“Look… Sprout. I know you love your stories, and I know you look up to the heroes inside them.” Finnegan leaned against the railings at the edge of the skyscraper. “But this isn’t a comic book or a radio show. You… aren’t a super hero. You’re Andie. Beautiful, wonderful, hopeful, noble Andie. Words cannot describe how proud of you I am, but you are not some caped crusader.” He took a deep breath and looked up at the night sky. The stars were hard to make out in the big city, but the moon was still visible - and even a starless sky had its charm. “You don’t have the responsibility to help people just because you have the power to. Some people do have that responsibility, because they are given things in exchange for a promise to save people. Things like money and political influence. But you having the powers of a dreamwalker doesn’t cost anyone anything. Not using your powers to save people isn’t abusing them… you could retire here and now, and only ever dreamwalk to view the night sky - and you’d be doing nothing wrong. You don’t have to save people.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Andie took a deep, slightly unsteady breath. “…but I want to save people.”

“Exactly.” Finnegan smiled. “Dreamwalkers aren’t burdened with the responsibility to help people, we are blessed with the ability to. Remember that, Andie. There are plenty of good reasons to help someone, but the best reason of all is also the simplest one: it feels good. That’s all this needs to be. It doesn’t have to be some grand quest, it can be no different from just… hanging out. It can just be something you and your friends do together.” He chuckled. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that things don’t need to be special to be important, and things don’t need to be important to be special. I know it isn’t easy, and I can’t teach you how to do it because it works differently for everyone - but sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.”