Mother looked up as I inched the door open. “There you are. Any more dawdling and I was going to come looking for you. I’m about ready to head into the garden and want you to join me.”
“Let me drop off my bag in my room first.” I sauntered sideways to the ladder, Stardust’s dragonfly form flying closely behind.
Mother gave me a stern look. “If you go upstairs, you won’t come back down. It’s not easy to forget seventeen years of your pulling that trick on me.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Stardust darted briefly into view as she peered over my shoulder. “She has colored hair, too,” she hissed excitedly into my ear. “She must be a Weaver. Perhaps she’s the one who—”
I quickly caught her to muffle her. She flew frantically within my cupped grasp, banging against my hand in her attempts to escape.
Mother stared. “What was that?”
“Nothing.” Before she could question me further, I awkwardly clambered up the ladder one-handed and released Stardust once we were safely tucked inside the attic. She popped back into her normal form, fuming.
“You nearly squashed me!”
“What part of being stealthy did you fail to understand? Mother saw you, I’m sure of it. Some detective you are.”
“I highly doubt she saw me, but even if she did, she won’t suspect I’m a cloud because I was shaped like a dragonfly. For your information, not every cloud can change shapes. It’s a unique power that only I possess.”
I rolled my eyes, dumped my bag in the middle of the floor, and curled against the pile of pillows near the window, in no mood to return downstairs to a long morning of gardening. Stardust promptly began examining my bedroom, poking her nose in random places.
“What a fascinating place, except—” She crinkled her nose. “It’s quite stuffy in here. Can you open a window?”
I sniffed the air. “It smells fine.”
“It smells like dirty laundry. Earth sure is messy.” She twirled around the beams of the slanted ceiling and paused to jiggle one. “Surprisingly unstable. I didn’t know Mortal structures were so dangerous. One crack from this and it’d tumble down and crush you. Buildings built from soft clouds are far more practical.”
“Real practical considering such buildings don’t exist,” I said. “We have to make due with stone and mortar.”
“Of course they exist; the Dream World is full of them.”
I scrunched my forehead. “The Dream World?”
“The magical world in the sky where I’m from.”
I scrambled to a sitting position. “There’s a secret world where magic exists?” Was one of the legends whispered amongst the villagers actually true?
“Of course,” Stardust said. “Everyone with magic lives there.”
Then why didn’t I live there, too?
“It’s a fantastic place,” she continued. “The streets are paved with gold, the trees grow jewels, and the buildings are made of clouds. Dreamers use their powers to paint sunsets, create flowers, and develop new senses, but their main purpose is creating dreams, which yield powerful magic.”
“Dreams are created?”
“Yes, by the Dreamers and Nightmares who live in the Dream World.” Stardust opened my trunk at the foot of my bed and began pulling the contents out at random. “Where else would they come from?”
Hundreds of different thoughts swarmed my mind at once, making it difficult to know which question to ask first. “Are dreams created for everyone?”
“Everyone who is Mortal,” she said. “Every magical being has a weaving assignment. As the primary source of dream dust, Dreamers and Nightmares rely on dreams to strengthen their powers.”
Then why didn’t I dream? I yearned to ask Stardust, but I was sure my inability to receive dreams was just as unusual as my ability to see others’, and Stardust was already suspicious of me. “How are dreams created?”
Stardust shook her head. “I’ve given you more than enough information already. Until I know what and who you are, my lips are sealed.” She tried pulling one of my dresses over her head, but it was far too small. She wriggled out of it, tossed it away, and dug her nose back into my trunk.
“Stop poking around in there; you’ll make a mess.”
She glanced around my bedroom, covered in dozens of untidy towers of junk. “Like you need my help with that.”
I stomped over and snapped the trunk shut, nearly on top of her.
“You must have some pretty dark secrets you’re hiding,” she said. “You’re only getting higher on my suspect list.”
Below, Mother’s footsteps paused beneath the ladder that led to my loft. “Eden, stop dawdling and help me tend the garden.”
Stardust smirked. “Finally, an opportunity to snoop. I’m sure this place is just bursting with clues.”
I didn’t like the idea of leaving a cloud to her own devices for an entire morning. Who knew what kind of mischief she’d cause? “No poking around until I get back.”
She sighed. “You’re really bossy. Luckily, detectives are never unprepared.” She reached inside herself and pulled out a fat coloring book. She flicked through all of the brightly colored pages—all so expertly shaded they looked like miniature paintings—and paused at the first blank page. She produced a box of crayons and, humming to herself, started coloring the sheep in her picture a vibrant turquoise. She noticed me watching and shielded her book. “Do you mind?”
“Eden!” Mother’s tone was at breaking point. “If you’re not down here in one minute, I’m coming up there.”
“You better go,” Stardust said in a singsong voice. “Don’t worry about me; I’ll stay up here and wait for you.” She batted her eyes innocently…too innocently.
“Stay out of my things.” After one final warning glare, I descended the ladder.
The heat of the sun dispelled much of the autumn chill while it beat down on my neck as it rose higher in the sky, my only measurement of the passing morning. The flowers’ perfume tickled my nose in the soft breeze that tangled my hair. Mother harvested herbs in the side garden while I halfheartedly trimmed the rose bushes in
