The Rescue Dream

[Black Philip]

Wren was sitting in the beachside diner where he and Tess had first kissed. A full cup of hot tea sat before him. The bar was empty, even the lone attendant missing. It was daytime and a bright, hot sun heated his skin as he took in his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was going to sleep and now he was at the diner again. Music played from the jukebox, something from the 1960's. After a blink, Tess was sitting opposite him, string in a mug of tea of her own.

"Hi Wren," she said, her absence of over a month being unexplained for the moment. "I've missed you so much."

She wore a red dress, flowing at the bottom, with spaghetti straps and exposed shoulders on top. Her hair was in wavy ringlets. 

[Trillian]

Wren didn't question her sudden appearance; that was how she was, turning up in his life at the strangest times. He did question her sudden disappearance though, many times to the air of her apartment before he'd finally left, resigned that she was avoiding him and wanting him to leave. He'd been concerned but she was more powerful than him and he could think of nothing that could keep her away without her consent.

"Tess," he said, hearing the relief in his own voice. There were other feelings in there, too. Confusion. Hurt. "Why did you leave?"

He had ideas now that she sat here with him. Ideas that floated up to him of commitments she'd made before him that she would honour whether he was with her or not, of gathering others to form her army

no, not her army
HIS
that black-hearted goat bastard
her other lover
the one who holds her damaged heart
more firmly than I ever could

He thought all of those words were in his head, that he'd kept them all to himself, but they'd floated out of his mouth and she'd watched him arguing with himself. The tea he held turned into a small origami bird before it flew away. A sparrow? No. A wren.

His original question lingered, echoing in the air around them like betrayal.

Why did you leave? Why did you leave? Why did you leave?

[Black Philip]

Tess's childlike nature made evil deeds fun. There was normally a decedent quality, like eating chocolate or stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. Murder was easier if it was a game, if nothing really mattered, if she didn't know, or care about, the people she hurt. She also didn't care about anyone. Her family were all dead - some by her own hand - and she didn't have a single friend. Who would be friends with someone as wicked as her?

However, Wren clearly did care, and as showed his emotion at her absence she realized how much she cared about him. She cared. She cared about someone other than her master. Fuck.

"I didn't leave," she shouted, clearly frustrated by the accusation, but more out of distress than anger. "I've done so many bad things Wren, but I didn't leave you. I swear to you. I was taken!"

Her own teacup shattered, her internal self churning as she looked upon the druid. The origami bird hadn't flown out of the diner yet. There was hope.

"And whoever took me has cut me off from my black-hearted goat friend. It's how they've kept me contained. This magic has taken me weeks of concentration to preform on my own. You have to believe me."

She went for Wren's hand. She wanted to hold it badly.

[Trillian]

He saw her hands fluttering to him, like birds themselves. They were small, white, fragile things. Baby doves. He collected them in his hands, making an enclosed nest where he imagined their panicked motions could finally still. Calm. Yes, be calm. He could feel her heartbeat in his hands. She was a little less frantic.

The origami wren landed on the nest his hands made for her and scrunched itself to join with the others. He could feel it forcing its way in with the doves but then it disappeared. He didn't think about it after that. It was just Tess he stared at now.

"Help me find you," he pleaded. "A bite or a burn or a scar."

Her magic is dark
So I will find her with my pain

His thoughts were spoken once more, though this time his lips weren't moving. He hoped she wouldn't mark him with anything to do with the goat.

"Just you. I'm not ready for him." He thought he could feel paper scrunching in his hands but it was just her doves.

[Black Philip]

Tess sighed with relief as Wren took her hands. She had to fight off a tear, or two, as she learned she might not die in some strange basement. Wren could save her, and it seemed like he wanted to. She heard his request. It was doable. She had taken from him in the dream world before. He was essentially asking for the opposite now. Before she harmed him, she heard a key word in what he said regarding Black Philip. She imagined it, Wren only saying, I'm not ready for him. However she added a word that changed everything.

I'm not ready for him... yet.

Her mind raced.

Would he really join me eventually?
Would Wren ever be ready for the master's dark power, his beautiful plan for this world?
Does he care enough about me to further stain himself? Do I even want that from him?

Wren heard it all, and Tess looked away with discomfort. For a dream, this was all too fucking real. With her hands now free, she placed one lovingly on his right forearm.

"I'm sorry."

Wren's arm smoked, and the smell of flesh filled the booth as his arm was burned. The smallest of flames existed in Tess's dream hand, and would leave a mark the size of a quarter. It would never fully heal without magic, but it was a path to her. He could use it to find her captor, and hopefully, free her.

[Trillian]

Wren gritted his teeth and closed his eyes against the pain but he could have been meditating. Her wordless words had caused him more pain than the burn; he could hear the hope in her

voice?
thoughts?

and felt suffocated by the idea of letting her down. He'd gone against his own Circle to do as he wished, what chance did she have?

