“I didn’t mean to upset you. I’ve just never met a cloud before.”
She stopped spinning and beamed, her eyes sparkly. “Am I really your first? What an honor. This calls for a formal introduction. My name’s Stardust. What's yours?”
“I’m Eden.”
“Ooh, pretty.” Her entire body ruffled as she giggled. “This is so exciting. I’ve never met a Mortal before.” Her eyes widened. “Wait…can you see me?”
I nodded, but apparently it was the wrong response. She gasped and zipped into the forest to duck out of sight behind an evergreen.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mortals shouldn’t be able to see clouds,” she explained from behind the tree.
“But I can see you.”
Stardust peeked around the trunk. “But you’re not supposed to, so I’m not coming out until I’m invisible again.”
I waited for a moment, but when she didn’t reappear I crept over and peered behind the tree. Stardust floated a foot off the ground, her eyes squeezed shut, dead leaves and pine needles strewn across her in a hasty attempt at camouflage.
“Can you still see me?”
“Definitely.”
Deflated, she plopped to the ground. “How strange. I’ve wandered Earth gazillions of times and no one has ever seen me before. There must be something wrong with you, because obviously there’s nothing wrong with me.” A whiff of pine filled the air as she shook off the leaves and needles covering her and studied me. “What exactly are you?”
It was a question that haunted me everyday. Someone who practiced magic and saw others’ dreams without having her own was definitely abnormal.
“Hello? Aren’t you going to answer? Are you a Mortal or a Weaver?”
“Mortal,” I said automatically. I wasn’t sure what a Weaver was, but it was certainly something bad.
“You can’t be. Mortals are inferior and don’t have the ability to see magical things.” Stardust studied me closely, her gaze lingering on my hair and eyes. “Lilac hair, violet eyes, the ability to see me…you’re definitely a Weaver, and therefore you must have magic.”
“Shh, not so loud.” My gaze darted towards the wall separating us from the bustling market. “You can’t say that word; somebody might hear you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Stardust scoffed. “There’s no one around, and even if there were, I already told you: only magical beings would be able to see or hear me. Pity, really.”
Even if that were true, someone stumbling on me talking to a seemingly invisible cloud was the last thing I needed. “Perhaps we could go somewhere a bit more private?”
Stardust’s eyes narrowed into thin orange slits. “Oh, you want to go somewhere more private, do you?”
I shifted beneath her accusatory glare. “Is that alright?”
She harrumphed. “How very suspicious. Here I’ve come to investigate an unusual magical occurrence, and before I’ve even started, you attempt to lure me away from the scene of the crime. Are you hiding something?”
“No,” I said, a bit more hastily than I intended.
“Oh really?” Her eyes glistened. “Then what’s a magical possessor like you doing on Earth long after Weavings are over? You know the rules: Weavers aren’t allowed to linger after weaving.”
What in the world was she talking about? “I wasn’t weaving. I don’t even know what that is.”
She snorted. “Your lies are no match for me. All Dreamers and Nightmares weave, and if you’re on Earth not weaving, then you must be up to something—most definitely something illegal—and I’m here to get to the bottom of it.”
“I have no idea what suspicious magical event you’re talking about, but I know I had nothing to do with it.”
“Don’t play stupid,” she said. “I know you felt the large burst of magic that occurred here eight minutes and forty-two seconds ago. That doesn’t give me much time; the dream dust will fade away soon if I don’t contain it.”
My heart pounded. Could she be talking about Alice’s shattered dream? “What kind of magical burst?”
“That’s what I’m here to find out. Whether you’re innocent or not remains to be decided, but there’s no question you were around here when it happened, and it’s the duty of every detective to follow all possible leads. If you’re really ‘innocent’—although I use that term loosely—you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions, would you?” She smirked, as if daring me to reject her proposal.
“I have nothing to hide.”
She shook her head doubtfully. “We shall see. Now, did you see anything unusual here approximately nine minutes and sixteen seconds ago?”
I fidgeted. “What do you mean by unusual?”
“Something magical, of course,” she said. “If you were really around when it happened, it should have been obvious.”
I shifted a pebble back and forth with my foot, debating whether or not to cooperate. “I may have felt something over there.” I pointed in the opposite direction of the oak I’d perched in only minutes before, several yards from where Alice’s dream had shattered.
With a pop Stardust changed her frothy cloud-like shape into a cloud magnifying glass. “Time for Detective Stardust’s investigation skills.”
She began examining the entire area, studying every bit of fauna, each blade of grass, and around the base of every tree that cradled the forest’s border. Occasionally, she morphed into a notebook and scribbled inside herself with a crayon, muttering to nobody in particular.
She paused to squint at something and gasped excitedly. “Eden, come quickly! I’ve found something.” She hovered at the base of an evergreen, goggling at specks of olive-green dust. She looked expectantly up at me for acknowledgment of her finding.
“What is it?”
“My first clue.” She practically glowed. “A Nightmare has been here recently, and by this evidence we know he or she performed magic.”
My attention perked. There were others like myself who could do magic? Unease seeped over me as my gaze darted to the trees where I’d seen that mysterious person watching me. “A Nightmare?” I asked hesitantly.
“Don’t you know what a Nightmare is?” She ignored my blank stare and sniffed the dust. “Still fresh. I’d wager it’s approximately ten minutes
