It was long after the Stars had traded positions in the Heavens that Lorcan came to any sort of conclusion.

He was sitting tense and upright on the mattress at this point, bed clothes rumpled around his waist, arms crossed, and glaring straight ahead at his window through the crack between canopy hangings.

At, not out, because there was a spidering chip in the glass that was a great target to direct his ire.

The Star of Dreams was above the Capital right now, and her light cast a pale lavender haze that seeped lazily through the curtains. Even the dust motes were lulled into dreamy stillness, suspended silently in the air.

They were assaulting his red rimmed eyes and he wanted to scream.

Maybe, perhaps- this was all conjecture, of course- the reason he wasn’t getting any Dreams was because everyone had simply forgotten about him.

. . .

No, he was not being dramatic, either!

You see, Lorcan had set his mind to question his tutor earlier that morning (and he didn’t normally ask questions, you know. It put him at such a disadvantage to make his stupidity so obvious).

The man had explained it quite frankly:

“Now see here, see here, Lorcan Winslow, because this here will be a lifelong lesson, alright? A lifelong lesson to you.”

And then here his tutor leaned over the desk with his spindly fingers clasped and his curly black mustache atwitch. Lorcan normally couldn’t muster the nerve to look the man directly in his hawkish eyes, but this time he couldn’t do anything about them boring into his own. He felt as if his tutor was about to reveal the secrets of the universe to him!

“Who would have the time to spin up a Dream for you every night, huh?!”

Lorcan startled backwards and gaped at the man, but the tirade continued!

“Don’t you know people have much better things to do with their time?? Especially her Starship, the Lady of Dreams: there’s a busy woman if ever I’ve seen one. Now, don’t give me that look, I’ve just about met every Star in the sky, and you know my Alliance with Intelligence by now, I’m sure- you’d be dimwitted not to- and I’ll have you know that the process of crafting a Dream really is an arduous task. Quite, oh, yes, quite indeed! Now what is this you’re trying to pipe up about? Oh, your mother? Yes, yes, she would have the care enough to do so- But!! But, think of this now, think of this! If she spun you a Dream every sleep cycle, well, then it wouldn’t be so grand a gift, now would it?”

“But Fogel,” Lorcan cut in, fists clenched in his lap and eyes just about ablaze with the fury kindled in his soul, “I’ve never had a Dream. Not once! Not a single one.”

The words echoed.

Lorcan felt slightly vindicated, a little grimly pleased at the way his tutor was shifting about in unease in his gargantuan leather armchair, because, honestly, what kind of unwarranted drivel-!?

“This Dream business,” he spat, punctuating each syllable with a finger slicing the air, “is nothing but absolute hogwash- a flight of fancy!- because my mum wouldn’t hesitate to send one to me. I know it.”

Fogel blinked at him, rubbed his hairy upper lip, and stared some more.

“Well then,” he started. Then stopped, rustled a few papers and refused to meet Lorcan’s eyes. “Ahem. Well, yes, that is a tad uncanny, I do say. Perhaps no one remembers that you’d like one. Maybe you could remind Lady Winslow. I’m sure she’d be appalled you’ve never had the experience before.”

“Remind her?! . . . But I thought . . . “ Lorcan cut himself off, falling back in the chair as his expression shuttered. He found himself chewing his lip- a habit his Father just about abhorred- but pressed forward blindly despite himself, biting the words out before his embarrassment could dam the flow. “Fogel, I seem to have happened upon this ridiculous, outlandish bit of fluff- don’t ask where I heard it, it’s hardly trustworthy, or anything.”

Fogel raised a patient brow as if to ask, “And what does dithering about the subject accomplish?”

His badly hidden judgment spurred Lorcan on.

“You see . . . This- this rumor seemed to suggest that besides hiring one of the Star’s disciples for the task, it’s also possible to Dream . . . to Dream if, er, if you’re thinking hard enough about someone. Somehow, you slip from your own mind into their’s, into their Dreamscape, all on your own.”

Lorcan was pressing his steepled his fingers together over and over, furiously burning a hole through the rug his feet dangled over with his dark eyes. There were deep, shadowy trenches beneath those eyes, the kind dug by a winding parade of sleepless nights. Fogel could just about taste his pupil’s growing discontent on his tongue, burgeoning like a storm, and it was raising the hair along the back of his neck.

“Apparently,” Lorcan went on, “you don’t even have to care about them, you could completely detest everything about them! What matters is that you find yourself thinking of them, thinking of them right before you fall asleep. After that, your soul just can’t help but visit theirs. It’s completely out of your hands! No potion, no intervention from the Star of Dreams, your soul has the power to Dream on its own.”

Foreseeing danger, Fogel wrested the reins of the conversation from the young boy’s rambling tongue: “Ahem, mhm, yes, indeed, this is much more than rumor, dear boy. Such basic knowledge, even a child would— Oh, but how could I forget that you have no field experience, no Dreams of your own to deduce from? No, it was I, I shouldn’t have assumed you to know the intricate ins and outs of such a delicate process. So, yes, what you perceived as rumor- to wind up in a Dream through pure force of emotion- everything you’ve heard is all true.”

