The few clouds covering the setting sun drifted away as Diana’s face came into view, allowing her eyes to glow with uncompromising intensity. Although she stood several yards down the hill, her posture staggered due to the uneven and slightly rocky ground, the older Dream Knight appeared to be staring down at Lucy with her brow emphatically furrowed.

  “Let me make this clear.” Diana’s voice emerged with obstinate grandeur, a hill of its own looming over everyone within earshot. “You’re not getting any ‘special treatment,’ or whatever you want to call it. You’re the last ally I have left, and I’m a decent human being. If you want to read into it any more than that, be my guest.”

  She paused here, and Lucy expected that to be the end of it. But Diana remained motionless, staring with cutting depth into Lucy’s eyes, her brow still furrowed. Time crept on, the sun sinking deeper behind Diana’s silhouette. Then, with a momentary pause in which her mouth hung open, Diana added: “That’s all. Get your head out of the clouds and focus.”

  With that, she turned back around, her crimson cape fluttering in the wind like a standard of war, and continued her confident, measured trek downhill.

  Lucy stared at her descending figure for a moment, then felt Kenneth tugging at her hand. He looked at Lucy expectantly, and Lucy nodded as she resumed walking downhill with him again.

  They followed Diana more closely this time, Lucy staring at her cape-covered and armour-encased back that betrayed zero emotion. There was relentless precision in each step she took, devoid of any hesitation or second-guessing, but one had to wonder if this came not only from fervent confidence but also from the conscious decision to look ever forward without entertaining the thought of a look back.

  Lucy’s gaze wandered to Kenneth walking by her side, occasionally hampered by steep descents or tall rock rises which Lucy had to help him overcome, yet the boy continued wearing an expression of calm. She remembered his face on that nameless, endless road, and wondered if right now Diana was wearing a similar expression. Not exactly the same, but hardened, tempered, emboldened by the fires that had forged her into the unforgiving individual she was now.

  Reminiscing about the endless road brought with it memories of Ricardo and how he had said a similar road existed in his own Final Dream. All Dream Knights are Dreamers, he had emphasized. If so, did that mean Diana had something in her own Dream to be rescued from?

  It was a strange thing to be pondering, especially as Lucy’s feet followed as if pulled along by strings held by the uncompromising Dream Knight before her, but the reason for it had been in Diana’s eyes just moments ago. Although her glare had been sharp and deflective, there was also a conscious effort behind how she had unblinkingly held Lucy’s gaze. It had been faint, but perhaps thanks to Lucy’s Primary Axis, she had caught the most fleeting traces of weariness in Diana’s eyes. A familiar weariness. If Kenneth and the endless road had reminded Ricardo of his father, then perhaps Lucy and her behaviour stirred up similarly complicated memories for Diana.

  “What did you see inside those windows?”

  “Huh?”

  “Miss Lucy!”

  Lucy had been so caught up within her own mind that she failed to register Diana’s cape fluttering as she stopped and turned around. If not for Kenneth pulling her back, she would have tripped right into the older Dream Knight.

  “Sorry,” Lucy said, finding her balance again and glancing at Kenneth to confirm that he was fine.

  Looking back at Diana, Lucy was met with a scowl and eyebrows furrowed in disdain. This time, Lucy couldn’t argue, as it was entirely her own fault. She opened her mouth, but what could she say? If she tried to explain that she was thinking of how she might help Diana herself on a personal level, there was no doubt that whatever small rapport Lucy had built up with her would soon go up in flames.

  “Save it,” Diana interjected. “You can keep those useless daydreams to yourself. Just watch where you’re going or you’ll blow the cover for all of us.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Blow the cover?” Lucy realized that she and Diana were on level ground now. The start of the hill rose behind her and Kenneth, and opposite that was a wall and gate made up of bricks that reminded Lucy of the alleyway she had found herself in when she emerged in Kenneth’s Dream. Houses of that very same sort stood beyond the gate, so she couldn’t see who or what lay beyond it, but from that direction came the prattling of many footsteps, the murmur of people speaking and yelling and arguing, and further in the distance the steady clop of horses gallopping.

  Just like that, the three of them had returned to the castle town.

  “We’re not going any farther without a plan,” said Diana. “That’s why I’m asking what you saw in that window. Of course, it’s pointless if all you and Ricardo ended up doing was frolick through flowers and rainbows.”

