Within a writer’s mind is a staircase. Along this staircase is a journey with windows. A journey to know yourself, but also windows to another world. Different people, different laws, different lore. Sometimes it can be exciting, while other times, terrifying. But that’s the whole point. To see something outside of our natural realm and learn from it.
When you’re first watching a show, playing a game, or reading a book, you’re slowly introduced to that new world. You don’t know all of its laws and people at first. That’s impossible. It takes time and growth to fully see things as they truly are and really see the big picture.
I have been traveling down my staircase for decades, now. As each year has gone by, I’ve seen glimpses into the world of Dead Dreamer. Its laws, its people, and its creatures. Though not unlike our own world, Dead Dreamer gave me access to the world of the dead. The Fade. The Sidh.
As I’ve traveled over the years, I’ve been able to learn more about the realm of the Fade and all that it hides. With the extensive research I’ve done in the outside world, and time spent on my internal journey, I’ve made strong connections that I, otherwise, would not have seen right away. So now, I must travel back. I must go to the beginning to reconnect and expand on what I once knew.
Brenna’s journey is now more complicated that I had originally thought. She is in more danger that any of us knew, even from the very beginning. But it is not the danger you might think. Or even I thought. When anyone hears about the Fade or spirits, the assumption is a spirit or demon would pose a threat. But that wasn’t the case. What if the threat was something more normal? A human? Something as innocent as a child? Even in a world with Fae and demons (and I use the terms loosely, as Brenna was the one to use them in her descriptions), what if the thing you should fear the most was simply another human?
Between how Brenna came to be in her predicament, how the Gatekeepers came into existence, what the doors really lead too…All of it was a mystery. All I could do when I first witnessed these events, was write down my assumptions. I was wrong. There was so much more I had to learn about the world of Dead Dreamer. It was a more dangerous and violent than any anticipated. With very few allies, all Brenna could do was keep fighting the small battles. Attempt to win small victories in her search for the truth. Even be led down a path that lead to the wrong “truth.”
Even in our own world, the truth is something that no one can truly reach. Something no one can really know while alive on this mortal plane. All of the answers lie on the outskirts of life. As with Brenna, I had to die (in a way) to see the truth. It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough to point me in the right direction. To show me what Brenna was really fighting for.
It all stems back to my first world. The world I first witnessed when I began my travels down the staircase so many years ago. The world of Angels: Moon and Sun. But that is a story for another day.