55.

  At some point, we had started traveling downwards. I wasn't sure when our path sloped, but it had become a downward spiral. We were going round and round and down and down, further into the depths. I kept my eyes firmly trained on the Pigeon King, determined to ignore anything and everything else. I couldn't process what I'd seen, and I just wanted to forget it as quickly as possible. Some memories deserve to stay buried, and some I wish would just die and be forgotten. But apparently, my subconscious didn't share the sentiment.

  It was at times like this I wished all the artificial mind programs had actually worked. They were experimenting with that a lot in the 2030s, but they had never quite been able to tame the human mind, to bend it and bind it to the binary logic of computer programs. And now I understand why. Because at the end of the day, computers make sense and humans don’t. Why the human mind would cling to such painful memories and hold them in such vivid and morose detail made no sense at all. If the subconscious was here to protect us, then why did it remind us of our worst moments and times?

  But I suppose for me that would mean losing probably at least the first 12 or 13 years of my young life. Then there were a couple of good years when it was just me and Grandad, and then Grandad passed away. It had been just darkness and loneliness since. I was cold and exhausted. The endless procession of pain and violence that was my life was beginning to finally beat me down. I just wanted to lie down and give up. I didn't even know what I was doing anymore or why, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and following behind the flapping wings of the Pigeon King.

  "We're close now, mageling," the Pigeon King called over his shoulder. "We have reached nothing"

  "Great, I've always wanted to go to nothing," I muttered behind him.

  "No, you don't understand," the Pigeon King said. "We've gone past your memories now. We've passed your subconscious. Now we are in between spaces, entering the realm of the unconscious. Soon we will find the kingdom of Somnix. I need you to fasten yourself and hold your courage, for the battle will begin shortly. Whatever it was you saw mageling, forget it. This is Somnix’s influence. The closer we come to his kingdom the greater the influence he can exert on your soft mortal mind."

  The Pigeon King looked at me sternly. I didn’t reply. I pursed my lips and glared at the pigeon.

  "You will win no battles of the mind against Somnix if you are filled with doubt and fear. Somnix will feed on it and it will only make him more dangerous. Whatever you saw… those things, forget them now. Whoever you were or whatever has happened to you in your young life matters not today. Today, you are a feathereless follower and a mage. You are not weak, and you are not helpless. Do you understand?”

  I did, but I didn't want to accept it. I just wanted to lay here and feel sorry for myself. I knew I was being petulant, and that having a pity party for myself was the last thing I actually needed. I'd learned long ago that wallowing in grief never actually helped; it just made the whole thing longer and more painful. But who was the Pigeon King to tell me it didn’t matter? To just not think about it?

  The Pigeon King took my silence as acquiescence and continued on. After perhaps another hundred meters or so, the Pigeon King finally came to a halt and landed on the floor in front of me. I stopped and looked at him.

  "I sense him," the Pigeon King said. "We are not far from his kingdom. It is now that you need to learn your second Dream Rune, the Chain Rune of Awareness.”

  Despite everything else that had happened, the excitement of learning a new Rune pulled me out of myself. The Pigeon King motioned with a feather for me to sit, and I dropped down in front of him, sitting cross-legged.

  "The Chain Rune of Awareness," the Pigeon King began. "Is an incredibly powerful symbol, and it is not one that I think you could wield by yourself. Therefore, in order for this binding to work, we must both use it. Now, of course, I am magnitudes more powerful than yourself and do not require physical Runes. However, since you are so limited and such a novice at the Craft, I imagine that you will need some sort of physical representation of the Rune for you to be able to concentrate your abilities. So let us take this time now to conjure and create the Rune so that you may use it as a weapon.”

  "Okay," I said. "So what does it actually do?"

  "What do you mean?" the Pigeon King asked. "It's a binding Rune."

  "I know," I sighed, knowing I was about to make myself sound very stupid again. "But I mean if you had to describe it as a picture, what picture would you use?”

  The Pigeon King huffed and rolled his eyes.

  "Really mageling? Would you like me to draw you a cartoon?”

  "I know you're being sarcastic," I said. "But that would probably be really helpful.”

  Again, the Pigeon King rolled his eyes.

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  "The Chain Rune of Awareness... You have to think of it as awareness…" the Pigeon King said, and I just stared at him blankly.

  "No, that wasn't a good explanation," the Pigeon King muttered.

  He tapped his claws on the floor as he tried to think of a different way of wording it. After a couple of minutes, I saw the frustration grow on the little pigeon's face.

  "How does it actually bind?" I offered. "Is it a physical trap? Does it freeze him in place like one of those glue traps for mice?"

  "What?" the Pigeon King snapped at me. "Why must you bastardize and belittle the Craft to the most base elements of human technology?"

  "I don't know," I said to him. "It helps me to understand.”

