He was currently in mid-step when he regained awareness and became conscious of where he was: in the middle of what looked like outer space, standing on a semi-opaque glass platform. On all sides he was surrounded by gray pedestals of varying heights. Most only reached waist-high though some ended only a foot or so from the ground while a few were much higher than the others. Atop each were rectangular glass containers that seemed to contain what he guessed were artifacts— because the entire sight reminded him of a museum— though unlike museums, whatever were inside the containers were unlit and hardly visible. With most of the nearby ones he could only see vague black outlines that suggested what they might be: a crown here, a pair of daggers there, another that looked like a gauntlet. The ones farther from where he was were more or less obscured by black, whirling smoke from inside their containers.

“What the heck just happened?” he whispered to himself. He was just dreaming about his father a while ago among other things. So how exactly did he get here? He remembered the last segment of the dream. The book, the magic light symbol thing, and finally that cut on his finger. Gabe jolted his right hand up to see if he was still bleeding but there was now no more trace of the wound. With his thumb, he pressed down on the area of his forefinger where he remembered the cut was and felt it slightly sore to the touch.

Aside from the absence of the wound, nothing else about him seemed to be different. He was still wearing the same thing from earlier: an old pair of jeans and a light brown polo shirt he was quite sure he didn’t really own anymore in the present day. Okay, so I’m definitely still sleeping, he thought. And things just got a bit weirder.

He looked all around and counted the number of pedals. These were more or less arranged in a checkerboard-type grid aside from some notable irregularities here and there. If his estimate was correct there was a twelve by twelve configuration here of pedestals, each one about five or six feet away from its adjacent ones. On all sides past the farthest rows all he could see was darkness. Above him, too, there was simply nothing aside from a canopy of darkness. No, wait, there were also some almost imperceptible dots of light. He guessed these were supposed to be faraway stars.

So, this is some sort of museum in outer space, then? He went down on one knee and gave a few quick taps against the platform underneath. The surface was hard and glass-like but if he had to guess, past the floor was more outer space.

“Helloooooo?” he shouted. “Anybody else here? What am I supposed to be doing here? Can anybody help me?” There was no answer.

“Fine,” he added. He moved closer to the nearest pedestal and found that this one contained some sort of necklace. He could only guess that it was a necklace because parts of its form were obscured by smoke, and the rest was simply a silhouette composed of shadow. It was also very slightly bobbing up and down, floating as it was inside its container. Gabe noticed that the nearby pedestals were lit substantially darker than this one. The ones farther away were had even less light.

Deciding to experiment, he turned around and walked towards the pedestal just across. With each step, the pedestal, the container and the object inside got more illumination. This one was almost definitely a dagger. Just like the necklace, he could only see its silhouette. It was roughly a foot in length and had a crossguard. He couldn’t tell if it had a sheathe.

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Moving his head closer to the glass container, he noticed something etched on its surface. The same diamond symbol he saw on the last page of the book. This one was a slightly larger version at about six inches wide. Looking closer at its lines, there was a weak red color on them.

Suddenly, an idea about this place came to him with such a sense of surety he couldn’t tell if the thought really was his own. It was so simple. Touch the symbol and the object would be his. But he could only take one. These objects were… rewards.

He squinted to get a better look at the dagger. Even obscured, it seemed to give out a sense of its quality. He imagined gripping its handle, feeling its weight, the sharpness of the blade. He imagined how it would feel to plunge it deep into a creature’s flesh, the blood gushing out in spurts. It would save his life in countless occasions, this dagger.

He was inches from touching the glass case’s symbol when he decided to wait and make an inventory of everything on the platform. He turned around to look at the necklace once more.

A different symbol was on the glass case of the necklace. This one looked to be a sun: a circle with nine rays emanating from it. This symbol had a bit of a blue color just barely noticeable from the transparent glass.

*****

It took him a little bit more than an hour to look at all the pedestals with some objects apparently more promising than the rest. The glass cases in the museum had six different types of symbols on them: the diamond, the sun, a lightning bolt, a human figure and then two additional ones with symbols he couldn’t figure out what to make of.

Afterwards, he also spent a few minutes scrutinizing what lay beyond the last rows of the grid. The glass platform simply ended. He kneeled near one of the edges and saw nothing but more black space underneath. He was also surprised upon measuring it that the glass case he was standing on was only about an inch in thickness. Maybe less.

He wondered what would happen if he stepped past the edge. He raised a hand to feel the space above the edge partly expecting some sort of invisible barrier but encountered nothing.

Gabe felt around inside his pockets for some spare change and was glad to find an old one-peso coin in a backpocket. He held it over the edge for a moment before dropping it. It fell in the direction he’d consider down and continued to do so till he couldn’t see it anymore.

“Okay, now what do I choose?”

He walked back to one of the pedestals that seemed the most promising. Part of that might simply be due to its size compared to most of the others. Inside it was what could only be some sort of cape. Its upper edge tapered into a collar and its lower edges waved slowly about as if fluttering to a gale. He estimated that if he wore it, the cape would reach down to just below the back of his knees. How long are capes supposed to be, anyway?

Before he could change his decision, he had already raised his hand to touch the case’s symbol whereupon nothing at all happened. He had suspected as much as he picked something with a human figure symbol on it. It was very likely that only the ones with the diamond symbol would open for him, if anything opened at all. At least he wouldn’t have to regret picking something from the diamonds and afterwards wonder if he had more options than he realized. Of course, the act of picking a different symbol item could have spoiled his chances of getting anything at all. Or maybe even triggered a death trap. But this was still a dream, right? Nothing really mattered that much at the moment.

He walked towards the direction where he remembered his second pick was, this time already a diamond item. He found it again after just a bit of confusion about its location. Inside the glass cube was a crown.

The moment his finger touched a part of the etched symbol, the faint hue lit a bright red. It works, Gabe thought. The light it emitted then grew in intensity and continued to do so with each passing second until Gabe started to think that it had been a mistake or some kind of trap had indeed been triggered. His hand recoiled from the case as he stepped a few feet backwards before he blinked his eyes

…and realized he was back inside his father’s room, lying on the floor.

“You have received The Crown of Stories,” a voice whispered.