The following days were almost exactly like the first. Emilia always had a simple breakfast of bread, cheese, and fruit ready when we woke up. After eating, we spent the day practicing our powers, then had an early dinner and went to bed.

  Soon I could easily trade specific emotions. The biggest challenge was controlling the strength of my own emotions to match the intensity of the emotion I was taking from Keegan. Best of all, I had learned to block outside emotions unless I wanted to feel them. Unless they were extremely powerful, no one would be able to do to me what Cyntia had done. And I could give Keegan back his privacy.

  Emilia warned me that it would not be so easy when I had to exchange with someone other than Keegan. “You will need to master the exchange of feelings between two people other than yourself. You will also need to learn what to do when there is more than one person that you are trying to trade your own feelings with.” Frustration filled her voice, and I was surprised to feel faint stirrings of it coming from her as well. Usually I could feel nothing from this image-Emilia.

  “You, the real you, are upset, aren’t you?” I asked.

  A brief look of surprise showed on Emilia’s face, and then she laughed. “Yes, I am rather frustrated. We need more people for you to practice on, but it is too dangerous for you to go back down into the village.” She was silent for a few moments, and seemed to be listening to something that we could not hear. “I will have to figure out what to do about this issue.”

  Emilia turned to Keegan. “Let us see how you are progressing.”

  Wind whistled through the trees and surrounded the three of us, whirling around in a circle, picking up dirt. Then, a gentle breeze reached out and played with my hair, lifting it, making it float around my face. Keegan smiled and all of the wind stopped. The clearing was completely still.

  Emilia smiled. “Excellent. We will stop for tonight. Come, let us eat dinner.”

  We followed her into the house where the usual dinner fare was laid out. This time, however, there were three places set.

  “I will join you tonight,” Emilia said.

  I was surprised. Usually Emilia left as soon as she called us in for dinner.

  As we began eating, Emilia spoke, “Keegan, I am impressed, and I owe you an apology. You are a man of your word, and it is obvious that you care very much for Maria. It was wrong of me to doubt your intentions with her.”

  Keegan looked surprised.

  Emilia continued. “I learned hundreds of years ago that people are not always what they seem to be. I should have given you the chance to tell your side of the story.”

  “Thank you,” Keegan said. “I am not quite ready to do that.”

  Emilia nodded. “I understand. When you are ready to tell, I am ready to listen, but know that you are now welcome in this world.”

  Keegan started, then nodded. “Thank you,” he said, touching his fingertips to his forehead.

  Emilia touched her lips and extended her fingers towards Keegan, smiling. “It has been too many years since a Dreamer was welcomed here,” she said.

  “How many years have you been coming here?” I asked. “If you don’t mind telling us,” I added quickly.

  “Thousands of years,” replied Emilia. “Almost from the beginning of time here. I get to see the history of this world being written over and over again. I have met hundreds of Dreamwalkers from all around the real world.”

  “Where are you from?” I asked, surprised that I had never thought of it before.

  “A small village in Nepal.”

  I was shocked. “You speak English so well.”

  Emilia chuckled. “I do not speak it at all. It is the way the dream worlds work. Usually you can understand everyone, unless they choose otherwise. It has always been so for me, in all of my years of Dreamwalking.”

  “How long have you been a Dreamwalker?” I asked.

  Emilia’s eyes suddenly looked very old. “For fifty years of real time. It has been quite amazing, although there are times when I wish that I could be done with it.”

  “You can’t decide to not dream?” asked Keegan, surprised.

  “I have found no way to stop it completely,” replied Emilia.

  “I have learned how to stop myself from dreaming,” he said hesitantly. “I thought that everyone eventually could.”

  Emilia stared at him. “You know how to close the door,” she whispered. Suddenly emotions poured through her image – shock, anger, hope, bitterness, but mostly envy. Then she composed herself, and the emotions receded. “I have never, ever known someone who was able to do that,” she said.

