Faye snuggled down into her bed and fell to sleep easily. Her mind drifted from the events of the day to a surreal world of dreams. The dream she was in was full of soft muted tones like walking through a meadow on a spring morning with the night fog lifting gently. It seemed to be a normal, regular type of dream. Though it was strange because she usually only remembered having nightmares. Perhaps she usually did dream like this but didn’t remember in the morning, enough Absinthe kinda helped with that. She had a nagging feeling that this was not her normal dream but it was something more life altering.

That was when the dream shifted and took a different path. Suddenly, she found herself falling.

She kept falling deeper and deeper into the unknown. She didn’t think she would ever stop or land anywhere. But she eventually did. Her body crashed into icy water. The painful cold enveloped her body. She felt herself sinking down as the weight of the water crushed her, taking the air from her lungs.

Her mind screamed the words her lips couldn’t, ‘Was this where and how she was going to die?’

NO! Every fiber of her being yelled NO!!

The instinct to fight kicked in. Her arms and legs, feeling like lead, kicked and reached for life. The will to live and breathe air fueled her body. As her head broke the surface she inhaled that first gulp of beautiful air. Air, the saltiness of the air and water stirred her memory, she was in the ocean. Frantic and panicked she searched around her, the ambient moonlight laminating the sheer vastness of the sea. She could not see land or anything solid. Fear gripped her as the waves carelessly tossed her around. Just when she felt like her body was going to give up, not having the strength to keep her afloat, the soft moonlight illuminated a tall building, a tower of sorts in the distance. With renewed strength, her body went into autopilot and fought the ocean. She ignored the lure of exhaustion and pulled herself towards that beacon.

How long did she swim? She had no idea, but the tower seemed to unnaturally grow taller as she lay on the wet sand. Waves crashed up around her as she studied the building. It reminded of her a lighthouse, the way it was placed on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Though no light shown from it and it did not feel like a safe place.

She stood and forced herself to walk towards it. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt drawn to it, like all the answers to her questions lied within its walls. The closer she got, the more details became apparent. It was black, a black she had never seen before, with jagged walls of some type of stone. Dark and twisted roots of some type of plant reached around it, coming to a rest at the top, or, what seemed like the top. It was hard to tell where the stone and plant ended, but as she got close enough, it was obvious there was no door. As her eyes move up the vines and rock, it becomes clear to her, if she wanted in, she had to climb. Hands reach out to touch the vine, which was solid, but also had traps of its own. There were thorns. She couldn’t place her hands anywhere without those barbs tearing into her skin. But she wanted to climb, she had to, she was meant to.

The pain of the thorns, and the slickness of the blood that flowed made her pause. But the urge and desire was stronger than the pain, and she forced her body to keep going.

Even though she climbed higher and higher, she never felt in danger. Her hands and feet, battered and bleeding, always seemed to find the right place to grab onto.

And when the opening at the top came into view, the smile that appeared on her lips was one of joy and pure excitement.

It wasn’t a room she went into, but a cave. How was there a cave in this tower? Unsure feet brought her further into the opening, bloody foot prints marking her way. The room in the cave seemed to grow as she made her way in, grow in a way that didn’t seem possible. How could such a vast space be in the tower? The moonlight lit up the room, which was rich in paintings. Not art type paintings, but much older, and of animals like ancient cave paintings. So many animals, some she couldn’t identify and had never seen. But the crowning piece in the cavern, a pedestal in the center. The light illuminated it just right and she could see what appeared to be a book. The closer she got, the more obvious it became that this wasn’t a normal book, not one made of paper and leather. But one made of stone, smooth black stone, and open to a blank page.

And it occurred to her, this was like when she had her Awakening, when she carved her name into the tower of Thistle. When she choose her Path. But that couldn’t be, she had already awoken, she already was an Acanthus, this couldn’t be right. Yet her body, mind and even her soul urged her to write her name in that book of stone. To use the blood she had shed to make it here, to set herself upon a different Path, a Path of Ecstasy.

She did, though she wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. Yet her mind felt at peace after.

It was then that Faye awoke, completely drenched in sweat and sheets tangled around her body.
Sitting up, she looks around, the soft light of the lights wrapped around her canopy illuminating the room.

Everything looked the same, but something was off. Her connection to Fate and Time was not there. And no matter how hard she pushed herself, she couldn’t establish that connection, that safety line that defined who she was.

As in the dream, panic then set in, what the fuck just happened?! Was the dream more than a dream?! No, dreams were just dreams….weren’t they? Then why did her eyes open to show her a new world? Gone were the delicate threads and tapistrys of Fate. The gentle ticking of the clock of Time was gone from her head.

Then why did she feel different? Why did she feel more alive and with a new spark within her very soul?

Who was she now? What was she now? Arms pull the sheets tight against her body as she stared blankly at a different world.


I'm a princess cut from marble, smoother than a storm
And the scars that mark my body, they're silver and gold
My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones
It keeps my veins hot, the fires find a home in me
I move through town, I'm quiet like a fire