and popped a can of cheap beer open. He tossed it carelessly at Blaise, not bothered about it spilling. The can spun in the air as the beer surged out. Blaise was about to be drenched, but he seemed unbothered as he smiled at Thalia, only narrowing his eyes at the can and the beer.
Instantaneously, the can and its displaced contents lost speed, like someone had hit the brakes, and moved sluggishly toward the purple-eyed boy.
The liquid coalesced and swiftly rushed back into the can as he raised his hand and caught it with the practiced ease of someone used to having drinks and other things thrown at him.
Dane opened another and brought it to his lips, smiling as the alcohol streamed down his gullet.
"Does Eliana know you're here?" Thalia asked him, a pensive frown on her face.
Dane coughed, choking on his drink. He looked at her with a wry smile as he forced himself to swallow. "No."
Dane had broken all the family rules. He had left the house far past curfew, illegally purchased a copious amount of alcohol, and worse still, he had not told Eliana, his sister, that he was leaving the house.
He wasn't worried about the legalities of buying and drinking alcohol as a teen. Eliana was an Ascended. So, she and their family received a little…or a lot of freedom with petty crimes.
No, he feared the hellish training he would be forced through for lying to his sister.
He gulped his beer as he cut that thought off at the root. Eliana and her 'disciplining' were problems for tomorrow. All he had on his mind now was the company of his friends and the stupid jokes they cracked.
Unfortunately, Thalia wasn't leaving it at that.
She grimaced, staring daggers at him with her coffee-like eyes.
"I'm going to kill you. Now she's going to drag me into your mess," she said fiercely. "I hope it's not the damn puzzles—"
Blaise promptly intervened, prizing the can of beer from her hands. "Okay, that's enough alcohol for a night. It's messing with your head, babe. Did you forget? The winter solstice is like a month away. Eliana wouldn't bother us now," he said.
Dane and Thalia eyed him with what looked like pity as they struggled to hold their laughter until they couldn't.
"Like hell, fool!" they ridiculed in unison.
***
Dane drove his PTV through the twilit streets of the outskirts and middle-class parts of the city, toward houses where driveways were longer than some roads. He looked at Thalia and Blaise dozing soundlessly in the back through the rearview.
His heart throbbed at the sight. They would be entering the Dream Realm for the first time as Sleepers this winter solstice, and it could be the last time he would ever see them. He wouldn't be with them to help even if they needed it, even if he wanted to.
They were all seventeen. And the two lovebirds had experienced their First Nightmares and breezed through them.
Half a year had passed since then, but Dane had yet to be tested, and he was both perplexed and angry. His sister hadn't allowed him to enroll in any form of schooling or mingle with others so that she could personally train him in all the facets needed for survival in the Dream Realm. Now? He was doubting his chances of Awakening, feeling that he had been robbed of his time. He smirked at the stupidity of that.
Eliana had once told him that "the sun would rise from the south before the Spell even thinks of not choosing you."
And she was right. He vividly remembered the day Saint Beastmaster had teleported him to Ravenheart within the Dream Realm. It was a short visit to the beautiful and ancient palace, but it was enough to cement his position as an Aspirant.
Usually, Legacies would have the Seed within them awaken at the age of sixteen, sometimes even earlier. He was growing impatient.
He had spent his childhood training day and night in fear of the Dream Realm that had been drilled into him, not as a possibility like the rest of the population, but as a certainty.
Most people, even some Legacies, would be happy not to be chosen by the Nightmare Spell, but not Dane. He wanted to go. To be with Blaise and Thalia, his only friends throughout his childhood. To help his sister run the Legacy clan she was the head of.
All he wanted was for his fears to come true.
The truck slowed to a halt in front of a luxurious manor. Dane unbuckled his seatbelt, turned, and shook the two awake.
"Get out of the car before I drive you two to my place," he said, a mischievous smile on his face.
Blaise and Thalia looked at each other, distraught at the thought of meeting Eliana, and hopped off and waved at him as he drove away.
Soon, the PTV left the public roads and entered the road that led to the stronghold of Clan Song in the NQSC. Though they were in the Waking World, the district belonging to Clan Song looked nothing like the rest of the city.
It looked olden and dignified with its Victorian architecture. It was painted in dark hues of blue, gray, and black. But it also held an air of liberty to it as trees, vines, and little ponds littered nearly every part of the beautiful fortress-like embassy. It was exotic in every sense of the word.
He drove through it until he reached a luxurious and seemingly small manor. It was home to the Gray Gust clan. His grandfather, Master Bastien, had founded this clan. It was one of the few well-respected even though it no longer possessed its founding Legacy Relic.
The guards, who seemed more solemn than usual, opened the gates with a salute, and he parked the PTV quickly when he noticed members of his sister's cohort walking toward the vehicle.
He slammed the door shut and strode toward them.
The man leading them, Awakened Axel, stopped opposite him and looked at him with puffy eyes.
A lump formed in Dane's throat at their solemn yet depressed looks. He had seen scenes like this in dramas a thousand times before. He fidgeted with the keys of the PTV and waited for them to speak impatiently, a light of desperation glowing in his eyes.
Agonizing seconds flew by in silence until Axel breathed in deeply and spoke.
"…Dane, your sister fell in battle."
