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Chapter Text

“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.”

-Langston Hughes

“Love is a fleeting fog,” her mother says.

“Love is your weakness,” she reminds.

“Lovers have betrayed each other ever since the war broke out.”

If love was such a burden…

Then why is she in love with the bloodhound at her mother’s feet?

Chapter Text

Yuan opened her eyes to a lush meadow. 

She sat up to take in the view. It looked like a patch of land between Chenyu Vale and Jueyun Karst. Huh, she hasn't been there for years—centuries, even. In the past, Rex Lapis’s adepti used to invite her mother, Lingyuan, Fujin, and the Herblord to their territories. This meadow is where they used to meet when they carried her along on those trips. The place was calming, familiar. She thinks she should be there more often, given how beautiful it is. It was sunny, but not scalding. The wind blew her hair out of her face. It was her favorite kind of weather to go out.

The birds chirped, with some even landing on Yuan’s shoulder. She laughed, feeling their claws dig into her lightly, before flying off to the sky.

Jie Yuan, her mother, sat beside her. She was always busy, and Yuan barely saw her. She doesn’t remember why.

The Mistress of Dreams looked serene, sipping the finest tea out of a ceramic cup Yuan made when she was younger. Her mother kept it? That was a surprise. That cup must be centuries old. She didn’t know it could last all these years.

“My dearest daughter, the tea harvest is most abundant this year. Isn't that amazing? Our people must be happy,” her mother tells her. “Come, join me. Enjoy a cup of tea.”

Yuan moves closer and pours herself some tea. Her mother was right, the leaves yielded a more earthy flavor. What was missing in the previous years that this year’s harvest had? She doesn't remember, she doesn't want to think about it. Right now, she was happy; that's all that matters. Her mother was there, smiling gently at her, as she hummed a lullaby that she learned from a moon goddess eons ago.

Dormi cara columbula

O columbula mea

Splendeat fenestra, adsint somnia flora

Mother sings beautifully, Yuan thinks. She tried singing along, but the song was too high and her throat felt scratchy. Jie Yuan laughed. “You’re not cut out to be a singer, my child. I think you should stick with your dancing,” she jested, tickling Yuan’s sides. Yuan doubled over, giggling from the tickles. Her mother smiled, too. She wonders when the last time was she saw her smile so much that her eyes crinkled.

The skies were suddenly overcast, and the sun was no more.

Piercing gold eyes appeared in the scenery, streaking it black and red. Then everything was gone. 

Her dream, torn to shreds.

Yuan woke up with cold sweat over her brow. Her mother is long gone, she tells herself. In a war of clashing ideals, everyone she knew was dead. 

Jie Yuan had always been the best mother, not just to her, but to the people of Chenyu Vale. 

The archon candidate Alloces now stands where her mother once stood. No, Yuan refuses to believe that they are the same. Jie Yuan would never spill blood, would never throw herself into war, would never lock her daughter for eons. 

Yuan had lost track of time. No one comes to her except to bring in food. It was fine. Her room had everything she needed, anyway. There were 690,452 lines on her wall. 690,452 sunrises and sunsets since Alloces joined the Archon War. 

She longed for the sun that once kissed her skin. 

Yuan didn't know how the war went, except for traversing dreamscapes. Much like the Lord of the Mountains, she, too, has a degree of access to people's dreamscapes. Alloces lost a significant patch of land in the early centuries of the war. The tides turned when the demon god started to employ her Dream Trawler art against her enemies. 

Since then, all she could hear were screams. 

She doesn’t remember the last time she’d seen sweet dreams. Everyone was plagued with nightmares, allies and enemies alike. 

690,452 days since she last saw the sun. 690,452 days since she first entered her room, never to leave again. 690,452 days of being forced to hear the cries of her people, tormented by war. 

Yuan wants her mother back she is not Alloces. She wants to be freed Alloces did this, not Jie Yuan. She wants to be held Alloces was too distant to be Jie Yuan.

There was no way she could reconcile the loving mother from her dream, and the god who destroyed her people’s dreams. 

