"I worry that I'm losing touch with the world," Sunbright said as she dipped her toes into the shallow, mirror-bright river that flowed through the austere desert of Shadowfall's dream. "Does this water truly feel wet against my skin? Or do I only think it does because logic says water creates the sensation of wetness, and in fact it feels like something else entirely?"
Shadowfall concentrated on the warmth of Sunbright's fingers where their hands were clasped together, until she gathered the strength to steer her dreamself to sit on the river's stony bank and trail her own feet into the water.
She pushed words around her sleeping tongue: "I think it feels wet. But maybe that's only because it's my dream, and my mind is trying to reconcile nonsense into something coherent enough for you to find me."
"I could track you anywhere," Sunbright said, and changed the topic with a smile.
But Shadowfall remembered the conversation when she woke, and spent the day (after the obligatory hours hauling yet another sleeping body through the dragging pressure of the spell, a few rooms at a time toward freedom) drawing water for a bath, gathering wood for a fire, and making a little shelf for her head to keep herself from drowning. Then she climbed into the blood-warm water and counted herself to sleep.
She couldn't move Sunbright's body so much as an inch, not when the spell was centered through her blood, and in any case Sunbright had never shown any sign of feeling changes to her body. Bathing her would do no good. But some problems were best solved sideways.
When Sunbright's fingers laced through Shadowfall's own and pulled her to the surface of her dream, they were treading water together in a sun-warmed pool, deep and green with life, cradled among the stones. The water pressed their bodies together, slick and buoyant, and when Shadowfall used her clumsy, sleep-stiff hand to push a wave toward her princess, it splashed and shimmered as it should, and caught shining droplets in Sunbright's hair.
"Thank you," Sunbright murmured. "You didn't need to."
"I wanted to. That's enough."
Sunbright's eyes shone like her namesake, and Shadowfall bent her head to let her princess anoint her hair with water: clean and clear and shining like the hope of better days to come.
Fill: A pool among the rock (original)
Shadowfall concentrated on the warmth of Sunbright's fingers where their hands were clasped together, until she gathered the strength to steer her dreamself to sit on the river's stony bank and trail her own feet into the water.
She pushed words around her sleeping tongue: "I think it feels wet. But maybe that's only because it's my dream, and my mind is trying to reconcile nonsense into something coherent enough for you to find me."
"I could track you anywhere," Sunbright said, and changed the topic with a smile.
But Shadowfall remembered the conversation when she woke, and spent the day (after the obligatory hours hauling yet another sleeping body through the dragging pressure of the spell, a few rooms at a time toward freedom) drawing water for a bath, gathering wood for a fire, and making a little shelf for her head to keep herself from drowning. Then she climbed into the blood-warm water and counted herself to sleep.
She couldn't move Sunbright's body so much as an inch, not when the spell was centered through her blood, and in any case Sunbright had never shown any sign of feeling changes to her body. Bathing her would do no good. But some problems were best solved sideways.
When Sunbright's fingers laced through Shadowfall's own and pulled her to the surface of her dream, they were treading water together in a sun-warmed pool, deep and green with life, cradled among the stones. The water pressed their bodies together, slick and buoyant, and when Shadowfall used her clumsy, sleep-stiff hand to push a wave toward her princess, it splashed and shimmered as it should, and caught shining droplets in Sunbright's hair.
"Thank you," Sunbright murmured. "You didn't need to."
"I wanted to. That's enough."
Sunbright's eyes shone like her namesake, and Shadowfall bent her head to let her princess anoint her hair with water: clean and clear and shining like the hope of better days to come.