Lorcan finally rallied the fortitude to met his tutor’s eyes; just about stared the man down.

He hadn’t dared believe, when they first told him . . .

But surprise, surprise, his friends hadn’t been lying after all!

. . . Oh.

B-but that, if all that was true, then that meant—

Horror dawned and suddenly the answers he’d been given were so far from satisfying that Lorcan was just about sick on it. His lips smudged on a frown.

Fogel was still prattling on, puffing up slowly like a smug owl, “As I’m sure you know- even this is just too basic, but one can’t be too careful, knowing as little as you do- Dreams come as wandering souls meet in the dead of night. I’d imagine we get terribly bored, just lying there while our bodies rest. So, off we go! A Dreamscape forms from the meeting, usually spurred on by her Ladyship, otherwise it just ends up a brush in the night neither of you remember.

“However—! Like this rumor you’ve heard insinuates, a good many things just can’t be policed to perfection, as much as His Starship, the Lord of Law, may strive for. Some obsessions, longings, love, hate, grudges, can’t be so easily restrained. Your emotions lead your soul along like a thread of fate towards whomever they are attached . . . and voila! A Dream ensues without the sanction of Her Starship. But of course, to Dream in conditions like that is horribly—”

Did the man ever shut up??!

Lorcan could barely stand it anymore!

“Alright,” he interrupted. “Yes, alright, so . . .” His throat felt tacky. A lot of swallowing happened. A fair bit of air, but mostly of pride. “So . . . Why? Fogel, why haven’t I gotten a visit yet? Why haven’t I had a Dream?”

His tutor’s mouth opened, but with no answer forthcoming, stupidly, Lorcan didn’t stop there.

“Odds are, at least someone would remember me before they fall asleep!” He almost tacked on a desperate ‘right?’ at the end there, but quickly squashed it. “There are plenty of people who hate me, envy me, want to be me, surely just as many as anyone else, if not more! And my mother’s regard vastly outweighs all of that!”

“Well,” seeing the manic gleam in his student’s eye, Fogel was suddenly tripping over his words in a rush to get them out, “even though they are possible, Dreams catalyzed by your own desires are not overly common, I’d say. No, not very. Especially when you intentionally attempt to enter anothers’ Dreamscape. You can’t just hop over on a whim, after all. Her Ladyship of Dreams rules the passage of souls, you know, and she can’t have everyone zip zaning around after hours, it’d wreak havoc and then where would we be? No, it’s much more usual for one of her Trainees to spin up a Dream or two for her patrons, and do you even know the ingredients, the time, the effort, and the coin involved? No, no, it hardly bears thinking.”

“That’d hardly pose a problem to my—”

“Dreams are intricate, tricky things, they are, and aren’t too prone to spinning themselves alone. It either takes a genius mind, a genuine and pivotal obsession, or a powerful soul to wend their own way into someone else’s Dreamscape alone.”

“Well then, why–”

“No, it doesn’t really surprise me at all that you haven’t had one, what with your parents so busy as they are, I doubt they even have the time to patronize her Ladyship and purchase a Dream themselves. And really, as powerful as she is, what reason would your mother have to enter your Dreamscape when you’re a leap, skip, and a jump down the hall? Besides, for a parent to visit their child is a bit . . .”

“What absolute–”

“The notion makes me laugh, isn’t it comical?! She could just as easily knock on your door–”

“FOGEL, I CAN’T EVEN HEAR MYSELF THINK!!!!” Lorcan bellowed, jumping to his feet and glaring down at the man. A fiercely grim light shone in his muddy eyes. “I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT MUMS BEEN UP AMONG THE STARS ON A TRAINING FOR THE PAST ROTATION AND I JUST WANTED TO KNOW IF SHE THOUGHT ABOUT ME, BUT I GUESS SHE DOESN’T CARE TO. Thanks for letting me know.”

There was resounding and rather loud silence as Lorcan fell back in his chair, heaving in angry lungfuls of air.

Fogel could have crumbled to dust right then and there and the silence would not have been more deathly.

Lorcan couldn’t meet his tutor’s eyes again, suddenly a little worried he’d shown too much and burned whatever bridges his father had built to get such a respected man to be his private tutor.

But of course Lorcan couldn’t handle the suspense, and really- the man was a fully fledged adult, and he couldn’t muster the maturity to temper a tiny child’s outburst? Fogel honestly should be proud! He’d finally ‘humbled himself in quest of truth’ as Fogel called it, and asked a question- no, a dozen, at that!

“Really, Fogel,” and his voice sounded so quiet when before it had filled every nook and cranny of the tiny office, “having your one and only pupil willingly put himself out there to ask so many questions, you really should monopolize on the occasion a bit more.”

To his surprise and relief, Fogel huffed out a sincere laugh but then immediately stopped. Lorcan’s gratified smile froze as his tutor leveled him a serious look.

“And a pupil of mine really should know which questions to ask.”

Fogel’s beady eyes were piercingly hawkish again, and Lorcan a moth fluttering in the lamplight. He felt caught, but for what, he wasn’t quite sure.

