Leanna and Ursun felt a heaviness cover them as they were put into a deep slumber that mimicked Prism’s own alien sleep cycle. They fell deeper and deeper into unconsciousness until they were in a state close to death itself. From that altered state, Prism brought them into the dreamscape that he'd been pulled into since he first fell asleep on the Sguvan continent. Leanna and Ursun’s psychic forms within the dream took on the same shapes as their physical bodies, armor and all. Prism’s form, on the other hand, was as naked as it was in nearly all of his dreams.

  The three of them became aware of their formless surroundings soon after their bodies formed. They all stood upon a white void that seemed to stretch on for infinity in all directions. A scene of the vast, darkened cosmos began to stretch out all around them. The immense blackness swallowed up the light until it was merely pinpricks and splotches of gaseous color in the background. Leanna looked around with amazement in her eyes while Ursun stood beside her with his arms crossed.

  “Reminds me of a sim game I played when I was a kid,” said Ursun. His voice echoed through the area as though they were standing within a long narrow hallway. “Feels like the buggy thing, too.”

  “I never got into those. We Xypnos can get super-addicted to them pretty easily” Leanna explained. She took a few steps forward to see what would happen. She felt her right foot stick to the invisible floor, then her left. No matter how hard she tried to raise them, her feet stayed rooted. “Is this normal?” She asked Prism while trying to suppress her panic.

  “No, not at all…” Prism looked down at her feet with a passive expression. He walked around her until he was standing in front of her, showing all of them that he was unimpeded. He then waved his hand in the air above Leanna’s legs in an attempt to dispel whatever held her in place, earning him a painful shock that made him flinch.

  “A trap!?” Ursun hissed through gritted teeth. He too was rooted in place.

  “It’s for their own good.”

  The three of them instinctively looked around the inky vastness for the voice that they all recognized. Ursun and Leanna both felt a surge of elation that cut through the concern they had about being stuck.

  “Jaik!?” Leanna shouted. She reached up to tap the side of her smart-visor in an attempt to scan their surroundings. She then felt stupid when her fingers merely met the flesh on the side of her face.

  “It can’t be him…” Ursun began shaking his head. He looked at Prism, who simply stood silently staring straight up, then asked, “…can it?”

  “Why are you trying to force them out?” Prism asked the emptiness above him.

  “In here, they’re completely under Eizavoba’s control. That thing’s tendrils have been in our friends’ minds since they were born,” echoed Jaik’s youthful voice.

  “Eizavoba?” Leanna said as she scrunched up her face like she’d smelt something foul.

  “I can stop Eizavoba from doing that.” Prism said in a monotone voice.

  “Is that Jaik, or not!?” Ursun screamed, interrupting the others.

  Prism lowered his head and watched Ursun’s face closely. The man’s whole body was shaking with anger and confusion. Prism worried that Ursun might snap at any moment.

  “I only just realized myself…that Jaik “survived,” I mean…” Prism said. He shook his head for a few seconds and then said, “He’s been hiding in my mind for the last year…sometimes even “helping” me.”

  “The trances…” Leanna gasped.

  “You know now…” Jaik said. His disembodied voice sounded sad, even remorseful.

  “Why have you been hiding, Jaik!? Why didn’t you let us know that you were still…here?” Ursun struggled to speak as his mind struggled to make sense of the unthinkable.

  “I ha-”

  Jaik’s voice trailed off after taking on a strange timbre that made the others shiver. Their surroundings began to undulate like the surface of water being disturbed. A feeling of increased pressure began to be felt in the heads of Leanna and Ursun’s psychic bodies. Prism reached out his hands towards both of them and braced himself.

  “Something’s…ripping my head open!” Ursun screamed through gritted teeth.

  “I can’t…hear my own…thoughts!” Leanna shouted. She grabbed her head and writhed in pain while still standing.

  “Stop this!” Prism yelled up at the distorted sky of stars that began to twist and morph until two moons, one red and one blue, hovered high above the three of them. The ground beneath them became luminous white sand that expanded out from where they stood until it was the only landscape they could see.

