Home For a Rest

[Rezantis]

"Why did you say we'd be heading back?"

[Bjorn]

Bjorn's brow furrows.  "Didn't I mention this?"  He hums to himself.  "No, maybe I let it slip.  Sorry about that.

"The short version is that the Brotherhood of Morpheus wants us to end all war in the Earth Dream, not just the Dreadmarch.  To do that, we need to go back and help finish off Solariat and the Archonae."  He shrugs.  "The long version is a lot longer.  I can tell it to you in the morning if you want."

He scratches his head, trying to think.  "I really didn't tell you about this before?  Did I mention anything about talking to Alan?"

[Rezantis]

"Oh!  I guess we really . . . huh.  I didn't make the connection.  But you told me about Alan."

Nathan shakes his head.

"Yeah, I really need sleep.  I'll see you tomorrow."

Rez promptly turns, makes for the stairs, and goes to find an empty bedroom!

[Bjorn]

Taking his glass of water with him as he follows Nathan upstairs, Bjorn returns to his own bedroom and prompty returns to his dreaming.

[Brian]

Everyone finds themselves exhausted once they make their beds and collapse in them.  And after searching through the bare cupboards of building number eight, sleep seems like a reasonable alternative.

Nathan dreams of the Dreadmarch, a long dream replaying most of the entire conflict out in fast-forward in his mind.  After this, he dreams of sleeping in a tiny boat on an endless sea.

That ends with a dream everyone shares, finding themselves sitting on a large picnic blanket down the slope from the temple that Relm is always at whenever the Brotherhood of Morpheus calls her.  She's not in sight herself, and the sky indicates a pre-dawn glow.  Paul is not present.

[Bjorn]

These abrupt dream translations are becoming par for the course, so it takes little time to adjust.

Making a thoughtful noise in his throat, Bjorn looks around, peering at the temple to find any sign of life.  "Should we go looking for her, do you think?" he wonders.

[Brian]

"The oracle does not need to be looked for," a voice (Relm's voice) assures from the temple.  She emerges looking a bit tired, and bearing a large bronze covered tray.  "I just thought we might all like to sit down and have a quick talk before we woke up for the day."

She's still wearing the little gown that she was wearing when Ayame vanished and she woke up, though it's grown to fit her, and is now a medium gown.  Relm looks to be about twelve years old, instead of eight.

After padding to the picnic blanket, she sets the tray in the center.  "So.  I've done some digging, and am trying to go through Raspy's notes.  I can tell you that Pax's five weren't known to the Workshop, for now.  For the rest, they're heavily warded to be hard to find."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn nods at that.  "All right.  Hm."  He scratches his forearm thoughtfully, then shifts over to make space for Relm to sit down.  Setting it down, he continues, "I'd like to talk to you more about that warding -- see if we can do something similar -- but let's leave that for later, eh?  Why don't you go ahead?"

[Dracos]

Dracos nods in agreement, listening first.  "A picnic is a fine welcome home."

Dracos

[Brian]

"Right," Relm says, pulling the bronze cover from the platter, and revealing row upon row of ... chocolate chip cookies.  "Anyway, as far as warding goes, I've been doing what I can, and Pandora's been doing a bit more than I can."  Relm looks faintly annoyed.  "And way bossy.  But I guess if I get to be her age locked in a sphere in the farthest reaches of Dream, I'd get impatient, too.

"Anyway.  It's going to take me a while to put everything together -- the way that Nathan sees things, you did a really great job, though.  Until I'm done calculating all the variables, from what I can tell ... Vanessa -- that would be 'Lindsey's' actual name -- got out of the Dream of Earth not long ago.  So Paul didn't kill her."  She frowns, and shakes her head.  "But Paul is dead.  I found him in the Dream -- one of the Brotherhood of Morpheus grabbed him before he could diffuse entirely, just like Shade.  So now I guess he's part of the Brotherhood of Morpheus.  Or will be, probably.  He'll probably need some time to get used to being dead, though."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn frowns.  "So Li... Vanessa was only trapped in the Dream for a couple of hours or so?  That could only make a couple of minutes from her perspective, right?"

[Brian]

"Well, when Paul said he fouled her up, she couldn't leave until she talked to Kevin.  He just set things up so that all of the servants he'd gotten loyal to him just happened to not pass on messages until she went to see Kevin herself.  I imagine it was a few hours from her perspective.  If ... if Mark Smith had waited a few more minutes, she would have shown up before Paul died," she says, sighing.  "But then ... maybe he would have done it anyway.  Reality is a cause people are willing to kill over."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn nods at that.  "So.  We have Mark Smith, Jack Merrick, Scott Lewis, Stephen Riley, and Vanessa...?"

[Dracos]

Deciding not to interrupt Bjorn, Dracos took the priorities in hand....acquiring cookies!

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Nathan takes a cookie and munches on it quietly, looking off into the distance.

"So he didn't actually do anything much at all, he was just trying to bait the guy."