Book 3 Chapter 10

Rom’s old room was well kept, even if the former occupant had clearly been gone for a time already. Every surface was dusted and free of debris, and the sheets were recently replaced, to the point that they didn’t need new ones for their unexpected guest. It was slightly eerie.

That said, Willow was glad to have a proper bed to lay down on, even if she wasn’t going to get much use out of it tonight.

She still took some time to rest for a bit as she waited for the surrounding occupants of the home to go to sleep and begin to dream.

With that time she fretted and worried about the coming encounter with the Grudge.

She knew its strength.

She knew that she was stronger.

She had a plan of action.

But still she worried about messing up. She hadn’t dealt with a spirit like this before, and while she had the theory behind how things would work out, she didn’t have any first hand experience just yet.

And that terrified her.

She was fine with putting herself in danger. It was the potential endangerment of whoever’s dream she was going to use for tonight’s battleground that was really stressing her out.

But to her knowledge she didn’t have a better option. Which meant she had to stop putting off informing her friend about the danger she’ll potentially be putting him in.

Willow sighed in her empty room, the noise made louder by the quiet home, and sent a message to Andrea through their bond.

“Ready, sleepyhead?”

“Yep.” Came the drowsy reply of her friend.

Willow harmonized with her bond and a wave of lethargy washed over her. She let her eyes close as she sent a tendril of qi into the nearby room, connecting herself with the sleeping form of Remy.

It would be so much easier if they were in the same room together, but she didn’t want even more misunderstandings with Missus Faber, so she made do with the current situation.

Like making a projection in one of her friend’s internal spaces she made a similar construct out of the Dream concept held by Andrea and sent it along the connection, with her flower friend sending a construct of their own along with her.

A riot of sensory information greeted them as they arrived in Remy’s dream. In her brief experiments, most dreams were entirely nonsensical, with only the occasional bouts of lucidity, and this latest datapoint was no exception.

It was frankly impossible to make any kind of sense out of the chaotic storm of information present, and it would be quite difficult to attempt to communicate with Remy while his dream was in this state.

Luckily, she had a solution for that.

Willow did a playful bow to Andrea, and her now much more exuberant friend returned it.

They then began to dance through the dream, trailing flowers behind the both of them and stabilising Remy’s dreamscape in the process. Until eventually the mental landscape was covered in a field of vibrant poppy flowers, with a confused looking Remy in the center.

“Willow? What are you doing here?” He asked after noticing her, before looking out at the fields again. “Where even is here?”

This bit was a little tricky, but hopefully she had reinforced the dream enough. It was a delicate balance as she needed to spend a bunch of qi to do it, and she didn’t want to be too drained for the actual fight.

“So, you’re currently asleep, and I’d appreciate it if you don’t try to wake yourself as there’s some things I need to talk to you about.”

She felt the dream tremble a bit, but it thankfully held.

“This is a dream? Doesn’t really feel like one.” He bent down and plucked one of the flowers, twirling it between his fingers.

“Is there a reason we couldn’t talk outside of my head?” He asked, before shaking his head. “What am I saying, you probably wouldn’t do this unless you had a reason. So what is it?”

He really seemed to be taking this in stride, which she was thankful for. Though she did wonder if being in a dream was having an effect on his thought processes.

“So, don’t be alarmed, but there’s a malicious spirit in town, and it’s my job to deal with it.”

He took a sniff of the flower in his hand. “So that’s the Wanderer’s business you mentioned before. Didn’t want to say anything at dinner since I was worried it was a secret or something, glad to see I was right.”

Remy thought for a moment. “Well, not that glad, as what you said sounds serious, but you get what I mean.” He chuckled a bit, before trying to make himself more serious. “So how can I help?”

Yeah, she was pretty sure that being in a dream was making him a tad more aloof than his usual self. Maybe she should’ve had this chat in reality first?

A bit too late for that now, unfortunately. So she muscled ahead with her sale’s pitch.

“The spirit is one of strong negative emotions, and as a result it likes to hide in the minds of those it’s feeding on. Which makes finding and dealing with it a real pain. However, if I draw it into your dream I should be able to fight it in a contained manner, though it’s not without its risks to you.”

Remy tossed the flower away, and it faded into colorful particles. “How big of a risk are we talking about here? And why can’t you draw it into your own dream if it’s so dangerous for others?”

Willow’s projection fidgeted nervously. “Quite a big risk if my mentor is to be believed. Though I thankfully haven’t seen it myself just yet.”

The absolute worst case scenario would leave the person in question almost entirely catatonic according to Miss Mu, though it obviously varied a lot depending on the spirit involved. She would of course do everything in her power to prevent such a thing from coming to pass.

“I’d bear the risk myself, but I don’t have a connection to the spirit, and it’s an unfortunate requirement for this method to work.”

Remy both looked and felt uncomfortable, and some of the surrounding flowers began to close themselves in reflection of his emotional state.

“So the spirit has been feeding off of me too?” He asked, having picked up on the subtext in what she’d said.

Willow nodded. “I’m not sure if it helps, but it’s only connected itself to you. The rest of your family isn’t affected by it.”

She tried to force some cheer in her demeanor. “I also planned on offering you a chance to befriend the spirit if it turned into something less malicious at the end of our fight, but that’s not exactly guaranteed.”

The spirit should likely wind up as something less inherently malicious after she was done with them, but there was still a wide range of concepts that she could imagine wouldn’t be a good fit for her friend.

Remy didn’t look or feel as excited by the news as she expected either.

“Neither of my parents have taught me their binding techniques yet. So I wouldn’t really be able to make use of that kind of opportunity.” He spoke while staring at the flowers by his feet.

Oh! That was a problem she could actually fix.

“I could teach you mine, if you want? It has some downsides, but it’ll get the job done.”

Her friend was taken aback. “You’d share something like that with me?”

Most binding techniques were considered family secrets, so sharing one so candidly was unthinkable for the majority of people.

Willow smiled. “Sure, we’re friends, aren’t we? Besides, I feel like a massive jerk for springing this on you with no warning, so the least I can do is find a way to compensate you for it.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, this whole situation is very strange from my perspective. There’s a part of me that’s wondering if it’s just a particularly vivid dream, but you already told me not to try and wake up, so I can’t even check.”

Remy thought for several moments, obviously weighing the pros and cons in his head.

With a nod his decision was made.

And Willow hoped that she could keep him safe from the potential consequences.