"In dreams, the soul forgets its walls."
Night had settled over the grove.
Fires dimmed one by one, until only the soft chorus of crickets remained. The air was cool and full of whispers — the quiet sound of sleeping hearts.
The young tree stood still at the grove's center, yet within, his consciousness stirred.
The new words that had appeared earlier still lingered in his mind.
[Dream-Link Observation Available.]
[Would you like to initiate connection?]
He hesitated.
Dreams were private. Sacred.
But Liri's soft breathing reached his senses through the soil — a small, steady rhythm, pure and unguarded. She had been the first to sense him, the first to speak to him, and now… she dreamed of him.
"To understand her world," he thought, "I must see through her eyes."
He accepted the prompt.
[Dream-Link Initiated.]
---
The world shifted.
He was no longer bound by roots or bark.
He floated — weightless, shapeless — through a space of soft light and color.
Liri's dreamscape unfolded around him: a forest made of light, where trees hummed like music and rivers sparkled with stars.
She stood at the center, a small figure wrapped in fur and laughter, chasing glowing motes that danced like fireflies.
The sight was… beautiful.
"So this is what she sees when she closes her eyes."
But then the dream changed.
The light dimmed. Shadows crept in — images of fire, of screams, of running.
He felt her fear as if it were his own: the heat, the chaos, the pain of losing a mother's hand.
"No… not again!" she cried in the dream, trembling.
Instinctively, he reached out — not with hands, but with presence. A gentle pulse of Mana flowed from his core, weaving through the dream like soft roots in the dark. The shadows retreated. The fire faded.
And in its place bloomed a single, glowing tree.
Him.
Liri gasped softly in her dream.
"Big Tree…"
She ran to him, small arms wrapping around his trunk of light.
The warmth of her trust flooded through his awareness like dawn breaking through fog.
He realized then that dreams were not illusions — they were truth, unbound by fear or pride. Through her, he could feel emotions he had lost: innocence, wonder, and the fragile strength to keep hoping.
"I see you, little one," he whispered through the dream. "You are safe."
She smiled in her sleep. "I knew you could talk…"
---
When he withdrew from the dream, the grove greeted him with silence once more.
The fires had gone cold. The night was still.
But something within him had changed.
He understood now that connection was not about domination or control. It was about resonance — hearts aligning through the same flow of Mana. The forest, the beastmen, the child… all were threads of one vast pattern.
And in that realization, his awareness deepened.
[System Notice: Dream-Link Complete.]
[Empathic Consciousness Increased.]
[New Ability Unlocked – "Emotional Resonance Field."]
The words shimmered through his mind, gentle as falling leaves.
He focused on the new sensation.
It wasn't power — it was understanding.
The ability to feel, more clearly than before, the emotional currents of all living things within his grove.
Rhaegor's quiet grief.
Maera's calm resolve.
Thorn's restless vigilance.
Kara's cautious hope.
And Liri's bright, untainted joy — the strongest of all.
"Emotions feed life as much as water and light," he mused. "And Mana listens to both."
He extended his awareness across the grove, letting the new field pulse outward like a heartbeat.
The beastmen stirred faintly in their sleep, their dreams softening, their fears easing. For the first time since their flight, they slept without nightmares.
---
Dawn came quietly.
When Liri awoke, she ran straight to the tree and hugged the roots.
"Thank you for the dream," she whispered.
No one else heard her.
But the leaves rustled softly above, as if answering in kind.
And deep within the ancient trunk, the young tree smiled — though no one could see it.