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Dimitri rarely ever dreamt of anything worth remembering. He either always dreamt of flames licking at his skin, blood staining his clothes, and echoing screams haunting his surroundings, or he dreamt of nothing at all. There was no in-between. So, he was honestly surprised when he went to bed that night and dreamt of something new for the first time in years.
He had expected to see his father’s beheaded corpse in front of him, dressed in strange clothing fit for someone of royal status. Instead, his surroundings were… vastly different. It made him feel a bit suspicious, if he were being honest. Perhaps this was his mind attempting to lull him into a sense of false security. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time it’s done that.
It almost seemed as if he were in some sort of temple. There were many carvings within the stone walls in a language he could not understand, one he’d never even seen before. Within the cracks of the stone floors and walls, there was a faint, green glow. It certainly added to the vaguely holy ambiance of the place.
And as he wanders further into the temple, Dimitri starts to wonder if this might actually be a place of religious worship. Did his mind conjure up a strange temple based on the many religions he’s studied in the waking world? That’s… well, it isn’t too odd, he supposes. It would make sense, if he had normal dreams. But he doesn’t. So pardon him if he’s just a little confused.
The place was beautiful, don’t get him wrong. The intricate carvings within the walls that seemed to detail some sort of history not known in the waking world, the various artifacts floating above pedestals, each alit with a light beaming down from the void that is the ceiling…
It was marvelous. All of it. Dimitri could spend hours and hours studying every little thing here if it were real, but alas. This is nothing more than a dream, one he’ll no doubt wake from soon. He wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.
Venturing deeper down the seemingly never-ending halls of the temple, Dimitri was quick to find himself standing in front of a massive door. He couldn’t help but study it for a moment, admiring the carvings detailed within the stone. Most of the carvings seemed to be in the unknown language, so he’s not sure what it is he’s reading, but he admires it nonetheless.
There is one phrase, however, that Dimitri recognizes to be Latin.
DOMUM AD DEUM TEMPORIS.
It’s carved in a way where it’s split between the doors, causing the words to separate should it be open. Dimitri doesn’t understand Latin, he just knows how to recognize it thanks to Ingrid’s many impromptu Latin lessons that she forces Sylvain to sit through when he does something she advised against.
The only word he could identify was God . Or at least, that’s what he thinks it means. If he remembers this dream when he wakes up, he’ll ask Ingrid about it.
Admiration and curiosity aside, Dimitri pushes the massive stone door open. The room was dark as he stepped into it, but soon enough, the torches lined along the walls started to light up with pale green flames. With each step he took, two more torches would come alive. Soon enough, the entire room was lit up and…
There’s a body lying on a stone slab in the center of the room.
Okay. Yeah, that’s… that’s to be expected.
It doesn’t even occur to him to leave, and he’s already approaching the stone slab when the thought finally does come to mind. It was far too late to back out now, and Dimitri was too curious for his own good.
This was all just a dream, after all. There was no harm in seeing this through, even if it did potentially end with him being maimed by some incomprehensible horror his subconscious thought to torture him with.
But now that he was standing right next to (in front of?) the stone slab, Dimitri took this chance to study the person lying atop it.
A woman who looked no older than him, and yet seemed as if she’d been around for far longer. She wore white silks adorned with jewels, alongside glistening gold accessories. The one that caught his immediate attention was the one resting atop her head, settled neatly in pale green hair. It was a silver tiara, encrusted with crystalized leaves that circled around the entire thing. Attached to it was a green jewel that seemed to give off a faint glow, resting just atop her forehead.
There was something undoubtedly divine about the woman, and even though this was nothing more than a dream, Dimitri couldn’t help but feel as if he were in the presence of a goddess.
At first, Dimitri thought her to be a corpse. Now that he was standing closer, he could see the steady rise and fall of her chest. The woman was merely sleeping, and he felt relieved. It was nice dreaming without death and rot being involved for once. He stared at her for a moment longer, wondering if she would wake up any time soon before deciding to draw his gaze somewhere else.
Right at the top of the stone slab, just above the slumbering woman’s head, there was a stand. It looked a little similar to a music stand, yet entirely different at the same time. It only took a few short steps before Dimitri was standing in front of it, immediately noticing a stone tablet resting on the stand.
There were words carved in the stone, ones that Dimitri was able to understand this time.
Here rests the Vessel of Time. May she awake from her eternal slumber and grace us with her radiance once more.
