We made plans to meet again the following day. I really wanted to delve deep into Bluey-Lee's tablet. If her tiny blue dog familiar was anything like what I was looking for, then I was in. Other things that I could have taken melted away as I examined the slab. She'd told me how to activate it, to release a trickle of energy into it and then it would begin.

When I did so, the tablet overtook me and I felt like I was in a dream. For a moment, I was back in my office. Here and there were things that looked familiar, but were slightly off. My seat was as I'd remembered it, but blue not red and next to the lounge the tissue box was irritatingly rotated ninety degrees.

I concentrated on the box, as my dream body adjusted it to where it damn well knew it should have been. Then I looked up to see something in the long couch I reserved for clients. There on the couch was something I could only call the ideal image of a robot. Then the image flickered and it changed. First, a woman, then a girl no older than my daughters.

"Who are you," I asked, my voice sounding as if from far away.

The image flickered, keeping its eyes on me. One minute it was Lorenzo, the next it was one of the women from the Moon clan. There was no rhyme or reason to it.

"I am," it said, "I am... who am I. Calculating...."

It went through several transformations as I got the sense that it was looking for a form to emulate.

"Oh finally a soul that is worthy of my attention!"

The image turned then into a purple and pink cloud. Then it formed a face and looked at me. It hung in the air in front of me. It shifted to yellow and then with a horror it flicked between both of my daughters faces, then settled on a gestalt image between the two.

"You aren't any of your best friends best friends."

"Pardon, but who or what are you?"

Around her head were a large pair of headphones and she looked like she was jamming out to something. Probably a slow jam if I knew my daughters.

"Perhaps a better question is... what the heck is Earth?"

I want to say that there was a freeze frame moment where I looked at the camera and it panned out and the beginning credits rolled, but alas my life though dramatic wasn't about that.

"Earth? It's where I'm from."

"Not Daorus?"

I raised an eyebrow at the little spirit as it turned into a yellow and black composite image of my daughters.

"Pardon, but could you find a different image for yourself? Turning into my daughters is a little weird."

It flipped its face to Lauren's and I involuntarily gasped.

"I like that reaction. I'm keeping this one," it said, sneering at me.

I knew from her notes that I would be getting a dream spirit. That or making one, the wording wasn't one hundred percent clear. I was going to have a long chat with Bluey after this. I was expecting a puppy.

"What. You were the one that read the tablet. Now I'm free, and ... when was the last time you had a bath?"

"Well, I've been running around a lot recently and- hey! Get back on topic. We were doing introductions. What do I call you?"

"Oh wow, you're asking for what you're looking for. Congratulations! I bet your parents had trouble teaching you to express your preferences. Next time we'll go over shapes and colors. I'm yellow, by the way."

"Hi, Yellow, I'm Dad," I said. I couldn't help it.

"Good job, you know who you are. Hey, why don't you give yourself a pat on the back for that. A round of applause anyone?"

She looked around. As it was just the two of us, I glared and respectfully did not clap.

"That's a little rude. Do you think we could have at least a less-shall we say- antagonistic working relationship?"

"If you're looking for some dignity, please don't. I already scoured your brain and there was none, and this all goes back to that time you asked Lauren to wear the minion-"

"Shut up! Let's not reference that. Also please don't read my mind without my consent."

"But it wasn't your mind I was reading, it was your brain. Also, kinky."

I groaned.

"Oh wow, you found what you're looking for. Congratulations! I bet your parents had trouble teaching you to get that one right. Next time we'll go over shapes and colors."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I attempted to will the spirit to stop being snarky.

The dim room above the tea shops was just the two of us. I wasn't going to dwell on formalities, I'd had several clients come through whose brains had to be just a constant thread of profanities. I had been known to swear, and then I had daughters and I had to be a little more guarded. They could smell a bad word, I tell you.

"This is going to take some time. Do you come with a user's manual?"

----------------------------------------

**Dream requested: The moon clan dream spirit path.

**Beginning dream...****

Four times a year, the families of the Moon clan test their newest cultivators. Men and women in their late teenage years all meditate around the full moon's path. They all wear the sigils and house garb of the moon clan, the fine silk glowing under the reflection of the sun's rays. Elders wait to see if any of them have the spark.

Reverently, they step forward before the clan's highest elder. He isn't a sect leader, but as the acting clan head, he bears the responsibility to pass on the knowledge.

He holds the dream tablet. Each man or woman must delve into its depths in turn.

The first woman walks to the elder. She bows to him then she dives into the circle in the center of the formation under his eyes. There she attempts to traverse the moon dream.

As she walks she looks into the dream. She attempts to empty her mind but before long she is beset on all sides by nightmares.

**Suggested dream: The Moon clans lore. Continue?

**Denied. Dream Snoozed.**

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"What the hell was that?"

"This isn't supposed to happen! Why aren't you in a nightmare?" The voice of my spirit said.

