Aislinn stood up to face Albormare. The nightmare's face was expressing an intense anger, but the young girl's eyes showed no fear, only détermination.
"YOU STOPPED ME! HOW DARE YOU!" he exploded.
She looked at his eyes directly; her stare was as sharp as blades.
"You can rage all you want. I don't care. You won't hurt my essence ever again."
"You're in my realm, young girl. MY domain. You're not going to do anything here."
A glimmering light started to glow from various locations and converged all in the direction of Aislinn.
"This is the dream realm, not yours. It belongs to no one and to everyone at the same time. You think you are all mighty here, and maybe you are. But do not ever think that I am helpless."
A bright sphere had formed around her.
"So you're a crafter... You think a dream Shield will be enough to protect you? Maybe it will for a time. Until this shield vanishes. Have fun in this place you cannot leave."
Albormare disappeared, leaving the girl alone in the middle of the big place. She breathed out in relief.
"This will take me quite some time. But I'll need some of my essence back to maintain this shield. This will give me an opportunity to see Chung-Ho again." She looked at the way she was sensing her essence wavering with a smile. "See you soon." She muttered.
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It had been three days since the elevator fall incident. Park Chung-Ho had been training night and day. He just woke up from a nightmare fighting session. He had mixed various nightmares to take more risks. FIGHTING a dragon, a gigantic worm, and a clown had been quite a night. He was sweaty and heavily breathing, like every time he woke up these days. He went directly to the main room and grabbed something to eat and drink. Diane was there.
"You're pushing yourself too much. And you know I won't change my mind about you going with the others in hunt. You know it?"
"I know. But I also know that I won't be able to hide all my life. And knowing this, I need to train as hard as possible and catch up with what I missed for almost twenty years."
"Still, you're using sleeping pills a lot for three days already. You need to exercise to keep yourself in good shape."
"I will go run a bit."
The fresh air of the morning was an incredible sensation for the young man, as his feet were leading him with no purpose. He was trying to clear his mind from the numerous nightmares he had been given this last three days. The sun was rising, but he had only seen the colours in the sky yet; he didn't know how long he had been running, but the place seemed the right one for a break. he sat on a stone, facing the east, and opened his arms. While closing his eyes.
"Let's get these physical feelings pénétrante m'y skin." He thought.
The cold of the gentle morning wind, then the heat of the sun that managed to rise above the horizon. The chirping of birds and the smell of grass dew... This wasn't something he would be looking for usually. But his sleeping training schedule had cut him off from those regular things. He filled his lungs and emptied them several times, then he got up and raced his way back faster than earlier.
He was still drying his hair with a towel after his shower when he met his hosts in the main room of the DS.
"Mr. Lee Hyun-Bo, what are today's plans? You've given me multiple nightmares over the past three days, but I think I should work on a bit of Dreams, too. The dream realm can't be seen only as a nightmare hideout, can it?"
"You're right. We'll transfer you some dreams today, but I think there will be one last nightmare that could be useful to handle."
"What kind of nightmare?" Diane asked promptly.
"This choice is his, Diane. He has the right to décidé by himself."
The young man saw Diane opening her mouth again.
"I'm sorry, but you're once more talking about something I ignore. Please tell me what this is all about."
"You have impressed Lee Hyun-Bo. He's the one who makes the exams for the new hunters."
"You have impressed me indeed. You managed to master every nightmare I sent to you, even the elevator. I usually test my new hunters in a final exam. We call this the maze."
"The problem is that the maze is dangerous..."
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Park Chung-Ho said with a smile, "but everything is dangerous when I listen to you."
"For people like you and me, it is."
"What do you mean? Is it less dangerous for others?"
"Yes. You and I have been marked. That means that when we enter the dream realm, we have a target on us. Yours seems to activate when you're hurt on the mark..."
"This means I can enter the dream realm safely if I font hier my shoulder, right?"
"That's true. But getting hurt would trigger the mark. And then... It would be very dangerous."
The young man touched his forehead and closed his eyes.
"This shoulder had always been my Achilles' heel..." he said. "I was unable to compete at the highest level of sport because of it, and now I'm unable to dream, while I have the affinity with the dream realm. I guess there is no way that I can get rid of this, right?"
"You said that this shoulder has already been a problem in your past?" Lee Hyun-Bo asked.
"Yes."
"What happened with this shoulder in the past?"
"I've got a burn on it, see?" the young man said while pulling his T-shirt to show his shoulder.
There was the scar he got in his dream, but there was the trace of a burn that looked way older than the cut.
"How did you get this?" his interlocutor said.
"I may have an idea, but no memory of this."
Diane looked at the roof.
"The day my daughter disappeared. Did you hurt your shoulder?"
"I did when I crossed the flames. I slipped and hit myself against the wall."
"That's how he found you. This isn't a normal injury that you got. This is a nightmare one."
"You mean... The day my parents died, right?"
