As per Rory's agreement with Kiz and Kell, twin Khatta mages of the sphere of dreams, a plan was devised that would hopefully cause the young Aeonian to dream about his murky past. For the rest of the day the two Khattas were nowhere to be seen, then near bedtime they arrived at the door of Rory's cabin with a pillow. He was instructed to sleep with this new pillow in exchange for his usual one, and that it would only be good for one night at a time.

Rory curiously looks the pillow over, wondering what is just so special about it, anyway.

The pillow looks fairly mundane, although Rory feels just a little light headed as he holds it.

The unicorn staggers a bit, and sets the pillow down, patting it a couple of times out of habit. He looks around the room, and whispers, "Silhouette?"

A shadow in the corner of the wall rises up and brushes herself off. "Right here. Are you nervous?"

Rory nods the affirmative. "Yes. I mean, I'm not afraid of magic … but this is someone ELSE'S magic, and … well … What if I have a nightmare, and I can't wake up? What if the spell goes wrong? What if there's a curse laid upon the land so that if you fall asleep under a Dream spell, a phantom of the darkness prowls about, is attracted by the disturbances in the powers, and comes and sucks your brains out so you become a mindless zombie?"

Silhouette only shrugs. "You must be brave. And you must decide how badly you want to know about where we come from. I'll be here, and you know I won't let anything happen to you."

Rory takes a deep breath and nods. "I … I guess I don't really know how badly I want it. I know I've thought about it before, but … I guess I just never really thought there was any way to find out before, so it didn't matter so much. But I've got to find out. It's important. I just know it." He pauses, looking at Silhouette. "Can I have a hug? Just in case something goes wrong, you know, and … " He lets his worries trail off.

The shadow smiles and hugs Rory as tightly as she can. Maybe it's because of the effects of the dream spell on the pillow, maybe it's Rory's overactive imagination, or maybe something else, but Silhouette seems just the slightest bit more solid when she hugs Rory.

Rory smiles, his eyes squinted, doing his best to try to "remember real hard" this moment, just in case. "Thanks," he whispers, as he opens his eyes. "Thanks for being my best friend, Silhouette."

"I'll always be your best friend." the shadow signs, pausing to brush one hand against Rory's cheek. "I always have been and I always will be."

Rory smiles. "And I'll be your best friend, too." He sighs. "I'll tell you all about what I see, okay?"

Silhouette nods and moves to sit at the foot of Rory's bed. "I'll be right here the whole time, don't worry."

Rory nods. He kneels down by his bedside, closing his eyes, and saying his prayers before going to bed. "… and if anything happens to me, please take good care of Silhouette, my best friend, and also of Mister Porky, and please make sure he gets back to Skiree, and that she gets all the candy she wants, unless it makes her sick."

Silhouette settles down and folds her hands in her lap. Perhaps she's saying her own quiet prayer as well.

Rory finishes up, opening his eyes again. He clambers into bed. "G'night, Silhouette!" He pulls the sheets over him, and makes sure Mister Porky is tucked in, too.

The shadow looks up. "Goodnight." she signs, then adds after a brief moment, "Plesant dreams."

Rory smiles and nods back to Silhouette, then lies back, snuggling in, and closing his eyes.

Sleep is swift in coming, despite the Aeonian's nervousness. At first he has no dreams, just a peaceful rest. Then images slowly begin to form, vague images that are too foggy to make out. They quickly fade away into darkness…

Suddenly Rory hears a loud banging from his bedroom door.

Rory's eyes blink open. "Huh? Ohhhh! I was trying to sleep. I didn't have any dreams, Silhouette… " He looks around.

Silhouette isn't there. In fact the cabin on the ship isn't there either. It looks more like Rory's room in the college Esoterica dorms. The banging on the door persists, "Hurry up child, you'll be late for your lessons!" it sounds like Latania's voice.

Rory hops up. "Oh my! I must have REALLY overslept!" He scrambles for his robes.

The unicorn calls out, "I'll be right there, Mage Latania! I'm really sorry!"

"I don't like to be kept waiting," comes the grumpy response from behind the door.

The unicorn hurries up, then stumbles out of his room. "I'm terribly sorry. You see, I went to sleep, hoping I'd have some dreams, but – "

"Yes yes yes… " Latania snaps. She grabs Rory's arm and leads him down a hallway he never remembers seeing in the college. "Just see that you don't keep me waiting again." She seems to be heading towards a marble door at the end of a long hallway. The stones and tiles on the floor and wall are black, white, and gray… a design that looks rather out of place.

Rory is confused. "Mage Latania? Where are we?"

"Your lesson of course." Latania opens the marble door and rather roughly boots the little unicorn inside. "Have fuuuuunnnn… " She slams the door shut.

Rory YELPS! "Mage Latania? What'd I do wrong?" he cries out.