“Lorcan,” Fogel uttered solemnly, “you wonder why no one has ever sought you in their Dreams, why no soul has brushed your own, but the next question you need to ask yourself is why your soul has never mustered the strength to visit anyone you love. My dear boy, why don’t you visit your mother’s Dream?”

. . . What?

“Answer that, and perhaps you may begin to understand those you feel abandoned you.”

Gob-smacked and a little betrayed, Lorcan’s brain spun in circles as their lesson continued on as it had before his very vulnerable and revealing questions. And that was why Lorcan hadn’t asked any others since and why he was staring at not out his window. He refused to look up at the Stars and know that somewhere up there, among the many islands they had raised up from the Dust, his mum could barely spare a thought in his direction.

“Argh! This’d all be a non-issue if I could just fall asleep!”

Lorcan tossed himself (dramatically) back into the pillows and rolled onto his face, beating them with his fists.

He blamed this on all Alejandra, as always.

The seeds of this turmoil infesting his brain had been planted the month before, when Lorcan’s parents had invited their friends over before his mum’s sabbatical to the Stars.

A little “going away party,” they called it.

Ick. Lorcan had wanted no part of it.

As Luck would have it, their friends’ children were naturally Lorcan’s friends, it was just the way of the world, and so while the adults conversed over tea in the parlor, Lorcan and what he called the ‘Fancee offspring’ slipped up and down the banisters, ran amuck along garden paths, and whispered gossip in the butler’s stairwell.

The twins, Fia and Alejandra, always had some new adventure planned. Lorcan really was always a bit boggled at how they did it. It was his home after all! They wound their way through the corridors, between floors, down secret passageways behind dusty tapestries- really, it made Lorcan wonder if they were the true masters of his family’s estate!

He and the other boys would come along grumbling at first, content to find old swords in the armory and make pretend battles between sky pirates and Starfolk, but somehow between swiping cobwebs out of their eyes and sneezing out dust, the twins always managed to make their own curiosity contagious.

However, this time, the girls didn’t give them- or rather, him- a say in the matter.

As soon as the pleasantries were out of the way and the guests had gathered in the parlor, Alejandra and Fia converged, each grabbing one of Lorcan’s arms and dragging him straight out the garden doors.

“Mum!” he complained, trying to wrest his wrists from their manacle-like hold to no avail. “Mum, the twins are spiriting me away! They’ve completely ganged up on me!”

He caught his mum’s toothy grin as he wrenched his head around to beg for help with his eyes.

“Go off and be a good friend, Lorcan, instead of the forlorn little beagle that’s been dogging my heels of late. This is me giving you permission to have fun, so go!”

Betrayal!!

Father’s figure in the corner didn’t even move the slightest bit. No, not even a finger.

Lorcan was completely over powered.

The absolute humiliation!

Mum wriggled her fingers farewell with the sweetest smile as the doors closed behind him and the laughter of their guests rang in his ears.

“Really! Was this all necessary?” Lorcan muttered, hanging his head like the dejected prisoner he was. “I have two functioning feet. And even I was sick to death of hanging off my mum’s shadow like a ghost.”

Fia just blinked and let him go, but Alejandra threw her head back in a laugh, hands on her hips like a cocky pirate queen.

“And here we thought you’d put up a bigger fight, you scalawag!” Alejandra’s long, black hair lashed the air as she whipped her head towards Fia. “First mate!” she cried, elbowing her twin and arching a dark brow. “Seems like our captive thinks he can escape if he acts all innocent. Good thing we’re much too smart to be outfoxed by that! Ho ho ho ho!”

. . . Oh? She was indeed playing a pirate queen. Brilliant.

“Right you are, Captain,” Fia responded with vigor. “Good thing we found those ancient ruins the other day. They must be hiding sophisticated Star relics that’ll loosen his tongue- one way or another. Mwahaha!”

“I swear, you both are mad—”

“Oooo!” Alejandra’s eyes glittered with Stars, finally breaking character as she jumped up and down, “I’d forgotten all about that, we just have to show them!”

Them included Casper and Eliezar, who were ambling along behind, thoroughly satisfied to have escaped the twin’s clutches but not willing to miss out on any fun. While the twins were yakking on, Lorcan had been trying to catch the boys’ attention to no avail. They had merely responded with stuck out tongues and badly stiffled laughter.

“Enough of this,” Lorcan huffed, kicking a patch of grass. “This is too much. I allowed you to kidnap me outside, but this game doesn’t sound all too fun for me.”

“You’ll love it, I swear,” Alejandra pleaded, grasping his hand and swinging it back and forth. “We won’t treat you like a captive anymore . . . if you decide to come. Otherwise, we’re dragging you, hehe.”

Lorcan narrowed his dark eyes at her and yanked his hand away, rubbing his wrist. He was pretty sure they had bruised both, the way they’d touted him along like some stubborn beast of burden. He’d rather not look to see the damage, though. It wouldn’t do for them to realize how delicate he was.

Certainly it would only lead to more bullying.