"Most likely, yes."
Park Chung-Ho had multiple questions popping in his mind, but he knew he would only be able to answer those one by one. He had to decide which one was the most pressing.
"And how do I get rid of this?"
"We'll need to see a weaver. And I only know of one."
"The one you're thinking about, Diane, is trapped in the Dream Realm currently. But I know another one." Lee Hyun-Bo was smiling. "If we heal his shoulder, I will show him the maze. I would really like him to be my student, you know."
"The maze, his study, it's all his choice in the end." Diane retorted.
"So you can heal my shoulder?" Park Chung-Ho asked.
"Most likely, yes. But we'll need some people around us for this. It won't be an easy process, and it could be painful." The Auction House owner said.
"And..." Diane started.
"And dangerous, of course." The young man finished. "You always say dangerous. But I was hoping we could try to transfer some light dreams, remember? I need a bit of positivity and lightness in my dreams too."
"Let's go give him some dreams then." The woman said.
They arrived at the Auction House and got prepared for another dream transfer. But when Park Chung-Ho fell asleep, Diane entered the room and said to Lee Hyun-Bo.
"She's here. And there are four other people with her."
"Good, this means we will be able to work on this shoulder today, then."
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The wavering of her essence was huge, and Aislinn knew instantly that Park Chung-Ho was back in her domain. She had opened it for this, and she had hidden herself in the nightmare where she was trapped.
"Here you are!" She said. "It's been a while, and you seemed really busy lately."
"Aislinn! Are you ok? First, you said that you closed your domain, then I felt you in pain through your essence, and now we're back in your domain. What's going on?"
"You felt my essence react to what happened... I see... Albormare was really pissed that I interrupted him while he was trying to pull my essence from you. But I don't understand how this was even possible."
"I'll try to be short. We went to Korea to get me some dreams and nightmares for training. Your dragon was great, but I needed more challenge before your mother would allow me to do some hunts in the higher levels of the dream realm."
"You wouldn't risk anything there indeed."
"Lee Hyun-Bo tried to test me in a falling elevator nightmare..."
"He always tests people like this. It shows the limits in depth that one can get to."
"Did he test it on you?"
"Never! I'm a dream; I would go way too deep for him. And it would be a huge risk. He could even be expelled from his domain."
"It was almost the case. When I stopped the elevator, it seemed that we were between his domain and the dream realm. And I fell hard on my shoulder when the elevator stopped. Apparently, my shoulder is a problem."
"This is how he found you the first time... But... That would mean he already had a link with you... How?" Aislinn Nottdottir was talking to herself rather than talking to him.
"Your mother thinks that this injury comes from the day my parents died. This would mean that Albormare had something to do with it. I'll seek answers about this later. What really matters now is to find a weaver to heal me."
"Oh... yes... that would work, I guess... But it's not easy to find a weaver. And it's not easy to heal such a wound. Can I take a look at it?"
She pulled his T-shirt to uncover his shoulder.
"This is a really old injury. You'll keep the scar, but the nightmare link can be erased..." she was inspecting his skin with the tip of her toe. It took her several seconds. "It will be a long process, and it's not gonna be soft. I'd rather warn you that you will suffer."
"You say this with so much calm in your voice." Park Chung-Ho said with a burst of laughter. "You could show more compassion!"
"I could, indeed." She answered with a smile. "But compassion won't ease the pain, you know."
"Anyway... I will suffer... ok. That's fine. But now that you know what I've been doing, and how much I will suffer really soon, I would like to know how you're doing and how you can be so calm knowing that you were suffering yesterday, and also why you're here while you said to me that this wasn't supposed to happen ever again."
"I'm not sure that I have said never again, but both questions are tied in a single answer. When I saw that my essence was leaking from my domain to me, I knew that Albormare would notice it. I used this to my advantage. I have been collecting all the particles of dream that I could find in the layer I was in, and I crafted a powerful Dreamshield. The problem is that I won't be able to maintain my Dreamshield forever if I'm not getting my full essence back. And if I do get my essence back, well... I would need to temporarily tear the Dream Realm to get out, and Albormare could follow me."
"But if you're complete again, your shield will stay, and you'll be safe, Albormare wouldn't be able to do anything to you, right?"
"If I'm complete again, I wouldn't have a choice but to wake up, and this would pull me out of the Dream Realm so strongly that it would distort the realm on the way and liberate a path for a small amount of time. Enough time for Albormare to manifest in the physical realm. That's why I'm here. To leak enough essence to maintain my shield for a long time, but not distort the dream realm."
"Buy some time. It's a good idea. As long as you're safe, it's ok. That leaves us more time to come and get you out." Park Chung-Ho saw Aislinn open her mouth to speak, but he quickly added, "And don't be like your mom, please."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't tell me the word, Danger. I perfectly know there is danger. But I'll heal my shoulder and train." He said with a smile while he felt himself waking up.