The book washovering over the view panel apparently watching what was happeningin one of the areas. Asterix was standing rigidly in front of thecontrol panels with eyes glazed presumably ready to open thegateways should Astaria close them. The gateway to Mudrun inPathway One was closed but both gateways to Moonmist in PathwayThree were open.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Qin.
‘How did you get here?’ said the book. ‘He promised me youcouldn’t get in.’
‘Who promised you?’ asked Qin.
The book didn’tanswer; both it and Asterix fell to floor unconscious.
‘Damn. I hate it when they do that.’ said Qin to Qan as theywent to the control panel and opened the gateway to Mudrun closelyfollowed by closing the gateway to Moonmist at the Mentarinend.
They went tothe control panel and looked outside gateway one and saw Miranllameditating and Rori sitting by a small fire.
They teleportedto the gateway portal and stepped through. The Keep was empty sothey raced out the front door and yelled for Miranlla and Rori tocome quickly. Rori shook Miranlla until she came out of hermeditation and told her the Spirit Lord wanted her to come. Shejumped up, quenched the small fire and together with Rori they raninto the keep and through to the gateway where Aquitain wasstanding. Qin asked them to hold his hands, they stepped throughthe gateway and he immediately teleported them to the controlcentre.
‘Things are a bit precarious here at the moment. We have adragon running around in the town centre destroying everything insight and Mentarin fighting Yith in pathway 3 but other than thateverything seems under control.’ said Qin with a smile.
‘Which one of you am I talking to.’ she asked.
‘Both of us at the moment.’ replied Qin but I’ll fix that andmoments later they were in a mind arena. Miranlla looked around.She recognized it immediately as her gully on Mudrun. She was inthe flat area near the stream that ran through the middle. Mistswirled around her feet and she felt the moist air against herskin. It was the late afternoon and the light was muted. The groundfelt substantial under her feet but there was no grass there andthe ground was rock.
Two identicalgreen muscular rock monsters that she recognized from the land ofthe dreams stood opposite Miranlla and she stood there in all herglory as an adult female Llanllean spider.
‘Most impressive!’ said Qin.
‘What is happening ? What did you do? Where am I? sheasked.
‘Remember when we came into the control room in Astaria andhad the fight with the book. Well it showed me how to do two thingsthat are really useful. The first was how to create what’s called amind arena. Your mind is in one now with us.’
‘I’ve just come from a council meeting where a lot ofinteresting things were revealed.’ she stated.
‘Granddad has unlocked some of his sealed memory and told usabout your birth. He told us that you were born in your memcrystalAlpha and that one of the two dragons spirits in there was yourfather but he wasn’t sure which one. He told us that one of you isAquitain and the other is his father’s avatar. Which of you iswhich?’
‘My avatar guardian is gone said Qin. We’re both Aquitain atthe moment.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked confused.
‘Let’s re-join.’ said Qin to Qan and they both formed bodieslike oozes and merged reforming as the green crystalform.
‘Is this better?’ He asked.
The seconduseful thing I learned from the book was how to split my mind intotwo. It’s been useful to control this Zenostruct body so that itdoesn’t explode into a cloud of mist.
‘Doesn’t it get confusing?’ she asked a littlepuzzled.
‘Well it was at first but we’ve learned how to work as a team.Now tell me everything that you learnt at the councilmeeting.’
‘It looks so real in here. Where exactly are we?’ Sheasked.
‘We’re in your mind. We’re using your memory of your homegully as a meeting place. You can change the look of it if youlike.’
‘It looks and feels a little like my home gully but … it’snot.’ she replied.
‘I don’t know it well enough to fill out the detail. You cando that if you wish.’ replied Aquitain.
Suddenly it wasbright daylight. There was grass underfoot and a myriad of flowersappeared. The stream appeared and its happy sound echoed across thegully.
‘This is how it should be.’ she said and she changed her formto that of a little girl and walked over and sat by the edge of thestream and dipped one foot in the water. ‘It … it feels soreal.’
‘It is as real as you want it to be my love.’ replied Aquitainand he changed his form to that of a small boy and came and satbeside her.
‘But … how?’ she asked.
‘It’s something new I’ve learnt. Here we can be togetherregardless of what we look like in the real world.’ And her tookhold of her hand.
‘I can feel you!’ she said ‘It’s like … you’re reallyhere.’
‘Yes and I can feel you too. This is our world just for youand me. We can be anywhere and be anything and do what we want to.It’s like being in a dream but we make it real. Let me show you.’And he changed to a bear on a secluded sandy beach and went runningaround roaring.
The beachchanged again. This time it was the place Miranda remembered in herdream and she changed to a female bear form and took off afterhim.
‘It’s true. We are free and we can be together at last!’ sheyelled and then a thought came to her.
She stoppedrunning and turned into her female Newman form. She changed thescenery and she was outside a small cottage in the woods with aflower garden in the front and herb gardens on the sides.
Aquitainstopped in a paddock nearby wondering what she was doing. Therewere fruit trees with small birds flying among them. She picked aflower and breathed in its perfume.
‘Yes, this is my dream.’ she thought to herself.
‘We are in my dream the time I was overcome with magicnarcosis. This is what I planned for us, until you lured me outwith your passion
