I woke up slowly, fighting my way to consciousness, and found myself alone in Emilia’s cabin. I chuckled grimly, still struggling to get used to the strangeness of sleeping in a dream.

  There was a cup of water sitting on a little table next to the bed. The icy cold water hurt my teeth as I gulped it down.

  After drinking my fill, I stood up and walked to the door. I was about to open it when I heard voices coming from the other side.

  “I’m surprised you haven’t taken her.” Emilia’s voice was hard. “Your Captain must know the amount of money being offered for her.”

  “She’s my friend,” Keegan replied. I could feel a swirl of emotions from him – anger, shame, protectiveness. “I would never hurt her.”

  “All of the others were someone’s friend,” Emilia said.

  “You think I don’t know that?” Keegan shouted. “Besides, your Order offered a price for her too, didn't they? You aren’t exactly innocent in this, either.”

  “Please,” Emilia said, her tone biting. “We wanted to protect her, and we would never force a Dreamer to join us or do our bidding. Those who do are despicable.”

  “I am warning you,” Keegan said. “You keep Maria out of your little group, or I will make it my mission to see that you never get another Dreamer as long as I live.”

  “And who is protecting Maria from you?” Emilia demanded.

  “I am,” Keegan said quietly. “You want proof? Here.”

  A moment later Emilia gasped.

  “I will not let him have her,” Keegan said quietly.

  “If you let us…” Emilia began.

  “Not going to happen,” Keegan interrupted harshly. “I’m going to keep her safe. Without your help.” I could hear and feel him walk away.

  Cold air swirled into the cabin as I opened the door. The sun was shining brightly, and the snow reflected the light into my eyes, blinding me.

  “Maria!” Keegan’s voice was surprised as he turned around. He was pulling on his coat.

  Emilia stood a few feet away. “Put on your coat and join us,” she told me. “We have much to discuss.”

  I turned back inside, closing the door. I hadn’t understood half of what they had just said, but I was determined to find out everything it meant. I sat down on the rocking chair to put on my boots, trying to calm the thoughts racing through my mind. Who was Keegan? Why was everyone so afraid of him? Afraid of him hurting me?

  I wanted to demand answers from him, but I didn’t want to make him talk about something that caused such a deep feeling of shame in him that I could still feel it lingering.

  I pulled on my coat and picked up a piece of bread from the table, taking a bite of it as I walked outside.

  Emilia smiled as I approached her. She was standing on the opposite side of the clearing than Keegan. “Did you sleep well?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Where is Cyntia?”

  “She left early this morning. She did not want to raise suspicion by being gone for more than one day. She will be fine,” Emilia said in response to my look of concern. “Did you dream at all?”

  I looked at her, surprised. “You can dream in a dream?”

  She chuckled and nodded.

  “Morning, Ria,” Keegan said, jogging towards us.

  “Hey,” I said, smiling tentatively at him.

  He gave me a quick hug. “You okay?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “How much did you overhear?”

  I looked into his troubled eyes. “Enough to know that you are still getting into trouble over me somehow,” I said. “It’s that pirate captain, isn’t it?”

  A swirl of emotions from Keegan confirmed it for me.

  “What is he doing to you?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Keegan said. A feeling of determination surged through him coupled with the overwhelming urge to protect.

  “I trust you,” I said to him, deciding to let my questions wait until he was ready to talk.

  Keegan smiled a sad smile at me, and I felt relief pour through him. “Thanks.”

  He turned to Emilia and said, “I’m going to show her.”

  She nodded at him, her lips pressed into a tight line. She still didn’t trust him, but I didn’t care. I realized that I couldn’t feel anything from Emilia, even when I tried. I frowned as I considered it, but my attention was distracted as Keegan reached towards the sky.

  He looked like he was grabbing at something invisible. For a moment nothing happened. Then, I heard the air above us start to move. He moved his hand downwards and the swirling air swept over us. It was nothing like the day before. Then, the wind had been wild, fierce. Now it was gentle, ruffling my long hair and brushing by my face.

  Keegan pointed, and the wind swept towards the trees on the edge of the clearing, picking up snow and making the trees sway.

  “That is so awesome,” I said, smiling.

  Keegan frowned. “I wish I could do what I did yesterday, but I can’t seem to get as much force.”

