Chapter 100

For a short while longer, Zoey explored the sparkling expanse of the dreamworld.

She was disappointed how her lustful indulgences with Kali had been abruptly cut off, but even interrupted, it had been fun. She wondered if she could find a way to meet up with the woman in real life. That park they’d gone to—was it real? She didn’t know the name, but there were only so many in Treyhull; she could probably track it down. Would Kali do the same?

Though maybe it would be for the best if she didn’t. While fun, Zoey was supposed to be minimizing her presence. Plus, she wouldn’t be at Treyhull much longer.

So she wouldn’t seek out Kali, exciting as that event had been.

For now, she sated herself with drifting through the inky expanse dotted with dream orbs, exploring. She thought she had a grasp on how the liminal space worked, but more could reveal itself on closer inspection.

Mostly, Zoey was curious about the ‘links’. The dream orbs had shown themselves to be what she expected—ways to slip into dreams of the sleeping—but she’d yet to fully identify the strands that entangled the structure. Relationships, she felt fairly confident in saying, but hadn’t confirmed it. The most concrete proof she could dig up was that, with some frequency, links from one orb to another included people who looked similar. Family, maybe.

Obviously, that was far from hard proof. But something that edged her suspicion away from ‘unsubstantiated theory’ to ‘slightly substantiated’. Because what other ideas could she come up with for what the links were?

Ten or fifteen minutes into Zoey’s explorations, a suspicion hit her. Something obvious in retrospect. If each of the dream orbs—which represented individuals—had relationship links, did she?

She explored her incorporeal self. On initial inspection, there didn’t seem to be any of the strands that represented ‘links’, and certainly none that were obvious, floating in her peripheral. But on closer inspection, with a deliberate effort to seek them out, she found some. Strands of light trailing into the distance.

Faded, though. Dark gray and barely noticeable, she only caught them after a scrutinizing inspection. And only a few. Since Zoey only had four meaningful relationships in this world—Rosalie, Delta, Sabina, and Maddy—and they were all solidly awake, with Zoey taking a midday nap to play with the dream potion, she assumed the links were inactive, the reason they were gray and faded. The same dulled state that Kali’s dream orb had shifted into upon her waking.

Curious, Zoey followed one of the strands. The endeavor didn’t yield much. She found herself in front of a foggy orb, identical to Kali’s. She didn’t know who it belonged to. The target being awake, there was nothing to experiment with; she could neither invade the orb nor get a hint of what lay inside.

Idly, Zoey sorted through the other strands radiating from her chest, disappointed there weren’t any active ones. There were four prominent, but other smaller strings, too. At a guess, they represented inconsequential relationships. Likely, Fe, the artificer, was one of the larger ‘smaller’ strands, bordering between a real relationship and not. Other thinner ones were truly brief interactions: the dressing room girl she’d enjoyed, Delta’s two dates, the guides that had led them through realms to Treyhull, if Zoey had to make some guesses.

Then, Zoey found a stranger link.

Spidersilk thin, it had been easy to miss. And beyond that, it was ... different. Not gray and faded like the others. She’d missed it because of its size. And because it pointed upwards, not sideways.

Even odder, with Zoey’s attention falling on it, the string grew. From hair-thin, it expanded in Zoey’s awareness, from near invisible to pulsating and thicker than the rest. It vibrated in her vision, flaking off tiny crystalline shards. The space around it twisted with chromatic aberrations, flickering from one color to the next, disappearing when she looked at them.

Otherworldly. That was the immediate word that came to mind, watching the bizarre effects.

Otherworldly.

As if what lay on the other end wasn’t quite human.

Zoey had a suspicion what she’d stumbled onto. For a second, she hesitated. Then, latching to the strand, she followed the path it provided. Rather than horizontal, it led her upward into the sky, away from the sea of dream orbs.

Away from the mortals.

Venturing far above the floating mass of dream orbs, Zoey traced the strand into the heavens. Arriving, the glass ball that met her was larger, thicker, and sparkling in hundreds of colors, the same otherworldly material the linking-strand was made of. Zoey studied the object.

She didn’t intend to fall in. Rather, she was pulled. Before she could even realize what was happening, she sank, against her will, into the consciousness of a goddess.

Cool wind buffeted Zoey, blowing through her hair and across her skin, carrying the invigorating scent of salt water. Above, the sun beat down, washing grassy plains in bright light.

A short distance away, a goddess stood on the edge of a cliff.

Ephy’s hands were clasped behind her back as she leaned forward, peering across the sea churning hundreds of feet below. Her see-through white dress fluttered in the wind, hugging divine curves, and even a sight of the goddess almost stopped Zoey’s heart. Her memories hadn’t done the woman justice. The goddess of beauty, fertility, and lust.

“I wondered when you’d get in contact,” Ephythithys said, not turning to face her. “It’s been almost a week. You’ll make a girl feel neglected, you know?”

Zoey floundered for a response—or even to form coherent thoughts. She had intended to find a way to speak with Ephy, but not today, through the dream potion. It was an awfully convenient result, but at the same time, not. She hadn’t organized what she wanted to say. And when it came to speaking with divine beings, she would rather have been prepared.