Yuan knew no god but Alloces, the cruel Lord of the Mountains. Thus, she does not pray.  In this war, no god would listen; her pleas would fall on deaf ears. She can only dream—and hope that the Mistress of Dreams will fall, one day. 

Her meal hasn't arrived. There was no point in staying up. She fell into another slumber, hoping for a dreamless sleep. But it doesn't come. Her mind is filled with the same thing; her mother, that she so missed…and the cruel god on the throne of Chenyu who imprisoned her in her own home.

Chapter Text

It would've been a sigh of relief to finally be free from her confinement. But that god is cunning. Yuan was only free because Alloces needed something from her. 

Yuan was right, she did need her. The Mistress of Dreams’s cruel rule had led to an increase of defectors. Some illuminated beasts have spread rumors of the goddess killing her own child. If she can do that to her own kin, then what can she do to her mere servants? It didn't make them feel at ease. Much of them had sought protection under Alloces’s rival gods in the Guili Assembly. 

They demand the appearance of their benevolent Lady Yuan. 

Knowing that influence could make or break the war, her mother Alloces finally allowed Yuan to leave her room. 

Dressed in red silk robes, Yuan left her room to take the seat by Alloces’s throne. The illuminated beasts under her rule were surprised. Their beloved Yuan, finally in the public eye after a millennium of war! Cheers erupted as Yuan walked towards her throne. 

But her gaze was fixated on one place. 

Beneath Alloces’s throne was a creature. Barely human, most likely an illuminated beast. The creature was chained near the goddess’s feet. Clothes tattered, claws bloody, teal-hued hair untamed. 

The creature looked up. Golden eyes met Yuan’s obsidian ones. 

She gasped. Those were the same eyes that invaded her dreamscape. 

The crowd was watching, so Yuan maintained her poise and ascended to her seat beside her motherAlloces’s throne. The goddess spoke to her people, but Yuan was distracted by the clanging of chains each time the creature beneath the goddess moved. When Alloces dismissed her constituents, Yuan spoke up. 

“Lord of the Mountains, what is that creature?“ Yuan asked, pertaining to the chained creature. Alloces laughed. “Oh, this? See for yourself,” she told her. 

Yuan was scared. But the Mistress of Dreams can read her fears. Steeling herself, she left her seat and kneeled in front of the creature. 

Snarling at her, she almost recoiled. She moved the hair away from its face. Beneath all the grime and signs of war were features of a young man, otherworldly beautiful. 

“Order him,” Alloces said. Yuan’s eyebrows knit in confusion. “Order him to what?” she asked. Alloces let out an exasperated sigh. “Anything. This bloodhound is ours to use.”

He looked scared. 

Yuan held his cheek soothingly. “Hello. What's your name—?” she was about to ask, but Alloces shook her head disapprovingly. 

“We do not call our possessions by name,” she said. Yuan scrunched her nose in disgust, but didn't dare to go against the goddess. 

“Erm, so, what can you do for me?” she asked in a gentle voice. 

“...I can eat dreams,” he replied. 

“Ohhh.” So this was Alloces’s secret weapon. Not just her Dream Trawler art alone. But a Dream Eater that does her own bidding. 

The screams Yuan heard every night were suddenly no longer a wonder. 

“Alright…so if you can eat dreams, you can eat nightmares as well?” she asked. The bloodhound hesitated, looking to the goddess for approval. 

“Answer her,” Alloces ordered. 

He faced Yuan and nodded. “Yes.”

“Can you eat mine, then?” Yuan requested. The screams were tiring. If Alloces and this bloodhound were causing it, might as well make them take it away. 

Raising his chained arms, he held Yuan's face and pressed his lips to the top of her forehead, siphoning her nightmares. 

With those terrors gone from her dreamscape, Yuan was supposed to relax. 

Instead, her heart started to flutter. 

Chapter Text

When your mother gets a slave that's interesting and strange, you would inevitably get some kind of…morbid curiosity. Alloces kept the bloodhound close to her at all times, but it didn't deter Yuan at all. 

Maybe she just lacked proper socialization, and being kissed (not really, but technically) by that Dream Eater changed her brain chemistry. Or perhaps the art of eating dreams in itself poses side effects like…uncontrollable hyperfixation. Whatever it is, Yuan was determined to know more about Alloces’s bloodhound. 

