Chapter 10 - Guidance of Dreams

It's there. In the school.

Dahlia was in the void once more, drifting slowly downwards deeper where there is no end in sight. All the while a person falls simultaneously directly above her. As she stares up at the pitch black figure, darker than the void it reaches and cups the cheeks on her face.

It's there. I'll help you know when it's close.

"Hah!"

Dahlia shakes awake from the dream and sits up. The sounds of seagulls come through her window and the morning sun bleeds through her shut curtains. Immediately Dahlia gets up out of bed and proceeds to prepare herself for the day. 

From washing to brushing, to applying to dressing, Dahlia proceeds downstairs dressed in the Polaris uniform. A white shirt with a black blazer rimmed with yellow threads, bearing the Polaris Sun emblem on it. She has black stockings and a skirt that she modified with some fabric to be longer as it was originally almost above her knees which she disliked.

Once she entered the kitchen she had begun to prepare herself a meal. She had been making her own breakfast in Hencacount as breakfast is normally not available due to Lemon sleeping in.

When Dahlia finishes, she hears behind her movement and turns to see Lemon with purple vines wrapped around her skin ready to grab Dahlia, before she realises who she's looking at and relents.

"Why are you up? It's 6:00 am!" said Lemon, exasperated and groggy.

Dahlia put down her utensils and got up from her chair, "This is the normal time isn't it? I have to be at the academy by 7:00."

"Where does it say that?!" she exclaims, grabbing the pamphlet from the table they had gotten from Suzuki yesterday.

Tsumi walks down, wearing a sleeping robe he's snuggled up in and looks wearily at Dahlia.

"You begin at 9:00 Dahlia." says Tsumi.

Dahlia looks between the two and feels as if she made a mistake. Tsumi sits on a kitchen stool and thinks through what Dahlia could do.

"Just wait here, I'll get ready." he yawns.

"Yes. Ahem, I apologise Mr. Hato and Ms. Gordana." Dahlia slinked back a little and felt like she sank into her shoes slightly.

Tsumi raises his hand, "No, no. I should've guessed you were an early riser."

An hour goes by where Tsumi gets ready. He is dressed smartly with a beige suit, a brown tie and all in all appearing sharp, even despite his messy hair. Dahlia asks him what it is he and Lemon will be doing.

"I'm an investor, investing in this year's Polaratus. As such I will be rubbing shoulders in the admin of the island." he guesses.

Lemon has not come down, instead she went back to sleep and is planning to sleep till noon. Tsumi continues to explain.

"Lemon will be a simple housewife, walking around and checking out places we're too busy to go to."

Dahlia continues, "And I will be looking at the students and the teachers."

"Correct. We still have over an hour before the day begins but you can walk up now, I'll do the same and become more familiar with the island." Tsumi decides.

Dahlia agrees and the two leave the house. Though the sun is past the horizon it is still early and isn't as busy as it would be. Occasionally, joggers would come by as well as cars transporting perishable food and other cargo early on, heralding the rush hour traffic.

Walking through the coastal city, Dahlia had reached the foot of the steps leading to the academy. It was a straight set of steps that just rolled up the big hillside to the mansion-like building at the top. 

Tsumi looks up at the academy, his face dropping a little at the sight of the stairs, "Yeah, I'm going to go to a cafe and get some tea. Dahlia, are you fine to go on by yourself?"

"Yes Mr- *ahem* yes father." Dahlia corrects herself.

Tsumi nodded and walked towards a nearby cafe slash bakery that was just opening now. Dahlia was left to continue looking up and wondering if she should climb up the stairs now.

Though it was indeed too early for Dahlia to be going to the academy, an hour and a half in fact, she still felt uneasy about not at least being at the school. So she went up a few dozen steps before she reached a midway part of the climb where a food truck was just opening up for the day. She was about to continue her climb before she was called down by a voice.

"It would be better if you waited down here."

The voice slurred slightly but was coherent in speech, a feminine voice that sounded smooth and controlled. Dahlia turned to follow the direction of that voice and could see sitting at one of the tables outside of the cafe was a tall woman in a red sundress and an accompanying red sun hat. 

As she looked up at Dahlia her eyes were covered by a set of green tinted sunglasses that made it hard to read her intentions though her smile made it obvious. Dahlia looked around for a moment, ensuring that she was referring to her before stepping down and over to where the red woman sat. 

"Are you referring to me ma'am?"

"Obviously." she said. Her voice did indeed sound sluggish and her voice sounded almost intoxicated. She continued, with each word sounding slow and messy but elegant.

"The front gates only open at eight. And this is the place you're meant to wait before it opens." 

"Why would that be?"

"You see if you wait up there you'll get tired of standing, so better to wait here." she suggests.

"Ah. Thank you." Dahlia said with a slight bow.

