[OOC] First Dream
He dreamed that he was dreaming, and that when he would wake up the world would burn.
There was a pressure at his back, and it was strange, because he knew that he was sleeping, and if he were sleeping how could he be standing before an army? But he stood, nonetheless, and the west wind was tugging at his topknot and at the hawk’s-wing fan he held, and all eyes were on him because any moment now -
A knock on the door, no, three knocks, all thick, all measured like footfalls. He did not wish to, there was a soft song, the purr of a pigeon lulling him to sleep, but he woke -
A man, crowned in age and jade, was kneeling at his table and weeping, behind him ten thousand shadows, and behind those countless more yet. He was weeping because he was a dragon, but he had no wings. Be my water, the man said and reached for his hand, and he would draw back, but the hand was warm, warm like fire, and he woke -
The guqin had woken him, thrilling now, keening and sweet. I will fight, it said, and eyes found him from across the room and when he played friendship, they answered.
He woke, and the guqin player had a sword in his hand and he was riding among the soldiers, he had a torch in hand and he was burning small ships, model ships filled with model soldiers, burning, and he woke -
He lay and stared up at the thatched roof, and knew that it was peaceful, so very peaceful within, but outside the days were growing ever longer, and there was a fire in the North, and a fire in the South, and footfalls outside his door. And when he would take up -
If one knows how earth and sky, Yin and Yang change, he thought, is one then able to judge the fate of men? To turn them to emperors, or to ashes?
But the eyes of all the world were on him, men and emperors. A dragon without wings, a tiger with sheathed claws, a guqin player with a sword in his hand, and a dynasty stretching back four hundred years, and the Blue Heavens themselves. And whether he intended for it or not, any moment now, the east wind was coming -
He woke.