Alloces was obsessed with the bloodhound in a trophy type of way. She spoke about him as if he were a prized possession rather than a living, breathing illuminated beast. It disgusted Yuan. He went wherever she was—in battle, at the banquet, in meetings—but he wasn't allowed to speak. Outside the war itself, he was less of a soldier and more of a guard dog. The only time he parts with his mistress is when she heads to her chambers. 

On the other hand, Yuan was obsessed with the bloodhound in a different flavor. She wanted to get to know him. What was he like? What does he do? Who was he, exactly? Heck, after centuries of being locked up in her own chambers, she wanted to make a platonic connection with him—even if her mother the Mistress of Dreams would most likely disapprove. After all, aside from talking to the cruel goddess and her attendants, the short conversation with him was her best attempt at interaction since the war began. Maybe her curiosity was just an offshoot of loneliness, after all. 

After sweet-talking a guard and using the Dream Trawler art on him, Yuan figured out that the bloodhound really didn't have a name. By some impossible feat, Alloces stole his true name and used it to enslave him for all eternity. However, those she trusted enough to get close heard that he was called “Alatus”—which was more of a title than a given name since his real form was of a golden Peng. Not exactly what Yuan was looking for, but it's good enough. 

Yuan also found out that he didn't eat much. Alloces didn't allow him to eat anything except dreams. He was caught eating snow a few times, with no consequence. Maybe the goddess found it amusing. A slave so desperate that he would eat dirty snow to sustain days of battling.

After days of observing the goddess and her guards, Yuan figured out where the bloodhound was kept. Underneath Alloces’s chambers was Alatus’s cell, accessed by her unique adeptal art or via a network of underground channels. Putting the guards to sleep, Yuan sneaked past a plate of her own food to the poor illuminated beast. He slumped against the wall, weak and bony. The cell itself was grimy and overrun with rats, dead and alive.

Yuan tapped on the cell bars. “Psst. Alatus.”

He stirred, opening an eye. He looked surprised to see her. “Lady Yuan? What are you doing here? She will find you,” he said, voice laced with panic. “You must go.”

“Hm? Oh, it's nothing. I just have some leftover food,” she said, pushing a plate of rice and fish under the bars while trying to shoo the scurrying rats. Alatus hesitated to take it. 

“Don't think it's charity, you naive thing. I was on a diet, and thought it would be a waste if no one ate this,” Yuan lied. Being a slave to Alossia, he probably wasn't used to kindness. She shifted her tone just for him to accept his help. Cruelly, she spat. “Take it, pet.”

“...thank you,” he said. Yuan rolled her eyes. 

“Tch. Don't thank me. I'd feed it to dogs if Alloces allowed them here,” she snapped. “But as things stand now, you're the only pet around here.”

It didn't matter how hard she lied. He knew. 

The way he had touched her the first time. The natural soft tone to her voice. However she masks it, he knows the tenderness in her heart.

Yuan had already turned her heel around, not seeing the smile that crept up his face, silently grateful for the only meal he had that day. 

It had become a routine for Yuan. When Alloces was asleep, tired from her duties, she would slip into Alatus’s cell, sneaking him leftover food. It’s been a while since she started visiting him that she has even learned how to pick the lock of his cell.

Yuan thinks Alloces feigns ignorance. She could monitor everything through dreams, after all. The bloodhound was always in her dreamscape since the day she ordered him to eat her nightmares. She had no idea if it was actually him or a figment of her subconscious. It doesn’t matter—if the Mistress of Dreams finds out about her growing interest in him, she will disown her as her daughter and start treating her like an adversary.

Yet there she was, in his cell, feeding him a bowl of cold noodles.

“There is no need to feed me. I am not a child,” Alatus insisted when Yuan lifted the noodles to his mouth with chopsticks.

“I have to make sure no food is wasted, pet,” she snaps, still feeding him. “Besides, look at your wrists. I saw Alloces hit your hands earlier. You probably can’t feed yourself without dropping anything, heh.”

