If Anya fell asleep, the Silent Guardian would dissolve. If the Guardian dissolved, the Silents would go back to hunting Kael's body.
Nobody in Anya's isolated chamber had said it aloud yet, but everyone knew.
The moment he stepped out of the Veil Gate, Kael had asked about Anya before he even asked for a sip of water. Lyra and Elian had brought him here, to the chamber where she kept the Guardian alive, and one step past the threshold was enough to understand why nobody had wanted to move her.
Kael let himself drop onto the woven rug. The Veil of Distraction had drained his dream energy like few trials before it, and his legs felt like wet tow. Lyra stayed on her feet, her fingers twining and untwining on their own, the tic of someone who has kept watch too long. Anya sat against the wall, wrapped in the haze of her penalty, and every so often she looked at her own left hand in her lap, as if to make sure it was still there. Only Master Elian seemed unchanged.
The rug beneath him was warm, woven with threads of energy that pulsed softly, like the breathing of something very old. Kael followed the rhythm with his eyes, and for a moment the exhaustion almost felt comfortable.
"You passed a crucial trial, Kael," said Elian, his voice calm. "The Veil of Distraction is among the most insidious. You have learned to choose where to rest your attention. It will serve you more than you imagine."
Kael nodded and let out a sigh. "Thank you, Master. But I'm in pieces. I could sleep for a week."
His eyes slid to Anya's hands, lying slack in her lap. Her fingers trembled a moment after the rest of her body. Only then did he look at her face.
"And you, Anya? You gave more than any of us to keep the deception going."
Anya tried to smile, but it came out strained. Her eyes were veiled, and every gesture arrived late behind the intention. "Yes," she murmured, in a thread of a voice. "Rest... would be a gift."
Nobody answered. A little way off, the rug shivered once, a faint tremor, as if even the Realm were holding its breath.
Elian slowly shook his head. "This is our dilemma. The Silent Guardian is a projection of Anya's consciousness. If she slipped into true dream rest, the Guardian would dissolve. And with it the deception that keeps the Silents away from your body, Kael."
A wave of cold ran through Kael and Lyra. To rest was to be exposed again. Not to rest was to be worn down to the breaking point, and Anya was already a step away from it.
"I won't allow it," said Lyra. For an instant her fingers stopped moving. "Not after everything we've done. I'll watch over Anya and the Guardian. One more night, if I have to."
"It isn't sustainable, Lyra," Elian replied. "Your energy is nearly spent too. And Kael must recover before he faces the next Veil. We need a solution that lets everyone rest and keeps Aris and Kael's body safe."
Silence fell over the room. Lyra raised her palm in front of her and tasted the air, as she did when she was looking for a way out. She did not find one.
Kael turned the problem over the way a smith turns over a bent piece, looking for the spot that gave, while a thread of energy from the rug coiled around his finger and slipped loose. The Guardian depended on Anya. Anya had to rest. If Anya rested, the Guardian vanished. If the Guardian vanished, the Silents returned. A closed circle, without a crack.
Then something clicked inside him.
"Wait," he said, and his eyes lit up. "The problem is my dream resonance in the real world. So the solution is to stop being in the dream world."
Elian and Lyra stared at him. Anya lifted her head a fraction, a glimmer of curiosity in the haze.
"If I wake up," Kael went on, and his voice gathered strength, "my body stops being a beacon in sleep. It'll just be an awake body. The Silents hunt a dreaming soul to assimilate. A boy who's awake, fixing tools in a town, doesn't shine for them. When the Guardian dissolves, they'll have nothing left to aim at."
"If there's nothing to follow..." Anya whispered, slowly, almost to herself, "they get lost."
Elian raised his right hand to his chin. His smile was barely perceptible.
"A bold idea. Waking early is usually discouraged, and we had considered it ourselves, but this time you may be right. An awake Keeper is far harder for the Whisperer to trace. His dream signature shrinks to almost nothing." He paused. "It irritates me that your reasoning holds. The price remains: you will not complete your training this way."
"I'll complete it later," said Kael.
"The fact is that we don't have much time," Elian pressed. "The Ash is advancing, conquering..."
"Master," Kael cut in, "the Ash has been advancing for thousands of years. What's a few more days?"
Elian looked at Lyra, then back at Kael.
"A sleeping Kael is a lantern in the night," said Lyra. "An awake Kael is a lantern by day. Nobody notices it."
Kael turned to Anya and laid a hand on her shoulder, gently. "And you'll be able to truly rest. Your sacrifice bought us time. Now it will let us breathe."
Anya nodded weakly. This time the smile worked, even if the haze in her eyes did not lift. Lyra let out a long breath, and for the first time in hours her hands stayed still.
"I understand," said Elian. "However..."
To add insult to injury, Anya groaned.
A low, strangled sound. They all turned at once. She was pale, her lips almost white, her hand closing on nothing against the rug. Nobody needed an explanation: her condition spoke for itself.
"Master," said Kael, and he felt his throat tighten, "there's one more thing. I've been in the Dream Realm a long time. My uncle Borin will be beside himself. The town will talk, someone will say my family is cursed, and he'll be the one to pay for it. Ever since my parents died he's looked after me and Elara like a father. I remember the day Elara never woke up. I can't imagine what state he's in now." He looked at a spot to the right, beyond the wall, and paused briefly. "I have to see him. I have to reassure him. And explain what's really happening. And I want to see Elara again."
Kael realized his fists were clenched on his knees. He opened them one at a time, and in his palm he still felt the warmth of the Dormant Flame, waiting.
Elian studied him for a long moment.
"Very well," he said at last. "Given Anya's condition and your reasons, there is nothing else to be done." He turned to Kael. "Prepare yourself. I will guide you through the awakening. It requires control and precision, especially with the exhaustion you carry. But it is the only way to let both you and Anya rest, and to confuse the Silents in the waking world."
Kael nodded. The smile died on his lips as a thought crossed his mind.
"Wait. But what state will my body be in now, in the waking world?"
For the first time since he had known him, Elian did not answer right away.
In the room there was only the rustle of the rug beneath Anya's short breaths.