  “You will,” Emilia said. “You just need to practice. You were angry yesterday. Most Dreamers discover their gifts in this world when they are full of some powerful emotion. You can try to do that now, to help you learn, but eventually you will not need to.”

  Keegan nodded.

  “Go try it again,” she said, waving him away as she turned to me. “Now for you, Trader,” she said. “Show me what you can do.”

  I felt taken aback. I wasn’t sure if I could control what I could do. Like Keegan, it seemed to work best when I was feeling some strong emotion.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Come now, do not keep me waiting,” Emilia said, impatiently.

  I nodded, determined to master this strange ability. I tried to focus on one emotion, but it was difficult. I wasn’t really feeling anything very strongly at the moment. I remembered back to the day before, when Cyntia had overwhelmed me with panic. Just thinking about it made me feel panicky again, so I focused on that, letting it flood into me as much as possible.

  Just when I thought that I couldn’t stand it anymore, I pushed the feeling away from me, using all the strength of will that I could muster. The feeling drained from me and raced towards Emilia. Just as it hit her, I felt a surge of energy hit me. I was filled with… nothingness. Emilia huffed as my emotions hit her. For one instant I saw the panic in her eyes, but the next instant it was gone.

  “Very good,” she said, sounding impressed.

  I looked closely at her. “It’s not really you, is it?” I asked.

  Emilia laughed. “No, it is not the true me.” She disappeared for an instant, then reappeared.

  Keegan walked over to us. “That would be a useful skill to have,” he said.

  Emilia appraised him for a moment before turning to me. “What did you feel when you switched emotions with me just now?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” I replied. “Absolutely nothing. It was the strangest feeling I ever had… well, not-feeling I ever had, I guess.”

  Emilia smiled briefly.

  “Why did it fade so quickly?” I asked. “Yesterday I kept feeling things for a while after I would swap.”

  “And when Cyntia did whatever she did to you,” Keegan added.

  “It’s because it is not real,” Emilia explained. “Just as this image, or part of me, is not real.”

  I frowned at her. “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “I can have twenty of me walking around in places separated by thousands of miles. The real me can see and hear what all of them are doing. I can even feel a little bit of what each of them feels.” Emilia reached out and brushed the fur on the arm of my coat.

  “But, the images, or projections, are not truly real. If something happens to one of them, the real me can just make the image disappear. So, their... our... emotions aren’t real.” The not-real Emilia smiled at me.

  “This is so strange,” I muttered.

  Emilia chuckled again. “Yes, but it will be very useful to you when it comes time to rescue Soren.”

  “I don’t understand how what I can do will help at all,” I said, a bit glumly.

  “Really?” asked Emilia, her eyebrows arching. “Think just for a moment about how influential your emotions are to you. What do they make you do, or not do?”

  I thought about it and realized she was right. “Almost everything I do is affected by my emotions,” I conceded.

  Emilia nodded. “Once you learn to completely control your power, you will be able to manipulate almost anyone into doing whatever you wish them to do. Their lives will be in your hands. Now, I want you to swap with Keegan,” Emilia instructed.

  “Umm,” I said, “is that a good idea?”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I mumbled. I couldn’t articulate why I didn’t want to swap emotions with him. I just had a feeling that it would make things too confusing between the two of us.

  “It’s okay, Ria,” Keegan said.

  I nodded, outwardly composed, but inwardly scrambling to find an emotion that I could give to him. I reached out with my mind and tested just the surface of his emotions. All worry from the day before was gone. He was excited, probably about his newfound talent. I smiled ruefully. Trust him to forget all about the serious issues when he found a new game to play.

  Since panic had worked so well with Emilia, I decided to try it on Keegan. I smiled at him playfully. He smirked back at me, confident he could handle whatever I threw at him. I couldn’t feel panicked with him smiling at me.

  I laughed a little and closed my eyes so I could concentrate. I pictured the worst things that could happen in a dream, and my terror swelled.

  Finally, I was ready. I opened my eyes and looked straight at Keegan, shoving my feelings towards him. Panic filled his face, and he drew back, away from me, but after just a second, he had composed himself.

  All of his feelings of excitement and eagerness flooded into me, making me feel giddy. Looking at the worry that was now in his eyes, I felt guilty. I quickly shoved back his excitement and felt the worry and panic come flying back into me. The emotion was not as strong as it had been, and I realized that in my hurry, I hadn’t managed to completely swap emotions.