"Come on! Sit here. I needed someone to chat with."

She waved her hand as if to beckon Dahlia over to her. The girl sat down on the seat across from her, she wondered if she could get some information about the academy from this woman. 

"My name is Dahlia Novitin. May I ask yours?" Dahlia started the conversation with.

"Rosaniya Vermillion and I am charmed to meet you Dahlia."

She reached her hand out to be shook and Dahlia reciprocated. "That is a long name. Are you of noble birth?"

"No. Just have a long name that rolls right off the tongue." 

"I see."

"But noble birth? Who asks that as their first question?" she pondered with a smile.

Dahlia had realised that as well. From what was told to her, this world has a nonexistent nobility and is a strong meritocracy. As she realised this mistake she isn't able to correct it as Rosaniya continues.

"But it's fine. Fine. So you're new. What brings you here?" she curled her fingers around a cup of coffee that rested on her table.

"I am here until my father is finished with his work. A temporary change of schools."

"Ah yes. I heard of something like that." the woman noted.

Rosaniya raised and flapped her hand as she spoke. Dahlia could feel her suspicions grow as she asks a question to this woman's identity.

"Ms Vermillion, are you perhaps one of the teachers of the academy?"

"Oh no. I am here on vacation. I've taken to sitting here in the mornings to catch the sunrise." she took a sip of her drink.

"Ah, sorry for the assumption."

"Oh don't you apologise darling!"

As she laughed, Dahlia could see the woman's face better as she lurched back in her laugh. Her lips were green, same as her fingernails that were painted a bright green. Her hair was silky and long and was a chestnut red. 

"So," Rosaniya said, "what can you do?"

"I have the ability to conjure powerful tentacles. Unfortunately I cannot show them as it exhausts me to use them."

"Hmm. It seems to also have an effect on your dreams as well." the woman commented.

As she mentions that, Dahlia immediately pauses before asking a question.

"How are you aware of my dreams? Are you able to read minds?" Dahlia asked cautiously.

"Something like that. They seem to trouble you a lot."

Once the woman revealed this information, Dahlia began to panic internally. If Rosaniya can read minds, she might decipher her true identity and everything else, no, she might've already figured it out.

"How much of me are you aware of?" She spoke carefully as well as thought.

"Just the dreams. Why is there something else?" she asks, turning her head.

"No. Just.."

"Oh don't worry darling. I don't see people's minds that well, only really their emotions. But it seems that I was right on my guess about your dreams?"

It was hard to tell. The sunglasses made it impossible to read her eyes and her other facial expressions, though expressive, were hard to read the true intentions of. Her body language was grandiose and excitable but it was not readable for any deeper meaning. If this woman was a liar, she was a trained one.

"Yes, I have been having dreams about a void and someone telling me to show them something and telling me that something I'm looking for is close." Dahlia spoke earnestly, seeking genuine advice on this from a stranger's perspective.

"Sounds like your dreams are fun. I've always found dreams to be boring and drawn out. Never anything entertaining and just mind numbing and dull. Makes me wonder if there is somewhere out there that dictates whether someone has good dreams or bad ones because all I seem to get is neither."

With this sudden talk of dreams, Dahlia starts to realise how alien she must be in this world. She knows there is a realm where all dreams across all worlds collide and mingle, opening ways to cross them. This knowledge and the person talking about them gives Dahlia a strange sense of superiority but that is short lived as the woman posits something else.

"Have to wonder though, if there really is someone who decides what we see in our dreams, does that make them gods? After all, how much are we influenced by them? There's countless stories out there of people changing overnight because of a dream. Makes you wonder how much control they have over us."

"And if that's the case for dreams, what about nightmares? Is that divine retribution? Giving the guilty nightmares to make them confess their sins or stuff like that? Sorry I'm rambling, I get lost when talking, I just love to hear the sound of my own voice."

"No, your conversation is interesting." Dahlia assures.

"Of course it is! Problem is if anyone cares to listen."

Rosaniya looks out at the sun and starts standing up, throwing her paper cup in the nearby recycling bin. She turns to Dahlia, pulling her sunglasses down to show her piercing green eyes.

"Sorry Dahlia, but I need to run but I hope you enjoy your first day; and thanks for the conversation!"

She walks away hurriedly while waving behind her. Her sudden departure left Dahlia feeling worried she had said something that made her want to leave. Either way, some students began to walk up the steps and soon she realised that it was almost eight. Dahlia stood up and proceeded up the steps, still thinking about what Rosaniya said about dreams and nightmares and how much control they have over us without even knowing. 

She dismissed it. While she can't say for sure anything about nightmares, she can ask Tsumi and Lemon about what she said about dreams, after all they live in them don't they? Dahlia walked up the stairs to the academy, stepping through the gates.