Dawnslight

I reached the next flight of stairs, then twisted around the stairwell to keep going up. As I did, my foot trod on something that crunched.

I shivered and looked down. Another fortune cookie. I was tempted to just leave it there—the last ones had been seriously weird. Nobody in the base had been able to make sense of them. But I knew I couldn’t just leave it. I knelt down, anxious about making too much noise, and held up the slip of paper to the light of a glowing fruit.

Is this a dream? the paper asked.

I took a deep breath. Yeah. Still creepy. What did I do? Respond?

“No, it’s not,” I said.

“What?” Megan asked in my ear.

“Nothing.” I waited, uncertain what kind of response I expected. None came. I started up the stairwell again, watching my feet. Sure enough, I found another set of cookies growing from a vine on the next flight.

I popped one open.

Gnarly, it read. I get confused sometimes.

Was that a reply? “Who are you?”

“David?” Megan asked.

“I’m talking to fortune cookies.”

“You’re … Huh?”

“I’ll explain in a minute.”

I made my way upward slowly. This time I was able to catch a vine curling down, cookies sprouting from it like seeds. I waited for one to grow to full size in front of me, then pulled out the slip.

They call me Dawnslight. You’re trying to stop her, right?

“Yes,” I whispered. “Assuming you mean Regalia, I am. Do you know where she is?”

I broke open a few more cookies, but this pod all read the same thing, so I climbed up a little bit until I found another cluster.

Don’t know, dude, it read. I can’t see her. I watched that other one, though. On the operating table.

“Obliteration?” I asked. “On an operating table?”

Sure. Yeah. They cut something outta him. You’re sure this isn’t a dream?

“It’s not.”

I like dreams, the next cookie read.

I shivered. So Dawnslight was an Epic for certain. And this city was his.

“Where are you?” I asked.

Listen to that music.…

That’s the only response I got, no matter what questions I asked.

Chapter 36, page (290~-305~)? Firefight