The dreamscape

Vel was back in that familiar place where he had first met Seph. The dreamscape, he had called it. It still looked like a dark wasteland. Seph stood off to the side, but seemed happy to wait for Vel to be done looking around. He was still entirely covered in robes. Vel had sort of expected to see him as he was in the real world now. At least the smoke was completely gone. “Still with the robes thing?” Seph’s voice was so different here. Not frail and croaky but deep and booming. And yet, he recognized it as Seph’s voice. “Robes? Is that how you see me here, my liege?” That answer left Vel with lots of new questions. “You don’t know what you look like in here?” Seph’s hood moved, as if he were shaking his head. “No, my liege. Our physical forms are not here, they remain in the material world. You are not seeing with your eyes, but with your mind. When I look down at myself, I do not see robes, I see the travel leathers I often wore in my youth.” Fascinating. “The smoke I saw the last times we met here, was that just in my mind too?” Seph chuckled a bit, sounding pleased. “Your desire to learn and understand does you great credit, my liege, but on certain matters even I can only speculate. Our connection was very tenuous the first time we met here, and still somewhat frail the second. I believe your mind picked up on that and visualized it as smoke.”

This just kept getting more and more interesting. Vel could have kept going down this path of inquiry for easily another few dozen questions, but he reminded himself that there were more important ones. “You call this place the dreamscape, but what exactly is it?” Seph brought his hand up to where his chin must be inside that hood in a deep thought kind of way, which made Vel wonder. Seph’s body wasn’t there. Was his mind just picking up on Seph thinking hard and assigning gestures to his “body”, or was this something on Seph’s end? He left that question behind to focus on what Seph was saying. “As you might recall, there was once only the realm of thought, or the cognitive realm. When the physical one was created, the two were sort of melded, but not completely. At least, that is the prevailing theory. This, the dreamscape, is what remains of the cognitive realm. Our minds go here when freed of our mortal forms, it is where dreams take place. You no doubt see material things here, but that is your mind seeking to make sense of this place. We are material beings after all, and our minds cannot fathom a realm without it.” Seph paused briefly before continuing. “But do keep in mind, my liege, that a lot of this is theory, even if there is broad scholarly consensus.”

The conversation drifted a bit after that. Vel appreciated that the rushed sense of urgency that had been present in his previous two ventures into this place was gone. “My liege, I would be happy to discuss theories of magic and the cognitive realm with you at great length, but perhaps we should move on to the subject of your powers? One never knows when you might be woken up.” That was a good point. “Very well. The first time we met here you had some idea about my proficiency, can you tell how it has changed?” Another headshake that wasn’t actually a headshake. “No, my liege, I cannot. Back then you had left an imprint on the scout’s mind when you unsuccessfully attempted to command it to fuck off. I have no such impression to judge now, and attempting to look into your mind would be futile.” Unsuccessfully? “The scout did fuck off though, did it not?” Seph’s tone seemed to indicate that this wasn’t really where he thought the conversation should be going. “Yes, my liege, but not because you compelled it too. It had achieved its mission; it was returning to me to report.” That sounded like semantics, but Vel was willing to drop it. He was a very gracious ruler. Onto the other part. “You can’t look into my mind?” “No, my liege, it is impenetrable. I doubt even the greatest of mindmages would manage to strain your defenses.” That was good, no need to worry about mindmagic being used against him.

“I believe it is time, my liege, for you to learn new techniques. There are a few I would like to leave you with, which I believe will prove useful and are suited to your current level of proficiency.” Vel certainly wasn’t opposed to it, but the whole gifting techniques thing left him with another question. “I will gladly take the knowledge of new techniques, thank you, Seph. But how are you giving them to me when you say you cannot enter my mind?” “A good question to ask, my liege. Because I do not enter your mind to do so. I offer the knowledge, and your mind accepts it. Remember how capable your subconscious is, it can threat assess something so simple on its own.”

Vel felt the knowledge arriving this time, but figured he would examine it when he was awake. There were a few more things he wanted to ask his mentor about. “In here, what I see of myself is entirely covered by these long and ornate robes. And I am floating above the ground that isn’t a ground. Tell me, how do you see me?” Seph seemed to think a moment before replying. “My, liege, I see a-“ And Vel woke up.