Chapter 20: The Red King's Dream

He was sleeping beside his wife. And then he was not. He recognizes immediately the standing stones,  the place between worlds, the portal from the mundane world into the fae. And of course he recognizes Summerdream as well, for who else would have the audacity to summon a sleeping dragon.

"Deserter," she says to him, her voice sharp and cold. "How could you leave us in the middle of this war?"

"This war has no end, Summerdream. You know this," Aymeri protests, "I've spent centuries defending our lands, but even in victory we are defeated. Their numbers grow, and ours do not."

"Yes, and with defections such as yours, our numbers shrink even further," she answers, "I command you to return to the field, to fight and lead us to victory."

"You command? No one commands the dragon kin, not even you, Tania Summerdream."

"Aymeri, please," she says, her voice softening, "We need you."

"Thierry was right, Summerdream, this war is futile," Aymeri sighs sadly, "I cannot lead us to an impossible victory. Our only hope is to fight the enemy at the source, to stop the mundane world from destroying itself and us along with it."

"Your mind has been clouded by love," Summerdream says, her mouth in a contemptuous snarl, "To think you once advocated the total destruction of humankind. And now you lie with one, tamed, your wings clipped. If you seek to win this war on the human front, you can only achieve that through their destruction. You know they will not, cannot change."

"And it was you who spoke for the humans then," Aymeri reminds her, "You wanted alliance with their kind, and talked the dragon kin down from our hostility. The wisdom of age has tempered my fire, Summerdram. What is it that's has lit yours to such a fury?"

"You need to ask that, when you've seen what their carelessness has done to our kind? I was a fool to think we could ever live side by side with the humans, and I regret not letting you and your brothers rain fire down on them all when you wanted to."

"We couldn't have destroyed them all," Aymeri says, "Not even then when their numbers were so small. Now, it would be a joke to even attempt it. We made our decisions, and now must live with them. Our only choice now is to try to work with the humans."

Summerdream was about to argue further, but her words were stopped by a tremor shaking the ground beneath them. "Did you feel that?" she asks, her voice small and quiet, but not with fear. Whatever the source of the shaking ground, it's not the enemy, not an attack. Aymeri feels it as well, the warm familiarity of it, though he cannot quite place it.

"The dragon is right," he says, appearing behind her. She hasn't heard his voice in years beyond counting, but there's no mistaking the speaker.

"Auberon," she whispers, not believing. "You're awake? But you can't be. Unless...?"

"Yes, Tania, it's the end of the world. I am awakened."

Summerdream gasps and trembles.

"You were right, Tania, when the humans first walked the world. You were right to try to make alliances, to try to adjust to the newcomers and find a way to live beside them. You talked down the dragons and their allies, but then you listened to my counsel. That was your mistake," Auberon continues.

"It wasn't a mistake," Summerdream protests, "Separating the realms was the only way for us to survive."

"We are dying, Tania," Auberon says, "I created the fae in my imagination, and held it in my dreams while I slept. But I could not completely sever the link to the mundane world. And now we suffer the contamination. Aymeri is right, we cannot purge this realm, we cannot win back what we've lost. The fae must be destroyed."

"How can you say this?" Summerdream cies.

"Because it is true," Auberon says, "The fae should have never existed. We belonged in the mundane world along with the humans. But we were arrogant, I was arrogant, and took our magic out of the world to forge our own, made of dreams. We caused our own destruction, Tania."

"Don't cry, beloved," Auberon says, taking her hand, "Destruction is necessary for creation to exist. This has been a long, beautiful dream, my love, but now I am awake, and this realm will fade as dreams do."

"We should go," Aymeri reluctantly interrupts the reunion of the two ancient lovers, "Before we fade along with it."

"Where were you?" Allyriane asks when he comes up behind her, "You weren't in bed when I woke up."

"The war is over," Aymeri answers, smiling.

"You won? Is that why everything is so....golden?" she asks, not having quite the right word to describe the magical glow of the world this morning.

"It was not a war we could win. We admitted defeat. The fae is no more, and our magic is returned to the world."

"Magic...returned? What does that mean?"

"I don't know," Aymeri admits.

Others feel the change in the air the morning after the fae collapsed. The Tricous with their fae blood, the elven Archers.

Even the fox spirit turned human feels it.

Is it a coincidence the magic seed Aymeri gave her for her teen birthday finally bears its fruit on this day?

Laramie Tricou and Tobin Archer celebrate the reunion of Tania and Auberon Summerdream with their own union, choosing this day to marry. The couple throw a small party at the Tricou house for their friends and family.

Thierry's brother Fricorith is still bitter about their family's matrilineal leanings, and that their younger sister inherited the house.

Shavon Wilder, Fricorith's illegitimate daughter with Morrigan Wilder, is invited not for her connection to the family, but because she and Tobin are thick as thieves. Being professional thieves and all.

Audrey, Laramie and Tobin's daughter, wants to burn the house down.

"The Landgraabs have held all the power in this city for too long," Laramie says to Allyriane, "It's time for the Tricous to try their hand at governance. It's time for you, Allyriane."

"Me?" Allyriane says, "I'm not even a Tricou, I'm a Roman."

"Immaterial," Laramie waves her hands, "I've changed my name to Archer, but I am always a Tricou, as are you. It isn't the name that must take the reins, it's our blood. The Landgraabs are poor stewards of the land. You've made inroads with your campaign to expand the public transportation system. But that's not enough. You must stop petitioning elected officials and become one."

Allyriane looks doubtfully at her aunt.

"You'd be an excellent leader," Aymeri says, "The city needs you. The world needs you"

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Challenge Notes:
This chapter was named from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, in which Tweedle Dum tells Alice that she's just a figment of the Red King's dream, and when he wakes, she'll poof out of existence.
In Hindu beliefs, it is said that this universe is a dream being dreamt by the god Vishnu, and that it will be over when he wakes.

And yes SP did me the favor of having Tobin and Laramie finally get married. Laramie is pregnant again, btw, but she's not showing in the wedding party pics.

The fae scenes were shot in Riverview, where the standing stones are.