Dream: Housekeepers of Secrets

Date: 12/9/2021

My name was Ariella Kavender. I had lived most of my life with a feeling of something not quite right sitting within my mind. As if there was a hole in my memories. Or worse, if someone had altered them in any way. All I knew was things didn’t seem quite right. One evening, I was horseback riding through the fields beyond my village when a mansion just appeared out of nowhere. Literally. We stopped for water at a pond and suddenly the mansion just appeared next to it. My horse, Lumen, was absolutely upset. He snorted and stomped his hooves in protest to the thing. “Lumen, calm down. Hey, it’ll be fine.” I tried telling him. I’m unsure if I was trying to convince him or myself of that. He made another snort of protest but quieted. We both made our way to the mansion in front of us and I steeled my nerves. Before I was able to fully step on the porch like thing of the mansion looking home… an older man, maybe about 40 years or so, opened the door. "Greetings. Welcome to my home. I am Valcrom." The man said before noticing my horse. He smirked and waved a hand at Lumen. There was a flash of light and I blinked a couple times. Then, where my horse had been, there now stood a man. A man with an olive tan, who stood at about 6 foot. He had a lean yet athletic build. He had long black hair, tied in a ponytail, and wore tan slacks and an open dark brown trench coat. No shirt underneath. I looked him over and blinked. "Lumen?" I asked, voice shaky. "That would be him. This will make it easier for him to move around inside. We have much to see." Valcrom told us as he motioned for us to follow him inside. Lumen walked over to me, surprisingly well adapted to the new form. He put a hand on my shoulder, putting himself just a bit between me and Valcrom. "Why should we follow you?" Lumen asked him. Valcrom seemed to think over his words then nodded. "You don't have to but nothing in here will harm you. Not so long as I'm here." I took Lumen's hand in mine and gave it a tight squeeze. "You'll be with me. It's ok." He sighed and we followed Valcrom inside the mansion. It was filled but not cluttered. There were pictures along the stairwell that changed their images from those of people or animals to scenic moments as we walked up the stairs. We saw many books, artifacts, and more all within the mansion. We got a long tour of the place. Lumen held my hand the whole time. We wound our way back to the ground floor and into the kitchen. Valcrom nodded as a woman of maybe 35 made up a sandwich for me and chopped up some apples for Lumen. She set the plates down in front of chairs and waved us over. "This is Talya. She helps me keep this home running." Valcrom said before she handed him a glass of red liquid. I assumed it was some kind of red wine. "Might as well." Lumen muttered, knowing I was gonna eat the food anyway. We ate the food. Both of us hadn't eaten in a while. Valcrom nodded in approval and took a sip of his drink. "Miss Ariella," Talya started, "What drew you to wander our halls?" "Ari please." I corrected before realizing, "I never gave you my name." "The mansion always knows." Valcrom sat across from us at the table. "Uh huh," I swallowed a bite from my sandwich, "Curiosity. I don't really know. Lumen is all I have anymore. Home is boring… and painful. Seeing something new was a rare opportunity that I just had to take." Lumen stayed silent. I'm sure my words hurt him. He knew I didn't have anyone in our village beyond him. "You could stay here." Valcrom sipped his drink again. "How about explaining what here is, first?" Talya's voice and gaze were both stern as she stared him down. "Right. Right." Valcrom cleared his throat, "This mansion is an old but living home. It's kind of its own pocket space. You stop aging in here. Yet the world outside will continue to change and grow. New things will appear at the door. Artifacts, books, scrolls, so on. Things that need cataloged and put away. There's much knowledge in here. Knowledge that shouldn't be tended by just anyone." His words held me as I really thought it over. "Then why would you let us stay?" "My time is coming. Despite my appearance, I've been with this home for thousands of years. Talya, about half as long as me. We're ready to rest." Valcrom told us. "I'll make sure you are familiarized with the home before I leave. He can rest before then but I won't leave this place till you're ready." Talya explained to us. I nodded and thought about that. I eventually chose to stay. Lumen chose to as well so he could keep me safe. He tried to get Valcrom to turn him.back but Valcrom declined. We eventually learned that he was a vampire. That his drink was blood. That Talya also was one. Hundreds of years passed. Valcrom eventually left the mansion so he could finally go somewhere to live out his remaining days and eventually take his final rest. Talya had taught Lumen and I how to run the mansion. We took over the mansion work and soon enough Talya had left to take her final rest as well. "It's hard to believe we've been here so long." I smiled as we worked on cleaning up the foyer. "It's hard to believe, sometimes, that I used to be a horse." Lumen chuckled, "Being a human has become second nature. It's strange." "I'm sure." I remarked and hugged him from behind, pressing my forehead to his back, "Thank you for staying by my side, Lumen. It would be so much harder to do this without you." Lumen placed a hand on my arms, "I wouldn't have much fun on my own out there anyway."  