"In candlelight, as time unwinds…"

"..."

Doing their best not to make a sound, Caelus and Firefly crept past a couple of members of the Sweet Dreams Troupe, chatting the hours away. They looked quite friendly when they weren't attacking them under the commands of Bloodhounds.

Firefly gave the signal with a wave of her finger, and the two quickly ran for it once their attention was diverted away from their hiding spot.

Trusting her to handle where they were going, Caelus kept his eyes on those of the Sweet Dreams Troupe behind them. Their design was whimsical, as was expected of the Land of Dreams, but they weren't actually all that different from other automatons he'd seen.

"Oh!" Firefly yelped ahead, the sound of her coming to a stop reaching his ears.

Which meant he was on a direct collision course with her.

Left with no choice, the Trailblazer moved his body just enough to avoid colliding with Firefly at the cost of losing his balance and rolling across the pavement. Shaking his head, he tried to get up to alleviate her worries, only to find himself face-to-face with a bottle of Soulglad.

The bottle was part of it, anyway. The beverage was attached to the collar of the yellow mascot of the famous soda company, and it was currently baring its fangs right at him. He concluded that whoever designed the Sweet Dreams Troupe had zero regard for safety.

The wolf's razor-sharp fangs were about to chow down on Caelus' face for dinner had he not brought his baseball bat out and had it bite on that instead. Rather than realize it was gnawing on something else, the Soulglad mascot only clamped down harder, sparks starting to fly as its metal teeth ground against his bat.

That was its first and last mistake. Caelus channeled the Path of Destruction, his bat glowing blue as the energy gathered. He didn't even need to swing. Just the mere presence of the power melted away the wolf's teeth, and with a little nudge, the rest of its head came apart like wet paper.

His instincts flared up, and he pushed what remained of the mascot into the sky as it exploded, showering him in what tasted like Soulglad and painting the surrounding area in its dull color.

That all happened in a few seconds. Firefly was by his side even faster, "Are you okay?"

He coughed, "As okay as I can be." Being near hear brought an odd feeling of warmth that wasn't just his imagination. He watched his Soulglad-stained clothes dry themselves at an abnormal rate. Even the distinct aroma of the drink faded soon enough, the heavenly air of Penacony's Golden Hour returning to his lungs once again.

"Sorry," Firefly pulled him up from his daze of soda and fizz, "They must have noticed me passing through beforehand. Guess I wasn't as careful as I thought."

"No harm done," Caelus chuckled, taking another whiff of his clothes, "The Soulglad shower aside."

The Trailblazer's laughter was echoed by her own, barely audible over the sweet melodies soaring through Golden Hour's equilibrium of day and night. Anyone taking the scene at face value couldn't tell they'd only known each other for the better part of a day. Who would have thought breaking the law would be an effective way to get to know each other?

"There shouldn't be any Bloodhounds ahead," Firefly directed her finger toward the Penacony Grand Theater, "We're almost there."

"Lead the way."

She did, just not how he expected her to. Keeping her eyes on the road ahead, she took hold of his hand and softly pulled him along. The surprise of it sent a bit of a chill up his back, and he briefly wondered if she felt the same, too.

Caelus tried to discern Firefly's expression as they passed the remainder of the Dream's Edge. True to her word, there was a reason this part of the dreamscape remained restricted from the average person.

It started as just a couple of oddities here and there, but the deeper they went, the more incomplete this part of the dream felt. Bushes with flowers but no leaves, bridges that were missing– well, the bridge itself. Due to the Charmony Festival, the Dreamweavers couldn't allocate much time towards smoothing out the edges, and until the event concluded, it would appear to remain that way.

That's not to say the Dreamweavers were completely focused on the festival, though. To make up for the missing chunks of the dream, temporary measures were taken so that members of the Family could still come and go throughout the area unimpeded.

It was the classic puzzle that whatever mystic force in the universe liked to throw at him: the moving platforms. Not much effort was put into implementing these, hence their simplistic– and frankly unsafe– locations, literally hanging on by a thread attached to who knows where.