There is no name stating who the goddess(?) is. She is simply time itself, it would seem.
And when Dimitri looked away from the stone tablet to look at her once more, it certainly felt as if time had stopped. The ‘Vessel of Time’, as she had been called, was no longer sleeping. Her head was tilted back a bit, enough for her to stare at Dimitri.
Her eyes were green, just like her hair.
There were a mixture of emotions running through Dimitri all in such a short amount of time. There was a feeling of danger in the air, yet he didn’t feel as if it were targeted at him. There was a brief flicker of fear in him, though that’s to be expected when someone who was previously asleep was awake and staring at you. The curiosity came next, and it’s the one that settled in and made itself at home in the air.
He wanted to say something, but it felt as if he couldn’t speak.
That was when Dimitri noticed the whispering in the air. No… not the air. The whispering was inside of his head.
His brows pinch together, a clear question in his expression, but she just stares. It was difficult to make out any words within the whispers. It sounded like a foreign language, yet it sounded so familiar at the same time.
“Is it really you?” A voice whispered. He could barely make the words out, the amalgamation of sounds made his head ache. The voice of the holy was not meant for impure ears to hear.
His ears start to ring, and he thinks the woman is saying something. Her lips are moving, but he can’t hear anything. It felt as if something were pulling at his very being, and he found himself feeling dizzy. It was as if all the strength was leaving his body, his heart pounding in his chest. He could feel himself falling, but there was no floor.
A void was all that welcomed him, and he could only watch as the woman on the stone slab got further and further away. She sat up, and the ringing in his ears started to slowly fade, along with his consciousness.
This time, he could make out the words she was speaking. They were faint, and they felt like a soothing balm to his soul as his eyes fluttered shut.
“ Thank you for waking me, Dimitri. ”
-
Dimitri woke with a start, finding himself tangled up in his blankets and somehow on the floor. His heart was racing, and he quickly shot up, nearly tripping over himself as he pulled the blankets away from him. Sweat was sticking to his skin, and he pressed his hand against his chest, checking to see if he were actually alive.
The strange temple of sorts he was in was gone, along with the woman, and instead he found himself in his bedroom.
Right…
It had just been a dream.
A dream that felt far too real. Dimitri was shaking, even after his heart had calmed down. He’s never had a dream like this before. His dreams were usually… well… worse , truth be told. Always on a battlefield, fighting a war that seemed far too familiar. This dream had been tame, but there was something about it that just stuck with him.
It’s the woman, he thinks.
She looked so familiar. He knows her. He knows he knows her, but he’s just not sure from where. He had no name for her, but he had a title. The Vessel of Time .
It seemed like far too important of a title for his brain to have just made up, so if he’s lucky, then maybe… maybe Ingrid might know something. Or perhaps even Edelgard, if he can get the woman to talk to him.
“Dimi, are you okay? I thought I heard something fall.” The sound of a soft knock followed by Mercedes’ concerned voice snaps him out of his thoughts, and he lets out a small breath, running a hand through his hair.
“Uhm, yeah, I’m fine, sorry,” He calls out, slowly sitting on the edge of his bed as his mind races. It’s just a dream, so why is he so stuck on it?
Shaking his head, he just… chooses to push all of this aside for now.
When he left his room shortly after, Dimitri found his roommate sitting in the kitchen, rolling cookie dough into small balls and placing them neatly on a baking pan. It wasn’t an unusual sight, but the sun was barely even in the sky.
“...Isn’t it a bit early to be baking?” He questions as he pulls a container of leftovers from the fridge. He could hear Dedue and Ingrid scolding him for not making something fresh, or for not heating up the food at the very least, but. Well.
He has no reason, really.
Mercedes looks up from the balls of cookie dough for just a moment to acknowledge Dimitri before focusing her attention on her task once more, a small laugh escaping her lips at his question. She’s been his roommate for a little over two years now, and he likes to think they’ve become relatively good friends.
With a small sigh, Mercedes sets the last piece of cookie dough on the tray and easily moves around Dimitri to put them in the already pre-heated oven, “I’ve got a lot on my mind right now, that’s all.” She says, keeping it vague. Dimitri knew when not to press from answers, but there’s a small frown on his face as he takes a bite of the cold pasta.