  Prism strained to expel the creeping influence that threatened to consume Leanna and Ursun, but it was a fight he had little chance of winning. Prism saw what looked like white marionette strings descend from the sky and attach themselves to his teammates, to his friends. The light of the twin moons above reflected off of the strings, making them appear like the gossamer spun by spiders of the night.

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  “I won’t let them fall into your web!” Prism said as he focused the entirety of his stored power on the source of the strings. “I came prepared this time!”

  The space shuddered with the force unleashed upon it. A stream of colors shot up into the air from Prism’s mental form straight up at the replicas of the moons Eiza and Voba. They glowed brighter and brighter as Prism’s magic entered them until they appeared molten. Within seconds, they were exploding as though the celestial bodies had collided into one another, a feat only possible within a dream.

  A gruesome sound blasted throughout the area while what remained of the moons faded from view. Prism covered his ears and cast a spell to shield his allies, almost forgetting that he was in a realm of the mind. He saw Leanna and Ursun regaining their autonomy, even taking a few tentative steps.

  “What the hell is happening!?” Ursun said. He squeezed the bridge of his nose and looked up at the small cluster of rocks seemingly in orbit above them.

  Leanna crouched down and picked up a handful of white sand. She let it flow out of her hand, observing the grains as they fell. Each one took a little too long to slide downwards, and moved a little too oddly for her keen mind not to notice. “Another planet, perhaps?” She mused quietly to herself.

  “You’re showing your true colors now.” Prism said to the sky. Leanna looked over at him, eager for answers.

  “You’ve involved even more of your friends in our conversation. I only wanted to speak to you, Prism.”

  “It sounded like random chimes or bells, but it somehow makes sense to me…” Leanna remarked. She stood back up and looked up at where Prism had been addressing. She tried not to let the previous events spoil her chance to study what sounded to her like the existence of an actual god.

  "Things like that are possible in dreams. Don't think about it too much." Prism said to Leanna. She looked dissatisfied with the explanation, but suppressed her desire to ask more questions.

  “You must be “Eizavoba". The real question is...are you the same Eizavoba described in the Gwit?" Ursun said while rubbing the dark orange hair on his chin.

  "The two of you need not concern yourselves with my identity," the invisible chiming communicated. "Prism has safeguarded you from me through great effort. I will not enforce my will upon you again if you remain quiet while he and I speak."

  "Threatening them, now? What happened to all that "we are not enemies" crap you were spouting last time?" Prism said. He shook his head in contempt.

  "Your memory is unclouded by the Meddler. Very good." Eizavoba chimed.

  "Are you talking about Jaik?" Leanna asked without thinking. She suddenly became wracked with intense pain that caused her to yelp and fall to her knees.

  "Stop!" Prism commanded the Eizavoba, who relinquished their hold on Leanna. She was left wheezing on her hands and knees. "Fuck...did I just end up bringing him two hostages!?" Prism thought. He could feel the sweat dripping down the forehead and neck of his sleeping body back in reality, telling him how tenuous his connection to the dreamscape was becoming.

  Eizavoba’s jingling voice turned into cold clangs that blasted through the dream. “This is not a place for human minds,” Eizavoba communicated. “Humans can make contact with me in the Everafter when their lives come to an end. I don’t want to cause your friends pain, but I will expedite their journeys towards death if they continue to get in the way of our conversation.”

  Prism looked at Leanna, who was still shaking from the sudden, painful intrusion into her mind. She dared not speak again and merely nodded her understanding to him. Ursun looked pissed but nodded all the same. "They'll be witnesses, then." Prism told himself.

  "What have you done with the Meddler?" Prism asked Eizavoba, again addressing the sky.

  "I cannot do anything to the Meddler because it hides himself from me. It annoys me," Eizavoba's clangs rang out.

  "You seem to be able to feel...and you also seem to possess empathy...why do you harm my friends? Why does the idea of them speaking to you outside of your Everafter offend you so much?" Prism asked in earnest.

