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“Nah. I’m going to invent a game that we can play. Something that I can always win.”
“Good luck with that.” Grabbing Valerian’s wrist, I dive into his dream.
Little me and little Valerian are sitting in a dark closet. He has a mischievous expression on his face, and I’m giggling.
This is an actual memory. Must be from the batch that flashed too fast for me to register.
Before I can let my presence be known, the kids clasp hands and run out of the closet into a room where one of the windows is black.
“Ah,” I say out loud. “More unexplored secrets.”
Little Valerian halts, looks intently at me, and morphs into a grown version of himself.
“I’m sleeping?” he asks, his tone dreamy.
I point at the black window. “Ready for total recall?”
He nods, and before he can come to his senses enough to change his mind, I grab his hand like the child version of me did, and launch us into the black glass.
I’m back in the black ocean, and Valerian is in a boat, like before.
The swim is just as hard, only it doesn’t bother me as much this time around. After everything I’ve been through recently, a swim, no matter how difficult and long, is a vacation in comparison.
After what feels like a day of swimming, I touch the shore, and the flood of memories begins.
Valerian and I show up in a large meeting room.
A dozen adults are sitting in a circle, Valerian’s and my parents among them. In the middle of the circle is a person I did not expect to see in the context of Soma.
It’s Nostradamus, the seer, with his werewolf lying at his feet like a dog.
Kid Valerian is here too, standing to the side where nobody seems to pay him any attention.
“Oh, right,” my Valerian says. “I remember this now. I snuck in and used my powers to make it so that the others couldn’t see me.”
Nostradamus begins to speak. “If Phobetor isn’t stopped, he’ll destroy everyone, not just your little world.”
“We know this,” my father says. “Tell us something we don’t.”
“There’s one thing that will give you a chance at victory,” Nostradamus says. “A minuscule chance.”
Mom looks at the seer skeptically. “What is it?”
“Only Two working as One can defeat the god of nightmares,” Nostradamus says. “Remember, only Two working as One.”
Everyone, including me and grown Valerian, gazes at him in confusion.
“That’s much too vague,” my mom says. “Who are the Two? How do you work as One?”
Nostradamus stands up. “I might’ve already said too much.”
Everybody starts shouting questions, but the werewolf growls at them and leads the seer out of the room.
With that, the memory ends, and a new one begins.
Valerian’s parents are standing next to a glass door that leads into a padded room. My mom is in there, with the signature fiery eyes of the Overtaken. She’s yelling obscenities and literally climbing the walls.
Is the memory speeding up already, or is Mom just acting crazy?
Young Valerian is here again, spying.
“Clearly, they weren’t the Two,” Valerian’s mother says. “Else Phobetor wouldn’t have been able to take them over, would he?”
“I think it’s clear who the Two are,” Davu replies. “Why else is Phobetor trying to have their parents murder them so desperately?”
“Poor twins.” Valerian’s mom shakes her head. “To have—”
She stops and narrows her eyes directly at where little Valerian is standing.
“You forgot to control my sense of smell,” she says sternly. “What have I told you about—”
The memory cuts off.
Dozens of people are gathering in a large room. Young Valerian isn’t the only child this time—a bunch of them are here, looking bored.
Since nothing interesting is happening in the memory, I spin around, facing grown Valerian. “Does any of this make any sense to you?”
“Some,” he says. “I was young when this went down. As you saw, what little I do know was via spying.”
“The twins your father meant are me and Asha?” I look around to see if they’re here at the gathering. They’re not. “Phobetor took over my parents and murdered my sister because he thinks we might bring about his downfall?”
“Call him Collywobbles,” Valerian reminds me. “And I have no idea what he thinks, but your parents did try to kill the two of you while under his control. That’s why they were locked in padded rooms.”
I rub my eyebrows. “How did they get Overtaken? Did someone describe that viral nightmare to them?”
“I don’t know.”
“And what the puck did Nostradamus mean by Two as One?”
“I don’t know that either,” Valerian says. “Though in that case, I doubt anyone does.”
Before I can pepper him with more questions, his mother addresses the gathering. “Dear illusionists, we gather here with heavy hearts to discuss the fates of Bailey and Asha.”
Everyone falls silent, giving her their full attention.
“I propose a simple plan,” she continues. “Phobetor wants their parents to kill them, so we must do what we do best. We must create an illusion that will make them—and the one controlling them—think they succeeded. After that, we’ll send them into exile and raise the girls in secret.”
