Wait a minute, Gabe are you thinking that this Eilonwy Solstice, could be what? A manifestation of Celeste not a reincarnation but a transendance, or something?

I was one of those sourses. It would explain why I felt that the name is so familar to me.
And another thing, when I read Ron's post I swear I hear a voice singing, I can't make out the words but it is female and it sounds happy? and I swear it sounds like Celeste.
I really hope you are right Gabe.

How fascinating. A vampire who has passed on.

I wouldn't be so sure of that Ron. There were things about her that raised more questions than ever supplied answers.

Actually, a soul can be bound into any vessel... If hers chose to willingly continue to occupy her corpse, and provide it the benefits of having a human soul, then we have a situation where a corpse--in this case, a vampiric one--has a soul, without having the benefits of being mortal. The physical alterations of being a vampire had already been enacted... No metaphysical dealings would then change that she would burn in the sunlight.

She had a soul, I'm sure of it.

I'm not so sure that her soul is now visiting your dreams, but I will admit it's a possibility.

I’ve hated dreaming for years now . . . the more recent experiences haven’t done anything to help that. I think this one was ordinary. But it wasn’t, either. I was standing on top of a hillock that didn’t exist overlooking the city. The city was completely overwhelmed by the attack. Instead of skyscrapers and monuments, it looked like the skeletal ruins of an ancient civilization. It was like looking at a graveyard. Only there weren’t even any gravestones. Only the dead.

The warm hand touched my elbow and slipped down to take my hand again.

“What happened here?” I asked thickly, fighting to keep my voice under control.

“The War is over. The Dark Ones were beaten back.”

“They won?” I turned to her in disbelief. "But the bodies . . ."

“Did you think Armageddon would be easy?” Her rebuke struck something deep inside of me and I clutched her hand and wept.

Wish I could help ya kiddo, but dreams come thick in this line of work. I would also like to say it gets better, but belive me it don't. I remember each target, each pull of the trigger, each thrust as the blade finds it's way home. It don't get better, they just pile up. Bout the best you can hope for is that your targets stay such that you can live with the dreams and sleep through em.

Good luck to ya, kiddo, keep your faith, at times it will be all that keeps you going, even when equipment, intelligence, officers, hell even your own body seem to be out to get ya, your faith will keep you going. Don't really matter what ya belive in, kiddo, you just gots to belive in it.

The world of dreams is a very interesting place. There are probably quite a few explanations to what is going on with your dreams.

Could she be a dream person that's taken on a life of her own?

Your dream has a flaw mortal. In Armageddon, there can be no winners.

Should the Light prevail, the survivors discover that victory is itself a defeat. The world they fought so hard to protect has been destroyed.

Should the Dark prevail, they too find no victory. Those who sought destruction find no satisfaction in what they have wrought. It was either too much, or not enough. Those who sought conquest find that the world they wanted is gone, burnt to ash by their own hand.

There is a lesson here, but it is not one that I can learn. The forces of Light are just as puzzled by this lesson. Only you mortals can understand this lesson. Only you stupid & weak mayflies, you who are nothing but our pawns, can learn the lesson.

I will always envy you that.

Well, boy-o, you're stuck inside a mortal, now. Since you're there, why don't you try hooking into that cranium in whatever limited capacity you have, and try learning the way we do: the hard way.

Some of us come out quite far ahead for it. Maybe you will, too.

Hell... You may come to realize, as you sit in that skull, that immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be... Maybe you want a human soul, and a chance to experience what life really is.

You ever come to that realization, you come to me. With what I'm learning now, it's getting more and more possible.

Ron:

I don't know what to tell you about your dream-girl... You could be seeing an alternate universe, or an allegorical vision; perhaps the dead only symbolize those who have given their lives getting us this far towards stopping the end of the world.

And from what we've done lately, I'd say we're a helluvalot closer to that end than what we were even just a year and a half ago...

If you want, and are willing I could try and take a look and see what is going on in your dreams, and head? Who knows maybe I could at least get a better idea of what is going on for you?

Ok we focus on Hannah for the moment then.

Ron, I still say you and Hannah need to come back to Illinois for a while, kick it back, and take a short vacation from DC... If you insist on working, maybe we could hunt down and catch a Demon Fist, and make him tell us about Windner. I could do that hypnosis that we've been talking about for months... Even if you don't still need it for memory problems, we could use it to see if we can contact your mystery girl through it. Have a heart-to-heart. See if she's willing to give us some answers, or at least more riddles.

I’ve hated dreaming for years now . . . the more recent experiences haven’t done anything to help that. I think this one was ordinary. But it wasn’t, either. I was standing on top of a hillock that didn’t exist overlooking the city. Moss and lichen has started to grow about the skeletal ruins of the ancient civilization that was once there.

The warm hand brushed the back of my neck and slipped down to take my hand again.

“I don’t believe it . . .” I murmured thickly, watching the spectacle and trying to keep my voice under control. “Look!” I stabbed my finger out and pointed.

“What is it?” Couldn’t she see it?

“Look, damn it!” I almost screamed. “Are you blind, Eilonwy? People! They’re making gardens! They’re rebuilding! They’re alive! They survived!”


“Humanity won.” Eilonwy spoke the words like a prayer. Like she could hardly believe it, either.

“ But they were devastated by the biggest war ever.” Her words were an explanation. And a revelation. “Yes, Humanity won. But not without a heavy price. Like all wars, the larger it is, the heavier the price. And this was quite possibly the war to end wars. Civilizations all over the world fell; humanity sunk back into the Dark Ages within a few short years. And they did it without your help, Ron. Remember, this is only a dream, but it is also a possibility. Because dreams are based on reality.

