“Damnit!” Zach threw the blankets off and rubbed at his face. That blasted dream.

When would it end?

He stood and walked to the small sink alcove to wash his face. There were privileges to his position and having his cousin an instructor, and one of those was a room that functioned more like a studio apartment than the standard dorms his classmates were restricted to. He had a small kitchenette, a sink for basic necessities, a desk, a large closet, a dining table, and even a couch with a coffee table for entertaining guests.

None of which answered the question of why he kept having dreams of train station he’d never been to.

He dried his face with a towel and sat down at the desk. The laptop booted up slowly, connecting to the school wifi without much fanfare. Zach checked that he was in the school library search before he started looking through articles.

Train tracks can symbolize life’s journey-

Crap dream interpretation. Next.

A train follows a set path much like fate-

Divination bull. He wasn’t trying to interpret the dream; he needed to know why it was happening!

Construction usually indicates something in progress-

Was this really what they were teaching students? To take a recurring dream and guess at the meaning rather than find the cause? And the offered explanations were so basic they could fit any situation.

No wonder seers were so reluctant to come forward. With this as a guide, they were better off learning on their own.

More time scouring through articles returned mostly the same results with a few exceptions. Once or twice he found studies done on multiple mages who experienced recurring dreams; the conclusion was that they were not seers by nature.

Zach almost let his head hit the table in frustration.

Going back to sleep was out of the question, so he gathered his things and headed to the shower. The one amenity his room didn’t provide: private bathing. He had to use the shared bathroom just like all the other students.

He made quick work of his necessities and returned to his room feeling a bit better. Zach always felt refreshed after showering, and it was like thoughts of the dream just - vanished. There were more important matters first. The knock at the door was expected, and he called out for Torvik to enter.

“Breakfast should be ready in about five,” Jeremy said as he barely peeked through the opening.

“What are you hiding for?” Zach asked as he put the finishing touches on his uniform. “Am I that scary?”

“Last time I mentioned food you made me sit through a lecture on party formation,” Torvik said, “and I have a date tonight. I’m not risking it.”

Zach’s mood was lighter than the previous day. He laughed. “I won’t ruin your date just because you want me to eat.”

Jeremy sighed out in relief. “I was going to make Gruff come with me to make sure I didn’t say anything stupid, but he refused. Said he’d meet us in the cafeteria if you felt like it.”

Zach could already guess why: Gruff thought Torvik needed the lessons. Gruff liked learning every topic. “Do you know if he’s done any research on dreams recently?” Zach asked. That was actually a rather simple way to bring them in without actually bringing them in. Gruff liked having difficult problems to solve.

“Not that I know of. Why?”

“Because I haven’t given him a challenge yet this semester, and I don’t want him to get bored,” Zach said with a smile. “You know what happens when he gets bored, don’t you?”

Torvik shuddered. Gruff sitting in a corner reading didn’t bother anyone. When he got bored? Baby kittens had nothing on that adorable pout following his future party around. “Dreams it is,” Jeremy declared.