“I see. Well, I’m here for you if you need anyone to talk to about it.” He says, and Mercedes smiles at his support, muttering a small ‘thanks’ before cleaning up the kitchen a bit.
For a few moments, it was silent. Neither of them said anything, and Dimitri focused on eating as his thoughts started wandering again. He wasn’t thinking about the dream. He wasn’t . He was trying to think about what he would do today, seeing as he didn’t have any classes today.
“And what about you? You look like you have something on your mind,” The woman comments, tucking her hair behind her ear once she was done tidying up and looking at Dimitri with a bit of concern in her gaze. He doesn’t think he deserves her worry, but he appreciates it nonetheless with a small shrug and reassuring smile.
“I just had a strange dream, that’s all. I can’t seem to stop thinking about it.”
“Oh? I love hearing about people’s dreams! Can you tell me about it? Maybe I can help you figure out what it means!”
And so Dimitri told Mercedes every detail about the dream he could remember, right down to the architecture of the temple he had been in. Mercedes sat next to him at the counter, her hands clasped together and leaning her weight on the countertop as she listened to him, nodding along as he spoke. She was one of the few people Dimitri felt comfortable enough around to discuss his dreams, mostly because he knew that she wouldn’t overwhelm him with concern like some of his other friends would.
He knows they only mean well, but sometimes he just doesn't want the concern.
“I see…” Mercedes hums slightly once he concludes his recount of his dream, and she leans back in her seat, pondering for a few moments, “The Vessel of Time…” She mutters, a slight frown twitching at her lips.
“Does she sound familiar to you?” He asks after a beat of silence, feeling strangely nervous. He couldn’t quite figure out why.
“Well…” She starts, seemingly trying to figure out how to say what she wanted as she taps her nails against the countertop, filling the silence, “I’m not sure how much of this is true, but when I was younger, one of the priests at my church told a story about a war that ravaged the land a long time ago. It’s been so long that there’s no accurate recording of the war, but there were three sides to it. It’s said that during the war, a woman with pale green hair appeared out of nowhere. In the records that we have from that time, she was simply referred to as The Vessel.”
Dimitri hangs onto every word that comes from Mercedes, his leftovers long abandoned as he listens to her.
“I believed it was simply a fairytale the priest told, but they claimed that the woman with green hair had fallen in love with a mortal during the war. A king consumed by madness. It’s quite a tragic story, actually. The king was struck down in battle, and it’s believed he took a blow that was meant for The Vessel. According to the priest, the war ended shortly after, and they said The Vessel disappeared, falling into a deep slumber, only to wake once her king returned to her.”
He blinks. That… wasn’t really the story he had expected.
Mercedes lets out a wistful sigh, “I remember being so fond of that story when I was younger, I’d ask my mother to tell me it almost every night just to get me to sleep.” There’s a small smile on her face as she says this, though she quickly pushes her nostalgia aside and straightens up as she looks at Dimitri, “Perhaps the woman from my fairytale is the woman from your dream?”
Dimitri’s immediate instinct is to deny the possibility of that, but he stops himself. Logically, he probably heard some variation of this story in passing before, and maybe that’s why he had such a strange dream?
Though it’s an answer he finds himself feeling unsatisfied with, it’s an answer he was willing to accept.
After all, it’s not like he’ll ever dream of the woman again, right?
-
Wrong .
Dimitri was very wrong.
When he went to bed that night, he truly believed he’d dream of fire, of rot, of gore. He was prepared for it, even. But when he opened his eyes, green ones stared down at him instead, and he was in a field of flowers. Not to say that everything was perfect. No, the sky was on fire. Horrid oranges and greys mixed together in such a way that Dimitri wonders how he’s able to breathe.
And yet, the burning sky seems to pale in comparison to the woman he was staring up at.
Somehow, Dimitri just knew that she was the reason his dream wasn’t a nightmare. It was like her very presence kept all the darkness away, leaving only light and life in its stead.
“You’re awake,” The woman’s voice sent a warmth straight to his chest. It settled in his heart, almost like it had belonged there, like it was a part of him. It was a feeling so familiar, one that had a sigh of relief coming from him. It made him feel whole , which was interesting. Dimitri had never realized he was missing anything to begin with.
He blinks, and only now realizes his head was resting against her thigh when he feels her run her fingers through his hair. Feeling heat rise to his cheeks, he quickly sits up and ignores the wave of dizziness that crashes into him at the sudden movement, instead clearing his throat and finding the surrounding flowers to be far more interesting.