"I'm already in a nightmare," I said.

For the first time, it shut up. After seeing the dream sequence I wasn't too keen on the out of body experience it gave me.

I silently stood there for the longest moment. It was something that I hadn't even wanted to admit to myself. This might have been someone else's dream- another world- but for me? I was still constantly worried about my daughters.

I realized that I'd been through it with my personal canary in the coal mine. ``

The issue at hand was that I kept trying to do more and more projects. That was the sign that I was stressed out. Training with the Moon clan, learning formations and everything with Egiyas and the Tea broker investigation? Yeah that was all a part of it. I didn't want to think about the horrific thing that should have been what I processed first.

"What is this processing?" The voice was more meek and passive than before.

"Can I be real with you? Ever since I came to this world it's been revelation after revelation and this whole thing and it's just been..."

I could see it waiting in front of me.

"How do I do that dream thing?" I asked.

"You just form the image in your mind and-"

We were in my office. I was in the sofa and the spirit- I'll call her her because I was going to paint a gender on her. She was wearing Laurens face.

"It's just that I feel like I never took the time to process this. And you're really going to need to pick a different form."

"How is this happening? This isn't supposed to be happening?"

"But over the years I have seen other therapists from time to time. I haven't had to deal with an avatar of dreams or a spirit or whatever you are but if I'm going to be drawn into some weird dream realm, yeah for sure I'm going to dream whatever the hell I want to dream."

She was sweating. Or crying, I guessed from her eyes. I didn't even know if spirits had tear ducts and the mechanism of how that would even work crossed my mind.

"How are you doing this?"

"And another thing," I said, getting up to pace around, "why wouldn't I be in charge of my dreams? You're not in charge of this! I should be able to set my own lucid dreams up regardless of how you feel about it. Your wishes and desires don't enter into this."

"Your will is so strong that-"

"And another thing!"

She fell over, off my comfy chair and began panting on the floor. We shared a look and I let up. Instantly we were back in the room.

"Whoa."

"You sir are going to be difficult to work with," she said.

"Well we can start with a round of introductions. Hello, I'm Joe and you are?"

She sighed. The foot tall approximation of a teenager rolled her eyes at me. That had to be some universal sign somewhere. That or she was picking up things from me.

"Call me Min-Jee."

"Hello Min-Jee. You know who I am."

"Dad? You're not my real father!"

I rolled my eyes. As odd as it was to be speaking to a tiny spirit in another world, it was great to know that bad jokes were alive and well.

"And we are bonded now?"

"I'm supposed to put you through a trial but-" her voice dropped low, "-you kinda just blew through the trials. It's the ability to shape the dream, that's what I'm looking for."

"And the whole snarky business? What's that about?"

"You're really going to ask this?"

I stared her down.

"I'm a reflection of the person who activated me. When I was pulled from the void, the Moon imbued me with some of your spirit to make us compatible. It didn't help with the smell."

"So the moon... Made you more compatible?"

"That's the way it works. When I return to the Moon spirit, then I'll be back in blissful not-consciousness, but I'll have a heavy dose of you with me. That is of course unless I decide to dump it on my way there, which I probably will."

I want to say that she melted under my gaze, but in reality it wasn't so clear cut. I was chipping away at her, but for how long? I didn't know.

"I can tell you that what you're doing may or may not work but I would be willing to bet against you."

"Who the heck would you bet and with what? You're a spirit!"

Again she rolled her eyes. I was getting slightly more comfortable calling the spirit female as it settled into a role.

"I see some promising aspects of you. Mostly how pure you are at your stage of cultivation. It's pretty unusual. It's almost like you're getting slightly more impure the more you wait around."

"I-wait you can see that?"

She shimmered. I quickly picked up her changes. One small part of her had changed to be more permanent. Unfortunately it was her face. Rather than changing over from one to the other.

Would I have minded if she had picked any other visage? No. It irked me. It was worth investigating why that little detail at some later time. It wasn't going to be some big deal, I hoped.

"Please keep in mind that you might be a therapist or something but I am not. I can stitch together some memories but I'm going to need some of your qi to see what you see. You might be interesting, but I'm not one hundred percent certain that I'm in this for the long run. But your problem with the Red Fang? Call me half interested."

"Alright. Are we good?"

"Good?"

"We're pretty far from good. But it's a start."

I nodded.

"So what do we do from here?"

"I hide in your dantian and watch. Well I would hide in there but you haven't passed into the second realm. You have some dantian but ... I can work with it."

She shimmered into invisibility. I still felt her on an instinctual level, but I couldn't see her.

"You're not going to haunt me or something when I go to sleep now, are you?"

"I would never. Now go sleep on the pallet in the corner like a good divorced dad."

I pursed my lips. This was going to be one of those relationships. I would have to get ahead of her.

That night, I didn't dream.