“Be a good friend, mum said. Right, because I have the best of them. Thanks a bunch you lot. You’re really taking my mind off mum completely abandoning me.”

Lorcan stomped off a little ways, taking a deep, shaky breath and running a hand through his hair.

He hadn’t gelled it that day, too caught up in the preparations for the party and other such . . . preoccupations, and deeply regretted it. It felt a mess, he felt a mess, with light waves and curls brushing his ears that were otherwise slicked back, because, well. Because he hated them. They made him look like a little kid.

He was thirteen cycles now, and ready to look the part.

His palms dug into his eyes.

He wouldn’t see his mum until he was fifteen.

Two whole cycles.

A hand suddenly gripped Lorcan’s shoulder, but he congratulated himself on retaining his composure. He’d heard Eliezar sneaking up through the gravel and had braced himself for any sneak attacks.

“Hey…” Eli scratched the back of his head uncertainly and gave a quirky grin. “Winslow, you’re not supposed to brood alone. It’s not a good look for you.”

Lorcan mumbled something under his breath, forcing Eliezar to duck closer to hear.

“What was tha— ow!”

Lorcan hooked his arm around Eli’s neck and spun around, pulling him towards the others as his friend protested, arms flailing.

Casper pointed and laughed, “Told you this wouldn’t end well for you, Eli!”

“I’ll only go to the secret ruins if we can exchange prisoners,” Lorcan offered seriously, poking his nose arrogantly in the air.

“You rapscallion!!” Eliezar shouted, pinching his side and twisting.

Lorcan yelped and stepped down hard on his polished boot in retaliation, making sure to grind his heel into Eliezar’s toes. They glared at each other.

He always played dirty!

“Deal!” Alejandra agreed gleefully. “Go on and hand over the prisoner, he’s looking more and more bloodthirsty by the second.”

“Come on, mate!” Eliezar whined as they started their journey to the ancient ruins- whatever those were. “I went over there to comfort you, geez!”

Lorcan just pursed his lips together to smother a self-satisfied smirk.

“Shoulda known better,” Casper tsked, coming up from behind and patting Eli’s back. “Lorcan’s like a wounded snake. You never know when he’ll strike, even when you’re only there to help.”

A tad offended, but too prideful to say so, Lorcan huffed and marched on ahead, determined to ignore them. Once again, he marveled at how well the twins knew not just the estate, but the property as well. The two led their motley crew out over the grassy knolls beyond the sweeping garden grounds (his father’s pride and joy), avoiding the hedge maze entirely (Lorcan’s favorite part!), and skirting around the swan pond (he and his mum’s special place to meditate).

“Where are we gooooing?!” Casper huffed as they slogged up the hill cresting the pond. Eliezar was just barely behind, having been released from the pirate captain and her first mate for dragging his feet- a solid strategy, it seemed- and was now holding firm to Casper’s coat tail as if it were the rope of a mountain climber.

Lorcan had never bothered to climb this far before and was already standing at the top with the twins, watching the other boys’ progress with a kind of impatient disdain. If he had remembered to bring it, he’d be clicking open his Father’s pocket glass over and over, checking the trickling sand.

“Doesn’t matter so much where we’re going as long as we have fun getting there, right?” Alejandra called back.

“How,” Eliezar puffed,” is this,” more heavy breathing, “fun??????!”

But Lorcan had already seen the girls’ destination and grown dreadfully weary of their complaining.

It was a bone white gazebo, cracked and crumbling and ancient, riddled with vines and brush, hidden in a tangle of trees at the very crest of the hill. The wild grass around it was overrun with tiny wildflowers like stars and pockmarked by pools of water leftover from the last rainstorm, each reflecting the clouds and the vibrantly bright Star that floated above like pieces of sky that had fallen to grace the Dust.

Lorcan was a bit awestruck!

Indeed, ancient ruins wasn’t too far of a stretch, there had to be all kinds of forgotten treasures hidden there.

Ha! Not just treasures, but memories.

In Lorcan’s mind’s eye, he could envision his great grandparents, long ascended to become Stars themselves, secreting themselves away from prying eyes and wagging tongues. Lorcan’s lip curled at the thought. It certainly made for the perfect rendezvous!

Tapping his chin, Lorcan whirled on the twins and leveled an accusatory finger, brown eyes touched with a discerning gleam. “That’s where you two ran off to last cycle!! You were on the hunt for more secret hideaways!”

“Hoy-yah!” Alajandra chopped Lorcan’s finger away, planting her fists on her hips. “An ex-captive can’t just simply pry into the captain’s affairs like this! Once we get to the ancient ruins, all will be revealed! As soon as these turtles speed up a little, then—”

“What turtles!” they heard from ahead.

The three whipped their heads around to see Casper and Eliezar sprinting towards the gazebo. Eliezar was cackling and stuck out his tongue.

“You look like the slow ones to us!!” he hollered, before stumbling awkwardly on a random pebble and turning to watch his own feet.

