Bentis sat in his usual spot on the edge of the Fountain of Wishes.  This dream, the name of the Fountain seemed ironic.  He wished he had not found the latest parchment with its terrible history of loss and destruction.  Rather than seeking out his young friends, he waited for them to locate him and come to ask about his research.

 

The first chime of the portal admitted Alkinia, who came up the stairs and took her usual seat a little distance from him on the fountain's rim.

 

"You look tired, Bentis," she observed.

 

He sighed and nodded to her.  Their beliefs kept them from being friends, but they had known one another for many years.  He acknowledged to himself that he would miss their arguments if she ceased to dream.  That realization made him smile wryly as he answered, "I've been copying so many dull saints' lives for such a small trove of Dream history.  And the latest one is even more terrible than the others."

 

Before Alkinia could reply, the portal chimed again, admitting Nightwing and Skandren.  The younger dreamers ran up the stairs and bowed to the elders waiting for them.

 

"Why so gloomy, Master?"  Skandren asked, "Have you found no more histories in the library?"

 

Bentis sighed and answered, "I could wish I had not found this one, my friends."

 

The students sat at their master's feet and Nightwing urged, "Tell us anyway, Master.  We've lost so much.  Even the sad and terrible stories should be preserved."

 

The portal chimed again and Termish came running up the stairs to join them.  "Good dreams, my friends!  I've been smacking the agos around and only just located you all.  More history, Master Bentis?"

 

Alkinia glowered at his mention of hunting, but unusually for her, forbore to comment.

 

Bentis nodded and began to relate the tale he had just transcribed, "It began on a day much like any other in the City of Underlight.  In Threshold, experienced Dreamers met with the Newly Awakened.  In the Houses, meetings were underway, guards were posted and Dreamers came and went.  In the lands, roving bands of Dreamers fought over their beliefs while other Dreamers hunted mares and collected essences.

 

"And far out on the edges of the Dreamstate, a team of Master Dreamwrights and Dreamsmiths called the Overscanners were trying to find a way to repair the City walls and keep the Mares out once and for all.  Under the leadership of a Master Dreamwright Elder named Ibioc, the Overscanners made ready to attempt their first repair.

 

"The Overscanners began by entering a group meditation and reaching out with their minds to probe the weakened sections of the City walls.  They did not realize how much the Walls had been weakened by the meddling of the Entropy Coalition.  Where once the City had maintained a balance between the forces of Chaos and Order within and without the Walls, now the forces fluctuated wildly.  The City of Dreams, a tiny island of Order in the surging seas of Chaos was under severe pressure and perilously close to rupture.

 

"And that is exactly what happened.  Before the Overscanners realized what they had done, the City walls blew apart and a tidal wave of chaotic consciousness flooded into Underlight.  In the space of a heartbeat, the Overscanners were torn asunder, their minds overwhelmed by the chaotic forces.

 

"The Dorsal Rift was born."

 

Nightwing gasped in horror and moved closed to Skandren.

 

Skandren put his arm around her and observed, "For all their power, a lot of those ancient Masters seem to have been awfully reckless.  It seems like they were willing to try anything they dreamed up, regardless of what might happen."

 

Bentis nodded slowly, "It does look that way, for all the chroniclers seem to admire them.  It gets worse.

 

"The monstrous wave of consciousness slammed through the Dream, blowing through the portals and rushing toward Threshold.  Dreamers caught by its sudden onslaught were also destroyed, their minds shredded by the waves of raw psychic essence.  The wave hit the Houses and even their mighty walls could not hold it back.  It poured through Sanctuaries destroying Dreamers before they could so much as scream. Within seconds, every single Dreamer in the city was utterly slain.

 

"The City itself began to shake and crumble as the Dorsal Rift grew.  As those who had not been dreaming at the moment of disaster entered the City, they found utter carnage: the Dreamstate rippled with raw, uncontrolled power and the death essences of Dreamer and Mare alike littered the lands.

 

"Struggling against the continuing waves of  energy, all the surviving Master Dreamwrights fought their way outward toward Dorsal Rift.  Freesoul, Illuminate and Freespirit alike joined in a last desperate effort to save Underlight.  The City was being pulled apart and would soon be lost if some stability could not be restored.  All that had been accomplished in the Dream since its first days was on the verge of being destroyed.

 

"The surviving Dreamwrights did as the Overscanners had done that very day: they joined in a group meditation and began to focus their will on the Rift.  They reached out, grasping the edges of the rift, stopping it from spreading, pulling it closed.  For hours they labored to gain control of the deadly forces, pulling the Rift closed, struggling to push the Chaos from the City.  At last came the moment when their heroic efforts were within a hairsbreadth of success: the Rift was almost sealed.

 

"In that moment they were lost again.  Again the Master Dreamwrights had failed to understand the pressures within and without the City.  In the instant they made their last thrust to evict the chaotic energies and close the Dorsal Rift, a second Rift blew open on the opposite side of the City.  Caudal Rift was born in a second tidal wave of consciousness pouring through the City.  Again, chaotic energy surged through Underlight, destroying all in its path.  Teams of Dreamers attempting to repair the damage of the first eruption were caught and destroyed by the second.  The last of the Master Dreamwrights were collapsed and shredded within seconds.

 

"This Dream of terror became known as The Great Loss.   Almost every Dreamer alive was killed that day, leaving only those few fortunate enough not to have been dreaming at the time of the great eruptions.  Underlight would remain almost empty for many months till more Dreamers awakened in the lands of Cloudsbreak and took up the work of rebuilding the shattered City."

 

There was a stunned silence when Bentis finished speaking. 

 

Finally, Termish asked, "How could they all be killed by something that happened in the Dream?"

 

"It must have been like Dreamstrike," mused Skandren, "a shock so violent that it destroyed their ability to Dream again.  I've known people who had something so terrible happen to them that their minds couldn't accept it and wiped out the memory completely."

 

Nightwing nodded slowly, "And perhaps some of them really did die of the shock.  If they believed strongly enough that what happened in the Dream could kill their souls, then perhaps it did so.  There are witches on my shard who can curse people to death, and whether it's the witch's power or the power of the victim's belief, some of them do die."

 

"You never understand, you foolish Freesouls, even when the answer is in front of your faces." Alkinia said, shaking her head. "Their souls were slain by the chaos wave that hit the City and their empty bodies died in the waking world."

 

Alkinia crossed her arms, and looked away.  Those who looked closely could see the beginnings of a tear fall from her eye, as she stared quietly at the eclipse in the sky.