I didn’t think I was going to sleep well that night, but I hit the bed hard regardless and dozed off. When I woke, no light unfurled through the single window in my bare room. I blinked sleep from my eyes and decided that I would go and see Bira, ask him about Aerie and ask him if everything was alright with him.

Rolling off of my mattress, I hit the floor as I always did; gracelessly.

But this time, the pain didn’t come. This time, the floorboards didn’t rush up to meet me. Instead, there was water. Tons of it.

I backed off, squeaking as my mismatched nightgown got doused. I flung myself to standing and was immediately blinded by an ocean of stars that seemed to crack on like a gas lamp. I looked down and rose a foot. Water spread out beneath them.

No, no, no, no.

The pills are supposed to stop this. The pills are supposed to keep me from here.

No, no, no, no.

A low growl swung around me as hands laid themselves on my shoulders. I was paralyzed as he grabbed me and, instead of spinning me around, slithered the blue flame point of his tail around my face.

I half thought he would choke me.

“What did I say?” his voice came out in the barest of rasps, “In the Dreamers Dream? Do you remember?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but my lips were frozen. Nothing on me could be moved.

“I told you not to, didn’t I?” that tail swung violently around. It lashed out at the water and disappeared. Cold droplets smacked my lower stomach, “I told you to let the Dreamer Dream. Why, do you think, did he not want to be a part of this world?”

And we are in a crowd of people, me in my nightgown, him a blackened spirit holding me entirely too close. The room is made of cold stone and it is full to the brim with a crowd of silent bystanders. Through the house of bodies, I see a scaffold with a justicar in full, vibrant, armor on it. Beside him, another man. One bedraggled in prisoners gray. Aeries shocked eyes are flat in his skull. The justicar threw a switch. Aerie dangled and danced in midair—a sickening crack.

The scene faded at the corners, blackening as if burnt. And in its place was the field of stars, the ocean beneath my feet.

“Crying, are you?”

I woke him up just so that he could die.

“Do not weep,” the divine whispered into my ear, “you have no right to.” He growled.

My fingers twitched. He let me go and I dropped to my knees, my hand over my mouth.

What had I done?

If he had stayed Dreaming, he would have lived for a while. He would have had a perfect world in his Night world. He would have…

The divine stepped through the ocean and stood before me. All I could see was the black of his boots and the blue flame of his tail. He crouched down so that I could see his face. Sharp and angular, like a sculpture, his horns bull-like and caprician. His eyes without pupils and sharp. He touched my chin with his talons and drew my face up.

“I warned you. Countless times, I have warned you,” he said, his voice low, “and, instead, you ignored me. You went along with your own misconstrued notions and woke a Dreamer. My Dreamer,” he looked me up and down, something like pity in those cold eyes, “and now you will pay.” He let me go.

I looked up at him, “Fine,” I said, “leave me to Dream forever—”

He chuckled. I was at a loss at what was so funny.

“That would be too easy,” he said, shaking his head, long midnight-blue hair cascading over skeletons of birds he wore on his shoulders, “you’ll pay with someone else. Someone close.”

“Who?” I could think of mom and no one else. I was never close to the other Dreamers in my class. Would he force someone to Dream as he had done to me? Could you do that to someone without the Talent?

“Who?” I tried again.

But his silhouette evaporated into the water. The stars above followed, spiraling down into the water as if a drain plug had been pulled in the sky.