Our Father Below

There was a time when sleep meant peace and rest, when dreams brought happiness or terror that had no bearing on our continued happiness or terror. But I live in the last days of man - a time of such poverty that even insubstantial fantasies are things of great value. My home is deep beneath the earth and sky. The men that I call brothers are not. The bonds that tie us together spring from our common work. Every day begins the same. First I report to our Master Teller and recount in full detail the dreams I remember from the previous night. Our Master Teller then goes before a Symbolist and the stories of the night are disassembled. The flesh is stripped from the bones and the bones are catalogued so to speak. At the end of each week the Council of Lore sifts through the summarized dreams of each locale and they search for clues that will unlock a path to The Overland - a world that borders ours and where the fields are still green and the water blue.

But this world has inhabitants of its own and although they never appear directly in our dreams, they're our implacable enemies and we are at war. There are no mirrors anywhere in our warrens because the enemy can make their pernicious influence felt through them. I was fifteen years of age when their cold presence first touched my life and I knew they were a reality. I was walking down a poorly lit corridor when the lights began to flicker. I thought nothing of it. The walls were constructed of dolomite and damp spots were common. Often they caused problems for the lighting. But the air was cold and it sent a sudden shiver down my spine. I stopped and noticed that my breath hung in the air white and hoary. I felt slightly dizzy and for a moment I became confused as to exactly where I was and where I had been going. The lights dimmed. They sputtered out completely and I was in darkness. I heard a distant sound then. It was faint but getting louder. It reminded me of metal tapping on stone and I couldn't tell if came from further down the corridor or worse from the other side of the walls. The lights flared back up. The sound stopped.

I rushed to get back to my working team. Most of them were far older than I and had stories of their own to tell. I thought little more about what had happened but later that day I told them about the sound of metal tapping on rock. They fell silent and asked for the whole story. I was rushed directly to a lord from the Council of Lore. I had never seen a man so old. His face was wrinkled and his hair was ashen white. He brought me to the corridor where the events had occurred and I told him everything. He laid his hand against the wall and he seemed to be listening to something far off. He inhaled and sniffed the air. His face made an expression as if his nose had brought something unpleasant to his attention. He explained that when They pass through this world part of themselves is left behind. There was no need to explain who They were.

That night in the youth dormitory I couldn't sleep. I saw a redlight at the end of the hall and it was coming towards me. No one in the other beds so much as stirred. Three men in hoods that covered their faces approached and they bore a red lantern. I sat up in bed and they stood above me. One of them grabbed my wrist in a painfully tight grip and I was dragged from the hall. I wanted to scream and yell but something stopped me. I travelled through strange corridors that night and we came to a large private chamber. As I enterred the chamber a tall man stood at the doorway and he held a hand mirror. He held it up to my face so I could see my reflection. He whispered, "Behold our enemy and our friend." The men with me whispered the same phrase back to him and I was ushered into the chamber. At one end was the oddest statue I had ever seen. It was fashioned from a rough black rock like basalt and it had been carved into the likeness of a man with outstretched wings and the head of a lion and a snake that curved around his body. Candles had been placed at an altar before the statue. Thirty or so men and women filled the chamber. We sang and danced but I can no longer remember the words. Before dawn the men returned me to the dormitory. I told no one.