Ida's Dream

As you slip into a deep slumber you can feel your consciousness being drawn away once again. You feel the now-familiar stabbing pain in your chest, but when you open your eyes it is not ever-shifting black claws that greet you, but distinctly feline paws. You're laying beside a pool of clear water: an oasis in a vast desert. Within it you see your reflection. Your torso is that of a lion, flanked by two enormous eagle wings. Your visage is oddly familiar, sporting a gnomish nose and ursine eyebrows framed by shaggy brown hair and short, rounded ears. Beside you with a hand on your side is a gnome with an earthy, floral scent, wrapped in vines with a sheet of bark covering their face.

Before you is a man with green skin and hair, ragged clothes, pointed ears, and long insectile wings. His frame is minuscule compared to that of the gnome and your own. He bows deeply before pulling out a bag from his side. He opens it to reveal ash and tangled strands of hair.

"Lords of the primeval chaos, I beseech thee!" he shouts as he drops to his knees and holds out the sachet.

"I, Chlorinthus, a humble servant fey of no renown, have traveled across the worlds to stand before thee. Mine mistress, the Archfey Caligra, has had the light of immortality stripped from her. Its form perverted, it now fuels a thrice-damned Miasma that threatens to consume thy creation. I beg of thee: return her vital essence, that star of antiquity, so that this blight may be starved!" he says with passion, raising his head and looking directly into your eyes.

You look to the gnome beside you, who returns your glance and then looks back towards the pleading creature, shaking his head once. You know as well as he that what this Chlorinthus requests is impossible.

The man stands and returns the pouch to his side, still meeting your gaze with palpable determination. His fists clench as he shouts: "Then I instead request a measure of thine being, so that I might in turn bestow it upon an army. Armed with the power of primordial life itself, we will do battle with the shadow of death! This I will do in thy names, and in thine service, should thou require. With thine power we might reclaim my mistress' immortality, and if we fail I will shoulder the burden of her reincarnation myself. This, I swear unto thee!"

Once again you meet the gnome's glance. They nod once, slowly. You allow your essence to pass through the gnome as he reaches down towards Chlorinthus, and from the flesh of his hand a shimmering mushroom emerges, not unlike the magical flower the waking Ida possesses. The fungus fills your vision, and the pain in your chest returns.