Ida's Second Dream

You stand within the eye of a vast storm of purple dust, staring at a short and very, very wide tree. A familiar obelisk seems to have been incorporated into its mass as the vast trunk grew into it, and the leaves shimmer with an almost opalescent sheen as the soft, twisting breeze runs through the branches. A vessel you recognize as the Angel of Opulence drifts overhead, just out of reach of the violent storm clouds. The air is fresh.

A large, squat figure gathers soft, pink, perfectly spherical fruit from the tree. They are wearing vines and leaves and a featureless mask made of bark. This is your third time meeting the figure. You have not moved. You are only now made certain of your own existence within the scene as the figure turns to you and offers a polite wave. They are now sitting beside you, lap full of the strange fruit. They reach over to you with a gigantic arm and drop an especially sweet smelling individual into your open palms. A single-minded hunger overtakes you until you are left with a single stony seed, identical to the one that spawned this purifying tree in the first place. You don't remember what the fruit tasted like.

Suddenly, colors ripple over the surface. Blues and oranges dance across the seed as it grows to fill your entire field of vision. The wrinkles in the textured shell grow deeper and form walls and roofs and streets and steeples, populated by minuscule ant-like figures running to and fro. You are standing over Aresgate on all fours, drool dripping down from between your monstrous teeth. You're scared and confused, and the fruit has not sated your hunger. How did you get here? How did you get here? How did you get here? How did you get here? How did I get here? How did I get here? The creature that has latched itself to your heart quivers in ecstasy, and you wake up.