Alajandra shrieked, “The captive escaped!!” and shot after the two, who suddenly looked very frightened and began shoving each other faster. Before he could protest, Fia grabbed Lorcan’s wrist- the one that was massively bruised by her sister!!!- and dragged him along behind her for the second time.

He really wanted to tell her off, because why didn’t they trust him to take himself?!

He wasn’t that desperate to go off alone and mope.

But then he decided complaining would take up more energy than it was worth and snapped his mouth shut, lengthening his stride so they were side by side. He was dreadfully curious about the gazebo, after all, and not even the spooky roots that infested the ground and the vines that brushed his cheek or the sudden and annoying clinginess of the Fancee Offspring could deter him.

A thicket like this was actually very rare. The soil was usually full of loose rock and dust from the Sand Falls that surrounded their lands. To see so many trees and greenery in one place was like seeing an oasis in the Wastes of Dust out beyond civilization. Mostly there were bits and pieces of cultivation, like his father’s gardens, but other than that, faded, blue grass was all that beautified the plains around their Capital.

Lorcan hurriedly cast a wary glance ahead at Eliezar, who had a penchant for knowing when Lorcan was spacing off about something he’d studied so he could tease him mercilessly. Luckily, Eli was preoccupied trying to wrestle Alejandra off of him.

“Fia, come help me wrangle the prisoner!”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Are we still on this??” Lorcan griped, eager to end the game and explore like a real pirate.

“Men!!!” Eliezar hollered, causing Alejandra to squawk and attempt to cover his mouth. “Attack!!! Man down, man dow—mm! Mhhg!!”

“On our way, sir!!” Casper called, trying to hold back laughter- he’d never been good at pretend- and reaching down to pick up a clod of wet dirt.

Lorcan rolled his eyes and decided it was time to take a seat- decidedly far from the action. “Oh, it’s time to show off, is it?” He lounged back against the balustrade, inspecting his nails dispassionately.

With gentle motions, Casper slowly maneuvered the clod of dirt into the air, bobbing above the palm of his hand, dripping muddy water down his wrist. It began to violently twist and turn, growing in size as he filtered a stream of soil from the ground to spin in orbit around the clod hovering in the air. Eventually, it was the size of a small cannonball.

Yes, sitting this one out had been a wise move.

Casper glanced over his shoulder to flash a grin at Lorcan. “At your command, Lori!!”

Letting out a huff of annoyance, but actually finding this all thoroughly entertaining, Lorcan waved his hand. “Fire away!”

Casper’s face became instantly serious once again as he lunged, cycling his hands around the floating earth and then casting it full force towards the scuffling group. The makeshift cannonball hurtled forward with a puff of dust and a sound like actual cannon fire!

Lorcan’s eyes widened. Shocked, he had to give his head a shake to clear it.

Casper had been practicing!

Alejandra and Fia barely had time to turn to look and Eliezar only had time to yell, “Whoever gave you permission to sacrifice me, too?!!” before the dirt hit the pillar behind them and splattered mud everywhere.

The girls had been dressed up to the nines, with beautiful lace cloaks over shimmering robes of silk, embroidered with swirling Stars that could have been mistaken for flowers. Alejandra’s hair was down- she had taken out the pins as soon as her parents turned their backs, but Fia’s was still braided and twined at the base of her skull, wrapped in a net of pearls. Eliezar was wearing emerald today, and a strand of his black hair had been braided.

All the gaud, painted with streaks of mud and chunks of grass, leaving them squawking like deranged birds with their feathers aruffle.

Casper gave a fancy little bow as Lorcan brought his hands together slowly and a bit grudgingly in admiration. It had been a fine spectacle, after all.

(Note to future self: Never step on Casper’s toes, even if he pinches.)

“Bad. Idea.” Alejandra growled, swiping her fingers down her cheek. Mud landed on the gazebo tile like drops of blood.

“Lorcan ordered it,” Casper said nonchalantly but without any hesitation whatsoever.

“Traitor,” Lorcan sighed, leaning his head back against the pillar and closing his eyes.

Everything descended into madness then, every man for himself as clods of dirt went flying every which way. Alejandra kept hurtling huge, sopping wet chunks of silt straight from the pond while Eliezar made sure his clods all had jagged rocks in the center, scraping the skin off a few noses as they whizzed past. Fia sequestered herself in the corner after carefully constructing a wall nearly as tall as she was, which was only a temporary solution since Casper now had an entire row of cannonballs and was making short work of it.

For a moment, Lorcan contemplated leaving.

He wasn’t sure where, it just suddenly popped into his head that this was a feasible idea. The Fancee Offspring were all worried he’d do it. Worried about him.

So of course he had to entertain the idea. Just a bit.

It wasn’t a fantasy he often had, after all.

He could head back home the way they came- all of them were decently distracted and probably wouldn’t notice- or maybe . . . maybe he could even wander further into this copse of trees, beyond the property line, past the Capital, heading towards the Wastes.

Maybe mum would decide to stay, determined to find him.

Or maybe she wouldn’t.

. . .

He wasn’t sure which was worse. She wasn’t leaving without a purpose, after all.

