Vardis nodded. His eyes looked murky as if they were losing themselves to thoughts that could not be held. “Not the same planet, but the same realm. But I can see that you know that already. Where I come from, nearly all sentient beings can share each other’s dreams.”
“Where are you from?”
Vardis looked somberly at Alex. “If I were to tell you, it would mean nothing. It is only able to be said in the common language of my people, and I am afraid that your consciousness would not understand. We speak in something like image forms when conversing about our heavenly bodies. It is the only way to properly describe them.”
“That sounds really cool. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. But is that what you called me here to talk about? Myrddin said you called for me by name.”
“That is true. I wished to know how you acquired the ability to dream. Based on what I’ve seen, my assumption was that the wizard was in charge here.” Vardis paused, looking Alex over. “Yet it was you, a child with whom I can dream. I find that interesting. How did it happen?”
Alex looked over at Myrddin. She knew he was listening and she wasn’t sure how much she should tell Vardis. No one knew what Vardis was doing here other than his vague promise to give them something that would stop the Dark One forever. He hadn’t said anything else about the subject. For all they knew, this could be an elaborate trap.
But how could telling Vardis about her meeting with the Dark One’s essence backfire? She hadn’t learned anything important, hadn’t walked away with pertinent information. All she had received from the Dark One were terrible nightmares.
Myrddin’s voice popped into Alex’s head. Tell him whatever you think he should know. It was so surprising that Alex nearly jerked off the bench. Don’t react too much, Myrddin said telepathically. But as of this moment, I don’t see the need to be secretive about your fight with the Dark One.
Alex thought back, When did you start being telepathic?
When it started being useful for you to know.
Alex turned her attention back to Vardis. “Uh, a while back, a meteor fell here. We thought your ship was the same kind of thing. The meteor wasn’t a rock, though, more like a giant hive filled with these weird monsters. And the Dark One. There was an essence of the Dark One, and I interacted with it. I went inside whatever that thing’s mind was. That’s how I acquired the ability to enter your dream.”
“That would explain it. A truly unique skill amongst your kind. I believe even among wizards, it is rare.”
Vardis leaned forward and stared at Myrddin. Alex wasn’t sure if this was a challenge or something but it made her feel extremely uncomfortable. There was a weird vibe going on between Myrddin and Vardis. Alex didn’t know how to answer Vardis. She had no idea what wizards were capable of.
“So, what are you doing here?” Alex asked.
“As I said,” Vardis began, “I am here to—”
There was a loud boom in the distance, and the room quaked. Cracks shot through the barrier like bolts of lightning. Alex and Vardis were thrown to the floor. On the other side of the room, Myrddin waved his hand, and the glass separating him and Roy from Alex and the alien disappeared.
A screeching alarm blared through the quarantine area as Myrddin and Roy helped Alex and Vardis to their feet. “What the hell was that?” Alex asked as another boom set the room shaking again.
Myrddin conjured a HUD into existence and pulled it up over his eyes. “An explosion,” he replied. “We’re under attack on the east side of the campus.”
Alex’s heart jumped up in her chest. During the last invasion of the Nest, they had lost so many cadets. The image of their bodies stacked in the main hall while orcs massacred the unarmed teenagers was burned vividly into Alex’s mind. It didn’t seem as if it were ever going away.
This can’t be happening again, Alex kept repeating to herself as her feet went cold. The chill ran up her legs and nestled in her stomach, where it grew and grew, pinpricks of ice all up and down her skin.
The last few months of victorious missions faded away as if they’d never happened. There was only the invasion. The constant invasion. It had never stopped. Alex knew that now.
The tightness in Alex’s chest was slight at first. There was no indication that it was growing until she found herself on her knees, gasping for breath. She couldn’t hear anything other than the explosions and the screams of children, the trampling of feet running for life.
She felt something on her back. It was an orc, had to be. She whirled around, striking it with her robotic arm as hard as she could.
Myrddin stood over her, a magical barrier floating in front of him. The barrier was more badly cracked than the glass in the room. “Alex, what’s happening?”
Alex opened her mouth to speak but only screams came out before she doubled over again, grabbing her head, trying to keep from slipping into the darkness that clawed at her from the inside.
Jollies was dead in her hands while orcs dragged Gill away. Brath was screaming and kicking as two orcs took hold of his arms and legs, ripping him apart. Jim was lying face-down in a pool of his own blood. They were all dead. All of them.
Alex leaped up and backed against the wall as tears rolled down her cheeks, and she kept shaking her head.
Myrddin stepped over to the rider. As he waved his hand over her head, mist came from his fingers, covering her.
The panic broke, and Alex hiccupped. She still didn’t feel as if she were in her
