"What? An aspect legacy? What the spell is that?"
Checking her runes, a new set of characters shimmered at the bottom of her vision.
Aspect Legacy: [Seeker of Truths].
Description: [To discover oneself is to uncover the world. That was the truth the insatiable Queen of Nightmare concluded upon breaking the chains of fate within her trials, witnessed by the Daemon of Fate. Who else could break fate if not their blessed? Find the truths of your kin, Queen of Nightmare.]
'Insatiable again? Really? I'm not that bad...' She thought back to the nightmare creatures she had devoured, the essence she had hungrily absorbed just to stay alive. 'Maybe the Spell is right. Maybe I am a glutton.'
However, it was the numbers beneath the description that truly baffled her.
Seeker of Truths Mastery Level: [0/0]
First Relic: Unlearned...
'What? Zero out of... zero? But it's telling me I can learn it? What the Spell?!'
She didn't have any time to untangle the logic of a divine legacy. The tapestry of stars was fading, and the pull of the waking world became an irresistible tide.
She was going home.
***
The academy was quiet, filled with the same clinical whiteness and sterile scent of antiseptic. Rows of pods lined the halls, containing Sleepers who had fallen into permanent slumber or those still struggling to escape the dream realm.
Yet today, one of their most promising warriors – and a favorite for the government's propaganda machine – stirred.
Deep within the underground levels of the hospital complex, a series of lights ignited on the surface of a high-end pod. The machinery in the room hummed to life, cooling fans spinning up to regulate the sudden surge of energy emanating from the occupant.
A few moments later, a girl opened her glass-clear eyes. Violet light danced in her retinas like captured lightning. She didn't wake slowly; she sat up with a sudden, frantic burst of power.
The metal door of the pod was torn off its hinges by the sheer pressure of her movement, sent skittering across the floor.
The nurses in the room shrieked, ducking as fragments of steel debris whistled through the air.
The girl stood up, the sensation of real, filtered air on her skin feeling like a benediction. It was a comforting cold she hadn't felt in the scorching, soul-burning deserts of the desert.
"That's nice. That's real nice," she muttered, a bright smile spreading across her stunning face. "I'm hungry, though. Is there still food out? Maybe a shower?" She turned her head toward the nurses, who were staring at her in paralyzed horror.
"Awa- Awakened..." one nurse stammered, her eyes wide as she looked at the girl who had just demolished a million-credit medical pod like it was made of cardboard.
Truthfully, it was mortifying for the staff. The girl stood there with the casual confidence of someone who had forgotten the social nuances of the waking world. "W- Would you like some clothes?" the nurse finally asked, her face turning a deep crimson.
The newly awakened girl looked down at herself. Her iridescent hair, the colour of spilled oil, shimmered under the fluorescent lights. Her figure was nothing like the scrawny, malnourished girl from the outskirts who had entered the pod all that time ago. She was lithe, powerful, with lean muscle tracing her limbs – a build fit for a predator.
Her eyes shook for a fraction of a second as the realization of her lack of attire finally hit her. White sparks suddenly danced over her skin, forming into a shimmering mantle that shifted and solidified into loose, comfortable sportswear.
"I'm fine," she smiled, her voice smooth but carrying an edge of newfound authority. She hoped the wardrobe change was enough to brush off the embarrassment of her grand entrance.
***
Asteria was as mortified as the nurses were as she sat in the academy cafeteria.
'Damnation, that was just as bad as when I first arrived in the dream realm... only this time I had a live audience!' she lamented, inwardly scolding her lack of restraint.
"At least the food is better than what I was scavenging..." she mumbled, her mouth full of real, seasoned protein. She sat at a clean table with a tray piled high with everything she could find.
She was famished; she hadn't eaten a meal that wasn't filtered through the lens of a survival struggle in a year.
"One year and a few days," she sighed, checking the digital clock on the wall. "Two months in the desert, ten within the nightmare."
She was likely the last of her batch to wake up – if they woke up at all. A year was a long time for a sleeper. Most were decided in weeks.
'At least I survived. Some can't say the same.'
As she reached for a glass of water, she noticed her reflection in the stainless steel of the tray. The violet hue in her eyes hadn't fully faded. She wasn't just an awakened. She was an Ascended – a master. In the waking world, she was now a strategic asset – a human weapon.
The silence of the cafeteria was broken by the sound of heavy boots. A group of men in uniforms, accompanied by a woman in a sharp business suit, were marching toward her table.
Asteria didn't even look up from her food. She could feel their presence – let alone hear their footsteps. To her new senses, they were as loud as a thunderclap.
"Lady Asteria ," the woman said, her voice practiced and cold. "Welcome back. We have been waiting a long time for the Queen of Nightmare to return. There are people who wish to speak with you. Immediately."
Asteria took a slow, deliberate bite of her meal, then looked up with a smile that didn't reach her crystalline eyes.
"I'm eating," she said simply. "They can wait another ten minutes. I've spent a year in the dream realm; I think they can handle a little lunch break."
The woman stiffened, but one of the soldiers behind her placed a hand on her shoulder, his eyes wide as he looked at the cracked floor tiles beneath Asteria's feet – a result of her merely sitting down too quickly.
They realized then that the girl who went into the pod wasn't the one who came out.
'This is horrible. I'm hungry and tired. But that's not even the worst part...'
She looked around as if searching for the voice calling to her – the pleasant murmuring in her ear, the warmth grasping around her heart, something calling to her – begging her to find it, to return to it, as if it's telling her to come home.
'Am I just delusional? Maybe sleep on a nice bed will help...'
What Asteria didn't know, is that this is the first of many annoyances caused by her flaw, and a feeling most awakened will feel at least once given the circumstance.
***
Ten minutes passed extremely slowly for the agents waiting for Asteria's attention.
The young woman who greeted Asteria was one of the administrative workers tasked with debriefing the newly awakened sleepers and easing them back into life in the waking world if necessary.
As such, she had heard of many exceptional achievements, and also many heartbreaking ones too.
She didn't have much to do lately, as most of the sleepers from the last batch had returned and none of them from the new batch had returned yet.
That was until today.
The door of her office opened, and a young woman with the fairest skin she's seen, walked in.
Because of the nature of her job, she was accustomed to interacting with incredibly attractive people – almost every awakened was pleasant to look at, after all. The young woman in front of her was far above the rest in that category.
She was of quite small stature with a delicate build, but still demanded the interviewers attention.
She sat down across from the worker and smiled at her, something warm yet subtly uncanny.
"Good day, my name is Amanda, and I will be your interviewer today, Awakened..."
Of course, Amanda already knew the girl's name in front of her. Her file was opened on a screen in front of her, including all the information the academy had gathered and that she had given, but that's just information – it's equally important to give them a warm and comfortable environment to share their travels, most were tense after awakening; but this girl wasn't.
The young woman answered in a pleasant tone, "Ascended."
"What?"
"Ascended Asteria, Master Asteria, Ascended Queen of Nightmare. You asked for my name, right?"
Amanda slowly stood up after her fingers were raised from the keyboard on the desk, "I apologize but may I ask if you challenged the second nightmare?"
"Correct," Asteria began, "I couldn't find a citadel but I did find a seed of nightmare, I figured it was better than wasting my time."
Although that couldn't be further from the truth. Asteria didn't intentionally enter it, either.
Ascended... Asteria looked at her like she was interesting, almost cute which made Amanda stumble on her feet. "I apologize but this... may be above my pay grade, I'll- I'll go call someone from higher up to continue with this, please excuse me."