The room inside is dark… and there is no sign of the doorway Rory entered through. There are, on the other hand, three other doors standing in the middle of the room. A white one with the word "beginning" written upon it, a gray one with the word "middle" on it, and a black one marked "end".

Rory brushes off his robes, standing up, blinking. "That … doesn't make sense." He walks back to where the door was, feeling the wall. "Wow. I wonder… "

There is no door. Just a wall tiled like Rory remembers from the hallway, a series of gray, white, and black stones.

Rory looks back to the doors. "Hmm. Door Number One, Door Number Two, or Door Number Three?" … "Zeeble, dreeble, zeebee zo! Catch a Khatta by the toe!… "

Rory sing-songs, "If he hollers, make him pay, fifty shekels every day!"

Rory sing-songs, "My mentor told me to pick the best one, and you are not it! HA! Fooled you! You're it!" He's pointing at Beginning.

The door doesn't do much of anything as Rory points to it, although the two next to it start to look slightly hazy.

Rory walks toward the door, waving his hands about. "OPEN SEZ ME!"

The door swings open, showing nothing but darkness beyond.

Rory whews. Darkness he can handle. He was afraid there'd be something REALLY scary there. He march-clops forward.

The door slowly closes behind the Aeonian. Around him, shadows rise up and begin twisting into shapes. Slowly they take the form of a forest glade with blurred figures playing in the middle of it all.

Rory whispers to his surroundings, "Silhouette, if you can hear me, I think I'm dreaming now. You keep watch over me, okay?"

The unicorn moves cautiously forward, trying to get a better look at the blurred figures, trying to will them to focus.

There's no answer. The blurred figures begin to take on a more definite shape – they look like Rory, except that none of them are colored black. They chat and play, some even cast magic, but it's a magic unlike anything Rory has ever seen before. One of the unicorns walks forward and touches a dead tree… moments later it springs up, healthy and healed.

Overhead the night sky rumbles as a storm begins to form. The unicorns don't seem to notice.

Rory waves a hand at one of the figures half-heartedly, since he's not expecting to be noticed. "Uhm … hello? How are you doing that? You're doing it all WRONG. I'd be careful if I were you!"

Indeed the figures don't seem to notice Rory. As he raises up his hand he finds that he can see right through it. As the images in the dream become more solid, he seems to become even less so. A child playing with a leather ball runs right through the dreaming Aeonian.

Rory says, "HEY! Watch where you're … " He looks at himself. "Oh. I'm still here – or – I guess I'm not." He pauses. "Darrrrrrk!" He grins. "I'm super-invisible!"

From somewhere beyond the glade, someone watches the Aeonians. There's a hint of movement, a glint of light reflecting from a golden horn, and then nothing. Above the storm rages onwards, and another glint reflects down from the clouds… an all too familiar one…

Rory blinks at the first glint, then looks up at the other one. "Uh oh… "

The dragon above circles like a scavenger circles above a carcass, getting nearer with each descending spiral. The other unicorns pay no notice to it, despite the howling winds and the roar of thunder.

Rory hops up and down. "Hey! Hey! If you don't move, he might SIT on you! RUNNNN! Stop playing with the trees and RUNNNN!" He dashes about, trying in vain to get the attention of the unicorns.

Suddenly a figure bursts out from the trees – it looks like Silhouette! The way she appeared briefly in the dream on the ship. She waves her arms and points to the creature overhead. The other unicorns glare at her, but some look upwards and gasp. The dragon ROARS as it's noticed and plummets downwards in a screaming powerdive… but too late – the unicorns are gone. Silhouette warned them in time.

Rory calls out, "Silhouette!" His eyes go wide, as he worries whether his friend can escape, too.

The landscape explodes into nothingness as the dragon strikes, then reforms into a much bleaker scene. The unicorns stand surrounded by dragons, they look defeated and beaten. The dragons hover over the prisoners, looking as though they're waiting for an excuse to pounce and tear them to shreds, but they hold back. The golden one whom Rory remembers from the previous dream looks to be conferring with a cloaked figure, occasionally they glance back at the assembled unicorns.

Rory walks closer, trying to get a better view of the cloaked figure. After all, if he's super-invisible…

Silhouette stands among the prisoners, her eyes downcast and her expression one of great hurt. The cloaked one draws back his hood, revealing himself to be another one of the unicorns. He speaks something to the golden dragon, who smiles and nods. The cloaked unicorn looks away while the dragons all begin chanting something in unison. The scaled beasts begin to dance around the prisoners.

Rory walks up to Silhouette. "I'm here, Silhouette." His eyes are welling with tears. "I wish I could help."

Shadows rise up and twist around the unicorns. Twirling and spinning, some of the dragons take their places in the shadows as well. The golden dragon rises up and screams something in a language Rory has never heard before, and every female unicorn doubles over in pain, clutching their stomachs. The shadows continue to rise and twist… then shrinks inwards. The chants of the dragons rise in pitch to a roar like thunder… then there's nothing. No dragons, no shadows… no unicorns.