I let her words sink in. Eilonwy continued.

“You have discovered that you cannot always be there to help; that your guilt stems from some very real limitations. These dreams were shown in order for you to learn to overcome that which you can and accept that which you cannot. You seen firsthand the destruction caused by the demons that seek our world. But now you know that the world can overcome them, no matter the cost. Without you, if it becomes necessary.”

I braced myself for the clincher of this sledgehammer of an object lesson.

“But this is only a dream,” I could have sworn that, through the blur that was her face, she was smiling. “And you will be in that War. Now be content with the difference that you do make.”

I woke up.

I hear ya, man... I'll have to check my schedule, see when I can make a social call again.

That's good, 'cuz I don't think I'll have time off from work again until September...

This dream was different than the others. I knew immediately that Not Me was waiting. He stood facing me, bold and insolent – perhaps he had something new up his sleeve. The landscape was a featureless plain plagued by roving mists.

“Herectic,” Not Me sneered. “Are you ready to face the demons you have unleashed? Are you ready to die?”

I relaxed my mind even as my body assumed a fighting pose, my Piece and Blade appearing in my hands. “I’m ready to fight.”

Not Me took a step back, a look of confusion pasted on his face. I grinned.

“And Ron won’t be fighting you alone, Nightmare,” this time the hand that took my shoulder was cool, a stark comfort to the lurid heat. “Give up yet, fiend?”

“Ready, Eilonwy?” Not that I needed to ask.

“Yeah,” she replied. “Let’s kick his butt.”

I didn’t pause at the unusual shift in her demeanor, I just gripped my weapons and let my armor form up around me. Eilonwy took a position at my side, and Not Me scowled and lifted its hands, his . . . my . . . .44 carbine fired with a thunderclap that shook the heavens. Before I could respond, Eilonwy lifted her arm, and the heavy bullet was stopped by a decorative latticework that evaporated as soon as the attack had been repelled. I didn’t let the irrationality of her defense bother me, instead I went for the kill with my Piece.

Not Me rolled away from the attack, but the bullets still tore into him, ripping at his armor and skin. I tossed a grenade I hadn’t been carrying at him when he dove behind a small wall. He flew sideways with the explosion, the wall was nothing more than paper. Solstice stopped his momentum with a barbed wall of thorns and tossed him back my way.

He landed right in front of me and I went for the Nigerian Drill – 2 in the torso, 1 in the head. He tumbled to the smoky floor, and from its depths the misty wisps suddenly became harder than iron, wrapping about his arms and legs like chains. He glared at his prison and shut his eyes to concentrate, a moment latr they snapped open wide because the cloud stuff only thickened.

“No Mordecai . . . how? You won’t be able to get rid of me like this!” I’m not sure if he was sneering or begging.

I wasn’t about to take my time here. Savoring the moment would come when it did. Eilonwy circled about and came closer, and I raised my Blade, not noticing how it had grown to to be a weapon more suited to a titan. Energy crackled along its length as I swung downwards.

Eilonwy recoiled at the deafening roar of the blade striking home, putting her hands to her ears. But I just grinned in satisfaction as Not Me blew apart like a miniature Hiroshima.

I turned to face Eilonwy. She stood waiting, her blurred face gazing over my shoulder. “Thank you,” I said, meaning it. “I’m not sure that could have happened one on one.”

“Do you mean that?” She asked, slightly turning. I nodded. “I do.”

“Then . . . will you do me a favor in return?”

“Just name it,” I agreed. “If I can do it, I will.”

“When you wake up . . . will you take me with you?”

“Take you with me?” The very idea seemed absurd. She was only a dream . . . wasn’t she? “How?”

“I have always reached for you in these dreams. Now you must reach for me.” She waited for my reply, her hands at her sides. I might have refused her request, given my experience with creatures drawn from dreams but she had helped me so much.

Dream Persona or not, she deserved to come to the real world.

I grasped her hand.

The asshole is dead? Aw hell I wish I had been there. Did you get the Boon?
Did you bring out Eilonwy? I think I would like to meet her if you did?

She was heavy, like tugging on the cement statue of an angel you sometimes found on tombstones. But I pulled even harder, and suddenly the scene of the dreamscape bent weirdly, like the reflection to a funhouse mirror. She squeezed my hand tightly and didn’t let go, and the feeling changed to that of trying to pull a weight over a giant chasm. Eilonwy slowly shifted with me, and I noticed that I was grounded in place. Everything blurred around me and blackened, but the feeling persisted. A voice started speaking, but I couldn’t tell if it was in my mind or real. Constant pressure—

“—Pa! Open up! What’s going on—!?”

—a sucking sensation at my arm. A sharp pain grabs my cheek—

—Don’t let go, Ron. Don’t let go . . . please—

“Pa! Wake up!”

—Constant pressure. . . I’m tossing like a leaf in a river—

And then I break the surface of the dream and wake up. I’m back in my own bed. My cheek is wet with blood, and Mr. Fluffers jumps off me in alarm.

“Pa, are you all right? What happened—?” Hannah was there inside my room and was shaking me awake. For a moment I see her concern, and then it gives way to alarm. She steps back in shock and points to my left. I’m not alone in bed. I twist to see Eilonwy for the first time. And my jaw drops. I’m dumbfounded.

It’s not that she’s one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. It’s not that there is a glow in her chest that lit the darkness like an ember. It wasn’t even the fact that she was staring blindly with eyelids empty of eyes. No, my astonishment came because of the transformation from the last time I saw her in the real world. She's changed a lot since then . . .

Celeste.