“So you snuck into my dream without my permission?” His voice rises, and I worry he might try to wrestle control of his dream world from me—something I can fight but prefer not to, especially with a friend.
“This was right after you hacked my laptop and made fun of my project,” I remind him.
“That’s different. This is a much bigger invasion of privacy.”
“You started it.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fine. What was it that you wanted to know about the Council?”
“Anything you can tell me. Pretend I know nothing.”
“Right,” he says in a professorial tone. “In that case, the Councils are a form of government. Their main objective is to make sure the Cognizant remain hidden from humans.”
“Okay, maybe not so basic.” I stand up to pace along our cloud.
“Then I don’t know what to tell you.”
“How about something that can help me?”
He considers it for a moment. “Councils are made up of the most powerful Cognizant in the region they cover. The New York Council is among the most powerful Councils on Earth.”
I roll my eyes. This is going nowhere fast. “So?”
“So don’t piss them off.”
“That’s a huge help, thanks. Any other pearls of wisdom you wish to impart?”
His unibrow furrows. “Well, yeah. Think about it: The very fact that the Enforcers took you to see the Council is good news.”
“Oh?”
“Without the Mandate, your standing in our community is shaky at best. They could’ve just killed you on the spot, and no one would’ve said boo.”
I halt my pacing. “Some government.”
“Before going to sleep, I tried using my powers to figure out what they want. Unfortunately, their computers aren’t connected to the human internet.”
He tried to hack them? Is he nuts? “Don’t do anything that’ll make them come for you next.”
“Nothing I can do, anyway.” He studies me. “Do you seriously have no idea what they might want?”
“No clue. I only know a couple of people from this Council, and the most powerful of them isn’t even on Earth at the moment.” I run my fingers through my fiery hair, sending embers flying. “There’s Kit—you know, the shapeshifter? We met at the rehab where I work. I think she likes me, and she’s on the Council. Maybe she can help? I doubt she’s behind whatever this is.”
Felix nods. “Kit’s good people.”
I strain my memory for anyone else on the Council. “Hey, maybe it’s—”
Before I can finish my sentence, Pom appears next to me, his fur light orange.
Felix’s eyes widen improbably yet again. “What is that?”
“I told you about Pom.” At Felix’s blank stare, I clarify, “My looft.”
“The fuzzy bracelet?” Felix eyes my currently naked wrist.
I grin. “In here, Pom looks like this.”
Pom bends his short, chubby legs in a curtsy. “Nice to meet you, Felix. This dream isn’t as bad as Bailey made it out to be.”
Felix studies him warily. “Thanks… I think.”
“I think it’s best you wake up now,” I tell him.
“But—”
“No reason to bore Pom with our problems,” I say pointedly.
An actual lightbulb appears over Felix’s head; I’m not sure he realizes he’s inadvertently summoned it. “Got it. But before I go, can you show me some cool dream stuff?”
I smile and snap my fingers to take us to my palace.
Felix looks around, agog. “Cool… Reminds me of Peach’s castle from Mario, but with Escher and Salvador Dalí influences.”
I snatch a Penrose-triangle clock from the air and let it melt into my hand. “You’re not far off. I changed this place a bit after we took that course. Video game design made me a much better dreamwalker.”
Felix looks up at the ceiling, a part of the palace so old I don’t even recall making it. Consisting of multicolored glass, it’s a mosaic depicting a mandala shaped like an archery target. He then stares at the walls and the floor. “What’s with the crazy color scheme?”
I grin. “They’re known as ‘forbidden colors’ because their light frequencies automatically cancel each other in our eyes. But we’re not really seeing through our eyes here, hence red-green and blue-yellow, as I imagine those shades to be. I’m thinking of adding ultraviolet and infrared accents as well.”
Eager to show off further, I take us to the memory gallery and explain how I use it.
Felix looks enviously at a painting of a surprise birthday party Mom threw for me when I turned twelve. “I’d pay a million dollars to revisit some of my childhood memories.”
“I could make it happen for you,” I say. “Just not today.”
“Of course.” He grins. “Thanks for showing me this.”
“You should take him to the tower of sleepers,” Pom suggests. “It’s my favorite spot.”
I grab Felix by the shoulder and fly him to the tower.
“Trippy,” he breathes when he sees the nook with another version of him sleeping and another version of me standing over him with my finger on his forehead.
“That’s you and me in Pom’s dream, my gateway to the dream world in this case,” I explain. “We’re now in the same location, of sorts, but in your dream. Hence the extra bodies. When I exit your dream, I’ll be in that body—and I’ll get back to my real body in that limo after I’m done in Pom’s dream.”
“Like I said, trippy.” He looks up and squints at a nook a floor up. “Wait, hold on… Is that Ariel?”
Crap. I forgot they’re roommates. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have taken him here. What if Ariel doesn’t want him to know she’s a patient of mine?
“You seriously need to wake up,” I forcefully tell him. “Now.”
He intuits my concern. “Oh, don’t worry. She told me you’re helping her.”
I give him my best poker face. “I can neither confirm nor deny.”
“Well, I want to thank you anyway. Ariel’s been through a lot, and ever since she went to rehab and started your treatments, I noticed real progress with all her issues.”
I wince internally. “Please, let’s not talk about my hypothetical therapy sessions.”
“Understood. Just keep doing what you do. I don’t need to know what it is.”
I sigh. “Anything else?”
“Sure.” He looks around again. “How do I wake up?”
“Just wish to do so.”
He closes his eyes, which I didn’t tell him to do, and gets a constipated expression on his face—but clearly doesn’t wake up. After a few seconds, I grow bored and push him from the dream world with a small jolt of my powers.
Both Felixes shimmer into nothingness. On my end, the version of me from Felix’s dream disappears, and I find myself in the body next to the empty bed where Felix was a moment ago.
Pom flies up and lands on the pillow. “So. Are you going to help Ariel now?”