Not that Caelus really minded, it wasn't him that was solving them. Firefly guided them through them all with full confidence in navigating this moving maze of dreams.

It would turn out that something else was more worrying to deal with.

It came in the form of this strange owl familiar, looking more like a tribal totem than something belonging to the eternal paradise of the Golden Hour.

Firefly gave him the rundown on how it worked. The Dream's Eye manipulated the user's own thoughts to temporarily shift the dreamscape based on their perception, creating bridges and the like. While the logic of the mechanism was completely lost on him, he had to give credit where it was due. Those Dreamweavers knew their stuff.

The Trailblazer did have one concern, "Does this work with two people?"

That gave her pause, the gears turning in her head before she gave him a curious smile, "Let's find out, shall we?"

Therein lay another problem. To actually activate the Dream's Eye, one had to make straight eye contact with the bird perched on it. Caelus would assume that meant just positioning his head in front of the owl, but having Firefly with him complicated things. Luckily for him, she already had a solution.

"I'd hardly call this a solution." He immediately declared after hearing her out.

"I agree," Firefly looked as flustered as he was on this, but she stayed resolute, "But I can't think of anything else."

It could be chalked down to pure paranoia, but the Trailblazer could have sworn he'd heard someone shout behind them. Not wanting to risk being found, he caved in and followed her lead.

That was a graceful way of saying that Caelus put his face in front of the Dream's Eye while tilting it so that Firefly could do the same. He'd tried his best not to make physical contact not to make her uncomfortable, but it seemed his efforts were in vain.

He could definitely feel his entire being heat up at the prolonged touch, and perhaps it was just his imagination doing so as a coping mechanism, but it felt like she did, too, not that he blamed her.

As if the day couldn't get any weirder, the Dream's Eye finally activated after ten agonizing seconds of being stuck in that awkward position. The bird released a shrill screech, flying high into the endless dreamscape.

Then it felt like he'd been swept off his feet. An unwelcome sense of nausea found him as he rose to the clouds, yet that same feeling of having his cheek pressed against someone else's refusal to leave.

Caelus checked on himself to ensure he'd gotten up in one piece, muffling a surprised yell as he did not have a body. Looking down below, he stood up straight again, Firefly assuming the same stance a second later.

"Um," Caelus looked down dozens of feet below, where his physical self remained still, "Is this normal?"

"It's slightly different," Caelus felt his soul jump out of his skin as Firefly's voice spoke up right next to him, "But not that much. Let's keep going."

It took a while to get used to existing in such a way. From how the Trailblazer saw it, his eyesight depended entirely on what he saw from above, while the rest of his senses were still dependent on his body clumsily roaming.

He couldn't just ignore the entire point of why they'd gone through with this, though. The gaps that were once there simply didn't exist from their point of view, allowing full access to the rest of the dream's edge.

The Trailblazer felt like he'd been punched right in the nose. Looking down, he could see that his body had fallen straight into the pavement. That was very graceful of him.

Like a bird in flight, Firefly was the complete opposite of Caelus in terms of control, the result of her frequent traversal of this path, no doubt. She already had a hand outstretched for him to grab onto, which he did without much thought.

With her guidance, they made it to the next point of the Dream's Eye in a flash, prompting the bird to plop back down on its perch, followed by their minds merging with their body shortly after.

Caelus hadn't expected it to be so abrupt, almost losing his balance if it hadn't been for his arms flailing. He'd rather be chased by a bunch of angry bugs again instead of giving the Dream's Eye another go.

He swiveled his head to the girl beside him, "Why didn't we just go one at a time?"

Despite being out of breath as well, she still had the energy to look away, "...I didn't think to do that."

…Really?

Whatever witty retort Caelus had ready to fire evaporated when Firefly smiled at him, "But it's more fun this way, right?"

"Yeah," He agreed, giving her his own hand this time, "So, where to?"

"It's just up ahead, actually." She grabbed on, directing him up an abnormally long stairway.