Calla lilies.
He thinks he remembers Edelgard telling him about the meanings of these flowers before, when they were younger. Rebirth, reunion. The sky burns, yet the field of flowers stays untouched. The fire shies away from the ground, and it’s as beautiful a sight as it is unnatural.
“Who… who are you?” Dimitri finds himself asking the question that’s been bothering him the most, his gaze traveling up from the flowers to look at the woman sitting with him. He’s not sure if she were a goddess, or if she was just hauntingly divine. Divinity would suit her, he thinks. The way she carries herself reminds him of the statues he’s seen in churches.
She tilts her head at the question, strands of pale green hair gently flowing in the breeze that passes them. It all felt too real to be a dream, but too surreal to be anything but.
There seemed to be a look of confusion on her face for a moment, almost as if she didn’t understand why he was asking for her identity. Though, the confusion was replaced with realization after a few seconds, “Ah… I suppose it has been a couple thousand years since we’ve seen each other,” She murmurs, and that only serves to make Dimitri more confused, but she’s speaking up again before he could ask any questions, “My name is Byleth.”
A small smile was on her face as she spoke, and Dimitri could feel his breath being stolen from him at the sight of it. That warmth in his chest, so familiar, grew tenfold, and all the questions running around in his mind seemed to come to a halt for a moment just from her smile alone.
“Byleth…” He whispers her name, and it almost sounds like a prayer falling from his lips.
Flashes of memories that didn’t belong to him entered his mind. A kingdom that seemed all too familiar, blood staining his hands. Memories of war are quickly replaced by memories of something else. Soft touches, lingering kisses. Whispers and promises of eternal love and devotion echo in his mind. It’s not him, and yet the words are so familiar, the touches so real. It was like he was seeing memories from a life he had long forgotten, one lived thousands of years ago.
Byleth stares at him as if she knew him. And she does, he thinks. She knew the him that was long dead. The king he apparently was. The king who died for her.
She stares at him with pure and utter love in her gaze, “I thought you’d never find me,” She says, her words sounding like honey. And yet, through all the warmth he felt, there was a feeling of guilt. One that festered, one that made his heart ache.
“I… I am not the man you think I am.” He says, his words feeling heavy as he speaks them. It could be so easy to accept the love she was so willing to give him. He could be selfish, he could take and take until she had nothing left to give. But he couldn’t. No matter how familiar she was, or how natural it felt to be here with her, the Dimitri that is alive now is not the Dimitri she fell in love with.
The Dimitri she loved had been a king. The Dimitri in front of her now was nothing more than a man, one who can’t even decide what he wants to do with his life.
And though he thought she would’ve just accepted his words and sent him off on his way, never to see each other again, Byleth just raised a brow at his words, an amused look crossing her features for a moment. Her smile never faltered, but it did soften a bit, “You will always be the man I love, Dimitri,” She says, reaching her hand out. Her palm felt so warm pressed against his cheek, and he can’t help but shudder slightly, his eyes closing as he leans into the touch.
He would’ve argued with her, had a familiar sense of dizziness not hit him.
“You may no longer be a king, but you are still the same. Your soul will always bring me back to you, and I’ll love you over and over, until the stars in the sky burn out and the universe ceases to exist.”
Her voice grew fainter, but he could make out her words. He tried to speak, but no words came out. All he could do was let himself fall, and hope that maybe she’ll show up in his dreams again soon.
-
“Okay, let me get this straight,” Edelgard straightens up, seemingly no longer interested in the book she had been reading as she closes it, giving Dimitri her full attention. He’s just shocked she actually agreed to get lunch with him. He can’t remember the last time the two of them got together like this, but he likes to think his father would be proud of him for trying to bridge the gap that time forced upon them.
Dimitri was looking at anything and everything, just to avoid looking at his step-sister. He probably sounded crazy, honestly, telling her all about the he’s been having about Byleth. He really wouldn’t blame her if she thought he were having some sort of mental break. The stress of college classes, or whatever.
“You’ve been having dreams about a supposedly hibernating goddess that thinks you’re the reincarnation of her dead lover, and you’re asking me about a war that happened thousands of years ago,”
He awkwardly stares down at his empty plate of food, taking a small sip of the tea he had ordered as she speaks, “Well, when you put it like that, I sound like a madman.”