But he'd never feared the Circle. Even the Grand Elder with all his power and hateful stare hadn't been enough to stop Wren chasing what he thought best. He feared her goat-beast-master though. To his very core.

"Will it hurt more when I get near you?"

[Black Philip]

Tess was amazed how little pain Wren expressed, her own tolerance not nearly as high. She wanted to lean across the table and kiss his lips, but knew if she did the spell would end. She'd conditioned it that way. Instead, she moved her hand from his arm down to his own hand, and wrapped her's in his.

"Yes," she said softly. "The pain will stop once my physical body touches the wound, but the scar will be harder to remove."

She knew that she was technically placing a witch's mark on him, and that other magic users might see the wound and wonder what witch had infected him. It was old magic she was casting, Thane magic, the kind she'd learned from her aunts back in Philly. It felt strange to return to the old ways; casting circles, witch's marks, astral projection. It felt kind of nice. She was happy her master couldn't see her now.

"The mark should also guide you, tugging you towards me. I was taken from my apartment, so perhaps there is some residual magic there that can guide you further. I don't think I'll be able to do this again for a while. I'm... I'm not as strong without him."

[Trillian]

Wren's despair echoed in the colours of the diner around him. Their surroundings washed out and grey, only Tess was vibrant and real. Her irises were planets, the vibrant green of earth. He stared at them, absorbing the image of her to the point of swallowing and he choked back a sob.

"I'll find you," he promised, his words wavering but genuine. He wanted to find her, to rescue her. He nodded when she explained he would be best starting from her apartment.

The burn on his arm was already throbbing its pain but it was also satisfying to feel. It made their connection real, unbroken.

"Who took you?" he asked, his voice echoing in the stillness. The diner was melting, like a freshly painted soundstage in the rain.

[Black Philip]

Tess watched as the diner faded away, Wren's projection becoming her own. They were connected now, and so it made sense his own power would begin to effect the dream they shared. She found she like that. She found she liked being connected to someone who wasn't Lucifer. She knew little about her captor, but told all she could.

"He's a smooth talking mother fucker," she said. "Dark brown hair, well dressed, and from what my witch eyes can see, not of this world. I suspect he's some form of fallen one, or perhaps one of the dark ones. He neutralized my magic with some leather cuff."

Tess showed her arm now with the cuff on so Wren could see it. It was brown-black leather, with intricate stitching. "If I try and remove it, it hurts me."

That's about all she knew. Meals were brought to her by obvious servants of this man, but none spoke to her. Her actual captor had only visited her once since taking her. "I don't know what he wants with me, but he's not part of Sabrina's coven or working for the vampire prince or the ancient one. He seems to have other motivations."

That was all she knew, and she hoped it was enough.

[Trillian]

Wren studied the cuff but didn't recognise it and couldn't see any magical symbols on it. They could've been on the inside, on the part that touched her skin, but he wasn't able to move it off her arm - even in the dream state - to see.

"Dark hair," Wren repeated, his hand stroking a loving path down Tess' pale arm. "Well dressed. Not of this world."

He said the mantra a few times, not wanting to forget. He didn't really know the players in this city because he'd only just arrived recently, been swept up into and then left the forming of a witch coven before joining Tess, who they were fighting against. He'd buried himself in her in more ways than one, so when she'd gone he'd barely managed to fend for himself. He'd answered a strange ad, received a strange job, and was now back at the Detour watching strange people come and go.

"I will find out," he said, thinking of the detective, but the man had his plate full investigating what Wren's mysterious employer wanted him to investigate. Besides, Wren was the one with the burn. "I will find him. Then I will find you."

[Black Philip]

Tess felt her magic beginning to fade, the physical exertion on her body becoming too much. She looked at Wren, and with only seconds left before the dream world crumbled she muttered, "I think I love you." It felt strange to say, and what did Tess really know of love? She had no way of knowing the complexity of it's depths. She'd received little love in her life, and what she did get she blocked away. She trusted only her feelings now, and believed she loved Wren in whatever way she was capable. She wanted to hear him say it too, but the world around her shattered, and she fell. It felt like an eternity in the blackness before she landed in her body.

Tess gasped for air, and shook in the chair she was bound to with rope. Nothing about the small cell she was in had changed. It was padded like a psych ward, and held no windows. A light bulb high above her cast deep shadows in the corner of the room, and the witch had long stopped hoping the dark goat would step out from those shadows and rescue her. She put her trust in Wren now.

Tess sweat profusely and felt fatigued. The magic had been difficult, and the pain that she'd endured from the cuff now was so intense it threatened to put her in shock. Instead, her head slumped forward, and she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.