OVERTURE to Nocturn (Part Five)

Leah wishes Dreamthief would, for once, tell her what is happening. All of this couild really get somebody killed. She is cold, and wants to go home. Why is she doing this again? Right. People depend on her.

Because otherwise her life is transient. Nothing.

"The Benefactors will be here soon," says he, scaring Leah into a shriek. "Why are you afraid? You're the most dangerous thing here. Next to me, of course."
"That's why I'm nervous."
"Naturally. Sit patiently, and your turn will come. So what have you been up to today?" He sits next to her under the stars, behind the moon. From this angle, to Leah, the moon apears a nocturnal halo behind him.

"I took the bus. Visited them in the hospital." A frown. This is good, she thought. He speaks up. "How are they?"
"He's probably dead. Chances were he wouldnt' last the day. As for her, she's hanging on."

Dreamthief is silent, staring at the desert sand on this craig. Leah puts an arm around him. "They missed you. All of them do. They're worried."
"You're concerned about all of them, aren't you?"
"They're dying. They don't want any favors. They just miss you."

His temper breaks, as he springs up. "GHOSTS! That's what they are to me, Leah, ghosts!.... I wish I could see them. But I will never return to Earth again. Not after all that's happened."

"You're selfish, and that's all there is to it."
"No, I simply hurt, that is all. I was hoping... that we would have a share in this battle, then face off ourselves over the ruins. It would have been fun. Wouldn't you say, Leah?"

She is disgusted with him. Powerful as he is, Dreamthief is in many ways just a child.

"Leah? Come here", he holds out his hands. Taking them, energy pulses within her. "This is the Gift of Recay. It will reverse all signs and effects of bodily decay. I would like you to have it, and give them my regards."

She can't meet his gaze, becasue she can tell: he knows this is what she came for. Another favor.

Proud, angry, and sad all at once, Dreamthief holds his head high and watches the soon-to-be field of battle in the desert maze below. Behind his shoulder Leah fades away with yet another of the Dreamthief's gifts. She has never felt so much sorrow in her life.

...

A mist behind what appears to be a glass sheet anounces the Benefactors are here. The horizon draws near. Beneath is the flotsam of camp where the Patian peoples await their enemy, and where Dreamthief assumes the form of yet another cream-color uniformed officer.