The Dream Quest: Eternity

    “-created NeoQuest-”

    “-is it really-”

    “-Eleus Batrin?-”

    The crowd fell to clamouring as the Grarrl announcer tried to regain order. Solanza and Xantan both looked at each other, and Solanza knew that Xantan’s blatant shock mirrored her own expression.

    “Maybe it’s a coincidence,” she began, not even believing her own words, but Xantan just shook his head.

    “Look,” he said, pointing back to the center of the crowd.

    The hooded figure that had been standing beside the Graarl had pushed back his hood, revealing an Orange Kyrii. It was strange to see him with full hair and modern clothes, but Solanza could recognize the intelligent glint in his eyes anywhere. It was a young Eleus Batrin.

    As Neopians in the crowd were shouting questions about NeoQuest lore and gameplay, Eleus was scanning the crowd with his keen gaze. Suddenly he landed on Solanza and Xantan, and his eyes widened. After a moment, he made a little jerk of his head at one of the buildings behind him.

    “I think he’s gesturing to the Petpet shop,” Solanza told Xantan. “Maybe he wants to meet us there?”

    “Only one way to find out,” Xantan agreed.

    Together they skirted the edge of the crowd, making a wide circle around Eleus. The Kyrii was busy fielding questions from the impassioned crowd, but his eyes were tracking their progress. The Petpet shop’s door was ajar, and they slipped inside, letting it shut closed behind them.

    For a moment, all was still.

    Then a cacophony of new noises began, this time made up of the chatters and squeaks of dozens of little Petpets. Solanza scratched an Angelpuss behind the ears and smiled at Xantan.

    Xantan was too busy staring at one of the Petpets to notice her. Solanza followed his gaze and found that he was staring at a yellow Petpet with an orange mane. “Oh, that’s-” she began to say.

    “-a Noil,” Xantan finished. “I remember fighting these a long time ago. They were a lot larger back then.”

    Solanza laughed. “Yes, the market for Petpets has certainly shifted to smaller companions. And for good reason- can you imagine how many more Neopoints you’d spend trying to feed a wild Noil?”

    Xantan reached out a hesitant hand and tensed when the Noil headbutted it, then slowly the tension drained from his shoulders as he gave it a careful pat. The Noil closed its eyes and leaned into the scratches. “I like these ones much better.”

    The Usul shopkeeper greeted them with a cheery voice, and Solanza struck up a conversation with her. Domria was looking for a Petpet to bring with her to the hospital to provide comfort to the patients, but she needed a Petpet that was calm and enjoyed interacting with strangers. Did she have any suggestions?

    The shopkeeper did, as it turned out. She was talking to Solanza about the Bikiwan resting under the windowsill when the shop bell chimed.

    “Welcome!” the Usul called out. “I’ll be right with you.”

    “No need,” said the newcomer. “I’m here to speak with these customers of yours.”

    The Usul looked over at him, and her eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh, Mr. Batrin! I heard your introduction out there. My family loves playing NeoQuest every night! I just can’t drag the little ones away from it sometimes!” She chuckled.

    “Thank you, ma’am,” Eleus said, smiling. “Do you happen to have a private room to chat?”

    “Yes, certainly! Right this way.” The Usul herded them to the back of the store, where a small room contained neatly stacked boxes of Petpet food.

    Eleus thanked her again, and the shopkeeper left the room. When the door had shut behind her, he turned to Solanza and Xantan, his face sober. “I’m sure you must have many questions.”

    “You would be right about that,” Solanza said, perching on a sturdy box.

    “Can it be possible? Can you actually be… him?” Xantan asked.

    Eleus smiled, and Solanza could trace beneath it the lines of the face she knew. “More or less,” he said.

    “But you’re…”

    “Alive? Younger? Yes, I am all of those things. It’s a bit of a long story, but I’m sure you’re no stranger to those.”

    Solanza nodded. “We’ve had our fair share.”

