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Emily wouldn’t exactly say she believed in magic. It wasn’t a simple belief, she knew it was real, and she had known it since she was a little girl. It was revealed to her in a dream one night, and reinforced by all the dreams that came after that.
She wasn’t sure if it was all the gemstones she kept in her room, the fairy roses her mother grew in the garden, the signs of the vessel kept by her father all around the house, if it ran on the family, or if she was simply one of a kind. At a certain point in her life, she stopped looking for an answer. It wasn’t going to change anything, after all. She was a special girl and no amount of reasoning of any kind was going to take that away from her.
It started with a rather simple dream. Surrounded by clouds, she found herself in front of a being she could only describe as Yoba themself, an intense light and a feeling of belonging she had never experienced before. No words were exchanged, but as she looked directly into that light, she understood there was more to life than meets the eye.
More often than not, Emily would dream of scenarios she couldn’t understand when she woke up. Night after night she would see a mixture of cryptic messages and glimpses of life she would later in life understand as prophecies. Said prophecies went from things as simple as pictures her sister would take the next day and show her, to events as devastating as the death of the old farmer. The day after he died, the guilt made it impossible for her to get out of bed.
Her most recurring dream would feature a shadow person. It was less of a single dream and more of a series of scenarios that meant more or less the exact same thing. Sometimes she saw herself dressed in white, dancing with that person; her sister and neighbors surrounding them as they danced around them. Sometimes she saw herself in front of a sewing machine, lovingly putting together an outfit made from scratch for someone she wasn’t sure she actually knew. Sometimes she saw them holding a child who vaguely looked like her. Sometimes she saw herself standing in front of the entire town, looking into that shadow, swearing loyalty to them for the rest of her life.
On every single one of her dreams, one detail was consistent: the person by her side had no face. Whether this was meant to be something deep or not, she didn’t know. Halfway through her twenties, she started wondering whether it meant anything at all.
One night, covering her usual shift at the Stardrop Saloon, she spotted an unfamiliar face across the room. Not only was it someone who didn’t frequent the place, this person was someone Emily couldn’t recognize at all. Yet, when she looked into their eyes, she had a strange feeling they had met very long ago.
“Hey, Gus,” Emily called for her boss’ attention. Her voice was low to make sure no one else in the saloon would listen. “Who is… that?” She looked in the direction of the new villager, hoping he’d follow her gaze.
“Them? Oh, just the new farmer. I met them earlier today, they just arrived this morning.”
“I see…”
“You should talk to them when you get a chance. I’m sure you’ll make them feel more than welcome. Having a friend like you would probably help them feel better, after what happened to their grandfather.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely,” Gus replied. “Not tonight, though. Because right now I need you to take this bottle of pomegranate wine to Elliott and Leah’s table.”
“Right. I’m on it.”
“Don’t forget to ask if they need something else.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it!”
When Emily went back home that night and got into her bed, she had the exact same dream she had been having since she was a kid. The only difference was that her usual shadow stranger had a face now.