Helie blinked as she found herself in the Dream Realm once more. That had been quite a review by the Spell. At least she had gotten a good evaluation. That was something she could bring back to her uncle with pride.
What would Uncle Orum say when she told him her transformation, Helie wondered. A centaur! What would her torso look like attached to a horse? At least she would have no trouble speaking. She had seen how difficult that made communicating with Syrce.
Helie looked around, searching for her companions. She hadn't been near them when the Nightmare ended. She had been helping prepare food and satiating her grumbling stomach while she worked.
Fighting always worked up her appetite extra. Helie had barely gotten a bit of the jerky when the Nightmare ended. That was a shame. She would just have to meet up with her companions quickly and then head back to the waking world for some convenience store ramen.
'Where are they?'
The Spell must have scattered them relative to their ending point. It had also dumped them a long way from Bastion in the location where they entered the Nightmare. At least she wouldn't have to trek back into town.
"Helie?" a pleasant voice called out.
"Aether? Is that you?" The brunette headed in the direction of the voice.
She found the young man staring at the newest gate in the Dream Realm with a contemplative expression.
"It's a bit humble. And its location leaves much to be desired, don't you think?"
"I suppose it isn't very close to the Stormsea." Helie could follow the young man's thoughts.
"Will you claim it? It may not look like much just now, but I am sure it could become something great." The polite Saint tried to find a positive.
His companion shook her head. "I will take the helm of our family's citadel. It will finally have someone to claim it."
Helie smiled. That would give her clan a significant amount of clout in the Sword Domain. Lord Anvil valued power above all else.
"Should we look for the others or wait for them to come here?" Aether mused.
The brunette Saint flinched. "I hope you mean the rest of our cohort. I won't be able to use the word 'others' for a very long time after this."
Aether bowed his head. "Oh...yes...forgive me."
"As for your question, I think we should go look. I don't like waiting." Helie dusted off her armor and summoned her bow. This was the Dream Realm, and anything could attack at any moment.
Helie contemplated using her transformation to set out on their search and decided against it. There was no telling what it would look like, and she wanted some time to discover how to maneuver without needing to complete a task.
Aether didn't seem too keen to try out his new form either. They set out together in search of the rest of their team.
"Saint Aether. Can you believe it?" Helie shook her head.
"We did conquer a Nightmare Lady Helie." The young man responded.
The brunette couldn't tell if he was joking, so she continued on. "I mean, did you ever think you would be a Saint?"
"I suppose I had hopes. But it is an odd thing for it to become a reality." Aether mused.
"I know what you mean. It will take me some time to get used to the change."
Helie paused, feeling a disturbance in the earth below her. Her senses were significantly heightened.
"Who's there?! Come out!"
Rustling precipitated a lone figure coming from behind a large stone. He held up his hands, and Helie lowered her bow.
"Saint Roan, there you are!"
"Here I am, Saint Helie. Saint Aether." Roan greeted each of them with a handshake. "It is good to see you both."
"We are glad to have found you. We discovered the new gateway." Aether pointed past the clearing.
"That is excellent. I will report the good news to Lord Anvil." Roan made a mental note of the location to mark on a map later.
He had something else on his mind. Helie frowned. "What's wrong?"
"It's Bel…" The cohort leader began.
Aether furrowed his brow.
"We have yet to find her, but we will keep looking. For some reason, the Spell spread us like seeds across the landscape, but…"
"You won't find her." Roan lowered his head. "Bel found me before the Nightmare ended. She was in distress. When the Advisor took hold of her and pulled her through the glass, it did something to her arm. By the time she found me, it had spread to her whole body like a disease. She faded from existence before my very eyes."
"What do you mean?" Helie bit her lip.
"I mean…Bel is gone. We will not be seeing her again." Roan's shoulders slumped.
The other two began to argue with him. He must be mistaken. They should look for her! They were met with a sigh from their leader.
"Bel's Nightmare is over. Ours is as well."
"We were so close! We made it! We beat everything! How is she gone?" Helie could not believe his words. It couldn't be true!
Aether lowered his head in a moment of silent contemplation.
"I will remember her all of my days," the young man vowed.
Helie felt a wave of sorrow wash over her. A heartbeat later, she felt some comfort wrap around it, almost as if Bel was still with her. Helie remembered her blonde companion fondly in a moment of reverie.
Bel did have lovely hair. Perhaps Helie's next hair change could be an homage to those golden locks. She always wanted to have flaxen hair, and it would be a silent reminder of the woman who had saved her life.
The honor would have to be a silent one. She and the rest of the cohort had been sworn to secrecy about everything and everyone in the Nightmare before they ever entered it. In a moment, they would walk away and have to act like they had not been on the mission together.
Helie placed her hand on her heart. "I will never forget her. We must let her family know what happened. They need to know all that she did for us. For me."
Roan dipped his head.
"Yes, I will make sure Bel's relatives know what has occurred. Flint's too. I do not want their loved ones to wonder what happened to them."
"Master Flint…" Aether sighed. They had lost two people in the Nightmare. "All he wanted was to be noticed by his clansmen."
"If it's in my power, I will make sure Flint is highly honored in clan Valor for his sacrifice. He deserves the recognition." Roan rubbed the back of his neck. "I only wish I could do the same for you. You have been the best of cohort members. I will look back fondly on our camaraderie after we part ways today. I wish we had less heartache along the way, and I am broken by our losses, but I am not sorry to have met you."
"Thank you for including me," Helie dipped her head. "I know I was not part of the original team, but I am grateful that you let me in."
"I cannot imagine that journey without you," Roan smiled softly.
The young man bowed deeply.
"Thank you, Saint Roan, for your trust in this mission," Aether began, "If in the future you find I have broken an engagement with the Princess of Valor, I hope you will not take it as a personal sleight."
Roan chuckled lightly. "You are an honorable man. I will not hold it against you. The lady in question has a cutting personality. She needs the right man to help sharpen her."
"You have some sharpness waiting for you, too, I am guessing." Helie inclined her head meaningfully at Roan.
The cohort leader tugged at his blue scarf. "It wasn't the nicest of me to leave Tyris with only a letter to say goodbye. Hopefully, with some time, she will understand I did this for her and Telle. In the interim, it is even more important that you are not connected to me. No contact, even accidental." Roan's expression became sad. "It has been an honor."
"Till next time. Whenever and wherever in the distant future that might be, I'm sure our paths will cross again." Helie felt the bond to these men deepen in her soul.
No matter where they went from here, they had been a team. Helie was glad to have fought alongside them.
With no more to say, Roan bowed and departed for the waking world. Helie and Aether followed closely behind, ready to return to the people who knew them best.
The area fell into silence. After a moment's hesitation, a woman exited from behind the boulder and floated to the place where the three Saints had just been. She pushed her golden hair back from her face as a tear rolled down her cheek.
"Till next time."