  Lucy gave an uncomfortable half-chuckle. “What makes you think that’s what happened?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, it sounds like the sort of thing you Standies would get up to together,” Diana said with dry sardonicism. “But since that’s where Ricardo got injured, I’m sure it was something important. So please, enlighten me.”

  Lucy’s body tensed as apprehension took hold of her. The last time she’d told Diana about what she was up to while she was away, it had led to a bitter denouncement from Diana followed by a bitter disagreement that escalated into a scuffle between the two knights. That had ended poorly for Lucy, and she could still feel the aches all over her body from being thrown into the church pews, but regardless of the outcome she didn’t want a repeat of that hostility.

  Still, Lucy knew that there would be nothing gained from keeping Diana in the dark about what they had seen from Ken’s “inner Dream,” especially as it had shone light on the queen’s true identity. With this in mind, she let out a deep breath and said to Diana, “All right.”

  She looked at Kenneth still holding her hand watching the conversation unfold with curiosity. She wasn’t sure if Kenneth fully remembered what had transpired back in that other space, given that his body and mind had regressed, but Lucy didn’t want to risk bringing him into this recollection of serious events given that they portrayed life experiences that had left deep mental scars on the boy. She suspected that this would all have to be brought up with Kenneth at some point since they were likely to be the crux to rescuing him from this Dream, but before that happened she and Diana needed to have a plan.

  For this reason, Lucy knelt down at Kenneth’s side and said: “Kenneth, Diana and I need some time to talk, so could you help us by hiding near the gate and letting us know if someone’s coming?”

  Kenneth gave a sure nod, his eyes meeting Lucy’s wide and clear to show his commitment, and then he scampered off toward a brush of trees right by the gateway. For a boy his age, he was delightfully well-behaved and quick to be of help, which made it ache all the more in Lucy’s heart to know that he had been through a hell of his own ever since that fateful accident.

  Looking between the Kenneth and Diana, Lucy realized the gravity of what she was about to discuss with her fellow Dream Knight. Diana had always given off the impression of being indifferent to the boy, and what didn’t help was their earlier encounter with the queen where Kenneth had inadvertently granted the foe invulnerability over what had seemed like mere trifling matters. Even now, Diana only briefly spared the boy a glance as he passed by, as though he were no more than a stranger’s child on the street. Now that it was down to Lucy and Diana to complete the rescue, Lucy knew that this view Diana had of Kenneth couldn’t stay as it was, lest she once again try to silence the boy through forceful means.

  With this in mind, Lucy stepped up toward Diana, her gaze unflinching as her solid step crunched a branch underfoot. “All right, then. I’ll tell you what Ricardo and I saw.”

  And so Lucy did, recounting Kenneth’s younger self walking along the endless road, the all-consuming flame rising out of the disaster that had befallen Kenneth’s parents, and the encounter and conflict at Kenneth’s new home that had revealed the queen’s true identity. As Lucy let loose these words to the cool evening air, the setting sun and fleeting clouds appeared to ever so slightly change course in response, as if Lucy’s retelling of Kenneth’s memories were subtly reawakening something in the very fabric of the world. Most notably, the sun blazed larger and stronger when Lucy was describing the demise of Kenneth’s parents, and Lucy even had to wipe sweat off her brow. She occasionally glanced over at Kenneth as she spoke, hoping he wasn’t actually listening in.

  Diana drank all of this in with her arms crossed and her eyes nearly unblinking. Through all the shifts in the sky overhead, including the sudden increase in temperature, she remained perfectly obstinate, her very figure an obelisk that stood in direct opposition to anything that Kenneth’s Dream might try to impose. Although Lucy felt slightly unnerved from how she couldn’t read Diana’s opinion of the events she was describing, Lucy nonetheless found it somewhat admirable how unfazed Diana was by everything she was hearing and everything around her, refusing to yield her convictions to influence or circumstance. She maintained a firm but relaxed grip on her spear, in much the same way Lucy securely rested her right hand on her sword’s handle, and Lucy thought of how Understanding and Rebellion shared, if nothing else, at least a commonality in withstanding the troubles of the world.

  Perhaps that was the key to how she and Diana would combine their strengths to rescue Kenneth once and for all.