Its been so long since I've seen my oldest brother, Verial. Much time has elapsed and yet I feel no age. I look into the mirror of dreams and ever see myself a woman-child. A girl.

I've been recently called jail-bait.

In another era, when men took young wives, it was proper. I once was a wife. A child-bride. My husband's people called me the child-like queen. My ladies called me 'child'. My mother chose that life for me.

I've since chosen another for myself.

I ran away from my husband. An old Dragon who took more of a father place in my young eyes.

I've always been the distant daughter. Distant from everyone. Perhaps the best of who I might of been died with the brother of who I shared our mother's womb with. All good things were ripped away from me and denied me when I was innocent and not with understanding.

I come from cursed blood...blood mingled with star dust and dream stuff and flesh of the dust of the ground. I am pieces of immortal and mortal and fragments of things that were created before and apart from Creation. Things that I do not more speak of, for they are belonging to my mother's person.

In some ways, that I do not openly admit, I am much like my mother. But in most ways, I am not. I do not own her forgiving passion. I do not possess her generous heart. I do not understand love in the self destructive way as she does, nor do I want to. I think her naive and foolish, given to unrealistic ideals and useless faith.

I think my oldest brother and I feel the same way concerning our mother on several points. Though, he adores her considerably more than I do. It is also true that she has always adored him considerably more than I. I've also given her much reason to in the past several years.

I've been very cruel to her. I've done unforgivable things. the motives in my grey little heart have always been with resent and grudge. I imagine it would disturb my elder brother greatly if ever he learned what shadow-truths and dark shapings have been echoing in the abyss. I could do so much harm. I could do so much damage.

But what stops me....what stops me.

*dark, fading laughter* .................

A raven lands upon the shoulder of a winged male creature with odd eyes. A creature who is one of the filia terrae et coeli stellati. The bird studies Verial in this moment, no matter where or what Verial might be doing. Which is perhaps both awkward to Verial and of no consequence to the messenger bird. The raven boldly caws but once, the cry being as sharp as it's talons and as startling as it's black gaze as it announces its presence, but more pointedly, the scroll tied to it's leg.

"It has been long since we've spoken or shared company, brother. I miss you. Let us meet in our Mother's way, like we dreamer's do. I shall find you there.

Your favorite sister,

Maiwen"

Verial had seen many animal messengers before and it was not uncommon for members of his family to use the raven to convey messages from far away. So Verial's first thoughts when the raven landed upon his shoulder was that it must be from one of them. This bird and Verial shared a few silent moments of contemplation before the creature cawed out at him, mostly likely instructing Verial to take the scroll that was attached to its leg. Verial nodded and took the scroll, unraveling the parchment to read the contents, while the raven flew off.

The letter was short and from his sister Maiwen. She had wanted to meet him within dreams and instantly Verial found himself wondering, Why not in reality? What are you hiding, my dearest sister? In truth, he hadn't seen Maiwen in some time, but neither of them could be at fault for this. The two seemed to be bad at keeping in touch, whether in subconscious or reality.

Then again, he was much easier to find than Maiwen. Maiwen was always so distant and always so hidden away, mostly because she allowed herself to feel this way. So while Verial imagined it would be easy for her to take a walk to the Villa and meet him here, she chose dreams instead. He let out a sigh and closed his odd colored eyes.

When Verial opened his eyes again, he was standing on a beach and it was early morning, the sun just starting to climb over the horizon. The waves lapped playfully at the sand, rolling in and out and composing a quiet and soothing symphony for Verial's elvish ears. A very fine mist was also present in the air, dancing in between the waves and the sand.

Verial looked towards the left and right of him before calling out, "Maiwen?" He half expected her to float out of the mist like some ethereal ghost.

Maiwen didn't float out of the mist or even like some ethereal ghost. She appeared at Verial's back and stepped forward, as if she had materialized from between the folds of his wings. Dark tendrils of shared consciousness stretched and gently tore apart from between the siblings, shriveling like exposed roots until they were melted away by the perception of morning Sol and surf.

The woman-child side-stepped out of Verial's shadow and drew it up into her hands, fashioning it into a cloth for which to clothe herself. In doing so, she presented herself to her brother in a more modest way he might expect to see her.

"Thank you, Very" she smiled, taking some left over bits to tie her hair in pony tails. "Your shadow looks lovely on me. I feel so close to you while wearing it." She lowered her eyes and offered him an ambiguous smile that was altogether demure and beguiling. She glanced inland, "We are very close to the Garden."

