"Leo! Hey—Leo! Wake up!"
Leo stirred, blinking hard as sunlight slapped him across the face like a chappal of the gods. Ari was hovering over him, a towel in one hand and concern on her face.
He sat up with a jolt, sweat clinging to him like cling film on leftover biryani.
"You're sweating more than a student at a parent-teacher meeting," Ari muttered, pressing the towel to his forehead. "Did you sleep inside a pressure cooker or what?"
"I… I don't know," Leo mumbled, still dazed. "Felt like... something was watching me. And then pulling something out of me. It was weird."
Ari narrowed her eyes. "You okay? Want me to get Rayleigh?"
He shook his head fast. "No-no. I'm fine. Probably just a bad dream. Like one of those where you show up for exams and forget pants."
She didn't seem convinced. "You're lucky I respect your privacy. Otherwise, I'd have poked your brain till you gave me answers."
"And played ping pong with my eyes, I remember..." Leo muttered, getting up slowly.
---
Later at the Academy
Leo found Vellum chilling in the corridor, holding a banana like it was a wand.
"You look like you saw a ghost that owed you rent," Vellum said, raising an eyebrow.
Leo pulled him aside. "Something's wrong, man. Last night, I saw a warped area outside the dorm. The air was like… bending, like—"
"Like that time you bent light into a soap pigeon?"
"More cursed."
Vellum's goofy grin disappeared. "Tell me everything."
Leo did. Well—some of it. He left out the "watching Ari sleep" part because... self-preservation.
Vellum's face went serious. "We need answers. And there's only one place that doesn't charge for weird knowledge."
Leo tilted his head. "...The canteen?"
"No, you idiot. The forbidden book we stole from the archive!" He dragged Leo by the sleeve. "Time to play dream detectives."
---
Back at Their Usual Sneaky Spot
The book was already dusty again, like it aged five years in a week.
They flipped through it. Symbols shimmered across the pages.
"Here—look," Vellum said, pointing. "This chapter… it talks about dream bridges. A form of ancient magic that allows people to enter others' dreams. But also—it mentions how dreams are sometimes memories from other timelines or lifetimes."
Leo blinked. "Wait. You're telling me I can go back into that creepy dream battlefield?"
Vellum smirked. "If we do it right... you might find out who that guy was fighting beside you. The one that looked like an older you."
Leo stared at the swirling ink like it might whisper secrets.
"Okay," he said, "Let's find out what my dreams are hiding… but if a demon shows up, I'm blaming you."
Vellum winked. "Deal. But I get to name the demon."
---