"Emily!" Joel shouted. "Em, please wake up."
Emily bolted upright, panting heavily. She looked to the side and her tear-stained eyes latched on Joel.
Emily burst into tears and reached up to hug him instantly. "Ssshhhhh Em," he soothed. "It's all right, you're safe. You're here with me."
This must have been the 5th hug of the day between those two. Wait, Emily thought, was it still the same day? Emily calmed herself enough to ask how long she'd been asleep.
With no clocks in Olympus, Joel could only guess about 6 hours. When Emily looked, it was dark outside.
"Emily I think we should tell Jupiter about about this nightmare. It's serious. I saw you. You were gasping and moaning and crying. I couldn't wake you up."
"Not yet. If it gets worse."
"OK, but please tell me if you're struggling."
"I will," Emily promised. "But I can't go back to sleep. Please don't try make me."
"I won't. Why don't you go clean your face."
"OK," she said as Joel helped her up. She put weight on her feet and toppled over into Joel.
"Why am I so weak?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. Maybe you just used too much power."
Emily nodded. "I remember now. I remember me screaming at Riza, saying she was using too much power but she couldn't hear and I ended up fainting. Wait… Riza! Riza's gone! I can't feel her! Joel, are you not telling me something?"
Joel looked slightly startled and very uncomfortable. He was obviously keeping something from her and he didn't want to be the 1 that told her either. "Eeerrmmm. Yeah… Riza. That's a whole new story. I'll tell you when you're better."
"No! Please tell me now!" she begged.
"Errr… OK then," Joel replied, succumbing to Emily's tone. After Emily splashed her face with water and Joel helped her back into bed, he continued. "Well, you know how you said you remembered using too much power? Well you used quite a bit too much power. Instead of just turning Tom into a sphinx, you turned Riza back into a Xan."
"What?" Emily stammered in shock. "That's not possible! How could that have happened?"
"It's not impossible. Riza is back on Xanadu, waiting for a visit from you. She wants you to go see her once you've fully recovered. She's full Xan form and all her mind was transferred from you to the body."
"Wow. That's a lot to take in." Emily was extremely shocked. How could that have been possible the whole time?! She was so happy for Riza, although she felt a pang of sadness overcome her as the realization that sshe couldn't talk to Riza through her head anymore kicked in. It was like losing a sister. Emily hadn't even known that Riza was in her mind for that long, yet it felt like she'd known her presence all her life.
With that fact over, Emily wondered what she was going to do now. She couldn't sleep again but it was the middle of the night, she couldn't wake everyone up.
"You should go get some sleep," she told Joel. "You must be really tired."
"No, I'm fine. I'll stay with you to make sure you're OK."
"I don't want you to not sleep just because I won't sleep. You really need to rest."
Joel started to protest but Emily assured him she would be fine and she knew he needed proper sleep that he wasn't getting sat in the chair next to her bed. Besides, he'd already tired himself out continuously worrying about her.
Finally Joel tiptoed out of the room, leaving Emily with a promise to make sure she wake him if anything happens.
Emily sank down under her bed covers and dwelled in her thoughts. She sure had a lot of thoughts swimming round her head.
Despite not wanting to, Emily drifted off to sleep. All that came though, was a pleasant dream, of time spent with the people she loved most. She was on Pegasus's back soaring high over Olympus, as high as the sweet clouds. Beside her was Joel on Chrysaor, laughing and spinning about. At the back was Paelen having troubles with his sandals again. He was trying to keep up, but everytime he said move faster they moved slower. He tried to reverse it and command them to go slower in hope they would go faster, but this time they actually obeyed him and went even slower. It was as if the sandals were laughing at him. Along with Joel and Emily of course! They teased him till he started to get really annoyed. Just then, the sandals whooshed forward and started to listen to his instructions. He'd said faster a lot, so now he was zooming uncontrollably away from them screaming.
Emily and Joel started laughing even more. Paelen urgently shouted stop, and luckily for him, they fully started to obey. They all caught up with him and they whizzed through the Olympian sky for much longer, until they got tired and rested at Emily's favourite place on all of Olympus – The Silver Beach. The dream was bright. Filled with so much laughter and joy. Emily did not feel scared at all. She felt welcomed.
