Chương 160: 74. We're All Here

Two women sit in awkward silence, while a third floats above their sleeping body, poking it in the cheek. It's still there. When Violet woke up, her phantom emerged from the body. Evelyn didn't notice it at first, but it was quite obvious from Reverie's point of view. Now she watches as the two of them sit across from each other at the table, trying to figure out what to say. Violet is the first to break the silence.

"So this is a dream? Created by your skill?"

"The skill just gives me awareness and control while dreaming," Evelyn replies, shaking her head.

"And I think... it's hard to tell, but I think the room is real, and we're the dream."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"It does to me," River chimes in from the side, glancing up from her attempts to disturb Maev's hair.

"Your magic opens a channel for our dreams to flow through—Ev is riding the current from the other side." Vi furrows her brows.

"And you—stop touching her—you're 'Reverie' are you?"

"Or something close enough," she replies with a nod, sitting up to hover in the air with her legs crossed beneath her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"She just talks like that," Evie sighs.

"You get used to it. Yes, that's River. And I'm E'ava'al'n, though I wonder how you recognized me before." She rubs at her neck frowning. The knife probably wouldn't actually harm her in a dream, but that doesn't make it less scary or uncomfortable.

"I saw your image with my illusion spell," Vi reminds her.

"And you're also—uh, you-shaped." She's not sure how else to explain it, but they all understand. In the dream, things are backwards—Vi doesn't need to recognize Evelyn's appearance, because the image comes after the understanding. Her mind is telling her that it's Evelyn and then providing an image, rather than the other way around. The same goes for everything else. River and Eva are used to it, but to Violet it's very jarring. Like Allie, she doesn't usually remember her dreams.

"There isn't much to remember," Reverie provides airily.

"You dream about things like sitting on a bus or looking for a book." That's another thing that Violet doesn't like. There's no privacy in the dream. Even while co-conscious, there's normally a layer of separation between their thoughts. Sometimes, Allie will pick up on her headmates' emotions or "feel" imaginary movements, but their thoughts are always their own.

"I can't even tell who's in front right now," Vi grumbles.

"You get used to that, too," Eva says.

"Though it's not usually this jumbled when it's just River and me." Reverie rubs wearily at one eye and shrugs.

"I'm happy to be along for the ride. It's just you two fighting over who gets to steer." For River, who's used to existing only in dreams, it's much easier to cede control, whereas the other two reflexively vie for control of the dream. In reality, there can only be one mind handling the body at a time, but dreams are more flexible. Though in hindsight, there was that time when Maggie and Violet momentarily fought in tandem.

The dream starts to lose cohesion, walls melting with the acrid smell of burning flesh until Reverie embraces Violet tightly from behind.

"Shh, it's okay," she whispers.

"We're safe. You don't need to think about that right now." Violet takes a shaky breath, and Evelyn focuses on her control of the dream while she calms down.

"You need to be careful," Eva warns.

"River and I are pretty good at keeping things steady, but it doesn't take much more than an errant thought to turn the dream into a nightmare." Vi wriggles out of Reverie's grip and gives her a nod of acknowledgement. Not quite thanks, because the dream persona still feels like a bit of a stranger, but appreciation.

"The fuck is going on in here?" Maggie grumbles, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes as she glances down at her own body, still snoring peacefully.

"Huh. Creepy."

"Speaking of nightmares," Violet sighs.

"Yeah, fuck you too," Maggie replies, flipping her off.

"Oh, it feels nice to do that in a way that you can actually see." She stands up and stretches, looking around at the room. E'ava is about to bring her up to speed, but Magdalena is faster.

"Looks like it worked, huh?" she muses.

"Spell to conjure us all up as dream ghosts? Good shit." Magdalena plops herself down at the table on a cushion that definitely wasn't there before and starts snacking on a basket of french fries, offering one to River, who graciously accepts, taking her time to nibble on it.

"So now what?" Eva and Vi both silently resent how quickly Maggie adapts to the situation, but it does save them having to repeat their explanations.

"I suppose we wake Allison?" Vi suggests.

"This isn't that different from how we converse normally, aside from Reverie being here, but it would be good to make sure we're all on the same page." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Works for me," Maggie says, grabbing the puzzle cube off the table before anyone can stop her.

"Wakey wakey bitch!" She hurls the cube across the room and hits their body square in the head.

"Ow! What the frick, Maggie?!" Allison cries, sitting up in alarm and rubbing her forehead.

"That hurt!" Vi eyes the cube, still sitting on the desk right where it was before Maggie threw it. She attempts to pick it up herself, but her hand just passes through it like anything else. Maggie's flagrant disregard for reality doesn't let her influence the real world, but it seems to give her a head start adapting to the odd blend of reality and illusion they find themselves in.

"This is so weird," Allie mutters, fumbling her way out of bed and away from her own still-sleeping form.

"Why am I thinking all your thoughts? Or you're thinking mine? Maybe it's— ooh! Are those fries?! Gimme!" She helps herself to a handful from Mags' never-ending basket and hums gleefully as she starts snacking. They taste like a familiar memory—as if she'd just had some yesterday. Not quite the same as actually enjoying them in real life, but still pleasant. Evie tries one herself, out of curiosity, then grimaces.

