--- Epilogue ---
Ethne played beneath the Tulip Poplar tree. She could see the palace through a veil of fog and hear the distant sounds of the city beyond the palace grounds. Somewhere within the gardens other child ran and played, but she could not see them.
This place, this dream, wrapped itself tightly around her. It was easy to believe. But nagging thoughts, the trials and pains of her life, would not let her rest. She was not a child, she was the ruler of an empire she loved, she had taken that empire to war, seen countless good soldiers die and she had been the victim of an assassins attack.
It was this last thought that jarred her from the dream. That attack, the dark blade that stole her life and carried her soul to this place. She could see it clearly now, she was a child no more.
The shape of a palace obscured by fog remained, as did the spirits of children playing in the field. The Tulip Poplar tree was gone, until she looked for it, and then it reappeared. She wore a beautiful mourning gown, which is traditional for burial among the Elohim, but Ethne suspected it wasn't real either.
As Ethne walked she found other spirits trapped within their own dreams, playing, sleeping or talking quietly to empty air. They seemed peaceful enough so she didn't disturb them. There was no wall around the palace grounds as she had imagined, and no city beyond, only the hazy surface of this world and a labyrinth of passages to chambers full of other dreams.
It was impossible to tell how long she walked. Some places were pleasant, a field of flowers and wild birds, a pond where a boy and a large yellow dog played together, a mother who eternally sung to her child. Others were darker, a shadowy forest inhabited by glowing moths, a cellar where Ethne heard crying but couldn't find anyone, a lost child calling eternally for help. And some of the chambers were just strange, there was a city that ran backwards, an empty carnival where spirits ran and hid from each other and a galleon coming straight out of the ground crewed by souls ever looking unsuccessfully for land.
Eventually Ethne wandered onto a small farm. A single barn stood on a field that had been recently harvested, the barn itself was well stocked with grain and the smell of freshly cut wheat filled the air. A man sat on a chair in front of the barn looking at a distant village, barely visible beyond the haze.
The man looked at Ethne as she approached.
"None of it is real." He said.[NEWLINE]
"I know" Ethne replied startled, "did you grow up on this farm?"
"Yes, on a farm like this."
Shackles snaked up through the ground and clasp onto the man wrists. Ethne turned to run but another pair grabbed her. They were both pulled through the surface of the ground, into a world without light, substance or breath. When they came out they were dropped into a summoning circle in a large vaulted ivory chamber. A man with a crown of mirrors and deep black pits instead of eyes stared at both of them. A blue skinned angel stood beside him and around the room hundreds of humans, elves, dwarves and orcs stood watching. Ethne knew they were all great people from many ages, kings and heroes.
"Ethne. Auric." The man without eyes said, "Welcome to my palace. There are only two choices in the world of the dead, you wait endlessly, or you rebel. I am the leader of that rebellion, I am Laroth."
.