And Edelgard sighs at this. It’s enough to get Dimitri to look up at her, meeting her gaze. There was a small frown on her face, and even a flicker of concern in her gaze as she stared back, “That’s not my goal here,” She starts, her hands clasping together and resting neatly atop her book on the table.
Dimitri knew that. He knew Edelgard’s words always sounded harsher than they were meant to be. That didn’t stop him from feeling a bit bad though, feeling like he’s just wasting her time over a silly set of dreams that probably don’t even mean anything at all.
His silence has her letting out a small sigh, her shoulders slumping just a bit as she looks away from him for a few moments, “Well, I can tell you that the war was lost to time,” She finally starts, leaning back in her seat, meeting Dimitri’s gaze when he finally looks up at her. There’s a look of evident confusion in his expression, no doubt. He finds it hard to believe that an entire war can just be… forgotten .
“How is that even possible?”
“Who knows? Perhaps records of the war were destroyed. Or maybe time itself wanted the war forgotten. I’m inclined to believe the former,” Edelgard kept speaking, but Dimitri was hardly listening. Time itself wanted the war forgotten? It was a silly thought, but Dimitri found himself wanting to believe that explanation more than any other. If only to convince himself that the dreams he was having were real , in some capacity.
Either way, the topic changes to something else and soon enough, his dreams are pushed to the back of his mind as he and Edelgard catch up on things.
-
The next time Dimitri dreamt, Byleth was the first thing he saw.
Snow was rising from the ground, a thing that he would’ve questioned, if he hadn’t known this was a dream. And yet, the sound of snow crunching beneath him, and the way his air comes out in small puffs… it was all too real. He truly didn’t understand the meaning behind these dreams, or whether or not they were just something his brain was making up as a way to cope with the stress that comes from college, but…
Taking in how Byleth was looking up at the sky, watching the snow rise… he found it hard to really care about whether this was real or not.
“This is where he died,” Byleth comments once Dimitri was standing next to her. She looks down from the sky, and instead focuses on the ground beneath them. His gaze follows her, and only now does he notice the blood staining the snow. There was no body. Though it wasn’t him she was talking about, the familiarity of the place settled deep into his bones and he knew.
Memories of a blade stabbing through his chest popped into his mind. He couldn’t feel any pain, but his hand absently pressed against where his heart was anyways, brows furrowing at the unfamiliar and yet very familiar memory. Memories of his body hitting the ground, of hands pressing against his wound. Green eyes crying, the feeling of tears hitting his face.
Ah…
Remembering your own death was a strange experience, one Dimitri’s not sure he’ll ever be able to accurately describe such an experience to anyone. It’s like… watching a car crash, he thinks. Sudden, and loud. It’s like all the memories were clashing together, creating a cacophony of pure sound that had Dimitri’s head aching.
“Dimitri,” The sound of Byleth’s voice breaks through all the noise, and when he blinks, he finds himself on the ground, his hands clutching his head. He can feel her hands gently grasping his wrists, and when he looks up, she is standing in front of him, a look of concern in her gaze.
He sucks in a deep breath, his heart racing and his lungs aching.
“I…”
For a moment, he doesn’t know what to say. Words fail him, and all he can do is stare up at the goddess, looking utterly lost. But after a few beats of silence, he’s able to gather himself and speak, “I remember.”
Dimitri watches as Byleth’s eyes widen a miniscule amount. He can feel her grip on his wrists tighten ever so slightly as she helps him stand up, and it almost seemed as if she didn’t want to let him go. Dimitri didn’t want her to either.
“I mean, I don’t remember everything but I… I remember ,”
Blue eyes stare into green, and the snow around them starts to fall. Like time was finally marching forward once more.
The pain in his head was nothing more than a dull ache as he stared at Byleth, just… basking in her presence. He doesn’t care if this is real or not. Even if it turns out to be nothing more than his subconscious, he doesn’t care. Not when Byleth is looking at him with an expression of fragile hope. Not when there were tears in her eyes, threatening to fall as her lips part. She seemed just as speechless as him.
He’s not the man Byleth fell in love with thousands of years ago, and that thought will surely pester him in the future but right now, it seems meaningless as he softly intertwines their fingers together. Her skin was warm against his, the falling snow melting as soon as it touched them.
“I’m sorry for making you wait so long,” He says.
And Byleth smiles, tears streaming down her face, “I’d wait forever for you.”