"Some kind of root vegetable? Whatever flavor it might have had is completely drowned out by oil and salt."

"Yeah," Allie giggles.

"Potatoes don't have a whole lot of flavor on their own, but they're great at absorbing other stuff— oh! Do you have some chips?" Maggie rolls her eyes.

"It's a dream. We've got whatever we want—though it's not as satisfying." Allie summons herself a bowl of crunchy potato chips and digs in enthusiastically. Mags is right—they aren't as satisfying, but even an imaginary taste of home is bliss after weeks of dry crackers, lizard jerky, and stingroot soup. They've had better food since then, of course, but she's still not over those travel rations.

"I wonder if we could make fries and chips out of stingroot," she muses.

"Spicy fries..."

"I don't know if they have the consistency for it," Vi replies.

"It's closer to ginger than potatoes, I think. Though it's hard to go wrong with deep frying and covering something in salt. It would probably be good." Evelyn pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs.

"Culinary crimes aside, now that we're all here, what did you want to talk to River about?" Everybody turns their attention to Reverie, hovering off to the side and nibbling on a potato chip like a chipmunk. She waves.

"Uh, I don't really know," Allison chuckles, scratching her head.

"I just wanted to have the option, I guess. This is kinda nice, though—like a little safe space in our head."

"I can't keep this up forever," Evie groans.

"This is a lot more than a regular dream. It's the result of a spell—one that I'm still actively casting!" Maggie gazes around the room with a critical eye. Normally, none of the others would know what she was looking at, but the dream allows them to see a little bit of what she does. The potential. She imagines what else could be done with a spell like this, and how it might be made permanent. After all, they've already discovered the possibility of blessings and curses—and Al gave them a perfect study case.

Once they figure out how to see it.

"It is nice," she mutters, agreeing with Allie. Then she does something strange. Maggie flicks one of her fries across the room to land at the foot of the bed, near Nipper. At first, nothing happens, but then the lazy worm lifts its head and slowly uncoils. He's gotten bigger again—as long as they are tall—which makes it a lot harder to walk around while hiding him under their cloak. Nipper inspects the ghostly slice of fried potato like a curious dog.

He shouldn't be able to see anything, but Nipper is blind in the first place. It navigates by smell and very limited hearing, but mostly—he can sense magic. After confirming it's harmless, Nipper gobbles up the french fry, then curls back up to resume napping.

"Not exactly safe, though," Maggie remarks drily.

"I guess it'll do, anyway. Good start." Nobody else had even thought to try that, which—Maggie thinks—is exactly why they need her.

"Well, on that spooky note," Allison says, coughing into her hand.

"I actually did want to ask Revi about that other mystery entity encounter. It happened in a dream?" Reverie frowns.

"Sort of. It was like this. Half real, half not. There was an [Angel]."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've had that one a few times." Allie grimaces.

"Yes, but no," River replies.

"We do have nightmares—so many—but a dream is a dream. It only hurts when we remember, and I know how to forget."

"Wait, are you the reason I never remember my dreams?" Allison realizes with a start. River shakes her head.

"No. You don't forget because I'm here—I'm here because you forget. I keep us safe from the monsters in our minds." Evelyn and Vi both recall River's reassuring whispers and comforting touches in the moments when their minds wandered to darker places. Maggie looks at her with an appraising eye, perhaps seeing something familiar in Reverie that she doesn't like acknowledging in herself.

"Alright," Allie continues, deliberately ignoring the slight tension in the room.

"How was this one different?" Revi stares down into her lap and chews on the nail of her pinky—a habit that the rest of them have long since grown out of.

"The dream was the same. Just a dream—only..." Her eyes flicker up to briefly meet Allie's.

"The [Angel] wasn't. It was real. Then She came."

"Who?" It's hard to say who even asks—it could have been any of them. Reverie shrugs.

"I don't remember. I think we're not supposed to. Something was broken, and She fixed it. Killed the [Angel] too, I think. She looked tired." They hadn't noticed it before, but now that River mentions it, Allie and Evelyn both agree. There's a certain weariness to that strange entity that keeps interfering in their life. Kind, motherly, tired—they know so little about this being that has even the Alchemist rattled, but those words stick to their image of Her like nothing else.

Which is good, because they have nothing else.

"Alright," Allie sighs.

"Well, thank you for sharing that. It's good that we can actually speak now, and it's nice meeting you, Revi." Reverie nods.

"Yes. Though I already know all of you."

"One other thing," Vi interrupts.

"That dream, it was the one where we woke up confused and terrified, wasn't it? The day we discovered you?"

"Yes," River confirms.

"I was so startled that I... woke up. Before any of you. Not the first time, I think—but it's rare."

"You're welcome to come to the front sometimes, if you want," Allison offers.

"No, thank you." Well then. They suppose that is that.

"Don't expect to make a habit of this," Evie warns, her voice growing strained from the effort of maintaining the spell.

"I don't think I'll survive doing this every night." Maggie waves her off.

"Don't worry about it. We'll figure out something better later." Everyone but River glares at her, and Maggie blinks. Because she can feel their thoughts and see their perspectives as surely as they can see hers—a knife that cuts both ways. They have every confidence that she will do as she says, eventually. They just wish she'd be less smug about it.