kpwu
long
tale
Yedor was advancing in the dark corridor. The door slammed behind her. Slowly, due to her injuries, she walked, helping herself on the walls. She felt the texture of wood on her hands. Varnished wood, running up to half the height of the wall. Then, wallpaper.
She stopped. Just in front of her, on the ground a circle with runes around it shone in a white light. She crouched down to decipher it. "It will heal your wounds." A familiar voice had come from behind. After reading the central runes, she agreed and stepped in.
The circle disappeared. She wasn't fully healed- her hands still had these formless crescents- but at least she could walk faster.
She turned around, and saw the shining white glyph they had seen earlier. "Sigil... 11 00 1 ?
-Almost. SIGIL-11-10-01. Just SIGIL will be fine.
-Right..."
She walked, from time to time turning her head, to see that the unreal symbol followed. She felt pushed to start a conversation.
"I was wondering... what is a dreambeast ?
-That is a difficult question to answer. Not because I don't know, but because I will have to formulate an understandable answer.
-Try anyway."
"A dreambeast is, simply put, a contradictory being. We are beings that originate in dreams, and in our center we bear a contradiction."
A pause.
"Did you know that the only eternal thing, in all of the universes, in all of the worlds, is conflict ?"
Yedor turned to look at SIGIL. "What do you mean ?
-Whenever something is stricken by conflict, if this conflict does not destroy it, it becomes eternal. Dreambeasts bear an eternal conflict due to their very nature. As long as we do not resolve that contradiction, we are endless beings."
Another pause.
"Doens't everyone -at least almost everyone- have constant internal conflict ?
-A fair argument. The difference is in our physicality. You, and this 'everyone' you speak of, are beings that are rooted in this world. You are real, and know it, and you take conscience of the physicality of both you and your surroundings.
"However, in a dream, that is not the case. At any point, a dream can, and will end. In a way, dreams are like stage plays. Every actor knows they only exist for the play, to play the role they play, and for nothing else. However, if an actor notices a contradiction within themselves, and within their role, and so on... They can exit the stage, transcend it."
Light bulbs had started to appear in the ceiling lamps. In their dim light, Yedor dully noticed the floor was carpeted in grey.
"But... About the physicality of the universe... I'm noticing discrepancies as well. Our world doesn't seem so real anymore.
-I will explain.