  The noise that represented Eizavoba's voice took on the sound of sonorous notes being played upon a xylophone. "It is difficult enough for me to maintain this space and to draw you into it. I have undertaken a great effort to speak with you, and you have only increased my effort by bringing two more minds here with you. That and the machinations of the Meddler have pushed me to a state of desperation, Prism. I have little choice but to force your cooperation."

  Prism frowned at the strangely ordered and seemingly sincere confession of the supposed god. He looked over at his allies and saw the frustration of their utter confusion clear on their faces. Prism closed his eyes and pondered why he himself was not as confused as they were. He barely knew as much as they did about the situation.

  "You chose the worst time to reach out to me." Prism said with a shrug. "A vicious battle is probably about to happen out in the waking world, and I'm the key to helping the less odious side win. I'm too tired and too stressed out to chat with you about whatever ridiculous plans you have to add me to your collection of minds."

  "You are a pawn in the Queen's game. She uses war to diminish ?ba's population, thereby diminishing me. You could be an agent of peace, a brave hero who returns ?ba to an era of unity and prosperity." The notes of Eizavoba's voice were pleasing to the ear.

  "The Queen...knows about you?" Prism asked. It didn't make sense to him.

  "She has been removing herself and her "Kingdom" from my embrace for centuries. She denies all the good that I offer humanity, instead seeing me as a malignant force that must be subverted at all costs. She restrains my power over the physical world by keeping humanity's number at a mere one billion. Her neverending war fills their minds with so much anxiety as to poison them to me. She even supplants belief in me with belief in her. She is madness personified."

  Prism thought over Eizavoba's words, which disturbed him. It muddled the Queen's motivations to him, casting her in an almost sympathetic light. "Could the Queen really have committed so many atrocities simply to stave off this parasitic entity?" Prism thought to himself. He could see the same thoughts running through Leanna and Ursun's minds. "But why? Why was Eizavoba's influence over humanity so harmful that it warranted so much death and pain?" Prism's thoughts continued.

  "I am not cruel, and I do not harm outside of extreme circumstances where my survival is on the line." Eizavoba said, clearly reading the thoughts of the others. "You are perhaps humanity's last hope of liberating themselves from the Queen's cavalcade of carnage. She currently uses the nations under her thrall as meatgrinders for both their own people and the people of the Conjunction. When that eventually fails, she will march her murderous Knights across ?ba to sow terror and discord."

  "If I stop the Queen, there's no guarantee that her supporters won't keep fighting for centuries after she's dead. I could very well just end up turning her into history's greatest martyr." Prism said.

  "I will wipe this world's memory of her once she and her nation are dealt with. I will restore peace on ?ba by giving its people a fresh start, free from the trauma of the last millenia." Eizavoba was bold enough to state.

  "You're asking me to commit genocide so that you can then force all of humanity into some sort of mass amnesia?" Prism crossed his arms and shook his head. "I won't do that. The fact that you could even affect a billion minds in that way tells me why you're a threat to humanity."

  The environment around Prism, Leanna, and Ursun began to drip away like wax melting down the edges of a candle. Prism leapt over to his teammates' sides, stood closely between them, and placed his hands on their armor. He braced them for a forced closure of the dreamscape, an act that would kill those unprepared for it by permanently stripping their minds from their bodies.

  Their now-liquid surroundings pooled at their feet, leaving the white space that they'd originally entered into. The black, star-filled liquid slowly flowed several meters away from the trio, then took on a black, humanoid shape speckled with white lights. "Rest, now. Perhaps you will find the wisdom of my words once your minds are at ease," said Eizavoba in the chiming sounds that the entity had first used to communicate.

  Prism felt the unseen ground give way beneath his feet, and the fall that came soon after. He held onto Leanna and Ursun as he sent magics into their psychic forms to wake them. "Don't worry, I'm just falling into a dreamless sleep," he reassured them. "Leave me be for a few hours. I don't think Eizavoba will hurt me after suggesting I get some rest." Ursun nodded to Prism, but Leanna grabbed Prism's arm. Prism watched her worried face and the rest of their forms fade away while he willingly fell deeper into unconsciousness.