Lorcan’s eyes glazed over as he sank in thought, absentmindedly watching as Fia’s wall tumbled down and they all converged on her, laughing and slipping in the mud.

Oh. Lorcan suddenly blinked, realizing something.

While everyone was trading blows, teaching each other their special tricks, and having a grand ol’ time covering each other in mud, not one of them ever once crossed the invisible line. They made sure no fleck of dirt came even close to his perch on the balustrade. In fact, any time a clump was cast a little too close for comfort, Casper or Fia would wave their hand to redirect it.

His face softened.

They were really brilliant friends.

They’d shine so bright in the upcoming Assessment.

His mouth slipped sideways in an almost smile.

A strange emotion settled in Lorcan’s soul. It wasn’t entirely pleasant, a little bittersweet, but also grudgingly grateful and perhaps even . . . protected? In any case, it was warm. And even if it was fragile, it was still leagues better than the spiral of uncertainty and sorrow he’d been caught up in before, contemplating his mum’s departure.

Lorcan wasn’t a complete fool. He knew his friends had brought him here to be present with him, to take his mind off his mum, and show him in whatever convoluted way they all had that they cared for him.

He stared down at the ground and suddenly felt that awful burning behind his eyes that proceeded a good cry.

But tears were ridiculous, so he didn’t let them fall.

“What are you all waiting for??!”

Four sets of eyes turned to look up at him. A clod of dirt hanging suspended in the air suddenly splattered to the ground.

Lorcan was standing, poised on the thin ledge of the railing, hands on his hips, and a thin blond brow cocked up towards his hairline.

“You’ve left me, the ex-captive- the true villain!- here, untouched,” Lorcan laughed darkly, ducking his chin to look at them all from hooded eyes. “How could you have made such a rookie oversight, ah?”

“No!!” Alejandra gasped, covering her mouth in horror. “He’s been biding his time, building his power, only to use it now that we’ve been distracted fighting amongst ourselves.”

“His plan all along . . .” Fia whispered terribly, “was to tear us apart from the inside out.”

“I knew he was a horrible guy the moment he used me to barter for his freedom!!” Eliezar spat.

“I don’t know,” said Casper. “I might be on his side. He appreciates my cannonballs.”

“Wahahahahahaha!!” Lorcan threw his head back, cackling maniacally. “Bow down before my power!!”

“What power?” Eliezar shouted back. “We’re waiting!!”

A rumble suddenly shook the pavilion, old wood and tile creaking, cracking. The four of them gaped up at the ceiling as the beams over their heads rained down trickles of dust. Countless motes took to the air, making Fia sneeze and the rest cover their mouths with their sleeves, coughing.

“Satisfied?” Lorcan smirked. “Feeling ready to give in?”

Waving the dust from her eyes, Alejandra glared up at him, taking Casper’s hand as he helped her to her feet. “Is this the best you can do, villain??!”

One by one, the motes of dust froze in the air, hanging suspended, like dancers on a stage, waiting for the music to begin.

“Oh, I can do one better,” Lorcan chuckled, flicking his hand.

“Ho dear,” Casper hissed and ducked for cover.

“Here we go, we’ve got him all riled up!”

“BRING IT ON, WEAKLING!!!” Alejandra bellowed, shaking her fist at him.

Lorcan laughed as the dust swirled, following his hand as he stirred it around and around, conducting the flying motes in a twisted dance, spinning high in the rafters above like a ominous black thundercloud about to clap down. Streams of thin dirt siphoned from the grout of the tiles and the dust built in the corners, taking silken strings of spider web with them as they joined the cloud above. He raised both hands in the air, high above his head, sweat beading on his brow.

“Ready. To give in. Now??” he grit out.

Tears were running down Fia’s face. “My allergies have never been worse,” she moaned, swiping at her nose. “Make it stop, Lorcan!!”

“My first mate!” Alejandra cried, cupping her sister’s face. “My dearest comrade!! We yield, vicious villain!! Stop this torture at once!”

“Good show!” Eliezar called like he was attending an opera performance in the Capital. He and Casper began clapping. “I thought you were still struggling to move Dust at all, let alone whatever this is! Superb!”

Lorcan leveled an unamused scowl that stung as if he really had flung a lash of dirt at him. Eli grimaced, sheepish.

“Um… Lorcan, are you gonna… get rid of that?” Fia asked, pointing up at the cloud of dust still swirling viciously above them.

Lorcan’s arms trembled from where they were still held above his head. He barred his teeth. A drop of sweat ran down his brow.

“RUN,” he heaved.

He didn’t have to ask twice.

They had all sprawled out on the grassy hill, still wet with dew, panting and rosy cheeked, brushing dried mud and grass from their clothes when he found them.

As he strode from the cloud of dust that was once the beautiful pavillion, Lorcan didn’t know whether he wanted to cry, laugh, or scream. These were his parent’s party guests after all, and he’d done a dastardly job of hosting. Father would not be pleased, but mum would probably have a field day over it.

He plopped down between Casper and Fia, feeling a little sorry to barge between their thing they had going on (or, at least, that Eliezar and him suspected was brewing), but too exhausted to care.

