"Not exactly," says Orpheus, frowning still. "I only spoke to her once. But in the dream, if you went to the right place at the right time, or made offerings in a certain way, you could see memories of hers, and other people from the real town. I tried to find as many of them as I could, while I was there."
It had felt like the right thing to do, getting to know the people that Orpheus at least had assumed they were there to help. If nothing else, it meant someone remembered them when they were gone, and Orpheus feels like that counts for something, at least. Maybe it's more reassurance for the survivors, to assuage their guilt more than anything else, but it's something.
"Anyway," he says. "I think one of the people who changed the dream the most - by telling Julia things that she wove into the fabric of it - was the Dog Keeper? He was a firefighter in the real Deerington, and one of the people who was kindest to her, I think. There might have been something special about him, too. He was sent there from somewhere far away, and I don't know by who, and he's the one who told us that there were other half-Pthumerian children around, and that was a big part of why everything went so wrong."
He taps his fingertips to his temple, thinking hard. How did he put it, again?
"Julia was the strongest of them because of her lineage, and one who opened the first door, and let the monsters into town. But the other children - once they saw her do it, they realized they had doors of their own. But everyone blamed Julia, because it was easiest. That's what he said. He's still around, after all this time? He doesn't talk much anymore, but you can find him out in Trenchwood."
no subject
It had felt like the right thing to do, getting to know the people that Orpheus at least had assumed they were there to help. If nothing else, it meant someone remembered them when they were gone, and Orpheus feels like that counts for something, at least. Maybe it's more reassurance for the survivors, to assuage their guilt more than anything else, but it's something.
"Anyway," he says. "I think one of the people who changed the dream the most - by telling Julia things that she wove into the fabric of it - was the Dog Keeper? He was a firefighter in the real Deerington, and one of the people who was kindest to her, I think. There might have been something special about him, too. He was sent there from somewhere far away, and I don't know by who, and he's the one who told us that there were other half-Pthumerian children around, and that was a big part of why everything went so wrong."
He taps his fingertips to his temple, thinking hard. How did he put it, again?
"Julia was the strongest of them because of her lineage, and one who opened the first door, and let the monsters into town. But the other children - once they saw her do it, they realized they had doors of their own. But everyone blamed Julia, because it was easiest. That's what he said. He's still around, after all this time? He doesn't talk much anymore, but you can find him out in Trenchwood."