It was only due to my stubborn and persistent insistence that I spent the night alone. I had thought Nora would be relieved, not having to share the room, but she spent a good quarter of an hour arguing with me about it before the others came to separate us.

“If something happens again, I’ll just knock you out faster this time!” Nora declared as Tetora began to haul her away. “Why are you making a big deal about this?!”

I pointed dramatically at the door, swirling my cape for the proper effect. “Out!” Then I looked at Aleph. “And please take both swords with you. And the staff.”

I was getting to be over-encumbered with weaponry.

Aleph shook his head. “No. You need to be able to protect yourself and Holy Celestia itself.”

I eyed the pile of weapons hesitantly, worried about the damage I could do. “If it happens again—”

“It won’t.” He gestured to the translucent, sparkling veil that seemed to coat the walls. “You’ll be safe here, inside the ward.”

As soon as they left and Nora’s squealing protests faded, I quickly locked the door, ignored the pot of bitter tea waiting for me, and threw myself into the bed. As I lay on my back, I focused on telling different parts of my body, telling them that it would be okay to finally relax and let go of the day’s tension.

Nora’s okay… I relaxed my hands.

Relias is feeling better… I unclenched my jaw.

And tomorrow, we’re off to Chairo.

Everything stiffened up again.

Screw it! I’m going to imagine something nice… A day at the beach! Sun, sand… a decent breeze! And no one else around…

“What the…” I mumbled in chagrin, looking around after realizing I was again in my insubstantial dream form. I had gotten it half-right. There certainly was sand and sun, but how could I have forgotten the ocean itself?!

A vast expanse of golden dunes stretched for miles in almost every direction. Just ahead, however, the world seemed to end abruptly, cut off by a cluster of dark, jagged rock towers that rose from the ground. Their sharp edges glinted menacingly in the bright sun like a set of bared teeth, defying everything else before them.

A lone figure, garbed in a simple cloth robe and a wide-brimmed straw hat, slowly made her way between the dunes toward the looming darkness. A powerful gust of hot wind threatened to snatch her hat away, prompting her to secure it with one hand while steadying herself with a walking staff in the other.

Why was she here? And more importantly, what did she have to say about all of this?!

“Hey! Wait for me!” I called out, sprinting with supernatural speed, unhindered by the sand that sprayed off the dunes and passed through my ghostly form. “We need to talk!”

Seemingly unable to hear me, the woman continued, pausing occasionally to brace herself against the sandy onslaught of wind. However, she stopped upon reaching two ominous paths that had been carved deeply into the basalt that lay ahead.

“Two ways forward, but only one will bear fruit,” she mused to herself for a moment as she rummaged through a small sack attached to her side. She pulled out a parchment and stared at it momentarily before powering up her shockingly white aura.

“Inveni entem sentientem!” she shouted before pausing again to awkwardly read the words written on the parchment, “Foreign... Key Constraint Violation Sentient Being ID 666 Error Not Found!”

To my surprise, the wind around her switched directions, tugging at her robe and guiding her toward the path on her right. Her hat tumbled into the darkness beyond, revealing a whipping wave of bright pink hair.

“Hey! Over here!” I cried, trying to touch her shoulder, but my hand just passed through her, and once again, she didn’t respond to me.

Instead, she dropped her staff, pinned it under her foot, cupped her hands, and shouted into the dark canyon, “I shall meet you anon, and I would appreciate it if you could reclaim my hat!” She glanced again at the parchment she had intertwined between her fingers. “Then perhaps we can talk to Euphridia about selecting you a better true name… Your current one with all the words and numbers is far too long and confusing.”

Nora’s eyes glowed with an unearthly violet light as she held the door half open. “You have some nerve, waking me up in the middle of the night after kicking me out!”

“Um. It’s important?”

She glanced at Holy Celestia, which rested on my hip, judiciously peace-tied to its scabbard. “We’re not off to fight something, are we?”

“No. It’s about another dream I had, and I have to tell you about it before I forget!”

Her eyes dimmed as she frowned, suppressing a yawn. “Did you write it down in your new journal?”

Whoops. “Oh. No, I didn’t think of that. I just came to you first.”

Nora muttered some choice words under her breath, but she did let me in. After setting her candle on a small table, she gestured unceremoniously at a nearby chair. “Let’s talk about it, then.”

I sat and recounted my dream haphazardly and out of order, making it unnecessarily difficult for her to understand.

She rubbed at her face in defeat. “Start from the beginning.”

“I wanted to dream about the beach,” I confessed. “But I ended up in the wastelands, I think.” Then I told her about the woman and her parchment. “Key Constraint Violation!” I shouted at one point. “That was part of the error Clare sent us about demons!”

Nora blinked twice, suddenly more engaged. “You’re right!”

“Heh heh,” I murmured, mentally congratulating myself. “So then Raela lost her hat and—”

“Did she say her name was Raela?” Nora interjected.

I froze. “No… She never even acknowledged me…”

“But you’re sure it was her?”

“Yes,” I declared stubbornly.

“And not a different hero?”

“She was going to talk to Euphridia about his name…” I argued without much conviction. “And her hair was… the pinkest of bubblegum pinks.”

Not… copper blonde, like mine. Completely different.

Except sometimes Nora called me pinky. But that was probably just to get a rise out of me…

“Rae,” Nora said in a frighteningly serious tone, interrupting my mental musings. “I want you to think carefully before you answer this question. Exactly when did you realize it was Raela?”

I furrowed my brow, absently holding my breath as I tried to recall my dream thoughts.

Why was she here? And more importantly, what did she have to say about all of this?!

“As soon as I saw her backside, before I even saw her hair or heard her speak,” I admitted quietly. “I wanted to get her attention and ask about what’s been happening…”

“Whatever you did, keep doing it,” Nora advised. “You just learned how to track a demon by its true name.”

“I did?”

Nora suppressed a sigh. “Inveni entem sentientem.”

I nodded dumbly. “Sounds like a spell… but…”

“It means to find a sentient being.”

“It does? Oh… and then she said that nonsense, and the wind changed, and she followed it!”

“She was obviously tracking whatever had been assigned that error message. It was probably… you know.”

Epiales. Or what would be later known as Epiales, the first demon king. Her killer.

“But…” I hedged. “Even if I can pull it off… I have to say its true name to do it! It’s a double-edged sword!” They’ll know where I am then, too!

Nora shook her head. “I’m not saying just to do it willy-nilly! But this is good stuff. Now shoo! Go back to your room, write everything down, and then get some sleep!”

“Yes, ma’am…”