  "Well, you're completely wrong," the Pigeon King said. "It's not a trap, and Somnix is not a physical entity. It cannot be held in place. No, the Chain Rune of Awareness exposes Somnix," the Pigeon King said. "You see, wraiths and spirits, they are things that cannot be seen by mortal eyes. Therefore, the only way to combat them is to bring them to the light."

  "By creating awareness of what they really are," I completed for him. "I get it, so it's like the Lens of Truth from The Legend of Zelda," I said.

  "The what from who?" the Pigeon King asked.

  "The Legend of Zelda is a video game," I explained. "It's like a really, really old video game from the last century. I saw it being played online a couple of times. There's a dungeon you play in where you get this lens, and you use it to see hidden monsters and stuff that can't be seen by the human eye.”

  The Pigeon King looked at me blankly for a second and then shrugged his wings looking non-plussed.

  “You must know about the game, right? You're like a thousand years old, aren't you?" I said

  "And do you think I've spent that time concerning myself with the trinkets and pastimes of mortals?" the Pigeon King replied.

  "Well, probably not," I said. "But you should play it. It looks really good.”

  The Pigeon King shook his head.

  "Focus, Mageling. Exposing Somnix is one part of the Awareness Rune. Once he is exposed, then we can chain him.”

  "So there is a binding," I said.

  "Yes, but don't debase it to something simple like a chain or a rope," he replied.

  "Like a grapple cord?” I said. “I have a grapple cord. I could use that to capture him.”

  "Oh dear," the Pigeon King buried his face under his wing. "Why did I bring a teenager to do this? Okay, fine, mortal. Let's keep it very simple. You have a chain to capture him. You leave the more complex metaphysical elements to me. That's all I need you to do, okay?”

  "No problem, Your Highness," I replied sarcastically. "I can do that.”

  "Good. Now, as for the Rune itself, it's far more complex and powerful than any Rune you've used before, and simply picturing things isn't going to be enough. Preferably, you would have done at least a decade of study so that you fully comprehend the Craft involved and how you are trying to harness it. Unfortunately, we don't have that much time," the Pigeon King said. "So I am going to channel some of my energies and my knowledge through you whilst you create the Runes. That should at least make the Rune powerful enough that it can be used. And if we must battle the creature I will fight whilst you will try to bind him."

  "Okay," I said. "So how are we gonna do that?”

  "Honestly, mageling, do you not pay attention to anything? We're going to make a circle. You are going to reach that meditative stage where you craft Runes from. Once you are in that state, then I will assist you. You have nothing else to concern yourself with.”

  "Fine," I said.

  The Pigeon King nodded and then took his claw and scratched a circle in the ground beneath us, which I didn't know was possible since there was no real ground beneath us, it was just all blackness. Some blackness you could walk on, and some blackness you couldn't, but he carved the circle nonetheless, and it glimmered softly in the inky blackness of our surroundings.

  I settled down into the circle and took a deep breath. Centering my mind, I forced away all the confusion, all the darkness, all the lingering pain and memories. I began to silently imagine fighting some ghastly ghoul and capturing him with a thick chain. The whole thing was a rather poor construction, if I'm honest. But then I wasn't working with very good material from the Pigeon King. It took me longer than usual; how long I wasn't sure, but the Pigeon King waited patiently. He too seemed to be entering some sort of mental ritual state of his own, but he had done it far quicker than I had.

  Then finally, I began to feel it. I began to feel that sense of clarity, of complete emptiness, that allowed me to build my mental image. The Pigeon King was there inside my mind again, but this time he wasn't speaking or commanding. He was simply flying in gentle, lazy patterns. I watched him, beginning to trace an outline of the Rune he was constructing with his flight path. It was a complex Rune, in fact it was several Runes, no wait… it was several strings of matrix by the looks of it. His wings left golden blurs in the air, and I traced out the pattern, seeing how it made sense, how it had an internal logic. Even though I didn't recognize any of the Runes, I seemed to understand their purpose, and I fell deeper and deeper into a hazy trance.

  The Pigeon King's power was something like I'd never felt in my life. It was an endless well of energy, but it wasn't overwhelming and it wasn't destructive. It was gentle and fulfilling. It made me feel whole. I felt warmth wash over me as the power coursed through my body. The Runes began to settle on the ground in front of me, falling from the sky like rain. There were dozens of them, complex little patterns, and even the placement of the Runes seemed to be deliberate. I just knew, staring at this bizarre pattern, that even an inch, a centimetre, in the wrong place and the whole thing would collapse. It was like a symphony where just a single errant note could ruin the entire thing.

  As I watched the Pigeon King gliding around and felt his power, I drew upon my own. Our two energies melded together to create this sublime sequence of Runes. It was a beautiful duet of intertwining energies. I had become entranced by it and nothing else in the whole universe mattered.

  That’s why I didn't notice the dark silhouette in the corner of my eye. That’s why I ignored the growing whispers just behind my ears. That’s why I didn’t realise I was sitting in the still black waters of that nightmare lake. That’s why I didn't see the thing smile as it crept closer…