Towering over the party and reaching up towards the heavens and Dula, Mena found herself standing on the platform again. The only difference—everything was tinted a shade of fire red, instead of the cool, dark-blue colors of Gemini’s study. Mena looked up and saw the pink electricity of Dula shooting towards her body, ready to tether her with the otherworldly plane, but this time, the black miasma from the Nightmare Void touched the pink electricity, causing it to change into black lightning. Mena screamed as the electricity, this time much more painful and shocking, coursed through her body, filling every inch of it with pain and nausea. Mena tried to turn her paralyzed body towards Gemini but saw it was not him; instead, a figure in a dark hood stood beside her, radiating a chilling aura. Mena wanted to scream but nothing escaped her voice box; it was like her vocal cords were removed.

The electricity ceased. Though Mena’s body still twitched from currents inside her, and the platform lowered back down to the party. Mena no longer felt like herself anymore. Her insides were stiff and numb. The only thing she had left was the urge to run.

As they reached the party, Mena looked around and saw the party guests, but they were different—people with fully black eyes and gleaming white fangs. Mena saw Bubbel, Toila and Karen standing in the far back, satisfied expressions on their face. The robed figure raised their hand and spoke in a voice as frosty as her aura. “She is now one of us.”

The demons and witches around them chanted “One of us. One of us” as the room began to swirl around Mena’s face in colors of red and orange. She had to get out of there. Mena attempted to run and leap off the pedestal, but her body seized up. She saw a hand of frozen pink touch her shoulder. Mena turned around; her throat went dry. Anguish’s frostbitten mouth smiled with pleasure and her cold, dead eyes widened, “Mena,” she asked softly before raising her hand. “Where are you going? My party’s only just begun.”

Mena awoke in her bed covered in sweat. She was still woozy from last night. Gemini was standing at the foot of her bed, looking much better from when he collapsed. Ashlan was standing by him, a look of concern on her face.

“Morning, Sleepy-Witch,” Gemini said.

“Mena,” Ashlan cried. “Thank Dula, you’re okay!”

Gemini put his arm on Ashlan’s shoulder. “I told you. It was a tiny bit of sickness from the tethering. You tend to get that when you fuse a Groundborn body with the mind of Dula. It tends to reject it at first.”

“I can’t believe you did that to her,” Aslan growled. “Why would you?”

Gemini gave an all-knowing smile. “She agreed to it. But I should let her talk. How are you feeling, Mena?”

“I…” Mena started. “I had the scariest dream. I dreamed I was also being fused to the Nightmare Void by Anguish….Was I?”

Gemini tilted his head in confusion, and then gave another winsome smile. “Just your overactive imagicnation combined with a fever dream, Witchy-Poo. Unless Anguish manages to take over all of Dula, you will remain tethered only with the dream world.”

Mena breathed out a sigh of relief. In the back of her mind, she had a feeling she wasn’t totally safe, but it was better than being part of the Nightmare Void.

“But you…fainted last night,” Mena responded, changing the topic to the next thing pressing on her mind. “You’re okay now?”

Gemini held out both his gloved hands and shrugged his shoulders. “I had a bit too much spirit last night! Unfortunately, the higher those spirits lift you, the further you tend to fall…”

Mena raised her thick triangular eyebrows. “I’m fine,” Gemini said, and he did a small jig, lifting his legs merrily.

Ashlan and Mena both looked at him like he was crazy, but he gave a cawing laugh. “Just showing you girls I’m fully capable of getting jiggy with it. Now if you excuse me, classes are about to begin.”

“Wait,” Mena cried out, remembering something.

Gemini stopped in his place and Mena continued, “I have a question about a dream I had.”

“Fire away,” Gemini responded with a finger gun.

“The first night,” Mena said, trying her hardest to recount every detail. “I had a dream about a magical golden door in the castle. It said it could make dreams come true if I enter it. Do you know anything about this door?”

Gemini put his hand to his chin and wiggled his eyebrows, before smiling. “That door…”

Mena’s heart throbbed faster, waiting for his answer. The way he looked, he seemed to know something about it.

“Doesn’t exist.”

“Whaaa?” Mena said, almost struck dumb by his response.

“You see, Witchy-Poo. The Dream Castle has a magical power to channel our fondest desires into our dreams. It’s been magically blessed to ensure a night of good dreams and fond memories with very little appearances of night creepers. For whatever lies in your deepest fantasies, Mena, it made you dream of a door that could make your dreams come true.”

“Hmm,” Mena thought about what the headmaster had said. It was truly she had a deep desire for Ashlan and the Tessellations to enjoy her romance novels. It made total sense that she would wish for a way to make that come true. At last Mena nodded. “You’re right.”

“When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, I usually am,” Gemini said with a wink. “Now if you excuse me.”

The Clown Prince of Dreams disappeared behind a giant revolving tarot card, and the morning bell followed. Ashlan gazed at Mena with a sunny smile. “So glad you’re alright, Rainy.”

“Me too,” Mena said.

“We’ve got another class together,” Ashlan said with a giddy expression. “And it’s one of my favorite teachers. Professor Andromeda is so fabulous, and she teaches us to read dreams. You tend to know a lot more about yourself when you understand what appears in your dreams.”

“That does sound exciting,” Mena said. “But first, I’ve got Professor Gaia.”

Ashlan’s face gave a big frown. “Good luck. I call him Captain Bleak. He should realize that nobody cares about his “end of the world” conspiracy theories except for people as crazy as him.”

“And the Tessellation twins,” Mena added.

“Like I said, people as crazy as him,” Ashlan giggled, and Mena did too. “Anyway, I’ll see you later, Rainy. Later today, we’ll be reading dreams together. Perhaps you can tell me the ones you’d like to come true.”

