Will was starting to feel uncomfortable. It was something about the way the people were staring at him. He supposed he must make an odd sight trailing across the courtyard after Anaya like a robot puppy, but there was something in the way they looked at him. They barely concealed their hostility. Suddenly, he was yanked sideways into the cool dark of a doorway. Will instantly missed the protective properties of his helmet as the odour of stale beer, and the even staler clientele hit his senses. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Will was aware of the tableau caused by his arrival. Tankards stopped halfway to mouths, and conversations trailed off mid-sentence as though paused in a film.
He waved a hand uncertainly. ‘Hello?’
‘Sir William of Wordsworth, you must be here to refresh yourself after the tournament.’ A voice said a little too loudly from behind his left shoulder. The voice obviously had access to two rather strong arms, which were now propelling Will and Anaya towards a shadowy corner. As the tavern regulars returned to the serious business of drinking, Will found himself pressed onto a bench.
‘What the hell were you thinking to bring him here?’ The voice belonged to a man, an innocuous man. Not a man that you could have picked out in a crowd. The dark curly hair framed a genial face, even though, at the moment, piercing blue eyes revealed murderous intentions towards the polymorph. Anaya seemed oblivious as she flopped onto the opposite bench.
‘He wasn’t listening to me. I told you hints don’t work. I’m not even sure he’s the right one. He doesn’t seem very bright.’
‘That’s him,’ The man hissed, ‘and you have just brought him right into the nest of vipers.’
‘Oh, don’t be so dramatic Hawke,’ she said dismissively as she inspected her nails. The man mimed strangling her, but she didn’t even look up.
‘Err, excuse me, but I am here!’ Will said.
Ceun turned his attention to Will for the first time. ‘That, my friend, is exactly the problem in a nutshell.’ he said quietly. ‘Because thanks to madam ‘I can’t follow a simple instruction’ here now everyone and their horse know that, and word spreads very fast.’
‘I don’t understand what is going on. All Cass would say is that there is some danger, which is ridiculous really, this is only a dream.’
‘Cass?’ Ceun looked at Anaya questioningly.
‘Wife.’ She supplied ‘See,’ Anaya said triumphantly, ’Won’t listen. I told him I wasn’t her, but he won’t believe me, about that or any of it.’
‘Why did you do that? The whole idea was to be someone he trusts!’
‘I don’t like being other people, and wifey wouldn’t dress like a chicken, which was a really silly idea, by the way, as that was all this idiot fixated on. She doesn’t seem to be a very nice person anyway.’
‘You both have something in common then!’ Ceun snapped.
‘He gets very irritable,’ Anaya said to Will, ‘and dramatic.’
‘I do not. I get understandably annoyed. Why? Because you had a straightforward brief and what do you do, completely ignore it and do your own thing!’
‘He’s having some odd stuff happening to him too, but as I am so hopeless, I will let you sort it all out!’ Anaya got to her feet. ‘If you get really desperate and need me, I will be outside.’
‘She seems nice?’ Will said uncertainly, once she’d gone.
Ceun looked incredulous. ‘Does she? I suppose she would if you married her?’
‘She said she wasn’t Cass.’ He said, idly waving a hand towards the door. ‘This is very weird, and if you don’t mind, I’d really like this dream to stop now. How do I wake up?
‘Not yet. Since you’re here, I may as well explain things to you properly. I am... how can I put it? I suppose I am like a bounty hunter. It’s my job to apprehend those elements that are unsuitable in Morphean society.’
‘Wow, I seem to have some serious unresolved moral issues about the V10,’ Will said to himself.
‘Ah. Yes, you do. Now we are getting somewhere.’ Ceun clapped his hands, making Will jump. ‘It’s wrong to produce this thing. It is very wrong, and when you wake up, you will destroy all copies and never allow it to be made commercially?’
‘Of course not,’ Will scoffed. ‘I’m not that unresolved! I have simply been working too hard, and because of that, elements of my unconscious mind have crossed over into this scenario. It must be something to do with the brain waves. I’ll have to get Adam to look at it.’
‘It was worth a try.’ Ceun said with a sigh. ‘Let’s look at this another way. What if this isn’t just a dream? You are fully conscious.’
‘I built this device.’ Will felt more on home ground now. ‘It allows the wearer to be fully in control of the whole interactive dream experience…’
‘But what if all this…’ Ceun indicated the dingy room, ‘is not just in your head?’
‘Of course it is. Morpheus indeed, what a ridiculous suggestion. You’re trying to tell me that this is all real? Next, you’ll be saying that my house, my work, my wife, all of that is just a dream!’
‘No. That all exists, but so does all of this.’ Ceun said patiently.
