When I dreamed, it was of darkness, a heavy, thick velvet of black and green suffocating the ground below. The rain came down heavily enough that air was seldom separate from the sea. Lightning crackled above the sickly green waters, illuminating the waves of moisture as they met in the area between sky and ocean.
We were the last ones, and we stood at the edge of the dock, maintaining our stance through practice. There are always times where the water embraces a ship; it is a matter of the crew's skill whether or not She lets it go.
The gate before us was as black as the sky. I didn't know if it was born of the dark arts of sorcery or the more scholarly ones of Trump. I certainly didn't want to argue with Signy about her going through it before me, but we ended up in a stubborn tussle. I think I won only because the feel of brined wood beneath my boots was as familiar as going home.
Julian stood from where he had been keeping vigil. Water streamed down his black hair, as if it existed separately from the drenching the storm was providing. His look was eloquent, as if he could communicate his disdain in the mere arch of, say, an eyebrow. This was good, as noise simply could not be heard over the thunder of bolt and wave.
I argued anyway. It was nonsensical, something about him not having the right sword, or being the right sacrifice. Caine argued more eloquently, but metal rang out anyway. They struggled, something about Jovian and a dragon was sworn.
The seas erupted around the scaly snout of one of the creatures we had been dreading. With a scream heard through even the fall of water, a lightning bolt was aimed both from the darkness and the black wyverns that flew like dark souls against the night. There were riders on the beasts, who I thought Brennan named Moonriders.
I turned around. Tridents rose in the waters, green, blue, and red with blood. The dragon's eyes were fevered, intense and glowing of their own accord. I turned - I could not see the mountain, nor the castle, swallowed as they were by the storm.
Caine alternately pulled or pushed me through the warp, and for a moment, all I could remember was the lady of my other dreams, and the lotus that bobbed in the dragon's wake.