  She looked at the two of us. “You know each other from the real world, yes?”

  We both nodded.

  Emilia’s eyes went blank. “You are lucky.”

  I was about to ask her what she meant, but at that moment, she blinked away.

  I turned to look at Keegan. “What did she mean?”

  “I can’t be sure,” he said quietly, “but think about it. If most dream worlds are like this one, then you spend lots more time in the dream worlds than in real life. Imagine having to go weeks in between seeing your husband or your children, and there are some worlds where each real-world night is years. And there’s no way to stop it.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Keegan got up and walked over to the stove and opened the door on the front so that he could see into the fire. He sat on the rocking chair, staring. A flame flew out of the stove and into his hand. He sat silent for a long time, holding the flame in his hand, watching it. As the minutes went by, the resignation he had been feeling turned into despair.

  Finally, I stood and cautiously approached the rocking chair. I sat down on the floor next to him, crossing my legs, without looking at him.

  “Hold your hand out,” Keegan said.

  I did, and the flame jumped from his hand into my palm.

  “Keegan,” I said, a bit timidly, feeling like I was intruding. “I don’t understand why you are so upset.”

  Instead of answering, Keegan stood up, put on his coat and said, “Let’s go for a walk.”

  “Okay,” I said. He had always found it easier to talk when he was moving.

  A full moon was shining down on the mountainside, glittering on the snow. We walked to the middle of the clearing, the snow squeaking under our footsteps, and stood looking up at the sky. Our breath billowed out in great clouds that hung in the air above us.

  I waited, knowing he would talk when he was ready.

  “The Captain has my dad,” Keegan said slowly.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Years ago, he was taken prisoner by a different group of Pirates. Real world years. They did something to him that made him go to one of their dreams every time he Dreamwalked. So, almost every night, he would go to a ship and work as a galley slave. It was horrible for him, Ria, and each night in the real world is a couple of months on a ship dream. It’s why he started drinking, but he can’t tell anyone that. People think that he’s just a drunk and a deadbeat dad, but he left to try to keep me safe, and he drinks to try to keep from Dreaming. Sometimes it helps.

  “When I first woke up on the ship, the Captain was… different. Well, maybe not entirely, but he was everything I had always wished my dad would be - strong, fearless, respected, and he took me under his wing. The jobs he sent me on then were mostly rescues, and he had a way of helping people even when it seemed impossible or too dangerous. I admired him. When he asked if I wanted to join him, I was more than happy to swear the oaths. It wasn’t until a few months later when he started to change. I think something happened, but I have no idea what. He was determined to take over the Black Skulls, and all of the other pirate worlds. He got restless and demanding, and ruthless. I wanted out, but I had sworn my oaths willingly.”

  Keegan took a deep breath. “I almost got away. I learned how to stop Dreaming, but the Captain found out about my dad. He hunted him down and took over the group of Pirates that had him. The Captain was torturing him, Maria, and so I started Dreaming again. I went back to the ships, back to the Captain and swore the oaths he wanted. I… I’m bound so tightly to him, and there is no way out.” Keegan’s shoulders hunched and he seemed to shrink in on himself.

  “My dad blames himself for all of it. He wants me to stay out of the Dream Worlds entirely, but I’m not going to leave him… or you. I’ve been trying to tell him that he can stop Dreaming, that he just has to learn how to do it, but Emilia says it’s not possible.” Keegan’s voice broke. “I don’t know what to do, Ria.”

  I wrapped my arms around him. I could feel his whole body shaking as I hugged him tightly. His arms slid around me.

  “I’m so sorry, Keegan,” I whispered. "But you found a way to do it. Maybe…" I trailed off. Surely if there were a way, Emilia would know about it.

  Keegan sniffed. “Promise me, Ria, that you won’t let Emilia talk you into anything.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, confused at the turn in conversation.

  Keegan pulled away from me. I released him reluctantly.