‘You’re trying to tell me that dreams are real.’ Will scoffed.
‘In a manner of speaking, the place is real, Morpheus is real. There are beings, real live beings, who live here all the time, and they are the ones your device is threatening.’
‘My brain has fried, hasn’t it? The V10 has malfunctioned and fried my brain. I’m probably in a coma.’ Will said, throwing his hands in the air.
‘You’re asleep. Nothing more. Humans are not meant to be in control here. Try to think of Morpheus and Realitas as two sides of the same coin. When you sleep, you cross to the other side, but in the crossing, your memories are jumbled up, scrambled, things are forgotten or moved into different orders, this protects us all.’
‘That’s impossible. It’s just as likely I’ve discovered a way to travel back in time… That’s it, I haven’t, have I? Oh my god, I’ve invented a time machine!’ Will excitedly.
‘No, you are still in your own time,’ Ceun said wearily, ‘but what I am telling you is true.’ He paused. ‘You think a time machine is entirely plausible, but what I’m explaining is impossible?’ He asked, shaking his head incredulously. Before the inventor could answer, he continued. ‘Never mind. Try to think of the two dimensions as one of those 3D puzzles before you put the glasses on. They’re side by side but fuzzy.’
‘I’ve had enough of this. I think it is time that I woke up.’
‘No, no, don’t do that, I need to explain…’ Ceun said as Will pinched himself hard between his thumb and forefinger and squeezed his eyes tight shut.
‘You appear to be still here,’ said Ceun’s voice after a few moments. Will pinched himself harder, then pinched his ear, pinched his neck and held his nose. ‘I wouldn’t keep doing that. You are going to go a very funny colour.’
Will opened his eyes. ‘Why aren’t I waking up? What did Cassandra do to me?’
‘Nothing. She just broke the control link on your machine. You should be able to wake up normally?’
Will slapped himself across the face. ‘Does this look like I am waking up?’ He said, his voice tinged with panic. ‘What is going on here?’
‘That is an excellent question. Anya said some strange things that happened to you on the way here?’ Ceun asked.
‘There was an icy blow in the face and then a pain in my hand and some blood.’ He held the injured hand up to be inspected. Ceun pushed in gently down again.
‘That sounds like something happening to your body in Realitas. You should have woken. Something or someone is stopping you.’
‘That’s is not a good thing.’
‘You’re right. That means someone wants you to stay here, and I’m guessing it isn’t for your health.’
‘There are enough figments of my imagination to form a committee?’ Will said in amazement.
Ceun sighed. ‘Let us go back to the beginning. Neither they nor I are figments, we exist.’
‘But there is a committee who run Morpheus, and you think they are the ones who have somehow prevented me going home.’ Will said.
‘Right.’
‘And you think they have done this because they want to kill me?’
‘Not necessarily kill…’ Ceun looked carefully at Will. ‘Ok, kill yes.’
‘Because I have invented the V10 and they think this is dangerous to Morpheus? But it wasn’t just me, what about Adam, he is just as responsible, more so actually, why pick on me?’ Will whined, his voice rising an octave.
‘Perhaps they felt you were the more dangerous of the two of you?’ Ceun said with a shrug.
‘Even you don’t believe that!’ Will snorted.
‘I don’t know, my information just said you.’ The bounty hunter shrugged again.
‘I still don’t see why it would be such a bad thing. If this place does exist, and I have to say I’m still none too sure, we already come here so what’s the problem?’
‘Listen to the arrogance of you. What makes you think that you would be a great addition here? Look at what you’ve done to your world. The violence, the destruction of your environment, you’re parasites that infect and destroy everything around you. You would come here in your hordes and wouldn’t be content until it was as polluted and stinking as home.’
‘That’s harsh!’
‘It’s the truth. There have already been incidents that are making some people in high places very, very nervous. And of course, there will be some who want to use this to their own advantage.’ Will looked surprised. ‘Your world does not have a monopoly on criminal elements and greed.’
‘This is ridiculous. It’s a joke, isn’t it? Adam’s idea of being funny? He’s programmed this into the scenario.’ Will turned his face upwards. ‘I DON’T THINK THIS IS FUNNY!’ He yelled.
‘Will you keep your voice down?’ Ceun hissed as the other patrons turned their attention to them. ‘Can’t hold his ale,’ he said. This explanation seemed to satisfy the clientele. ‘Are you trying to get yourself in even more trouble?’ The bounty hunter asked.
‘How much more trouble can I be in? Ok, ok, if Adam wants me to go along with this, I’ll go along with it. What do we do now Mr bounty hunter?’
‘That will do for the moment. We keep our heads down, try not to draw attention to ourselves and keep you safe until we can work out why you can’t go home.’
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