"This is my son, Webster," Isolt said with a warm, energetic smile.
"Mr. Boot," the Wampus Cat acknowledged.
The wizard nad Webster offered a solemn nod.
"Do you know how long you have lingered in the Lands Between this ti, dear Sean?" Isolt asked, her tone carrying a hidden depth.
"Twenty minutes," the cat replied, recallng the last recorded figure.
"It has been twenty-nine," Isolt corrected with a small laugh.
"Is there a problem with that?" The cat sensed a shift in the atmosphere.
"You are about to descend into a deeper layer of the Dream, child," Isolt explained.
"The thirty-minute threshold?"
"Precisely. And what I seek—and what you seek—resides within those deeper folds. You must have noticed by now that there are no common ghosts wandering this part of the realm. They are drawn to the deeper dreams, staying in far more... curious places."
"Your ti is drawing short," Webster added. He seed to possess a keen understanding of the realm's geography.
"I have a little left," the Wampus replied. He noted that the mist surrounding his body hadn't fully risen yet, indicating that his "Yarn Balls"—his anchors to the living—were holding firm. But where did these extra threads co from?
"I have already seen Madam Ravenclaw," Isolt said softly. "She has no intention of joining on the next Great Adventure. Therefore, I can guide you to her—but this is the last ti, dear boy. I am about to rge with the unknown. This is likely the last ti our paths will cross... unless you truly are a wizard of rlin's caliber. Perhaps then, our roads will et again."
"Please, show the way," the Wampus said, feeling a pang of reluctance to say goodbye.
"Forgetting a friend is a heavy task, and not everyone is fortunate enough to have them," Isolt said with a graceful shrug. "Run south, dear Sean. Run without stopping. I wish you every success."
"Goodbye, Madam Isolt."
The Wampus bowed its head, its whiskers finally still. With a powerful leap, it vanished into the white void.
"Is parting always this difficult?" Isolt asked her son.
"Not always, Mother. Sotis 'Goodbye' is a beautiful word. It gave three hundred years of anticipation before I finally saw you again. It makes the reunion a festival," Webster replied.
The world of the Dream beca increasingly kaleidoscopic after the thirty-minute mark. If Sean didn't maintain his focus, the swirling clusters of mist threatened to entangle him.
The sky was growing darker by the minute. Sean knew he was approaching a significant threshold. In another six and a half hours, the realm would reach "Midnight." According to Dreamland Tales, midnight was the hour of the bright stars, the perfect ti to observe the heavens for prophecy. Six hours after that, the realm would reach the "Pre-Dawn," the only ti the wandering souls of the dead were visible to Travelers.
Sean, however, was not following the laws of ti. He was following the bridge of Love. It was the anchor that drew souls together, the very reason he had been able to locate Isolt so easily.
As for finding Rowena Ravenclaw...
It was a logical deduction. Isolt had been with Ravenclaw only monts ago. Even in this shifting void, they couldn't be far apart.
The Wampus Cat sprinted, its paws barely touching the white floor. As one of the most agile creatures in existence, it blurred through the landscape. It passed through a rolling savanna, then a mountain gorge, and finally entered a dense, ancient forest.
It reminded Sean of the passage in Dreamland Tales:
He [rlin] had many dreams. At first, he was a magnificent eagle... later he was a hare... He trekked across plains, mountain streams, and deserts. In the end, he found the forest suited him best, for it teed with life. He beca their family, the eldest son of the forest. And so, he found he could remain there longer and longer...
Sean wondered if his own experiences were echoing the legendary journey of rlin. Who actually wrote that book?
As the mist surged upward, Sean pushed himself faster. If he missed this window, he might never find Rowena Ravenclaw again.
After a final, grueling stretch, the landscape opened up. He found himself standing on the shore of a tranquil, silver lake. A babbling brook fed into the water, winding away into the misty distance.
Standing by the stream was a woman. She was beautiful, but her face was set in a mask of severe, almost regal authority. She wore sweeping robes of interwoven green and blue silk. In her hands was a book that looked as ancient as the world itself.
"A strange Druid..." she noted, setting the book aside.
"I am an Animagus, Madam Ravenclaw," the Wampus replied.
Rowena Ravenclaw offered a thin, enigmatic smile. "And what brings you to my shore?"
"I ca for..."
The cat stood by a large grey boulder near the water. Before it could finish its sentence, Rowena extended a hand. An invisible force seized Sean, pulling him across the grass until he was standing directly before her.
Up close, he could see her striking blue eyes—eyes that held a thousand years of accumulated wisdom. She reached out and took the Wampus's paw in her hand.
"Can you see my history in my paws?" the cat asked curiously.
"I see nothing," Rowena replied. "I simply have never held one before."
She released him, and the cat sat back on its haunches.
"I have questions, Madam Ravenclaw," Sean said.
"How curious. You are still alive," Rowena noted suddenly.
"I thought you said you saw nothing?" the cat asked with a very human tilt of its head.
"You are a simple Druid," Rowena teased, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Yes, I am alive. And I have sought you out because..." Sean spoke quickly; the mist was thickening, and he knew his ti was nearly up.
"What is it you want?" Rowena interrupted calmly. "The secrets buried within the castle walls? A workshop that responds to your every whim? Or perhaps the secrets of peerless intellect and creation? Countless souls linger here just to pester for such things. But for you, my successor, I will grant you one question. Choose it well."
The Wampus Cat went still. His mind raced through a hundred different possibilities—spells, artifacts, the nature of magic itself. Finally, he looked up and spoke.
"Helena Ravenclaw... are you waiting for her?"
[End of Chapter 398]
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