She took Verial's hand and began walking. "Mother walks these shores to and fro...she has walked them ever since she landed here. These tides of perception wash many strange things ashore" she murmured distantly as she fixed her azure eyes somewhere into the distant reaches of the sea. She stopped a moment, her gaze turning to an object suddenly appearing before them.

They passed a small craft, ornate and beautiful, fashioned from an amethyst dragon scale. The sail was tied up and it sat on the beach, a fixed memory of something that happened long ago. A symbol of what came onto the shores of the Abyss and remained.

Verial might recognize the Oneiroan origin of handiwork for which the craft had been styled.

"That is hers. It is how she came here, when she sought Him out....But, we are not here for history lessons or dreamer's lore. Tell me, how is my favorite nephew? Kyrian?"

It was a relief that Maiwen had clothed herself in his shadow; the last thing Verial wanted to see was his sister in the nude. When she had finished dressing herself, Verial turned to face her, looking over the black, shadowy garment she now wore. He shrugged lightly and offered her a smile in response.

"No problem. Just remember to return it later, okay?" Verial said.

As Maiwen started leading him away by the hand, Verial wrapped his palm around her own fingers and moved onward down the beach with her. The mist swirled around them playfully and from time to time, the siblings would stop and gaze towards the ocean. This time they paused to look at an ornately decorated craft, one that was resting between the shore and the ocean. Verial definitely recognized this as Oneiroan craftsmanship, but the amethyst also reminded him of something else.

When he had first acquired his dragon and his soul bonded with it, the creature was unruly and often tried to possess him. The only thing that seemed to soothe the wayward and dark thoughts of the beast inside Verial was a small amethyst that he eventually took to wearing on a necklace. Verial never figured out the reason why the jewel worked as it did, but it seemed to help. Looking at the ship, Verial wondered for a moment if it was more than just a dragon scale, but also something his mother remembered of his own past.

When Maiwen started speaking of Moon, his mother's... well Verial did know what to dub their relationship as, Verial opened his mouth a little bit as if to speak. The last thing he wanted was another lesson on religion and The Teacher. However, he was stopped momentarily when she asked about Kyrian.

"He is doing well. Growing up fast and learning how to shift into a dragon. It seems he has two inside of him - a little bit of me and Necia," Verial said. "I am sure he would like to see his Aunt Maiwen soon."

His odd colored gaze then became questioning and he looked at her almost curiously.

"Tell me, why did you choose to meet within dreams? Why is it that you are not able to come visit me where I actually am? Is there something you're hiding?"

The woman-child's azure eyes fell down to the way her brother's palm enclosed around her fingers. She looked up at Verial with a softer expression and for a brief moment she was a little girl again, sitting on the edge of a well in their mother's garden unknowing that something hateful inside of her eldest brother wanted to shove her to a drowning death.

It never bothered her when he told her a few years ago. It rather amused her. Perhaps a part of her wished he had....so that she would not have grown to live as a half of a whole.

But the greater heart of Verial could not bring himself to do it. He loved their mother too much.

Love is such an evil thing. Maiwen didn't voice it, but she thought it. It was this way that she understood it and it gave her a sense of peace. She gave a shrug to her own inner dialogue.

"I do mean to return it. I would not think of keeping your shadow, it protects you in the temporal world. You've no such need of it here. Nothing can protect you here...save for mommy...maybe...but I doubt it."

She laughed softly as she hugged her brother's arm against her chest and absorbed that look of wondering she saw behind his odd eyes. A glint of refracting light struck her eye as she noticed the crystal necklace he wore. Amethyst...a genuine shard from their decaying world..only...it was real. She took it in her hand as it rest against Verial's chest. She answered him with distance in her voice...

"I would like to see Kyrian too..soon...yes."

Verial's question caused her to break the locked gaze between herself and the facets of the amethyst. He would almost accuse her of hiding something.

"Because you are so attached to where 'you actually are'. You believe the real world is...'the real world'."

She gently tugged at the deeply purple quartz, "This....what it means..what it does...is why I chose to meet with you here. This is a piece of what we are, where we came from...and 'here' is why this even exists. brother. You need this talisman...because while you reject the esoterica of your design....you cling to some pieces of it because your Dragon will destroy you if you don't. Let me ask you something big brother. Are our Dragon aspects real or are they truly tangible symbols that we became marked with, blood of our mother's blood? And...why doesn't mommy have a Dragon aspect like we do? You see, my father -was- Dragoon. But yours was just a muddled sort of elf that claimed drow heritage. So..explain these things to me. Dragons and dreamers.."

Some of what she said was fact, some posed as questions, and some were opinions...but mostly fact...yes?