The Trailblazer squinted his eyes, trying to get a peek of whatever it was at the top, but only found himself slowly going blind from the intense rays of light coming from their target destination.

It was by looking away from it that Caelus first witnessed a breathtaking sight. Countless shooting stars soared overhead, tracing the sky with their primordial light as time seemed to slow down the more steps they climbed.

He got a complete view of the full picture once they reached the top. Like another sun, the Penacony Grand Theater shone with all its beauty as the center point of the Land of Dreams itself, giant notes of light spewing out from its sides and complimenting the shooting stars like a painting worthy of the Aeons themselves.

It wasn't just a visual spectacle, either. It was a bit faint, but if Caelus strained his ears enough, he could hear…

"Have you heard of it? It's called If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking, by Robin." As if reading his mind, Firefly answered his unspoken question for him, her eyes closed as she hummed whispered tunes.

"I haven't."

"The first time is always when the song is at its most beautiful," She leaned on the stone railings, a breadth away from the edge.

The Trailblazer took those words to heart, joining her side as he closed his eyes and let himself be lost in melody. A soft bubble of silence permeated around them, only penetrated by song and wind. The world could have ended around them, and he would have wholeheartedly believed that this tiny sphere of peace would remain.

"Caelus," Firefly broke the silence, "What do you think of Penacony so far?"

What did he think of Penacony? While Caelus thought it was simply too early to draw any proper conclusion on his feelings towards this Land of Dreams, the look on her face demanded that he give a serious answer.

"...It lives up to its name." The Trailblazer internally cringed before the whole sentence even left his mouth. The urge to slap himself had never been greater.

"It's alright," Firefly giggled at his half-baked answer, "You haven't been here for long enough yet."

She stretched her hand to the stars above, following their trail with a mere fingertip. A sense of longing was imbued in each one of her movements as if she feared the slightest of touches was enough to make the numerous lights in the sky disappear.

"The Masked Fools, Memokeepers, Galaxy Rangers…" She trailed off, giving him a look he couldn't quite decipher, "...Even you, the Nameless."

"No matter one's background, we're all connected by the single desire to chase our dreams," A wistful tone crept into Firefly's words, "I'm glad I came here."

His ears perked up at what she had just said, and her hand came up to clasp down on her mouth a moment too late.

"...Sorry," She shifted in place, a hint of nervousness creeping up her calm features as she looked away, "I really am a stowaway."

Caelus inched closer, "Apology accepted. I'd already suspected it, to be honest."

Firefly had been moving away from him without thinking. When he moved to get nearer, she noticed and did the same, "You're here for the Watchmaker's legacy, too, right?"

"Aren't you curious as well?" She stepped forward unimpeded, a firm fire alight in her eyes.

"Why does life slumber?"

Why… The Trailblazer had given the question some thought prior to their arrival in Penacony. It wasn't asking why beings needed rest. Rather, it was asking why it was engrained into the hearts and minds of everyone to dream.

"...I'm not sure," He gave Firefly an apologetic look. His mind could ponder the subject for another Amber Era, and the chances of him not having an answer by then would still be considerably high, "What do you think?"

"Me?" She pointed at herself, taken aback. Taking a deep breath, her eyes wandered to the Penacony Grand Theater, the pinnacle of the family's goal to bring Harmony through endless festivities and the fulfillment of dreams.

"...I think it's because they're afraid," It felt like those words weren't directed at him, "To wake up from the dream."

Afraid to wake up? Caelus could see where she was coming from. He had seen many people come to Penacony hoping to find a fix for reality. In the rarer cases, others simply wanted to escape it entirely. There had to be more than just that, though. Could every dreamer in Penacony be so black and white?

A glint of white appeared out of the corner of his eye, "You dropped something." He said, pointing at a paper slip that fell out of her pocket.

"What?" Her eyes widened in recognition as she saw what he'd pulled her attention to, "Oh, that–"

A violent gale of wind blew by, so strong that Firefly had to physically hold her hair down with her hands while he had to squint his eyes as he knelt down to pick it up.

