"I keep debating on whether or not I should tell Ann about you." She muses, running her fingers through a fine lock of dark hair, grinning when it gets caught in a curl. He lies as silently as always, a look on his face that tells her he is listening but at the same time not really hearing her, quite a feat but not a thing to trouble herself over. After days in the company of such as Felicity and Pippa you get to find that having your own voice is not really necessary when you have someone else's to listen to. It is somewhat nice to have the flipside of things for a change, quite nice actually. "Not that I don't miss your voice, I do more and more as time goes on."

Furiously a blush creeps up her neck, colors her cheeks, she turns her face away from him but he reaches for her wrist, a laughing smile on his face. A laughing smile without any laughs, how is that even possible? She shakes the thought away, turns back to her companion, "I'm sorry, I was thinking and it all just kind of slipped out." She closes her eyelids, waits for the blush to subside, counting backwards from ten the way Ann had told her to; chastising herself mentally for not better controlling her thoughts.

Her lids flutter and when she opens them again he is looking at her in a peculiar way, his eyes on hers appear to be burning, as though entreating her for some cause or another; there is something very strange about them. For whatever reason she has the feeling that, had she tried to turn away, she may have found that she very well couldn't. Almost unconsciously she is aware of a niggling at the back part of her mind, nothing too ferocious but a niggling nonetheless, her brow furrows and his eyes seem but a smidgen brighter. Whatever is the matter with him, or her for that matter? I do feel rather strange, not at all the way I normally do in these dreams, not the way I normally do ever, really.

They aren't dreams, Gemma. The gasp escapes her before she can stifle it, the boy beside her is smiling, a beautiful smile, the likes of which are not often to be seen anymore. These aren't dreams, we are bound, I assure you that all that is happening, all that has happened, all of that is very much real. I'd have had a hard time believing it myself if not for the tree's knowledge.

"But- but what do you mean?" Forgetting modesty for a moment she speaks out, not feeling an ounce of embarrassment, the present situation is much too confusing for such nonsense. "What do you mean we're bound? What do you mean the tree's knowledge?"

Another thought comes, like a tide soothing her over, and taking with it all her harried attempts at denial. When I sacrificed myself for you, and became a part of the tree, that bound us together. That tree binds everything and everyone together in the realms, and you when you open your mind to it.

"Can I open my mind to it outside of my dreams? If I were sitting in an art class, or attending the opera, could I open my mind and be with you then?" She can hear the thrum of her pulse in her ears; an unfair and even more so unpleasant thought comes to mind, this is magic that she is dappling with. That she is thinking of so eagerly, even after she has seen what the after effects of magic can be. What it has driven people to do, the good as well as the bad. She pushes it aside; she will not let him go so easily, no amount of self-coaxing would be suitable for that kind of pain, not when she has just got him back.

This isn't normal magic, it's ancient, I'm not sure what you would call it, but it's powerful. He is given a moment to pause, taking in her stricken expression. It's powerful but it can't be used against us, it's for the one who rules the tree, until someone else is slain we will have this. I don't know how it works exactly, but I'm learning, I think we could use it outside of dreams, but I would have to search harder if I were to know for sure.

With the feel of being another person entirely she is aware of someone shaking her, Ann, trying to wake her up for classes. He shoots her an apologetic look and nods, giving her a kiss on the forehead before relinquishing her back into the waking world.

A/N: Please review, constructive criticism, long or short, comments or ideas . . . Just tell me what you are thinking people.