Nathan, in dreams
Sep. 30th, 2005 10:57 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsAsleep in Srinagar, Nathan dreams once more about Santiago de Compostela. There is something beyond the symbolism, but he's not yet at the place where he's ready to see it.
The cathedral was falling to pieces around him. Again. Nathan took shelter against a pillar, breathing hard, his heart pounding in something increasingly close to panic as whole pieces of the vaulted roof came loose and crashed to the ground.
Stone shattered with a sound like thunder.
He squeezed his eyes shut. "Too soon," he whispered raggedly, repeating it to himself almost in a mantra. "Too soon, not yet... I'm not ready."
The ground shook beneath him, enough to send him falling to his knees, and Nathan winced, stone shards biting into his hands as he caught himself. He raised his hands, palms up, blinking at the small cuts. At the blood.
Blood on his hands.
There was another thunderous detonation, as if lightning had struck the cathedral, and another piece of the roof fell. Dizzied, his ears ringing, Nathan looked up and saw the night sky through the hole. And the stars were falling, too.
Falling stars. Over Santiago de Compostela.
"Campus stellae," Nathan muttered disjointedly, the part of him that knew this was a dream trying to figure it out, to force his way through the forest of symbols, the maze of meanings. "Campus stellae, finis terrae..."
The end of the pilgrim road.
"Santa Compaña," a different voice murmured, and Nathan looked up sharply. But no one was there in the shadows of the disintegrating cathedral, watching him. No one, and the realization was more terrifying than if there had been a watcher.
No one.
He was alone.
They were gone.
"Santa Compaña," the other voice murmured again, more insistently. And as Nathan woke up gasping, sitting straight up in his bed, in Srinagar, half a world away from Santiago de Compostela, the words lingered in his mind, even as the images from the dream receded.
~*~
Santa Compaña
The cathedral was falling to pieces around him. Again. Nathan took shelter against a pillar, breathing hard, his heart pounding in something increasingly close to panic as whole pieces of the vaulted roof came loose and crashed to the ground.
Stone shattered with a sound like thunder.
He squeezed his eyes shut. "Too soon," he whispered raggedly, repeating it to himself almost in a mantra. "Too soon, not yet... I'm not ready."
The ground shook beneath him, enough to send him falling to his knees, and Nathan winced, stone shards biting into his hands as he caught himself. He raised his hands, palms up, blinking at the small cuts. At the blood.
Blood on his hands.
There was another thunderous detonation, as if lightning had struck the cathedral, and another piece of the roof fell. Dizzied, his ears ringing, Nathan looked up and saw the night sky through the hole. And the stars were falling, too.
Falling stars. Over Santiago de Compostela.
"Campus stellae," Nathan muttered disjointedly, the part of him that knew this was a dream trying to figure it out, to force his way through the forest of symbols, the maze of meanings. "Campus stellae, finis terrae..."
The end of the pilgrim road.
"Santa Compaña," a different voice murmured, and Nathan looked up sharply. But no one was there in the shadows of the disintegrating cathedral, watching him. No one, and the realization was more terrifying than if there had been a watcher.
No one.
He was alone.
They were gone.
"Santa Compaña," the other voice murmured again, more insistently. And as Nathan woke up gasping, sitting straight up in his bed, in Srinagar, half a world away from Santiago de Compostela, the words lingered in his mind, even as the images from the dream receded.
~*~
Santa Compaña
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