She looked at Alatus, gloating—sticking her tongue, even. She knows she’s right. The bloodhound was helpless from her mother’s Alloces’s cruelty. He conceded, letting her push more noodles into his mouth.

“You can drop the tough act. It doesn’t suit you,” he tells her, mouth still filled with noodles. Yuan rolled her eyes.

“You seem more receptive to my kindness when I act more like my mother—I mean, your mistress,” Yuan said gruffly. “It’s as if you’re averse to nice people and would like it better if people treated you harshly.”

Alatus flinched. The lady was right. Since Alloces took his true name, his days were filled with cruelty. Until her daughter chose to show him kindness, that is.

Yuan noticed his reaction. “I’m sorry. I will be nicer to you, from now on,” she reassured him, rubbing his shoulder. “Just promise me that you’ll eat everything I give you, okay?”

Alatus gave her a half-hearted attempt at a grin. “Is that an order, my lady?”

Yuan pouted. “Can’t you do anything outside of an order? Ugh. Fine. I’ll be nice to you. But I order you to eat the food I sneak for you. There. Happy?”

He replied with a simple “Hm.”

The rats went to them, wanting a taste of the noodles. Yuan shot them with Hydro, sending them away. Some were undeterred and tried to get into the bowl, but she took it into her hands and stomped to scare off the intruding vermin.

“This is no place for a lady,” Alatus tells her, seeing how she looked at the rats in disgust, visibly not used to them.

“This is no place for an illuminated beast,” Yuan retorted, before she hissed at the rats. “We’re both out of place. Be grateful I’m here to help you.”

“Thank you. But I still do not understand. Why do you come here every night?”

“Because I can, obviously.”

Alatus shook his head. “There are other things you can do. You choose to be in this prison with your mother’s slave.”

“Point taken,” Yuan considered. “To be honest, I was here because of curiosity at first. Never seen someone quite like you. Besides, I guess we’re the same age? You could say I was looking for a friend. I haven’t had one for eons.”

She noticed him perk up at the word friend.

“D-don’t overthink it!” she added, uncharacteristically bashful. “Consider it the benevolence of your…uh, superior. Yes. I’m such a kind lady.”

Alatus scoffed at her attempts to backtrack by using her high and mighty act.

She frowned.“Hey, what—you’re not taking me seriously!” 

“Hmm. Yes, this is clearly done out of the kindness of Lady Yuan. I thank your benevolence, my Lady. Now I understand why Mistress’s advisors spoke so highly of you,” he said, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

Yuan crossed her arms, blowing the hair out of her face. “You think I’m joking.”

“Mhm.”

She groaned. “Ugh. Whatever. Mark my words, one day, I’ll free you from Alloces. And you’ll be a happy little bird, you insolent peng. Not before I make you pay for your...your insubordination! And I will rule this land better than my mother.”

“Sure,” Alatus said dryly. Her promise was a nice thought, but both of them knew—it was only her musings, nothing more. Defeating the Lord of the Mountains would be quite impossible, especially if it involved freeing her most treasured bloodhound.

Yuan took his hand in hers, his chains clanging as it was stretched. He was taken aback, but she caressed his hand gently. “Believe it. You and I will be free someday.”

“If you say so,” Alatus said simply. He was still pessimistic about it, Yuan figures. Maybe she was idealistic, being far removed from the frontlines of the war. But she believes it. One day, there will be a reality where he will not be Alloces’s bloodhound.

“I…have to go. Your mistress might notice that I’m still not asleep. She visits my dreams sometimes, too,” Yuan said. “I’m sorry I can’t help you more, Alatus.”

“I understand,” he replies. “Sweet dreams, Lady Yuan.”

She locked his cell behind her, a tight-lipped smile on her face. “My dreams will be sweeter if you come around again,” she half-joked.

That night, she dreamt of him once more. It was a familiar scene, the two of them sharing food. This time, not in a cell—but on the shores west of Chenyu Vale. Maybe he did heed her musings. Or maybe he felt indebted to her kindness, and this was his way of repaying her.

She realizes she never had nightmares since they first met.

Yuan refocuses on her dream, trying not to wake up. For now, she’ll sleep longer. But until she was free, her dreams were infinitely better than reality.