Warnado was nervous all of the early morning, and he hoped it didn't show in the sound of the voice, or worse, in his face. He had relied on the veil so long. Knowing Shadow could see his face made him feel more vulnerable than usual, and it raised the uncomfortable possibility that there were other parts of him that were more exposed than he thought.

At one of the inn's dining tables, Warnado sat sipping the daily soup and noted the presence of Astro, who sat across the table nodding and making the occasional witticism as Kay spun an arguably exaggerated story about one of his past adventures. Meanwhile, Shadow sat next to Amanda and talked and smiled with her. This upset Warnado greatly, but he didn't say anything and tried his best not to think about it. After all, there was still a significant possibility Shadow wasn't responsible for Amanda's nightmare.

The guy in the weird black armor who was with Steve and Jennifer was sitting next to Warnado. Warnado tried to remember the guy's name to kick off the conversation, in an attempt to be social, but eventually just gave up and tapped the guy's shoulder.

"Hey you," Warnado said.

"Oh. Hey, Warnado," the guy said, with a less enthusiastic voice that suggested he just got out of bed.

Right, Warnado thought to himself, Fristad. That's his name.

"Fristad," Warnado began, "when you really want to do something, but aren't motivated to do it, how do you convince yourself to follow through with it?"

Fristad raised a brow. "Well, what are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to lose weight," Warnado blurted out. "Well, actually, not really. But… assuming I was. And let's say, just for the sake of argument, I really liked eating cookies. And just to be clear… I do NOT have a problem with chocolate chip cookies. I eat TACOS. And it is not an addiction."

Fristad frowned. "Okay, fair enough. So you want to know what I think?"

"Yea."

"I think you're only going to feel worse if you keep ignoring it, so you might as well follow through."

"Right, but this is a metaphorical losing weight issue, not an actual issue with my physical health," Warnado clarified.

"I know," said Fristad. "My advice also applies to women and other human relationships, in case that's what you're after."

Warnado found himself at a loss for words. And feeling more exposed than before.

"Screw it. I am sick and tired of this soup. I'm going to magically summon some tacos. Do you want some?"

Warnado fiddled with the remaining grease still stuck to his fingers, and listened to the outside noises fade away as Shadow's runic spell cast a wall of silence around the inn room. At this point, Warnado suspected Astro was still under the impression that they were all here to discuss more details of their magical abilities. He wasn't quite sure what Shadow was thinking.

Warnado cleared his throat and prepared himself to deal with the uncertainty that came next. "Guys, I know I said I had some important questions about your magic, but actually, something bad just happened. Last night, Amanda had a disturbing nightmare that seems to have been magical in origin. And I want to know who was responsible."

Warnado couldn't help but glance over at Shadow for a moment, before switching his gaze toward Astro.

"Now, I'm not trying to imply that either of you did it, but I also can't rule out the possibility. If there's a traitor among us, or one of the Entity's spies hiding somewhere in the inn, we need to know as soon as possible. Since you two are the only magic users in the group I know of besides me, either one of you could have caused the nightmare. I need to know I can trust you."

Both of them paused, but after an uncomfortable silence, Shadow was the first to speak: "It's going to be difficult to resolve this in any positive way… Naturally if either of us was behind those dreams they wouldn't just flat-out admit it. Any attempt at finding a guilty party could be seen as shifting blame and since we don't know each other very well we also have no past trust to build on. Still, did Amanda happen to mention a radiant woman dressed in white? If she's involved I can imagine how the nightmare came to be."

Warnado considered for a moment whether he should withhold information, but decided quickly that could only lead to more distrust. "Interesting you should mention that. Amanda wasn't very clear about what the presence in the dream looked like. I think she may actually have forgotten, as if the memory of it was too horrifying to remember."

