Garima had not dreamed since coming to this world.
At first she had been too excited to notice. Then too busy. Then exhausted. Days became nights and nights became days without a phone to scroll or a manuscript to chase—just close your eyes, sleep, wake up, survive, and sleep again.
Nothing more. Well—eating and bathroom trips too. Human necessities refused to become poetic.
So when darkness opened and she found herself standing somewhere else entirely, her first instinct was panic.
Old roads, Towns and buildings. Merchant stalls, crowded muddy streets. Smithies lined the street further down. She could hear metals striking each other. Sharp echoes through the crowds.
The shops had weapons laid out in rows. Stacked monster meat wrapped in rough clothes. Small caged creatures that watched passerbys with fear.
A loud Merchant Hub.
Garima frowned.
People passed her without noticing. No one looked at her. Bowed or called her 'Holiness'—she was invisible. Garima didn't know whether to be relieved or unsettled.
Then she saw her.
Sitting beneath the shade of a cracked wooden shed. Tall, fiery red hair falling carelessly over worn shoulders, mud clinging to her boots. She wasn't delicate but she looked exhausted even. Her beautiful face defeated by fatigue.
Garima found herself staring. The woman looked down at two wrapped meat buns resting in her lap. And Garima remembered.
She knew this woman.
The woman reached absentmindedly towards her belt— towards the empty space where a sword should have been. Her hand found nothing. It stopped then slowly lowered back to her lap.
A few moments later she did it again. A habit that the body refuses to forget.
Garima felt an odd ache open in her chest.
The woman unwrapped one bun and took a careful bite. Portioning and measuring.
Around her the market moved. Nobody looked twice. Nobody offered a hand. Merchants shouted prices. Wagon wheels turned. Life continued the way as always. Without noticing a person sitting alone disheartened.
Then the scenes shifted.
A Job and place to live. Moments filled with warmth and soft laughter.
Then whispers. Lingering eyes which provoked discomfort.
A room being searched. Jewellery found where it shouldn't have been. An inappropriate offer.
She beats the person responsible.
He is my son
The man who took her in offered just three words. Quiet and Apologetic.
Garima flinched. She felt the particular cruelty of being betrayed by someone who regretted it, but did it anyway.
Then long roads, hunger and rain. People looking at her sideways— at the woman who hurt the employer's son, stole jewels,who couldn't be trusted. She walked with nothing but her mother's sword and an old grip.
Until she exchanged it for two meat buns and a handful of copper coins.
The woman's expression didn't change. But Garima felt the pain of letting go of something precious.
The woman stood up slowly. Adjusted her worn out bag. Looked towards the east and started walking.
Garima wanted to call out. Wait. Don't go alone. I am sorry.
To the woman she had recognised. Written the scenes with her own hands and forgot about them until the moment it arrived before her eyes.
One of her tragic protagonists.
Renya.
Garima shot upright. Her body reminded her immediately of its condition. Pain lanced through her ribs and shoulder. Cold sweat covered her back.
Moonlight spilled across her bedroom. For several seconds she simply stared. As she sat breathing.
Her heart hurt.
"Sorry" she whispered.
Her voice sounded small. Foreign.
That scene. She had written it. Sat at her desk with chips. Written Renya's worst night in three paragraphs and moved onto the next chapter. The plot needed momentum, the character needed a breaking point so she had to set something up. The tragic scene that made the readers cry.
She had not thought about what it felt like from the inside.
Garima pulled her knees to her chest despite her body's protests. She could still see Renya's haggard appearance.
She felt sick.
She reached for the artifact on the bedside table and thought of Cosmo. It vibrated once and glowed blue in the dark.
"Cosmo?"
"Aella." The voice was immediate.
"I saw a scene I wrote."
Cosmo paused."What?"
"I had a dream," Garima swallowed.The first one since I came here. Of Renya."
Silence settled between them. Then Cosmo spoke again. Softy— "Tell me."
So she did. About the 'Merchant Hub', those meat buns and Hungry Renya. The betrayal and Renya selling her sword.
By the end Garima's voice had gone quiet and her eyes were stinging.
"I thought it was a good tragedy." She said, "I didn't think about what it felt like."
"Aella."
"I know." She pressed her fingers against her eyes, rubbing them desperately. " I know it's a real world now. I know I can't rewrite everything. I know."
"Do you?" Cosmo's asked gently.
Garima exhaled slowly. "It's just—I gave her that background. Broken people make better heroes. And I wanted to hook the readers." She laughed dryly. "I used her"
Cosmo stayed quiet.
"And now she is real, she is hungry and she sold her mother's sword for two meat but and a few copper coins"
Cosmo remained quiet.
"Say something," Garima pleaded.
"A world needs both," Cosma said softly. "There is no happiness without sadness. If life runs very smoothly it's not a world. It would be a story someone wrote to comfort themselves."
Garima sat quiet for a moment.
"She has a happy ending," Cosmo said.
"Yes," Garima exhaled slowly. "But that doesn't mean I leave her alone until she gets there."
"No," Cosmo agreed. "It doesn't."
"I will bring her here."
"Let her path lead to you," Cosmo said.
"But she is starving now."
"Aella." Cosmo said gently. "You cannot do anything as you are. That is the truth. So become stronger first. Faster. Give yourself the means to help before you try to help."
Garima thought about the training hall. Her body's current state.
"The buff," she said. "The one she is supposed to get. The magic sword."
"Mabye," Cosmo said. "Maybe not. You haven't mastered anything yet. Don't take what you haven't earned the right to carry."
"I will earn itt." Garima replied determined.
"I know."
"And when I find her—" Garima paused. "I'll compensate her with a proper sword, her mother's sword. And a place to stay. A Job. And food."
"Give her a place beside you," Cosmo said.
"Yes." Garima nodded.
The room felt silent for a moment.
"Are you busy?" Garima asked.
"Yes."
"What are you doing?"
"Watching people."
"Renya?" Garima asked.
Cosmo paused. Then—"Yes."
"How is she?"
"Surviving."
"A few more days," Garima said quietly. "No, two days."
Cosmo didn't answer. The artifact pulsed.
Garima lay back. Her body ached. Her chest still carried the weight of the dream. But the guilt had shifted into something else— something with direction.
She looked at the ceiling.
Just a little longer Renya.
And closed her eyes.