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Date Posted: 20:03:49 07/14/01 Sat
Author: Rana
Subject: Rana struggled with what he had just been shown...
In reply to: Biggs, Dream Guide 's message, "The background of Dah'Li's forests began to spin..." on 14:54:39 07/12/01 Thu

The images had come quickly, assailing his senses. Yet as his guide had said, his powers were returning and, more and more, his composure and sense of certainty. His confidence overwhelmed by the burdensome knowledge of the atrocities his WR@ had visited upon the starbase orbiting his homeworld, the man had been as frightened as he was as a child when the knights had attacked his village. As he lay recovering in the medlabs, struggling with incredulity over his second chance at life, a worse prison than death ever was, he had even sought to escape through death, only to be rescued at the last instant. Before the energentity known only as The Bolt had pulled him back from oblivion however, there had been a voice, distant, yet familiar. He thought now of the voice of the old man at the bar, and wondered if they might not be the same....

Rana closed his eyes, fists clenched, sorting through the immense influx of information. Twice before he had been through something similar, only more invasive. The first had been on his homeworld of Manar, when the rampant negative energies of the WR@ flowed through him, taking him, changing him, usurping him. His mind had travelled the pathways of time on that day, to a degree he had never attained before. He caught bits and pieces of conversations, ones that had taken place and ones that would not for another century. He understood none of it, his sanity only preserved by the WR@ taking his life. Yet as WR@NA emerged only to be contained by the fairies of the Enchanted Forest, had his sanity been truly preserved?

His second encounter with prescience had been on the desert world of Arrakis, also known as simply Dune. There the Nebulan Targetmaster Mercado had left him at the controls of an unfamiliar ship, the Red-Eye Dragoon(in point of fact, ANY vessel was unfamiliar to the wizard). Encased in a mystically suspended shell of water, the vessel hit the sands—hard. Rana stumbled from the cockpit, breathing deep the steam created by the mix of water and sands rich with Arrakis' most valued possession, the spice Melange. Once more his mind was opened to the possibilities of the future, only all possibilities and all futures at once! His companions hadn't seemed to notice yet, but Rana's mind was slowly deteriorating. And then...

Nothing.

Rana's hands were clenched so tightly now, his palms were bleeding. The wizard focused, slowly understanding how thought becomes reality in Dah'Li, and simply changed his perception. His astral hands ceased to "bleed." He rememebered; there had been nothing for a short while back on the bridge of the NOVA*Beacon. He was blind to destiny and suddenly desperate for it. Everything was coming back to him now though, slowly, and manageable. His mind processed the vision he had seen...it WAS a future, one of an infinite number of possible futures. With this realization Rana was suddenly liberated from the paradox his prescience had previously put upon him. The very fact that he possessed the knowledge of what was going to happen meant he could influence and alter it. He himself then became a wildcard, a nexus point for all outcomes. Any action he took, any word he spoke with the knowledge he had created another branch, another future to see. It was impossible to sort out and rendered the gift more curse than blessing. But this—this outside image from a mirror conjured in a strange dream world—this was outside him somehow, and he had a clearer view. He thought of the Manar it had shown, of the woman's skeleton, and remembered bitterly the death his mother had suffered at the hands of the black-and-red armored knight. The irony of one army still running around after its general had been banished even as another general still lurked after his army had been eradicated suddenly occured to him, but he pushed it aside. There were far too many enemies in the SPUniverse, far too many old scores, rivalries and otherdimensional menaces for him to get lost in; for now his mind, sharpening by the second, focused on the riddle of the mirror. The ravager of Melont and he would settle soon enough. If the mirror reflected truely, then Manar was at risk of becoming as barren and devoid of life as his old village was. The fairies, the undersea beings, any humans who still dwelled there and tended the land....Rana felt an obligation to the world that had sired him, moreso to atone for the horrors he himself subjected it to in darker days. Rugby, the ship, the world of metal....whatever power caused(would cause) such complete annihilation...it had to be prevented. But Rana had learned over the years that power and size were separate entities...the unseen foe and that which could defeat it might well prove difficult to locate.

It was time to get back. Time to warn his friends.

"Spirito al mio corpo!
Sveglisi!
Ora parte questo posto!

The wizard began to fade, feeling himself drawn to his body. His guide had spoken true...his powers, rather his awareness of them, had indeed returned. Traversing the mindways now would be as quick and easy as opening his eyes. But....

INVERSO!"

He couldn't leave. Not yet. This strange guide had brought him here for a reason. He had said he couldn't help, but had known of Sheesh'a'ream, and the fact that he needed to enter the dreamworld in his physical body to retrieve the "object of immense power."

Perhaps this Biggs might be able to shed some light on the situation. Rana's eye's flared bright blue as he spoke.

"You knew...you knew before I looked what that would show me. How? And you said it was my future, that I had to prevent it!

There's more to this than meets the eye..who are you anyway?"



"Please, don't spoil my day, I'm miles away
And after all I'm only sleeping

Keeping an eye on the world going by my window
Taking my time."
-The Beatles, I'm Only Sleeping

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