Violet Sky

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. It was no different tonight when Raya sat on top of the boulder, behind her house, with Asher cuddled in her lap. The meadow was alive with motion, every thin blade of grass trembling while crickets swayed and sang along in perfect rhythm with the howling wind. Despite the wind, tenacious fireflies refused to be left out and danced in the meadow. Nature's music accompanied Raya’s thoughts that constantly plagued her mind.

Where did I come from?

This wasn’t the first night she stayed up late burning the midnight oil, contemplating the vast starry expanse, trying hard to unearth any memories in an attempt to remember something, anything. Sometimes she felt a pressure in the back of her mind as if a memory was waiting just beyond her reach, and if she just tried hard enough she could grasp it. She was never successful, no matter how many nights she devoted to solving the puzzle of herself, she was always left with more questions and no answers.

She gazed up to the heavens, watching as the vibrant violet bled into the stellar night sky. Overtaking it completely until it morphed into a raging tempest that soon became a violent cyclone, spewing thunder and lighting. A deafening thunderclap shook Raya to her bones and she swore she heard the very fabric of reality snap as the sky came crashing down before her.

"Raya?"

He’d startled her and Asher jumped in her lap as Raya jerked her head to see Ethan standing behind her. He was a funny sight in his pajamas, barefooted with a crazy bed head. He probably would have been freezing had he not been a fire mage. Raya turned her eyes back to the sky, and there was no sign of the furious storm that had been raging just minutes before.

She turned back to Ethan "What are you doing up so late?"

Asher eased back into her lap, grinning a happy doggy grin and wagging his tail as she scratched his folded ears. His warm caramel eyes twinkled up at Ethan as Ethan teased, “Me? What are you doing up so late?”

Ethan’s silly expression turned serious, "You've been acting weird since your birthday. What's wrong?"

He was right. Everyone had noticed a change in Raya after her eighteenth birthday last week. She sighed, tilting her head back to gaze at the magnificent purple tinted milky way overhead, "I keep having dreams of my parents."

Ethan hesitated, "You mean, your original parents?"

Raya nodded, pausing a moment, listening to the wind picking up speed and rustling through the meadow. She finally gathered her thoughts and continued, "It's more than that though."

She laid her back against the rock, reaching her open palm toward the opalescent sky as if it were something tangible, "It just feels like..."

She closed her fingers over her palm and brought her hand to her chest, "... like part of me's missing."

Ethan asked, "Like a lost familiar?"

Raya adjusted her sitting position to face him, "No, like a part of the actual me."

She paused a second, "I mean, I know that familiars are a part of you."

She gestured to Asher in her lap, who was trying desperately to stay awake, his iridescent eyes getting heavy as Raya continued, “But not like that, it's more like a part of my essence is gone.”

She turned, surprised to see that Ethan had climbed up the boulder and was sitting next to her.

Ethan scooted closer, “So, that's what you’re thinking so hard about?”

Raya nodded, “I just want to know where I came from. Who I really am.”

Ethan gently bumped her knee with his, “You’re my sister.”

Raya couldn’t help thinking, Adopted sister.

Either Ethan really could read her mind, or Raya had accidentally said it aloud, because he replied, “Biology doesn’t make family.”

Raya shrugged, “But I mean, who was I?”

Ethan was quiet for a minute before reassuring her, like a good big brother, “It doesn't matter who you were, it’s who you are now that counts.”

“People change, who knows what I could've done before.”

He grinned, teasing, “What could you’ve done before you were nine besides sneak cookies?”

An almost simle tugged at her lips, “I didn’t sneak them, I just didn’t mention it.”

Ethan half shrugged, “Well, we should go back to sleep. You can think about it tomorrow after school.”

Raya glanced down at Asher cuddled in her lap, “I can’t sleep.”

Ethan playfully bumped her elbow, “Well, how about we have a good dream then?”

She turned to him, nodding with an actual smile, “Yeah.”

Magic is common, taking many forms, but some forms are extremely rare and only manifest once in a millennia. Shortly after young Raya was adopted by Ethan’s parents, visceral conjuration had awakened inside of her. It had taken many long years for her to perfect it, and even though it was cool, for all intents and purposes, it was completely useless. Yet, she had mastered it with a child’s passion to accomplish something extraordinary.

Raya and Ethan kicked back, just as the leaves began slowly coiling all around them until they were completely enveloped by a swirling vortex that blocked out the rest of the world. The meadow disappeared and suddenly there were no more trees, no grass, no flowers, no earth; only Raya, Ethan, and Asher remained in the endless expanse of the dreamscape. The milky way stretched across the entirety of the sky, a legion of celestial bodies encompassing their new atmosphere. The ankle deep water was a mirror image, the sky’s counterpart.

Perfect music began echoing from the depths of the eternal abyss just as Raya playfully nudged Ethan. She intended on toppling him into the water, but he managed to keep his balance, even with Asher joining in to take him down. Ethan kicked water at Raya, then bent to splash handfuls at her while she laughed and covered her face with one hand, retaliating with the other. Raya rushed Ethan, and they both tumbled into the water with a splash while Asher barked loudly at the happy commotion.

They called a truce before collapsing, happily exhausted, gasping for breath and recovering slowly. Ethan finally jumped up, challenging Raya to a race. Raya grinned as a thick white finish line appeared in the distance, rippling like a mirage in the water. They both dashed toward it with Asher running along, water droplets flying as they blazed a furious path to the finish line.

After what felt like an eternity, Raya woke up still on top of the boulder near the meadow. The morning sun was warm and bright, everything was still and calm except for a light breeze creating a beautiful petal storm in the meadow. Raya inhaled the fragrant air, closing her eyes, tilting her head back, feeling the delicate sunrays warming her face, whispering, “That was a good dream.”

She gazed toward Ethan, and her elation instantly turned to horror as his form began melting before her very eyes, his body disintegrating while she frantically reached for him, but there was nothing there. He was slowly disappearing into thin air. She refused to give up, desperately grabbing again and again, finally finding his hand and clenching it tightly. She looked down at their joined hands and saw that she was disintegrating too. Panic overwhelmed her and she jerked her wild gaze around and around, searching for Asher, but he was nowhere to be found. Her screams of terror were swallowed up by the violet abyss as a deep voice began echoing through her nearly shattered mind, “Oceans of many lifetimes are a raging tempest inside of you. When the time is right, you will see that you are the only hope for humanity. Only then can you unlock the true nature of The Dreamscape.”

Raya’s fear was replaced by utter confusion, and suddenly she didn’t have time to process anything because the putrid, purple sky began collapsing in on them, twisting and tearing like a monstrous tornado, writhing around them in kaleidoscope of violent color. Then, in a split second, they materialized somewhere else.