  All of this had only taken a few seconds. Emilia had watched each of our faces and reactions. Now she nodded. “You only did a partial swap on that second one,” she said. “That’s good.”

  “How so?” I asked. We both turned to look at her. Still feeling guilty, I reached over and squeezed Keegan’s hand in mine. He glanced down at me for a brief moment, surprise filling his eyes. Then he smiled and looked back at Emilia.

  “It is actually rather dangerous to switch emotions so completely with someone. Imagine if someone was intent on killing a person, if they were in the process of doing just that. They could be filled with either rage or hate. If you completely swapped emotions with them, you would be filled with the same rage or hate and would probably kill the person yourself. On the other hand, if you only do a partial switch, the emotion will be dispersed enough that neither of you will commit murder.”

  I nodded my understanding.

  “Now, both of you, back to work,” said Emilia, before walking into her little cabin, leaving the two of us to practice.

  Keegan turned and walked to the other side of the clearing to practice making the wind do things. As I watched him make a small twister whirl across the yard, I felt a surge of pride and sent it flying to him. As it hit him, the twister faltered, then failed altogether, and I felt his concentration, mixed with a little anger come flying into me.

  “Still have to be angry to make it work?” I asked him.

  “Yep,” Keegan replied. “It’s frustrating that it has to be that way, which actually helps me.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

  “It’s pretty amazing,” I said, hoping to take his mind off of things.

  Keegan rolled his eyes. “All that time I spent playing football and never once got a compliment from you. Now I make a little wind fly around, and you think it’s amazing.”

  I shrugged. “It’s definitely more cool.” I left out the part where he hadn’t been talking to me the whole time he had been playing.

  “Maybe, but at least football is real,” he pointed out.

  “This is real too,” I argued.

  “Not in the same way,” Keegan said.

  “I guess,” I agreed. “I guess it is just all happening in our heads. Kind of creepy, huh?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes I still think that I am just crazy. Sometimes I wish I was just crazy.” Keegan’s face clouded over, and he wandered away to the other side of the clearing. Soon little gusts of wind were flying around.

  All morning and late into the afternoon I worked, filling myself with emotions and hurling them at Keegan. I tried to only do partial switches, but it was difficult. Mostly I would be totally free from emotion for a few seconds before Keegan’s emotions slammed into me.

  He managed, most of the time, to keep his emotions so under control that when I switched, I got only faint feelings from him. Mostly he was annoyed, probably because he was trying to concentrate on practicing his own power, and I kept sending him different emotions.

  Finally, when it started to get dark outside, Emilia came out of her cabin and stood watching us.

  “Come,” she called after a few moments.

  We both walked towards her. I felt completely drained. Not only had using my power tired me out, but it was also exhausting to have my emotions be on such a rollercoaster, albeit one of my own making, all day.

  “It is quite remarkable how quickly you both are learning,” said Emilia warmly. She turned and looked at Keegan. “I will tell you something about your ability, Keegan, that you will, I think, be excited to know. You can control all four of the elements.”

  “Really?” he exclaimed.

  “Yes, indeed,” replied Emilia, smiling for a quick moment. “Earth, water, fire, and wind are all yours to command.”

  “That is amazing!” I said.

  “Why has only the wind been moving?” he asked.

  Emilia chuckled. “Because you have been concentrating on it so hard.”

  “Makes sense, I guess. I’ll try the others now,” said Keegan, turning to face the clearing.

  “No, now it is time to come in and eat.”

  As if in response, Keegan’s stomach growled.

  I laughed. “Even in your dreams you’re hungry.”

  Keegan laughed too, and we followed Emilia into her cabin. We ate in silence. Keegan and I were too tired to do any talking. As soon as we finished Emilia told us to go to bed. She banked the fire, then winked out of sight.

  “Well, I guess I’ll sleep on the floor again,” Keegan said, going to the closet where Emilia kept the roll of blankets.

  “Okay,” I mumbled, “Sorry you have to sleep down there.”

  “Hey, it’s fine,” he said, laughing a little. “I’m so tired, I’m sure I’ll pass out in about two seconds.”

  I smiled at him, kicked off my boots, and crawled into bed. Within minutes I was sound asleep.