Many more years had passed. We had been bouncing the mansion between places more often than before because of a hunter. Some weird mage who was trying to get ahold of the mansion and take it for their own. After some time we gained a break from them. Many years to breathe in relief. Time went on. We'd taken a few trips out into the world. Gaining new clothes to blend in better. Ways to learn of how much the world changed. We went back to where our village once was. Now a bustling city was there. Images and articles of the old village all filed away in the city archives. We learned more about what had happened. How much had changed for the members of our village. It was surreal to read about them, almost as if they hadn't ever been more than characters on the page. We returned to the mansion. Weeks later we found out the hunter was back on the prowl. He'd captured a young wolf boy. I'm thinking werewolf but he might have just been a wolf shifter. The hunter used the wolf boy to help find the mansion. One day the mansion appeared out in the middle of the woods. The hunter out in the clearing around the mansion. Wolf boy nearny, a collar on him. I glared at the hunter, violet magic flickering behind my eyes. Lumen produced a crossbow in his hand using his own magic. The magic being something we both gained in our years of working the mansion. "Leave the boy and go. Or you will learn just how harshly we treat trespassers." I glared at the hunter. The wolf boy howled and flexed his claws into the ground. The hunter shot his gun at us, the bullets being destroyed by my magic. Lumen's crossbow bolt hit the hunter square in the shoulder, another hitting his gun hand. The hunter shouted in pain and anguish while the wolf boy charged at me. I lessened my magic and caught the wolf boy, who quickly turned into a human boy as my magic quickly forced him to do so. He looked maybe 13 and confused. I held him to me as the hunter shrieked in rage at what all was going on. I felt the wolf boy calm and then he blacked out in my arms. Lumen shot a final bolt at the hunter. It struck his heart. Killing him on impact. We took the boy in. We carefully removed the collar and laid the wolf boy in an empty room. The mansion fading from the woods to go back to its pocket space. I removed the teenager's shirt and began to look him over for any wounds. "You think he'll be alright?" Lumen asked, carrying a glass with a medical cream of our creation. We took turns applying the cream to his bruises and wounds. The cream, in turn, slowly healed them. The boy was unconscious for a few days. We both had grown anxious. The boy finally awoke. We both let out a sigh of relief. He looked at us in a mix of fear and distrust. Jumping up from the bed and baring his fangs. "Calm, young one, we mean you no harm. We've freed you from that hunter. His magic shouldn't have any hold on you any longer." I told him as he tried to keep space between us. "What's your name, boy?" Lumen asked as he sat at the edge of the bed. "Carson. M-Mikail Alexander C-Carson." The boy said and his legs gave out as he collapsed on the bed. He trembled for a bit and rolled over. "Where am I? Who are you two?" Lumen and I exchanged glances. We explained everything. He cried against us. His family was gone. His home was gone. He'd lost so much. Years went on. We had kept the mansion on the outskirts of a town so that Mikail could go to school and gain a semblance of normalcy. He'd grown in age a little at a time with each journey from the mansion. All while we stayed relatively the same. Mikail eventually grew into a fine young man. He stood about 6'3" making him now taller than Lumen. He had short messy brown hair. His once faded green eyes were now bright with life. He had gained muscle over the years after being in sports through the years. A deep tan from his time in the sun. Mikail had treated us as his new parents all these years. He'd become a joy for us both as we raised him. As well as an occasional pain. Then it was time to let him go. He'd found a beautiful bride. A shifter much like he was. We let him go. Checking upon him and his family as time went on. And then I awoke.