Caelus intended not to take so much as a peek into its contents, but the wind had other ideas. Firefly yelped as the paper unfurled in another burst of turbulence and caught on the currents, its trajectory taking it well beyond the edge.

It would have made it there, too. Acting on instinct, he nimbly jumped onto the railing and reached for it, stretching his muscles past their norm. He'd barely caught onto it with the tip of his fingers, but he could still grab ahold of it.

That split-second decision let him see what was written down. Something about Oak Cake Rolls? Whatever was written down on it, Firefly's reaction to it told him that there was something of importance there, so he breathed a sigh of relief once he was sure it was secure in his hand.

That saved whatever was written down on the note, but it definitely did the Trailblazer no favors as the sole of his shoe slipped, his balanced body tilting to the edge as the endless void that he gazed at promising an unpleasant ending should he fall the rest of the way.

Thank the Aeons, he was not alone in this. Firefly grabbed onto one of his arms and grunted in exertion as she tried to reel him back in.

With a little bit of help from Caelus' end, she got him to lean towards the safety of the Dream's Edge instead of the certain doom within falling. A little too successful, as he was now en route to fall right on her.

Through the power of a miracle or two, the Trailblazer roughly grabbed her shoulders with both hands and twisted mid-air, getting her out of harm's way as he experienced what it was like to be a sandwich.

"Caelus!" Firefly's voice was muffled by his conveniently placed chest for her to use as a cushion instead of a face full of bricks. Recovering quickly, she pushed herself up on her arms, separating their bodies by a couple of inches as she looked down at him in worry.

She visibly relaxed once he told her he was perfectly okay, making a move to stand back up again. The unceremonious descent of the entire reason they were in this position slammed the brakes on that.

This piece of paper had to be guided by fate or some other strange cosmic force because there was no way it would find itself in the most convenient position for Caelus to read it despite his current lack of motor function.

It was a checklist of all sorts of random objectives, some already accomplished while others were still unfinished. He saw that bit about eating Oak Cake Rolls earlier, another about shopping for coats, and even one about buying a videogame.

"Firefly…" Caelus wasn't one to judge a person off on their dreams, but…

"...Entropy Loss Syndrome."

She saw his confused face and explained further, "Any afflicted by it experience chronic dissociation of their physical structure. Before you know it, you'll do everything slower than the others…"

"...Then, the lines between you and the world blur, so…" A thud resounded on his chest as Firefly's head drooped back down on his torso.

A sickly chill ran through him, this time very much physical as it was emotional. She'd buried her face right into him, but it did nothing to keep the sharp trickle from piercing his soul.

"...How could I not?" Her voice cracked, "I have a wish I can't fulfill out there, so I'll give it a shot here."

The silent sniffling on his chest died down, yet she still made no move to escape him.

Caelus' head was coming up blank as he considered his options on how to proceed, but that odd feeling in his chest was screaming at him to do something. He'd just have to follow that instead, then.

Slowly moving his arms into place atop Firefly's exposed back, he gave a light squeeze, taking her by surprise, "Eh?"

The Trailblazer didn't put much force as not to make her uncomfortable, but his worries were squashed when Firefly herself leaned more into the embrace. The passage of time in the dream stood still in this priceless moment, unfettered by reality.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end. Firefly dislodged herself from his hold and stood back up, her eyes tinged with red, but her smile was as radiant as the Penacony Grand Theater in the distance. No, even greater than it.

"Thank you." She reached out to him in gratitude.

He took her hand again, "You looked like you needed it."

As Caelus was raised back up, the note that was situated on his shirt plummeted back down. Two pairs of eyes stared down at it, then back up towards each other.

The Trailblazer was the first to draw, "So, that's…"

"That's a list of things I'd wanted to do when I came here," Firefly nodded, "Even if I can't add more pages, I can add a couple of footnotes to my own destiny."

Is destiny predetermined? A recent conversation that felt as if it was a lifetime ago resurfaced.

"I apologize for my earlier outburst," Her voice was a meek whisper, "I don't know what came over me."