  “Just don’t make her any promises. Or do anything that seems like a ceremony, okay?” he said.

  “No promises, no ceremonies. Got it.”

  Keegan was quiet for a moment. “I’ll be there with you,” he whispered. “As long as you are Dreaming, I’m going to Dream too.”

  “Keegan, you don’t have to do that. I understand that it’s dangerous, and I’ll be careful. Really, I will. But you keep getting hurt when you’re with me, and I don’t want to be one more thing you have to deal with in your life.”

  Keegan laughed. “Swap feelings with me,” he said abruptly.

  “What? Why?”

  “Just do it, Ria. Please. All of them.”

  “Okay,” I said hesitantly. I had been blocking his feelings since we had left the cabin. Now I opened my mind and let his feelings flood in, without swapping.

  If I hadn’t known him so well, I don’t think I would have understood the jumble of emotions that poured out of him. He had sacrificed so much, all to keep me safe. He had pushed me away over and over, even though it tore him apart to do it. For months, the Captain had wanted Keegan to bring me into the dreams. It was the only thing Keegan had defied him in, and the Captain had not been kind. All that time, what kept him going was knowing that he had kept me from Dreaming. And now I was here, and he was the one who had pulled me into the danger of the Dreams, and he hated that he had done it, but didn’t know what else he could have done. And he was so, so glad I was here with him.

  “I’m so sorry for pushing you away, Maria,” Keegan said, “And I can tell you this, I will do everything in my power to protect you. That is my oath.”

  I gasped, knowing that his words here were binding.

  Keegan suddenly groaned. I felt a spike of agony mingled with fear shoot through him.

  “Keegan, what is it? What’s wrong?”

  Keegan’s teeth were clenched together, and he dropped to his knees.

  I dropped into the snow next to him. “Tell me what’s wrong!” I shouted, panicking.

  Keegan reached a hand to the back of his shoulder. I quickly moved behind him and pulled back his coat and his shirt.

  In the bright light of the full moon I could see a skull and crossbones burned into his shoulder. As I watched, it grew darker and darker, and black tendrils snaked out from it, reaching across Keegan’s back, around his chest, and up to his throat.

  “What is this?” I asked, horrified.

  “It’s because of the promise I just made you,” Keegan said. “It interfered with the oaths I’ve made to the Captain, and now he knows you are here.”

  “What does he want?”

  “He wants you. He’s figured out I’m with you in the Dreams, and now he knows that I have no intention of bringing you to him.”

  He stood up, took a couple of deep breaths and turned towards me. Slowly he reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear. He bent down, and I knew that he wanted to kiss me.

  “Keegan, don’t,” I said, putting my fingers against his lips to keep him from coming any closer. I could see the tendrils darkening against his skin. “It’s hurting you.”

  “Worth it,” he said. Slowly he closed the distance between us, watching my face, asking permission.

  Finally, I gave a quick nod. His lips were warm and gentle against mine as I closed my eyes.

  I could still feel Keegan fighting against the pain and the fear. All at once, I felt a fierce rush of emotions welling up inside of me. In that moment, all I wanted was to be close to him, to protect him and make the world right for him. My arms reached around his neck, pulling him closer. I let happiness fill me up and pushed it outwards into Keegan, forcing away his anguish. His arms tightened around me, and he gently pulled me closer as a feeling of contentment surged through him.

  Eventually, I pulled away from him, slowly, reluctantly. As we parted, I opened my eyes to thousands of snowflakes floating all around us, twinkling in the moonlight as they swirled without any hint of a breeze.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whispered breathlessly to Keegan.

  He smiled and brushed my lips with his fingertips. “So are you,” he said.

  That night I watched Keegan sleeping on the floor in front of the fire. A dark tendril had wrapped itself around his neck, and he labored to take each breath. As I watched, I knew that I had forgiven him for the last year, but that I could not let myself kiss him again. He had already been hurt because of me; I made a quiet resolution to not let it happen again.