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July 1998—January 1999
Some time later, Ramiel made a reappearance in RavensDale. This time, however, everyone was startled to discover that he and Sentressa were old acquaintances. In fact, they had once been in love. Now they were on different sides of the war, and neither would give up their cause for the sake of the other.
Ariana soon met the Lord of Nightmares face to face, and a battle ensued. Unable to defeat him completely, she was only able to vanquish him temporarily from RavensDale, with the help of Flint, Jessie, and Sentressa. Ramiel was there too, and in the end he killed Sentressa.
Sentressa returned not much later, revived with her memory erased, now serving the nightmares again. This lasted until Ariana was able to break the spell. Having been given a magic charm by a winged lion she befriended, she gave the the charm to Sentressa, who screamed and vanished. Moments later, she reappeared, reborn again and free of the nightmares this time. She thanked Ariana and took up arms against the Lord of Nightmares once more, her determination renewed.
New characters appeared on the scene. In a meeting with the nightmare underling Brona, the gypsy Mia Carasophia and the bounty hunter Alys Galsen agreed to take on a job for him. He cast spells on their weapons, making them very powerful, and told them to capture the captain of RavensDale's guard. The seductive gypsy and the tomboyish rogue fought like cats and dogs, but they accomplished their task, luring Calan into the woods and drugging him. They took him to a room in one of RavensDale's inns, where they kept him drugged and tied up until Brona could come for him. The captain nearly escaped once, and though they recaptured him, he coldly told them that they might well be destroying themselves by preventing him from aiding the battle against the nightmares.
Mia said that she would rather either let the captain go or simply kill him. Alys had second thoughts about the job as well, but she thought it better to go through with it than try to break a contract with someone like Brona. Ariana soon discovered that Mia had had a hand in Calan's capture, and although she was furious with the woman, Mia took pity on her. The gypsy cast a curse on Ariana, one that might help her find Calan; Mia did not quite dare to defy Brona so openly as to tell the girl where the captain was. The curse would be broken when Ariana and Calan touched again, and until then, Ariana would be able to see everything that he saw.
Using the curse, Ariana discovered where Calan was being held, on the very night that Brona was to come for him. A battle took place, with Jessie, Flint, and Ariana fighting against Alys, Mia, and Brona. Mia deserted and ran away in the middle of the battle, but Alys managed to hold the rescuers off until Brona could escape with Calan. The nightmare sorceror was pleased with her and offered her a place in the nightmare armies, but Alys was sick of the whole affair and decided to get herself out of the mess. Currently she is planning a quest to seek an ancient artifact...
With Calan captured and now in the Lord of Nightmares' clutches, Ariana's curse became a curse in truth. For months she was able to see everything Calan saw, and since the Lord of Nightmares saw fit to torture him, Ariana had a hard time standing it. Feeling torn up inside and fighting off anguish and despair, she did not come to Rivendell much anymore. Things happened in that time, however. For example, the DreamWarrior Daphnay appeared in Rivendell, along with the DreamWarrior she loves, named Ulath. Isaac Draco's troubles never seem to cease, and he had repeated battles with his archenemy Ariakas. Ariana appeared during one of these, and when she tried to defend her friend Isaac, Ariakas casually backhanded her. At the time he was wearing a magical glove which (so I was told) caused her to be hit with the force of a mountain. Throwing up her dreamfire defenses barely in time, she was still badly injured. After the fight was over, Isaac took her back to Avalon with him, where she stayed for some time. It took a long time for her to even wake up, and her injury was rather serious.
When Ariana recovered a little, she called her allies to a council meeting in which she revealed her plan to launch an offensive on the Lord of Nightmares. It would be a combined raid on his fortress and a rescue of Calan. The number of Dreamworld allies swelled greatly, with new friends and new characters being included. There are those who were with Ariana since near the beginning, such as Flint, Jessie, Wren, Tasslehoff, and Sentressa. Newer friends include Isaac, Claudius, Ulath, and Daphnay. (Claudius was revived some little time ago by the angel Melmoth.) Then there is Delta Irona, the second in command of RavensDale's Guard, who has become captain in Calan's absence; she has agreed to help rescue him, though she is rather skeptical about the whole dream/nightmare idea. Old friends from the Dreamworld include the moonlight wolf Winter, who was the first creature Ariana met when she and her friends were first taken to the Dreamworld three and a half years ago. Xethyryndan, who goes by Xeth, is a male fairy (or a pixant, as he insists on being called) who was also friends with Ariana, and especially with Jessie. All these characters have agreed to aid in this daring offensive.
Ariana has a plan, and she hopes to defeat the Lord of Nightmares at least temporarily. Such a task would take an incredible risk, however, and she must decide how in the world she is to accomplish the feat. All she knows is that she must do something to protect the Dreamworld and her friends...
And she must save Calan, no matter what. For Calan, she would go to almost any length.
The Dreamworld Saga ©2001 by Amy Unfred