"SILHOUETTE!" cries out Rory, and he grasps at the emptiness before him.

The ringing laughter of the dragons echoes through the darkness even after everything else has faded. Then the blackness fades as well, melting slowly away into redness that stings Rory's eyes.

Rory flails about, grasping at the air. "Silhouette!"

Something soft bounces off of Rory's nose and lands with a gently >thump< somewhere beside him.

Rory blinks, looking around. "What?"

"Are you alright?" Silhouette signs from the foot of the bed. She glances down at the floor where a stuffed Bromthen hog now lies. "Mister Porky decided to wake you up."

Rory looks to Mister Porky. "Oh. Thanks. I guess. Ohhh! But I didn't get to Door Number Two or Door Number Three! Now I'll NEVER – " He blinks. "Silhouette! You're all right!" Forgetting himself, he leaps up, and tries to hug his friend.

The Aeonian passes right through Silhouette and tumbles downwards. Silhouette puts a hand to her mouth in an 'oh' gesture and crawls next to her fallen friend.

Rory blinks, then laughs at himself. "Oops!" He rolls over, looking at Silhouette. "I'm just glad you're all right. I saw the dragon again. And lots of people like us! And it was attacking but you saved them … but then everybody got captured anyway … " He frowns. "And you, too."

Rory recounts the scenes as best as he can, then says, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Silhouette. I would have tried, if I were there … but those dragons … They were so … powerful."

"This was supposed to be a memory?" Silhouette signs incredulously. "It seems more like a nightmare!"

Rory frowns. "Well … yes, it was." He looks to Silhouette. "But you were there. You don't remember any of this? I certainly don't. I … I don't remember seeing me there."

Silhouette rubs her head. "I don't remember any of it. I'm sure I would remember a dragon attacking all of my friends, unless there was something that was keeping me from remembering… "

Rory frowns. "Maybe YOU ought to be the one going to sleep. Do you think this pillow would work for you?"

"I don't think it would." Silhouette signs. "I've never had dreams before."

Rory frowns. "Well … that's no fun." He gets back up, and gingerly walks up to "hug" Silhouette. "But you're okay now. I was worried. But if you don't remember it, maybe it was all just a bad dream."

The shadow gently 'hugs' Rory back. "I don't know… maybe… maybe what happened was so bad that I wanted to forget. But this was supposed to be part of your past, I wonder why you would dream about me? Are you going to use the pillow again sometime?"

Rory nods. "Sure. I want to see the other two doors!" He looks to the window, to see what time it is. "But I have to get another pillow from them each time, right?"

Outside, the sun has just risen above the horizon, indicating that its still fairly early in the morning. Silhouette stands up and glances at the window as well. "I'm not sure. Perhaps you should ask the Khattas, maybe they can interpret your dream as well."

Rory nods. "Let's go!" He goes through the minimums of get-up-and-get-dressed-in-the-morning routine, and slips out to find the Khattas, pillow under one arm.

After a bit of searching around the deck, Rory finds Kiz and Kell in the mess hall nibbling on breakfast. Kiz spies Rory and waves to him while Kell gobbles down a piece of buttered toast.

Rory clops over, presenting the pillow. "It worked! Sort of. I saw Silhouette in my dream, but she doesn't remember any of this… " He goes into recounting the dream, this time backing up all the way to the point where he thought he was awake, with Mage Latania rousing him from "sleep", and all the way to the end.

"Mmmmmph!" Kell says as she tries to eat and talk at the same time. Kiz frowns at her sister briefly before saying, "Well, it sounds too complex to not be at least some memory… although it'll be up to you and, er… Silhouette to decide what is dream and what isn't."

Rory frowns. "Silhouette doesn't seem to be able to help much. And, really, I can't, either. I mean … I wasn't there. And it certainly wasn't a memory. I mean, nobody noticed me at ALL!"

Kell swallows and wipes her mouth. "Dreams are tricky things, sometimes when you dream a memory you're put into a perspective where you can't effect or alter it in any way. You can't change what happens during memories any more than you can change the past."

Rory says, "Oh … I guess if I DID change it … then it wouldn't be a memory anymore." He frowns. "And then I'd just mess it all up."

"So you were put into it in a manner where you couldn't affect anything." Kiz says as she sips a glass of milk. "And it's no surprise that you, er… Silhouette has no memory of this even after you dreamed it all. It would take a mind mage to make you remember stuff while you were awake."

Rory shudders. "I don't think I want to go to anyone for mind magic. I mean, when a mind mage messes up with your HEAD … things could get really ugly." He shakes his head.

"Thank you," Rory says. "Do you think you can help me so I can try again and maybe I can find out what's behind the other doors?"

The two Khattas both nod in unison. "Sure, if you can keep making those shade spells for us."

Rory smiles. "Certainly! In fact, I could go ahead and start now, and we could eat breakfast outside… "