The Seige of the Dream-City

The Seige of the Dream-City

The day we stopped sleeping, we were not aware that the dream-city was (in some way) a real place. We tourists were unaware of its precarious political situation. We woke up and discovered our partners and friends comatose, and we attributed out initial insomnia to the stress of discovering some kind of global epidemic of sudden-onset dropsomania. After a few weeks without sleep, which we miraculously survived, we began to entertain other hypotheses.

Sleep withdrawal symptoms, of course, were dangerous. We had no alternative but to go cold turkey, of course, what with sedatives losing their efficacy.

Our scientists began to extend current experiments in the communication with dreamland — the comatose state of the hostages meant that what was once idle research became vital. Known lucid dreamers had already been saccading in morse code for weeks by the time anyone noticed. The poor reputation of hypnopaedia prevented us from communicating back for another month.

We still do not know much about the invaders. They are seen only in silhouette, although their eyeshine is sometimes visible. They are only seen from far away. They cast no shadows, even under direct dream-sun, but this is not so unusual there.

We have been providing support, mostly in terms of out-of-band communication, to the dreaming underground. Warring nations have come to a temporary truce and are even cooperating to support the dreamers. Because of the plasticity of dream-matter, they have already established quite an armory, but the invaders no doubt have more, and we do not know what kinds of weapons can hurt them. Individuals have tried to fire on them, but their bullets always mysteriously miss.

A shadow has been gathering at the south gate.