Mena’s cheeks turned red, and she grinned. “Uh, of course! See you around.”

Ashlan exited the room, and Mena excitedly got dressed. It seemed most of her problems were gone. And maybe Ashlan would be open to reading her romance novels if she heard it was one of Mena’s fondest dreams. Full of anticipation, Mena headed towards the bathroom to shower and get dressed for the day.

**

Mena made her way to Gaia’s room at the front of the castle. Not surprisingly, it was laden with all kinds of ominous objects, ranging from an enormous hourglass with black sand, to abacuses with black beads to a stuffed raven perched on his iron chair. In addition, there were tons of snippets of parchment, seemingly torn out of books and pasted to the wall with circles and arrows drawn by the professor himself. Gaia leaned on his desk, his hands folded, covering his mouth. He observed every student to enter. Much to Mena’s dismay, the Tessellation twins entered, but fortunately, they chose to sit away from her, all the way at the front of the room. A small replica of the Dais of Eternity towered above over them, perfectly mimicking the positions of the Hands of Fate. When the last student entered, Gaia abruptly stood up and began to monologue dramatically.

“Autolycus,” he said in his nasal rasp. “Has been sick for a very long time. The magicless have developed such prejudice towards the magically gifted population that the world is basically unlivable for them. Let me ask you, but do not answer for this is rhetorical—How will the Gods deliver swift judgement upon the wicked? A great flood of green slime? A perilous plague of polka dotted penguins? Either way, this will all end in complete…”

Gaia took a deep breath, before bellowing at the top of his lungs, “ANNHIIIIIIILATIOOOOON!”

The class fell silent as Gaia panted for breath, but Laetitia giggled coyly, and Marie held her hand to her face.

Gaia tapped his head. “Draw me a portrait of the man, who predicted the world in a frying pan.”

On the blackboard behind Gaia, white chalk quickly sketched the face of an elderly, bald man with an extremely long beard reaching his chest. Despite his age, he looked grave and solemn with a face that was ready to judge humanity.

“In 140, “Gaia began. “the great doctor, Prognostacus, prophesized the end time was near and Dula would merge with the people of the ground, creating an unstable atmosphere for both.”

Gaia dramatically raised his hand towards the replica of the Dais. “He designed a clock that would predict when our time truly ran out. This, as you know, is called the Dais of Eternity.”

Gaia gave a bold smile and brushed back his full head of curly, brunette hair. “I am the succesor to Prognostacus, even if I consider myself an improvement in the looks and hair department.”

In response, Laetitia held her hand to her head and gave a soft moan, pretending to faint, while Marie rested her head in her hands, fully at attention over Gaia’s words.

“And I guarantee you,” Gaia announced pointing at the dais. “We will be in for a truly wild ride if my updated prophecies come true. But until then, we will study the very signs as they occurred throughout history. First, I’d like you to turn in your books to the Dreadful Cicada Famine of 144.”

For the rest of the class, Mena simply read about disasters in history, and while they were bad, they never actually brought an end to Autolycus. Fortunately for her, it seemed that if you knew these disasters and how they all predicted an eventual end of the world, Gaia would be pleased. Mena left class feeling relieved she didn’t have another incident like in Professor Carrie’s class or a total screw-up like Caligari’s.

As Mena strode through the hall, feeling very excited to get to the next class, she ran into May and Janus. May still looked the same, but Janus’ hair was now dyed purple and black, her stockings matched them with purple and black stripes, and she was wearing the most outrageous circular, pentagram shaped earrings. “Hey Mena,” May said, her round face turning up in a smile. “I’ve finished Love In The Days of Magic if you want to read it.”

“Really?!” Mena exclaimed.

Today got even better. Now she could finally pick up where she was reading before Cletus had stolen her book. “Oh, my magicaps, thank you, May!”

May handed Mena the book, and said, “You’ll love the twist at the end. Who Merlina Magnificant chooses at the end was so exciting it made my thighs sweaty!”

“Uh…” Mena said, still grinning but now imagining May’s sweaty thighs. “I can’t wait.”

“Umm…” Janis asked, her high voice timid and her beady, raccoon eyes full of intrigue. “Are there any death scenes in that book?”

“No…it’s a romance,” Mena quickly said.

The daughter of the reaper pushed her skeletal fingers together, before asking softly. “So then… nobody dies of a broken heart?”

Mena moved away nervously, but May quickly said, “I forgot to introduce you, Mena. This is my roommate, Janus. You don’t need to be afraid of her.”

“Oh, I know her,” Mena responded. “We met in Elixirs.”

“Don’t worry,” Janus said, her voice unsettlingly gentle and her eyes strangely empty. “People get scared of me all the time. It must be my ambitions.”

“Your ambitions?” Mena asked.

Janus’ soft voice raised in excitement and she clasped her hands to her bony chest. “When I get older, I want to reap people in the most romantic ways possible! When they make their loves pact, I’ll appear at their doorstep!”

Mena giggled nervously, but she at least felt safer knowing that May was okay with Janus. As Mena reached the stairwell for the Sun Tower, she parted ways with May and Janus, the thirteenth volume of Melina Penwell’s book in her hand.”

Out of breath as she reached the top of the stairs, Mena was smiling all the same. She could not wait to read dreams with Ashlan and maybe later read the rest of her steamy romance. She entered the door and the Tessellation twins came in right after her. Ashlan was sitting alone, and the two Bourgelf sisters made their way straight to her. Mena’s heart leaped in her chest when she heard what they were talking about. She could not hear all the words, but Mena could make out her name along with “Kumquat May,” and “Dead Eyes Janus.” Suddenly, Ashlan frowned and as Mena sat down next to her, the lioness did not speak.

Professor Andromeda entered the room, and the class soon began, but time had frozen in place for Mena.