153 Volume 7 Epilogue

They went to the DayDreaming Center to see Dad. Mom, Uncle Blake, Uncle Nelson, and everybody went together in two cars. Jonah and Uncle Nelson joined Uncle Blake and Larry in one, but Alicia opted to join 'Gracie' in theirs. {Still trying to avoid Jonah,} Colin supposed. Mom and Gracie were happy, Jonah was sour, Larry was sad, and Colin just wished they'd all forget he was actually there too.

The DayDreaming center itself was actually part of a mall. It was like someone stuck an extra block to the mall, painted it white lined with black, and stuck the words 'Virtua DDC' on it. There were entrances from outside and inside the mall; Uncles Blake and Nelson dropped off Mom and the kids while they parked the cars.

Inside the DDC, Colin saw double rows of pods on three upper floors. On the ground floor, there was a lounge and cafeteria and people lining up at a cashier to rent a few hours of DayDreaming. Alicia and Gracie went with Mom and checked out the food and lounge. Jonah and Larry checked out the pods. Colin just observed the cashier and the prices.

{Five Clira for an hour. That's… kinda expensive in real-life. But in Nakama World, five Clira is nothing. If I transfer some of my money over, I can afford this easily.}

Larry finally managed to drag Alicia to see a pod or two when the Uncles arrived and they went together to a basement floor. There, the pods were much bigger and had a lot more stuff plugged in.

Dad was in one of those. Colin went over to see him sleeping there, still looking like the strict university professor he was most recognized for being. He seemed a little pale in the light of the basement floor, but he didn't look sick or anything. Just… tired. Tired and sleeping.

"See?" Mom said candidly. "Nothing to worry about. He's fine, children. He'll be out of there in no time, and we'll all eat ice-cream together. How about that?"

Colin began to get suspicious when she talked like that, and then Alicia came up to him and said in a low voice, "She's lying, you know."

"Why do you say so?" Colin asked, hiding his agreement.

"Just look at her. It's obvious she's very worried. We wouldn't even be here to see him if there was nothing to worry about. It's like they want us to be able to see him now just in case we never get a chance to again. And Colin… did you notice the pod?"

"It's bigger than the ones upstairs. So?"

"Not that. I meant the Timeslot on the left." Alicia eyed it. "Do you see, Colin? The pods upstairs all have a clock-out timer. They'll be out in one hour, or three hours, and it's all recorded down. But this one…"

Colin saw what she meant. He, too, kept his voice low. "This one doesn't have a clock-out timer. The screen is empty."

"In other words…" Alicia paused.

"…they have no idea when he'll be clocking out." Colin finished for her.

Alicia nodded slowly, then said, "Don't tell Gracie."

"Don't tell Larry or Jonah either." Colin added. "Or Gracie will find out."

Alicia looked from him to Dad sadly, but when her dad came by and asked her about ice-cream, she answered brightly and with a big smile. Colin tried to put on a brave face, but the best he managed was to look bored, and that, he supposed, was actually a better face to put on for this situation.

So they went and had ice-cream anyway, with or without Dad, and all of them pretended like nothing was wrong and they were just having a great time. They pulled it off, Colin supposed. More or less. Tonight they'd just go back to Dreamworlds and Dream normally as if nothing severe had happened. Not two nights ago, not last night.

Even so… thinking about Dreamworlds and last night… Colin couldn't help feeling that somewhere, somehow, he'd forgotten something. Something rather important.

***

Dreams and memories.

{Katrin groaned as she crawled up to her hands and knees in a completely foreign place. She wasn't sure where she was, exactly, only that there was a lot of falling down involved.}

There was Colin and Shiro… but then Shiro disappeared and left me under a dragon… and then there was a huge wolf… and the floor broke... and broke again… and they went rolling away and left me tumbling down another floor or something. Everything was slipping… sand… stone… everything was…

{But everything had stopped. Katrin had no idea where she was anymore, except that she'd fallen down a hole somewhere and was half-buried in sand and small stones. She glanced up to see a smoking hole above her. It looks like something burned a hole in the floor and I fell through that hole.}

Now the question is… where am I…?

{Katrin looked up and found herself on top of something that froze her to the core. Something that brimmed with immense power, and incredible strength. It glowed white and blue, like ice, like the glaciers that divided the final continent of the south… but it had the form of a bird.

"The Blue Phoenix." Katrin whispered, remembering the legends. "It's real."

She sat there on top of it, regarding it, studying its shape, its coldness, its feel. And it regarded her in turn, saying nothing, moving not an inch though she lay atop its shoulder.}

[What do you want, Traveler?] {it recognized her.}

{"I want…" Katrin froze on the point of asking for a way out. That wasn't what it meant, she knew. That wasn't what it was asking about. It asked her about what she truly, truly wanted.}

{She paused to think about it. Really, really thought about it. What she truly wanted.} I want to protect Phillip and Colin. I want to not have to run in fear any more. I want… I want…

{The conclusion was inevitable. With her face burning, Katrin admitted it.}

"I want power."

{It threw her out of the Ancient Ways.}

She took a deep breath now, a night later and once more facing the new entrance to the Ancient Ways, the sunken Skycrown Hollow Pyramid.

She said, "I'm not giving up that easily."

Katrin went back in to seek out the Blue Phoenix again.