“Well,” he started.

“That was . . .” Casper trailed off.

“So much fun!” Alejandra giggled.

They laid there in the grass, staring up at the Stars for a moment.

It was the last day of Dream’s rotation today, and her Island hovered close enough above to see the sloping gold roofs of her palace catch the glow of the sun. It wasn’t a cloudy day, but parts of the craigs and jagged spires below the Island were wreathed in wispy white. The Star lent them a lovely lavendar hue and Lorcan couldn’t wait for the night, when he could witness the full glory of the Star’s Light.

It was his favorite color after all.

Someday, perhaps his mum’s soul would be strong enough, bright enough, to raise her own Island to the Heavens, to have her Light guild the night. Then Lorcan could visit as he wished, nothing keeping them apart.

Just barely, if Lorcan craned his neck back far enough, he could see Luck’s Island not far in the distance, but for now, it was just a black silhouette against a beautiful bright sky.

“Can you believe your mum will be up there soon?” Casper breathed into the still.

“Even if I can’t, it hardly means she’ll stay,” Lorcan bit out. “She’s gone before, and she’ll go again. I suppose I’d best get used to it.”

“We all have.” Alejandra’s words should have been reassuring, but Lorcan wasn’t in the state of mind for that at the moment and found himself bristling instead. “I know it’s new to your ma, but our dad’s been up with the Star of Life for four cycles now. He’s probably doing great work up there, heroic stuff, brewing cures, solving pandemics. You know, all noble and honorable things.”

“Once you’re in a Star’s Inner Circle, there’s nothing holding you back from reaching your full potential.” Fia’s eyes gleamed, but it didn’t seem to come from the Sun or any of the Stars. Lorcan was pretty sure it emanated from her soul itself. Fia’s soul just had that radiance he- no- everyone envied.

“Dad’s thriving, and so many people have benefited from his talents.” She turned her head in the grass to smile at Lorcan, but he refused to meet her eyes. “I know it’ll be the same for your mom, whether or not she’s chosen.”

Lorcan sat in the brittle silence that followed, stewing in discomfort, debating with several warring responses, before finally caving and mumbling a half-hearted, “Right, thanks.”

“Alright! Now that the girls are done playing the empathy card, I’ve got news!!” Eliezar piped up, clapping his hands together and sitting upright. Dandelion fuzz poked awkwardly from his messy black hair. “My mother’s been talking again.”

Instantly everyone’s ears perked up.

“And~ it’s even relevant this time!”

His mother, Lady Vidal, Dream hopped quite often, picking up rumors and wishes along the way, training under the Star of Dreams as she was. Eliezar knew how starved they all were for gossip and wielded the information he gleaned with practiced skill.

“Mother says the Twin Stars of Beauty aren’t taking any more Stars-in-training this Assessment period, but are holding a competition between their current proteges to pick out the most beautiful new trainees themselves. The proteges whose selection gains the Stars’ Favor will be inducted into one of their Inner Circles.”

“Eh?” Alejandra wrinkled her nose. “How baseless is that? Beauty is so subjective, what’s ugly now may come back in style in ten cycles; it’s entirely ruled by public opinion, but at the same time, everyone has different taste! I’ll just never understand how the Twin Stars have so many followers, all vying and contending with each other for something that changes on a whim. Their heads must be full of dandelion fluff, like Eli’s here.”

“Hear, hear,” Casper agreed, turning his head to where Fia had been, but incidentally meeting Lorcan’s unmoved eyes instead. His face took on a tinge of red and he quickly looked away.

Lorcan guffawed. Another clue to add to the list.

“Exactly!” Eliezar reached over to prod Lorcan in the chest. “That’s where your mum is heading, after all, seeing as though she’s one of the Twin Stars’ disciples. Maybe she’ll take you up to their Islands with her!” The boy slowly dissolved into cackling laughter, leaving Lorcan to glower at the sky as Eli finally managed, “Her mum bias has blinded her to her own son and she’ll send you up there to compete for her, hahaha-ouch!!”

“Funny, Vidal,” Lorcan droned. “Very funny.”

“Let go of my ear!!” he shrieked. “Ow, ow, ow, Winslow, OW!!”

“Oh, get over yourself,” Lorcan muttered, giving Eli’s earlobe one final tug before letting go.

The others were laughing into the grass as well, but Lorcan couldn’t be bothered. He just crossed his arms and violently wished something wild would happen to divert everyone’s attention.

Like the Star of Dream’s palace bursting into flames or a flying ship taking a forbidden detour over their estate lines.

“Pft— Why can I see it, though?” Fia giggled, glancing over at him. Her ruby eyes sparkled. “Lorcan Winslow, winning the competition and becoming one of the Twin Star’s new proteges.”

“Unmatched beauty,” Alejandra added, voice thick with mirth, “and a countenance as lovely as the day break. Skin the pallor of milk left to sit too long, ashy hair, brown eyes like muddy water . . . dark circles as symmetrical as a butterfly’s wing. You have your work cut out for you, haha!”

“Thanks, Alejandra,” Lorcan grit through a fake grin.

