A dream

So the Witch (possibly Jadis, possibly Xayide, possibly neither: but she was proud, and old, and powerful, and beautiful, and evil after the fairy-tale tradition) was cast into a dead world. (Not Charn, but similar.) The Witch raged that it would take a dozen lifetimes for her to learn the laws of this world well enough to escape; but an angel (< Gk. angelos, messenger: no wings, and in fact I think he looked more like a gnome) told her that she would not have that long, for she would be limited to a normal human lifespan here.

Apparently somehow I was stuck here with her — protected by my talisman, a curious yellow-and-blue pendant. She seemed to believe that with the talisman she could leave this world — I didn't actually have a problem with her getting free; I just didn't think she could do it, and when she failed I'd be short a talisman and completely at her (lack of) mercy. (And even if she could, then she probably wouldn't take me; I'd just be stuck here alone and probably still talismanless — also undesirable.)

At some point we were told, or read, that we needed to "unite the four entities with the hill": we knew that the "entities" were the four massive, graceful, humanoid colossi (red, green, blue and black, though not otherwise identical) who wandered the streets of the ruined city. The center of the city, where we were, was a towering castle on a hill. "Unite" was a bit of a puzzle, though.

(Note that despite my use of "we" above, there was really no implication that the Witch was in any way 'on my side', nor I on hers: we had strikingly similar but entirely separate goals. I wanted to get out, but I didn't care if the Witch did, and vice versa.)

So I went out to lure the blue colossus to the castle, made easier by the fact that at some point I became about his size. (Dream-logic — no transition, and in fact I'm not sure that I had a constant or even consistent size.) I did manage to lure him to the hill, but nothing special happened, and in fact once I got him there he knocked off the top three floors of the castle in a missed swipe at me.

I wondered whether this meant the Witch was dead, but then I woke up.