Anamnesis

[Thalia]

His response had all the bite of an irritated dismissal. Had she eyes, she might have rolled them. Instead, surplus to whatever he was looking for, Nimeda let her consciousness drift out into the blackness and dispersed herself amongst the stars. Slipping into the fabric of the world was not so difficult, and she felt no call to return to the physical. She came to the Gap often enough on her own, mostly to watch or fall into the dreams of others, which was not something she felt any inclination to admit to someone who sometimes manifested as Mara’s dream eater. It wasn’t a polite thing to do, the spying; just a lonely one.

Her attention eventually returned because of a feeling rather than anything she observed as she roamed. She’d never witnessed a tear like it before; or, at least, not in the shallows of her surface memories, and she did not plunge deeper. Answers were not important things, soon forgotten anyway, and she preferred floating in the novelty of the experience. It wasn’t often that anything felt new. So she watched as the impossible staircase unfurled and Adrian’s body returned to him, though it was his reaction she watched more than anything. It seemed he did know other expressions after all.

She did not follow immediately, presuming the vision would fade as he did. It was the kind of thing Nimeda would have enjoyed sharing in, but Adrian seemed a solitary creature, and she did not choose to intrude upon something she thought he would guard jealously for himself. But curiosity always lured where a wise heart said it was foolish to follow. In the realm that followed she found herself thinking of how the dream had once warped under the blows of the Vanagandr’s axe. In fear and fascination she’d been unable to pull her gaze free, yet she remembered dulling all her senses away from understanding what was happening. Afterwards she’d reached over his head to touch where the rift had been; ran her fingers down the invisible seam. This wasn’t quite the same thing. But it was something like it.

After a time of simple and unashamed wonder for the kaleidoscope sky, she remembered to return herself to a body.

“Only this time?” She laughed a little. Vestiges of earlier melancholy smoothed away, easily distracted by the revels of the moment. Adrian hadn’t chosen to shut the door in her face, which she accepted in the same spirit as the returned poppy still in her hair. She smiled at him, not that he noticed, and continued her meandering exploration by twisting around on the spot. Her senses were sweeping in and out like the tide. The creature summoned was not a dreamer, for all that he professed to sleeping. When the skirts about her legs stilled their swishing, she bent to peer at him with bright-eyed inquisitiveness, hands braced on her knees.

“I do not think you are ugly,” she told him sincerely. Seemed she had a soft spot for grumpy things, now that she thought about it. Watching these two speak had been a little like watching Adrian converse with a mirror, which had amused her for the deep frown lines carved into the creature’s muzzle and his waddly harumph up to the gate. But whatever he was, intelligence gleamed in his wide eyes. Life was never a mistake. “In fact you have magnificent ear tufts. It makes you look very wise, Gorinthian. Thank you for opening the gate.” On a whim she plopped a kiss on the top of his head, and gave a soft squish to the pouch of his cheek. The wavy fronds of his hair tickled, and made her laugh.

When she straightened she folded her hands behind her back like she didn't trust to their discretion. Instinct warred in her chest, an unusual affliction. Usually she would have pulled Adrian by the hand in tumbling haste for exploration of what lay beyond. She often offered to share the things she loved, but rarely were such things reciprocated, in part because few walked here as she did or knew quite so many of its secrets. Curiosity bubbled like a geyser, yet there were colder currents of fear too. Not for the pierce of his glare. That, as most things, did little to quash her nature. She anticipated that he would be flatly unamused at her excitement, and it didn't bother her. Nimeda could see he was not unaffected by the landscape unfurled before their eyes. “Well aren’t you going to show me around? You made this place didn’t you?" She grinned a little tease, glanced at Gorinthian, and added, "It’s not an excuse just because you don’t remember.”