After Orestes left, Junior returned to his bedroom. The smaller space felt more comforting right now.
Achilles settled onto his sleeping mat with a soft canine huff. His tail flicked back and forth with gentle thumps against the floor. They were alone again; no more veiled messages or quasi-religious rhetoric.
Just quiet ... and the turmoil of his own thoughts.
Junior wanted to dismiss everything his uncle said. But the man had never lied to him. At least not outright.
That was the problem. Half-truths were harder to ignore than whole lies.
He let his head fall back against his pillow. Thought about the System, and magic, and dreams. His sightless eyes rolled restlessly without conscious control as he contemplated yet another world-shaking revelation.
Was Orestes part of some kind of religious conspiracy? One that somehow knew of, or worse, caused the Reclamation System to come to Palea?
It would never have occurred to him to even entertain the thought a scant few hours ago. But now the idea found fertile, if incredulous, soil as Junior's mind raced with possibilities.
A distant knock at the front door interrupted his inner turmoil.
"Did he come back?" he muttered. It wasn't likely. Orestes had said his piece and wasn't the type to second-guess. "Athena? Who's there?" he asked his AI in a louder voice.
"Motion detected at your front door. Visual confirmation matches Millicent Avery. Do you wish to speak to her?"
A second series of knocks rapped out a playful musical beat.
Junior smiled with a fair amount of relief. "Yes," he replied to Athena, then waited until a telltale tone sounded. "Coming, Millie! I'll be right there!"
Junior stood and made his way through his home, Achilles at his heels. His fingers found the latch, and he swung the door open.
"Hey," Millie greeted him. There was a smile in her voice — he could usually catch it in the subtle shift of her tone.
"Hey," Junior answered.
The young woman stepped in and gave Achilles a quick pat after he sniffed her outstretched hand.
Junior let the door close. "You won't believe what happened to me," he began, eager to share with his friend.
"Oh? Did something happen in your dreams? A new Apeirosis breakthrough, maybe?" Millie's excitement quickly matched, then surpassed, his own.
Junior shook his head. "No. If anything, I feel like my progress is slowing down."
"Oh, sorry. I just hoped…" She trailed off, a little dejected. Then continued with determined cheer. "Well, I have some ideas that might help with that. Brain exercises!"
Thoughts of hypnosis tapes and word teasers immediately leaped to the forefront of Junior's mind.
"...Oh no."
"Don't panic. This is science!" Millie laughed reassuringly, then squinched up her nose. "Or - okay - folk-ish pseudo-science with a few footnotes," she confessed.
Junior just quirked a half-grimace. Millie blithely chose to interpret that as encouragement.
"Moving along! I've been reading about lucid dreaming," she started to explain.
"As in, controlling your own dreams?" he asked for clarification.
"More like being aware that you're dreaming," Millie answered. "That's step one. Some people can do all kinds of things after that—fly, solve problems, rewatch old memories. Some use it for meditation or trauma work. Or..?" She trailed, leaving a questioning note hanging between them.
"—Fighting nightmare monsters and uncovering super-secret System truths," Junior filled in the blank when he realized where she was going with this.
"Exactly!" Junior could hear the ear-splitting smile in her voice as she beamed. "Look, maybe we can't force this stuff to happen, but we can try to nudge it. I put together a short list of techniques that seem like a less-than-crazy starting point. Believe me, you don't wanna know what didn't make the cut." Junior chuckled at her rueful tone. "Up for it?"
Junior was intrigued despite how crazy it all sounded. But when the whole world's gone mad, maybe the right kind of crazy was the only way to stay sane
"Lay it on me," he finally said.
Millie pumped a fist.
"Okay, here's the gist." She pulled out her phone and glanced at the screen. She'd prepared a list. "First is dream recall. It's crucial. You can't get lucid if you don't remember anything. So as soon as you wake up, dictate everything you remember to Athena—what happened, how you felt, anything weird or out of place. Doesn't have to be polished. Just brain dump."
"I can do that," Junior agreed. "Sounds normal enough."
"Hold that thought…" she muttered, but Junior heard her clearly and snorted in amusement.
"Next: reality checks. Get in the habit of asking yourself if you're dreaming while you're awake. Sounds a little fishy, but it's to build awareness. In dreams, you're more likely to question your surroundings if you've trained yourself to do it during the day."
"Here comes the crazy train," Junior quipped, and Millie laughed. "So, like verbally pinching myself?" he asked more seriously.
"Yep. That and other tricks. Try to push your hand through a surface or something. Wall, table, whatever. Like, every time you hear music, touch something and ask yourself: 'Am I really awake?' Simple as that."
"I hear a lot of music," Junior said dryly. "It's kinda my thing."