"I should be the one saying that," He said, "I sort of pried too hard."

"No, it's alright! Saying it aloud was cathartic," She waved her arms around, distracting him before he could truly feel any remorse, "But the atmosphere seems to have taken a nosedive."

"Allow me to lift the mood, then." Caelus gave a bow in an attempt to imitate a certain Knight of Beauty. It was a laughable imitation, but he felt that Argenti would have found beauty in it somehow.

Firefly tilted her head, "What would you suggest?"

What would they do? His thoughts shifted to his fellow Nameless and how they would handle such a situation.

A fluffy conductor came to mind, "Spray ourselves with water?"

"That would be a bit cold."

"What if I tell a really bad joke?" It sounded like he was slandering Dan Heng, but he was sure they would agree.

"My sense of humor isn't the greatest…"

"How about making some coffee?" Caelus thought of the navigator's hobby and the sleepless nights he'd endured because of it.

"If there's a coffee machine lying around, be my guest."

"Can we try changing the subject?" A strategy as old as the Imaginary Tree itself, which Mister Yang would recommend.

"You kind of were," Firefly gave a hesitant smile, "Saying it out loud sort of ruined it, though."

A gadget that March constantly carried with her lit up a lightbulb in his head, "Why not take a selfie?"

She nodded, "That sounds good."

With the illuminating rays of the Penacony Grand Theater as a backdrop, they huddled together as Firefly handed her phone to him, "Say cheese!"

Caelus did as she asked right before he snapped the photo. The Trailblazer wasn't a professional photographer by any means, but he liked to think the end result was pretty good. Firefly appeared to like it, and that was enough approval for him.

She suggested they exchange contacts, just for the sake of convenience, she explicitly stated. The Trailblazer obliged, quickly checking how the others were doing at the moment.

The application showed that no new messages had appeared. He was about to put his phone back in its pocket when a ring indicated that a text had just been sent.

Scrolling back again, Caelus saw that Firefly had sent him the picture they'd just taken together. He made a mental note to save the image later. Right now, there was a plan had formulated itself in his head that was as good as it was dumb.

"There's still time before I have to go," Slightly bending one knee, he put one hand forward, "Want to check another one off the list?"

"Which one?" Her eyes widened as she stared at his outstretched palm dumbly, "You don't mean…"

Dance. One of Firefly's wishes had been to dance. It didn't specify if it was to be done all in her lonesome or with someone, yet he found that he didn't care. If her time was as limited as she said it was, he'd make each passing second one to remember.

"It's alright if you don't want to." Despite what March (and maybe Dan Heng) would say about him, he was not some creep that would instantly violate the insides of any trashcan in sight. It was a bit of a moot point, seeing as the girl in front of him was decidedly better than the gold that lay within each trashcan, but he felt a strong urge to clarify it.

"No– I mean…" Firefly waved her hands around like a headless chicken, taking a good minute or two before she calmed down and looked at him in the eye again, her face red, "...I don't know how to dance."

"I don't either," The placating grin on his face only grew wider as the absurdity of his statement dawned on her, "No better time to learn than right now."

He wasn't exaggerating earlier when he said that the knowledge of how to dance was completely lost to him, and it seemed like she wasn't either. The two were already fumbling around, trying to get into a position where they could take it slow without risk.

The Trailblazer was really regretting his life choices up until this point. He'd had several chances to learn to dance and turned them all down, thinking there was no point. Well, those missed opportunities were really biting him in the rear.

However, that same inexperience was what made the experience enjoyable. With her arms around his neck and his at her waist, the pair shuffled around like a blind chicken.

Caelus didn't care for that. He could only focus on her reddened face and the warmth that soothingly embraced his collarbone, his face as hot as a volcano. The phone he kept in its pocket vibrated, but he was too enamored to notice.

Just a glance told him that Firefly was in a similar predicament. The stars blazing a trail through the sky watched on in amusement, taunting, even.

With nothing but a gaze into the other's eyes, they agreed to just leave those problems for later.

One footnote at a time.

…I find myself lost in your eyes…