I wasn't especially interested in letting Sori milk the situation for control, but he was right that his bullshit would go down easier with some coffee. Still, I wouldn't be able to speak outside the Shadow Alcove, so it could wait.

"I can't help but notice you aren't going for coffee, or sitting down," Sori said. "Fine, it's your heart disease. To begin with: yes, I'm sure Nia's fine. The loop just started; of course, she's fine, I assume. Like I said, she just ran away from home."

"Do you know that, or are you just 'sure' of that?" I asked sardonically.

"Bah, Kids are always running away from home, usually to grandma's or the neighbors. You worry too much. And it doesn't matter anyway, because she wasn't really part of the deal. You decided that yourself when you took her out of line for the exit."

'We'll see if Hands feels the same," I said with a shrug, as though it didn't matter to me. "You two are working together to lock me into the time frame. But I'm not feeling especially cooperative at the moment."

"You're saying that like it's a threat, but if you don't cooperate, it just means I'll have to wipe the town clean. Neither of us wants that. Now, do you want to learn illusions or not? Don't forget we're in a time loop. There's no amount of trouble Nia can get into that you can't get her out of later. Well, mostly. That's not a challenge. Don't test that. But in this case, it's probably true."

"And if Nia is stuck in some nightmare loop?" I pressed.

"Then do you really want her in this place any longer than she has to be? Isn't that all the more reason to escape ASAP?"

I was annoyed, worried, and resigned. I didn't have the leverage I needed to bargain for more time. Besides, he was right about the illusions. It was annoying he hadn't shown me how to do this sooner.

"I tell you what, if you can't convince people to listen to and trust you easier like this, I wont count any loop until you get your voice back. But I think we both know illusions will be more effective than trying to recruit people while looking like the big bad wolf and talking like you swallowed Little Red Riding Hood whole."

"Fine," I said. "I don't like it, and I'm holding you responsible for anything that happens to Nia. I'll grab some coffee, and we can go into the Ether.

Sori snorted, "Why? Do you want to destabilize the whole space? You realize a stone pirate ship would just sink, right? Do you really want to go mucking about with the physics of that place?"

"I thought we were just creating illusions," I asked, confused.

"And what do you think the Ether is? Brick and mortar reality? It's a liminal space. Am I using that right? Liminal. It has nothing to do with limes. Probably." Sori said uncertainly. "Is eating a lime a transcendent experience? I've never had one. Someone has never offered." It said accusatorily.

"I have no idea. About the liminal space thing, not the limes. How would you even eat one, you don't have a mouth."

Sori snorted again. "I don't have a nose either, but I can still snort. You're thinking is so linear."

I gave the eye a flat look, "You mean where I expect one thing to follow another, sort of like cause and effect? Yeah, I guess it is. What a shortcoming, to rely on reason and rational and not random guesswork." I said sarcastically.

"At least we're agreed on that," Sori said primly. "Anyway, no, we won't be practicing the illusions in the Ether.

"That's where Hands teaches it," I countered, stepping out into the art studio. The coffee was finished percolating, and the smell had become too much to ignore.

"Hands is a dolphin. He cheats." Sori replied unconcernedly, waiting for me to pour myself a cup of coffee. "You're not going to offer me any of that coffee either, are you. Some host you are, it's not even your coffee."

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I sighed in exasperation and held the pot of coffee in his direction. Humoring him could be dangerous, but ignoring him was exhausting.

"I'm an eye, Sam; how am I going to drink it?" Sori scoffed, smug cheekiness oozing off him.

Shaking my head, I replaced the pot and walked back into the Shadow Alcove. "I fucking hate you. Are we doing this or not. By which I mean, I'm about to just go get lessons from Hands."

"What? Nooo, you can't, you promised." Sori said, sounding wounded and somehow giving me the puppy dog look despite being an eye. It was almost certainly a return of the emotional glamours he'd taught me previously.

I wasn't moved. "Well, hold up your end of the bargain, or don't expect me to hold up mine."

"Fine, geez. I just thought you might want to savor learning magic from a wise, all-knowing eye."

I gave it a few nonplussed blinks and took a sip of my coffee, not deigning to reply.

"Right then," Sori said. "Moving right into it. First, visualize what you want to create. Hands showed you how to create visualizations and store them in the memory crystals, right? Well, he developed that using the illusion techniques I taught him. Well, my techniques and his natural spatial skills from being a dolphin.

"Then, remember what it was like to make a trapped crystal? It's kind of like that, too, except you're going to do that to whatever space you want the illusion to occupy. Just, sort of, reach out— use your hand if you want; it might help until you get the hang of it. Expect to see what you're trying to see.

"Hold reality at bay with your mind as you convince yourself you can see the illusion. You'll have to hold it in place, just like the trapped memory crystals; the world will want to return its appearance to how it was. It'll get easier to hold up with practice, but it'll always be more effort than having no illusion. I assume. I've never actually shown anyone how to do this; I mean, if you don't count hands, and you shouldn't because he doesn't do it quite the same. I mean, obviously. He's a dolphin. Why aren't you getting that?"

"So, can I do this in here, or is that going to cause issues too?" I asked, gesturing around at the Shadow Alcove.

"Sam, I don't know how to be clearer. Don't create illusions in dreams, you could lose your very grip on reality," The eye said, rotating back and forth as though shaking its head in disappointment.

After a few seconds, it didn't elaborate, and I pressed. "Why is it ok for Hands but not me?"

"Hands is a Dolphin. Dolphins use sound. You are a human; you use light. Do you see the difference?"

"No? Or at least, I don't understand why it matters."

"Well, for one, Dolphins can recreate things they've 'seen' with echolocation," Sori bobbed up and down as it said 'seen,' somehow giving the impression of making air quotes. "If you could naturally communicate by recreating the subjective experiences you've seen too, you might be less gullible, less confused about reality vs dreams. But that's not the world we live in, is it?"

"So, like, pictures?" I countered.

"No, Sam, not pictures. I mean evolved image generation with spacial reasoning innate to your brain."

"I mean, humans have been doing cave paintings for tens of thousands of years, maybe more; I'm not an expert."

"And yet you're all still so eager to believe anything you see, as though nobody could ever fool you. Besides, humans have also died because they forgot to eat while playing video games, so don't act like you can't get trapped by your own willingness to buy into a delusion."

"Ok, ok, whatever, it doesn't matter. Just get back to the lesson. I'll try not to let my limited brain slow me down." I stepped out of the Shadow Alcove, and Sori followed. I left the portal open, though, because closing it would mean losing my voice, and Sori was already insufferable enough.

I decided I'd start simple with the illusion. There was an easel set up in the middle of the studio facing a small table with fruit sitting on it. There was a blank canvas in place on the easel, with just a few pencil marks making the beginning stages of the painting. I'd both drawn and painted enough fruit over the years that it shouldn't be a difficult warm up.

"The trick with the illusions is to understand the space you're trying to change is just one thing. I mean, it's not; nothing is, but if you pretend it's one thing, you can change the entire thing as a whole. At least visually. Don't expect to literally go around changing reality. Except you do kind of have to pretend like you can. You can't really change anything, but you can appear to. A pseudo-change, sort of. Anyway, just don't try to walk on illusory stairs or anything. Or do; that could be funny."