"Perfect! The more often the better!" Millie chirped brightly, then moved down her list. "Then there's something called intent setting. MILD: Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams. You basically tell yourself you'll recognize when you're dreaming. It's not magic, just repetition. You could pair it with a sound or scent to reinforce it."
"Or more music?"
"Sure," Millie shrugged. "Combine the two, make it easier on yourself."
Junior tamped down his skepticism. Jokes aside, Millie's ideas didn't sound so strange anymore — not after blue screens and surreal dreams.
"Then there's wake-back-to-bed. Your AI wakes you up after a few hours, you stay awake for ten, fifteen minutes, then go back to sleep. It boosts your odds because you hit REM faster."
"And I'm supposed to remember that I'm dreaming in the middle of all this?"
"That's the idea. And the last one's a bit more... esoteric. It's a connection exercise."
He cocked his head. "That sounds made up."
"Oh, it probably is. But hear me out." Millie smiled. "You remember my soulbond theory?"
"...Unfortunately."
"Well," she said, undeterred, "if anyone qualifies, it's Achilles."
The dog thumped his tail at the sound of his name.
"Try using him as an anchor. A target. If you realize you're dreaming, look for him. Call him."
"Huh," was all Junior said at first as he thought.
It should have sounded ridiculous, but somehow … it didn't. Did seeing Achilles mean something? Maybe. So far not. But maybe he just hadn't tried the right thing yet.
Or in the right place.
Millie, to her credit, didn't push it. She said it casually, almost as an afterthought, like she hadn't realized the weight of what she'd just suggested.
"Anyway," she added, brushing it off, "it's just an idea. Each has been shown to work with … varying degrees of reliability and credibility. But it definitely couldn't hurt."
Junior ran a hand through Achilles' fur.
"I'll try it," he said. "Thanks, Millie."
"A pleasure, my dude."
They talked more about the details. Millie helped set up Athena while Junior 'practiced' by telling himself he was awake while pushing against walls, chairs and even his piano.
By the time Millie reminded him that he had wanted to mention something, he'd changed his mind. He decided to keep his weird Uncle and his potential ties to some religious doomsday cult to himself.
\ - / - \ - /
Over the next few nights, Junior tried to put Millie's techniques into practice.
As Millie suggested, they'd programmed Athena to wake him in the middle of the night for the 'wake-back-to-bed' technique. It was annoying, and on the first night, he may have had some choice words for the unflappable AI before going straight back to sleep. The next day, he'd added instructions for Athena to remind him why he was being woken up. It didn't make the interruption any more pleasant, but at least it made his grumpy self a little less likely to snap at his AI assistant simply for doing what it had been told.
Meanwhile, Junior's life slowly started to return to normal. Or, a new normal, at least.
Junior usually taught a few music classes online. Not to a large audience - he considered them more like referrals and acquaintances than formal 'students'. Before the intervention of the Reclamation System, they served as a regular, if somewhat unsteady source of income and social interaction. As Galatea and the world of Palea adjusted to the fact that the blue screens weren't going anywhere any time soon, a few students reached out to him to arrange to resume classes.
Newscasts were still primarily dominated by anything related to the System or the Reclaimed. One particular morning of listening to an anchor made Junior feel deeply disturbed, but even more grateful that he was living on Galatea Island.
"...in International news. Reports from the Republic of Rhaskos indicate that government authorities have intensified their crackdown on so-called Reclaimed citizens. According to the Ministry of Civic Order, all individuals displaying System-related anomalies are now required to register with the newly-formed Bureau of Integration and Oversight.
Human rights observers allege that unregistered Reclaimed are being actively hunted by state security forces, and in some cases detained indefinitely.
Adding to the controversy, high-level sources within the Rhaskan administration have leaked details of an upcoming directive: a plan for mandatory conscription of registered Reclaimed into a state-run military corps. While officials have not confirmed the report, leaked documents suggest the program is intended to 'harness anomalous capacities for the preservation of national stability.'
The measures have already sparked widespread condemnation abroad, though Rhaskan officials maintain that all of their policies are, quote, 'necessary safeguards against systemic chaos.' While they refused to confirm the leak to be true, there have also been no official denials. Pro-Reclaimed humanitarian groups have already begun lobbying their local governments to intervene, though it is unclear as to how.
In contrast, leaders on Galatea Island reiterated that no such measures are under consideration locally. President Dorian Thallos was adamant that his government's approach to voluntary cooperation and civil liberties would not be changing on his watch. Coming up, our reporters interview prominent Galateans and common citizens alike for their reactions. More to come."
Junior's mood was ruined for the entire rest of the day. He stayed in his unit, obsessively getting Athena to relay every depressing tidbit about Rhaskos and similar places that the AI could find. It took Millie hours the next day to break him out of his misery.
After about a week of brain exercises and dream techniques, Junior finally remembered to 'call' Achilles while he was still in a dream.
Even his dream self was surprised when he got an answer.