Dream Master

Dream Master is a short story set in the Elsaverse. It was originally released on April 2, 2017, in HTML format, as a Patreon perk for Tora Productions supporters. It was publicly released on December 23, 2017, as it fills some background info that can help to understand some aspects of Saving Chloe (2018), the game that was about to be released back then. Dream Master is included in the Elsaverse Omnibus Vol.1 bundle that came out on August 5, 2021.

In Dream Master, the existance of a parallel universe, from which Xara and Morland actually are, is confirmed. The origins of the "Morpheus" and maybe even of Elsa's family are also unveiled.

Plot
The story takes place in a distant past, probably sometime during the 17th Century, and it depicts an eventful couple of days in the life of Mary, a young widow who lives alone in the woods. After visiting her husband's grave, she kills a man who wanted to rape and murder her; then, after tossing his dead body in the river, she meets an attractive but odd-looking stranger: this man wears clothes Mary has never seen before, is accompanied by a black cat, and holds a big book in his hands. The man doesn't speak her language, but he's badly hurt, so Mary takes him home to try to cure him. In her cabin, she cleans his wound and then lets him sleep. But, when she falls asleep too, she finds herself in a strange dream, in which the man, named Troi, thanks Mary for her kindness and explains to her that he is a Dream Master from another realm and that he has taught Mary his language so that they can understand each other. Troi says that, in dreams, he is able to do other magical things like flying around or even heal himself. He also tells her that he has come to this world trying to escape from a female enforcer, the one who hurt him, who is hot on his heels; however, since time moves faster in this realm, here it could pass almost a whole day before his chaser shows up.

Confused, but also believing Troi's words, Mary enjoys flying in her dreams; then, feeling aroused by his presence, asks him to wake her up, and they make love in the cabin. Afterward, she tries to convince Troi to run away from his chaser, but he says it's impossible to escape from that legendary woman. Mary falls asleep again and Troi leaves her cabin, arriving at the spot in the woods where he appeared the day before. Then an interdimensional portal is open and Xara comes through it, ready to fight Troi. He doesn't resist, though, but warns Xara about their king's ill intentions; however, she just orders him to go with her, as Troi has violated their king's dreams and must be punished for it. Later that day, when Mary wakes up, she finds out that Troi's cat is still with her, and that Troi has left his book too: although the day before she couldn't even understand the symbols written on its cover, now she can read its title without problems: "Morpheus".

Miscellaneous

 * In Saving Chloe it's stated that Elsa's origins can be traced back to the parallel universe, although nobody knows what those origins actually are, only that it must have happened many generations ago. Dream Master seems to imply that she's a Troi's descendant.


 * The "Morpheus" copy that Troi leaves with Mary is not the same copy Elsa owns, as in DwE: Multiplicity (2017) it's stated that Elsa's copy is a translation.


 * Although Sangrive's universe is not exactly our real-life universe, from the way that flintlocks are mentioned as "the fanciest, most newfangled tool anyone had heard of, imported all the way from Europe", it's fair to assume that Dream Master takes place in the 17th Century.


 * On a non-canon path in Saving Chloe, Xara mentions an episode of her coming to Sangrive's world and not duly reporting how time moved faster than in their original realm as the cause that has allowed Morland to succeed in his attempt to reach the top in here too, presumably because they conceded him too much time to start a new life before sending someone to chase him down.


 * Dream Master contains the first-ever sex scene entirely written by Tlaero in prose . Up to that moment, all of her sex scenes had been part of her games, written as a text companion for several images, and not a proper narration.