I had the strangest dream last night.

In the vibrant darkness that comes before midnight , I stood upon a hill which overlooked dewy fields of early grain. A narrow, unpaved road wound past neat farmhouses, toward the sparkling lights of a city in the distance, and beyond that, a harbor. I could smell the seawater mingling with the scent of sweet grass. The sky was lit by unfamiliar stars and a single moon which limned silver the drifting clouds. I was on foot and without a blade, accompanied by my mentor/blood-sister, who seemed rather cross with me.

?We shouldn?t be here,? she snapped at me.

?I know,? I responded, ?but here we are. I don?t know what direction to go.? My breath steamed.

She folded her arms and looked toward the top of the hill, scowling. I looked down and saw a tired figure trudging along the road, leading a limping horse. The beast seemed to be favoring its right side and it had to pause frequently. The woman with it finally stopped at the base of the hill, threw her arms about the horse?s neck, and wept audibly.

?Come on. Maybe if we help her, she?ll tell us where to go.? I ventured down toward her.

My mentor shook her head. ?She?s going to be suspicious of us. We?re strangers, and strangers are always unwelcome here.?

I kept on walking, knowing that my mentor would be obliged to follow. I realized both my mentor and I were both garbed uncharacteristically in neutral, earthen colors, silk, cotton, sturdy linen. The damp blades of grass trailed at knee-height, leaving dew stains behind.

As we approached, the woman drew a long knife and straightened, taking a ragged breath and stepping away from her horse. The blade of the knife looked unpolished, a dull gray, but I was sure it could inflict significant injury nonetheless. She had black curly hair which fell just below her shoulders and was wearing a long sleeved tunic and leggings of dark blue. ?Come no closer, or I swear I?ll gut you both,? she rasped.

That peculiar dream continued early this morning. Perhaps it was spawned by the heady mix of bloodspice and black ichor.

It was if I?d never woken. The dark sky was still that vibrant midnight shade between blue and black, spangled with ice crystal stars and a gravid moon, and the air was still redolent with sweet grass and seawater. The three of us still stood near the base of the hill.

My previous query rang in my ears and echoed in the black irises of the woman whose horse I?d tended to. She stared thoughtfully at us, and fear gleamed in her eyes. It was apparent that she was uneasy about the repercussions of speaking to us, but was more worried about what we might do if she didn?t. ?Fair enough,? she finally pronounced. There was a dulcet sound under the hoarse rasp of her voice, as she had once been trained to speak or sing and was now unused to words. ?Up there is the center. Up at the top of the hill. Get going. This isn?t the place for you.?

?We know that,? snapped my blood-sister. I could feel her impatience to be gone from this place.

I was brimming with questions. Who was this woman? What had injured her horse? Where the Hell were we? What would happen if we stayed? ?But-?

My blood-sister muttered an oath, put her hand on my shoulder, and shoved me up the hill. ?No questions. Start walking. We need to go now,? she hissed.

A cooling breeze twined the young, damp grain-grass around our shins as we made our way up. I once glanced over my shoulder and saw the black-haired, black-eyed woman still standing there with her equine beast, watching us. Clouds began to drift across the sky again, bringing the tension of a building rainstorm. I thought I heard thunder rumbling over the distant harbor. My blood-sister flinched. A muttered keep walking turned me around, and gradually, I became aware of a building at the apex.

It was low to the ground, a single story sprawling across the top of the hill, and built from something that looked and smelled like cedar planks and shingles, stone, and dark glass. A few windows shone with solitary lights. It reminded me of the somber illumination of a parent anxiously waiting for an errant child to return home, or of a deathwatch.

It occurred to me that we were standing on what looked like a very large burial mound. I opened my mouth to suggest such a thing, and my blood-sister shushed me, stepping forward to a darkened entryway.

?I know what you?re thinking, but don?t say it. We have to figure out how to get inside.?