Explain how Elspeth is dreaming of Cassy/Kasanda. Include an explanation of how Kasanda knows that Elf is dreaming of her. (We know she knows from this quote: “TO YOU I KNOW THAT I WILL ONLY EVER BE A STRANGER WHOM YOU HAVE SOMETIMES GLIMPSED IN DREAMS OF A TIME THAT YOU WILL CALL THE BEFORETIME.â€)
Zieria
This is easy; it all comes down to the macbook Elf found in Sador.
Many people don't know this, but between chapters 39 and 40...
'There is one more thing Kasanda left you,' she said.
Both the overguardian and Maruman turned, starting down a long, narrow sloping walk.
'Wait,' I called to them, ducking sideways and grabbing a flaming torch set into a sconce by the entrance to the cavern. 'The...what if I need it again?'
The overguardian frowned. 'It has served its purpose and its time has passed. It is dead.'
I shrugged. 'Then what's the harm in taking it?' knowing full well that there were any number of teknoguilders who could fix it with the interchangeable components from other computermachines they had found...And fix it they did.
As we know, Elspeth will be hurrying back to Obernewtyn at the start of the Sending. She'll be taking the macbook with her. The teknoguild will fix it, and Elspeth will take it on her journey to LotRQ. Maryon insists she 'mun', leading many to believe that it will serve some higher purpose.
Maryon insists it is simply the easiest way Elspeth can continue recording her dreams for the Dream Diaries of the Futuretellers.
All parties are correct in their assumptions - and Maryon pretty much hits the mark - Elf does need to record her dreams. But Maryon's gotten the context wrong. Her dreams are not for the Futuretellers to see; they're for what will eventually be considered a "blog", called
The Secret Life of Elf.
You see, when Elspeth's macbook is discovered, many years later by a descendant of Henry Druid, who promptly plugs it into the new, improved, INES network, the super-computer INES' hidden functions activate. These hidden functions include a once-dormant data recovery process, called 'Time Machine' [act]coughMacJokecough[/act].
INES duly absorbs
The Secret Life of Elf, and propagates it throughout time and space, thus telling Elspeth's important story to the universe.
Via a backing up error on a Livejournal server, Elspeth's blog will inadvertently be included in the botched-up recovery process, assuming the username 'iamtheseeker' (prompting the usage of this term by Cassy to activate the macbook in the future. Going cross-eyed yet?).
This future-blog appearing in the past will eventually lead to two remarkable phenomena.
1. Most importantly, Cassandra Duprey, procrastinating one evening, will stumble upon it, and learn of her future through it.
2. Elspeth's travels, feelings and dreams will eventually be published into a successful series of novels, the finders of the blog believing them to be a work of fiction.
You may think that Cassandra finding out about her future in her past may cause a time paradox; but it is averted, through the Comments function. Cassy recognises herself in
The Secret Life of Elf, and henceforth posts comments and responses to each entry as they appear.
Since the INES network didn't exist in such sophistication in the Beforetime, the only way for INES to transfer the messages forward in time (there's no 'forward' function in Time Machine) is through dreams, using the conduit of the mindstream like an internet cable and Elspeth's brain like a computer.
So,
THAT is how Elspeth is dreaming of Cassy, and how Cassy knows about it.
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(...obviously, I'm just having a bit of fun with this one :P )