“At least you have nice teeth,” she reassured him. “The gap is endearing.”

“But then . . . you’d never have to be separated from your mum again, right?” Casper blinked at him and Lorcan felt a stone drop in his stomach. “You would share her Star. They’d probably invite you to join her sabbaticals. Your poor Father, though. He’s still never been chosen, has he.”

Lorcan felt his mouth hang open a little, revealing a small gap between his front teeth. “I . . . Hadn’t thought of that. But, agh—!” He threw his hands over his face. “I’m not a complete narcissist! I’ve got no chance competing for either of the Star of Beautys’ Favor. And even if I did have a winning chance, they’d never let my mum off for choosing her own child to compete.”

“Ha! At least you know,” Eliezar snorted. “I wasn’t about to be the burster of that bubble.”

They were silent for a moment, imagining Lorcan strut before their Starships, the Lord and Lady of Beauty, with all their proteges in the wings whispering and pointing as they took notes on his appearance.

Lorcan shivered.

No, no way, never. That was not about to happen.

Fortunately for his sanity, Alejandra broke in with a random statement.

“You know, I had a Dream a few nights ago.”

“What??!!”

“What kind of Dream!?”

“Do you know who sent it?”

“Did they visit you or did you go to them?”

The four of them had sat straight up and crowded around her, yanking on bits and pieces of her robes. She laughed uproariously as if they were tickling her instead of prodding for information.

“Hold on, hold on!” she giggled, flapping them away. She crossed her legs and folded her arms under her head, carefree as anything. “Alright, gather around, little Stars. This one’s good.”

“Ooh boy,” Eliezar said, rubbing his hands together. “This is my kind of tea.”

Casper shot him a look.

Lorcan, on the other hand, was enthralled, but deeply trying not to show it.

Dreams had always tickled his fancy. Any scrap or crumb of knowledge he could glean of them was treasured and polished over and over in his memory, kept precious and bright. In a way, they seemed so hopelessly romantic, and Lorcan would never admit the appeal, but appeal they did. When family and friends and lovers too afraid to confess could brush souls in the dead of night, sharing secrets and memories that would never see the light of day.

Lorcan’s nights were completely blank.

He’d never experienced a Dream before.

He close his eyes, drift away, and wake up to bird song and sunshine, a whole night passed on.

No new memories. Nothing.

It didn’t seem too completely odd until his friends had started this new trend of sharing their latest Dream, whether a visit to their newest crush, a run in with their biggest nemesis, or a strange scene someone had sent them that they needed help deciphering.

“So there’s this guy in my theatre troupe,” Alejandra started. They all leaned in, eyes aglow. Fia gasped and covered her mouth. Lorcan sat ramrod straight, picking at the grass, ears perked like a dog. “I hate his guts.”

“Ugh!!” Eliezar flopped onto his back. “Not where I thought this was going.”

“Keep your mind out of the gutter,” Casper snapped.

“What he said~” Alejandra sang, before her eyes turned flinty, brow knitting low. “He always gets the best roles- you know our troupe has men and women play both genders to improve our acting. Anyway, this time, I got the role he wanted. And apparently, he’d been agonizing over it for rotation after rotation, because then it happened. He entered my Dreamscape.”

“No!” Fia cried, aghast. “Ali, you never told me that it was Edmund who found his way in!”

“Oops, didn’t I?” Alejandra asked, before shrugging and moving on. “He was not expecting it. And neither was I. But the Dream took us to the scene of the play. The real thing. And you will not guess what play it is.”

“We probably won’t,” Casper whispered, leaning in. “Just tell us.”

“The suspense is killing us!” Eliezar whined.

Lorcan found himself nodding before forcing himself still.

Alejandra’s eyes picked up a sparkle from the Star of Dreams above. “It’s the Childe of Light.”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Fia squealed, grabbing her sister’s shoulders and shaking her. “NO WAAAAAAAAY!!!”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Lorcan butted in. He was now on his knees, fists digging into the dirt. “I know the play, but what scene was it? Where did the Dream take you?”

“No way—” Eliezar stared at her like she was a Star descending straight down from the Heavens to their little hillside gathering. “Does that mean—”

“—that you saw—”

“—the Childe of Light,” Lorcan breathed in awe.

“No, no, no,” Alejandra waved them off. “No, I was disappointed, but no. You see, the role we had both coveted, but that I’d finally- finally!- gotten cast for, was the Childe of Light themselves. So, sorry, but the only Childe of Light there was me, haha. I didn’t see a glimpse of who it’ll be . . . or even when they will be.”

“Wait, but that means—!” Fia’s eyes had taken on a sheen of pure terror that instantly put the others on edge.

“What, what, what?? I can’t handle all this tension!!”

“That’s right,” Alejandra intoned, grim and dark. She met each one of their eyes in turn. “Who is the Childe of Light’s enemy? Who is she destined to vanquish?”

A breeze ruffled the grass. It was deceptively gentle for how chilling it was. Goosebumps ran up and down Lorcan’s arms.

“Death himself. Death was in my Dream.”

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To be continued...

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