"That's a dead end then. She would have remembered the Lady" Shadow sighed. "She wouldn't have been in the nightmare anyways, if anything she'd have preceded it. For clarification, she's a benevolent phantom that lives in dreams but if you throw her out it often results in nightmares. Fire has some history with her."

"What do you think, Astro?" Warnado turned toward Astro. "Does this kind of nightmare remind you of anything?"

"I've had my share of nightmares, but there's generally a reason behind them," said Astro. "More reasons than I'd care to admit. What makes you certain Amanda's nightmare was magically induced? We've been through some traumatic stuff these last few days. She was there when David blew his own arm apart." His voice faltered as he remembered their fallen comrade, his former cellmate.

"Look, I know Amanda better than anyone else here," Warnado said, frustrated. "She's not the sort of person who would cry from a bad dream, let alone have a nightmare because of that."

A small voice in Warnado's head admitted to itself that maybe Astro was right, maybe Amanda really did just have a nightmare. But then, Warnado reminded himself of Amanda's face, how distraught she looked, as if the nightmare still had a grip on her…

No, there was nothing normal or mundane about this. Warnado did not have the best control over his magic, but his experiences over the years made him able to recognize when something was magically enhanced.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cast doubt," said Astro. "I may be a wizard, but when it comes to dreams, I can't exactly read them like tea leaves."

Shadow suggested: "As for myself, I don't have much experience when it comes to dreams either, at least not to magically created ones where regular psychology doesn't apply. While I probably could induce dreams myself, I wouldn't risk it if I wanted to do anything with the person I'm inducing them in. Most people would just be flat out driven insane, or worse, if they came in direct contact with my mind. It's a side effect of the ascension ritual."

Warnado thought over Shadow and Astro's words for a moment. As frustrating as it was, it seemed like they were both being honest, at least on the face of things. There was no choice but to hope Astro and Shadow could help him. As long as they were willing to share information, that would bring Warnado closer to finding out what happened to Amanda.

"Okay, so, supposing you both are innocent…" Warnado mused, "who would have the ability to do something like that? And why?"

Shadow said: "I suppose that even if we can't make sense of the details of the nightmare, a bit more information would be helpful since we could find out the motivation of whoever created it."

"Good point," said Warnado. "Although now that I think about it, Amanda didn't mention many details of the dream. Just that she was in a forest, and that there was an evil presence. I want to ask her about it again, but I'm worried it will make her more upset. Then again…"

"If she's more calm, she might be able to better describe more details of the dream," Astro suggested. "Besides, I don't have any other ideas of how to proceed in the short-term. Unless you have any ideas, Shadow?"

"Logically, if the assault isn't coming from us, someone else here must have magical abilities, they may not be from our group but they have to be nearby."

"Nearby… and not leaving anytime soon," added Astro. "A single nightmare doesn't strike me as enough to accomplish whatever nefarious goal this stranger has in mind."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Warnado said.

"Wherever they are, they can't hide forever," Astro insisted. "Every use of magic has a magical signature. We just need to be around at the right time to detect it. Let's assume the stranger plans to repeat themself. We take night shifts just outside Amanda's room."

Shadow nodded. "We need to keep in mind that Nexus has an extraordinarily strong background magic field, which naturally causes interference and can wash away traces left by spells. Our dream weaver would be difficult to detect without magical means of surveillance, but on the other hand they are likely to be tipped off by any spells we cast. Nexus' magic field also allows for faster recharging after spell usage, which could mean that they can strike in shorter intervals than we might expect."

"That's certainly not ideal," Astro mused. "And I don't like the idea of this random guy potentially coming up with some new way to magically torment us, but you're right. We need to be more subtle in our plans. And more information wouldn't hurt."

"Maybe we can try to get more information about the village," suggested Warnado. "If we're lucky, maybe we'll notice something off that will hint about the origin of the dream weaver."

"That's a good idea," affirmed Astro. "In fact, we may already have some leads on that, since Kay, Fire, and Tyron were doing just that yesterday. We should ask them."