    Eleus settled on the ground. “I’ll try to be brief. As you and the rest of Neopia learned today, I am the creator of NeoQuest. I placed myself in the game to serve as the player’s first mentor. But that was not my first time in Neopia City.

    “Several years ago, I had a very strange dream. I dreamed that I was transported thousands of years into the past, to a land where beasts roamed the fields and an evil sorcerer terrorized the people. I didn’t spend very long in that dream before I woke up, but it haunted my waking thoughts. I began to wonder what I could have done to help the people in that land.”

    “So you created NeoQuest,” Solanza said.

    Eleus favored her with a smile. “Yes, though I never thought anything was real at that time. I thought it was all a very vivid dream, but I found the story so compelling that I thought others would, too. So I designed a hero who would learn magical powers throughout the game and would eventually defeat the evil sorcerer, bringing peace to the land. And I put myself in the game to tell them the stories that would shape their actions. I had to make myself older, of course. No one would listen to wisdom from someone my age.” He chuckled, then continued.

    “So I designed NeoQuest, and it became an instant success. I had spent so much time engrossed in its world that it sometimes crept into my dreams, though never like it had that first time. But after a few months, the dreams changed. The hero suddenly had a companion- an Eventide Xweetok. And the plot changed, too. Characters took on lives of their own, villains showed remorse, and magical powers escalated far beyond my imagination.”

    “What do you think changed?” Xantan asked.

    “I’m still not quite certain. My best guess at this time is that belief is a powerful tool, and as more and more people became obsessed with NeoQuest, it took on a life of its own. But that’s just a theory.”

    “It makes sense to me,” Solanza said, smiling a little self-consciously. “‘Obsessed with NeoQuest’ described me pretty well when all of this started.”

    “Then I exist because… Solanza believed in me?” Xantan asked.

    “It’s possible. I don’t really understand it myself. But when I saw the pair of you in the crowd, I knew that somehow my dreams had become reality.” Eleus looked at Xantan. “You are the hero, but somehow something more. I don’t know how you made it here, to this world. Do you have any idea?”

    “I think so,” Xantan said, twisting the silver ring around his finger. “Solanza helped me achieve supreme magical powers, which I later channeled into this ring. I think that’s why I’m still alive.” His claws clicked against the metal in a burst of agitation, quickly extinguished. “I think it made me immortal.”

    “I found Xantan hidden deep inside a cave yesterday, in some sort of stupor. I think he had been there for centuries,” Solanza said.

    “Longer,” Xantan said, his eyes distant. “But it was the safest place for me. No one to challenge me, no one to hurt if I were to lose control.” Solanza leaned against him, projecting silent strength and reassurance.

    Eleus looked at the two of them in silent thought for a moment, then clapped his hands together briskly, making them both jump. “Well, there’s not much to it but to go find a good cursebreaker. I’ve heard that Sophie the Swamp Witch is pretty good at those if you catch her in a good mood, or maybe-”

    “-Excuse me, Eleus,” Solanza interrupted, “but I don’t understand. Why do we need a cursebreaker? Xantan hasn’t been cursed.”

    Eleus stopped and peered down at them both. His voice was quieter as he said, “Xantan has been granted power beyond his wildest dreams, but at the cost of peace. He lives in constant dread of becoming corrupted by his power, and is always at war with himself. He is so terrified of losing control that he drove himself into exile for thousands of years, and even after withstanding that, he is still filled with doubt. And is his immortality a blessing? No! He is doomed to outlive everyone he has ever loved, destined to forget them in the shifting sands of time. No, Solanza, though it was not done maliciously, Xantan is indeed cursed.”

    Solanza and Xantan looked at each other. In his eyes, she could see her own thoughts mirrored. “Then we need to break the spell,” Xantan said firmly, finally sounding like the old Xantan again. “How do we do that?”

    Eleus smiled. “I may have an idea…”

     To be continued…