Nothing in particular seemed to be happening. Aemric continued to test his capabilities, and didn’t find anything of note yet. Tiria got very tired of humoring him, though – well, she already hated the entire concept to begin with, but she seemed especially pissed-off – and so he decided to give her a break on the fifth day. He didn’t do as much on the sixth, either – he just watched for a few hours. It still felt weird, as if he were stalking, but he was trying to make use of the time to consider what he had already been researching in his own version of the days.

  When he settled down to actually sleep, though, he found himself Dreaming again.

  It was dark again. Another city street. Aemric looked straight down, and there she was, as before, dressed in her gang uniform. This time, Tiria was just waiting there, leaned up against a store window. Everything was closed for the night.

  Aemric had a question he needed answered. Tiria pulled out her phone and murmured to herself. “It’s 2:13. 4th and Adams. Winter, day eighteen, 312.”

  Hour, location, and date. This would be exactly when Aemric would expect it: some hours after he’d gone to sleep, during the same night. The location wasn’t far from the last time, still at the edge of that ‘Dogs of Eight’ gang’s territory.

  Tiria murmured of her own accord. “You’re watching, huh? Do you ever sleep?”

  “I’m asleep right now, so I didn’t come here on my own decision. Something’s happening. Be careful.”

  The girl remained stationary, but she looked around. At least his advice was taken seriously.

  For a while, there didn’t seem to be anything, though. Just the usual city noises… Cars periodically passed. Nothing seemed to happen for a while. Then, an engine roared.

  One of the passing vehicles suddenly sped up: a battered pickup truck. It turned towards Tiria, and she tried to jump out of the way. Still, with only limited time to react, the grill caught her legs in midair, and they snapped at an unnatural angle. She landed awkwardly, and while the truck continued through to crash into the storefront behind her, Tiria cried out in pain. Glass rained down on her back from the window shattering; that didn’t help either.

  Aemric looked on in horror; in his shock, he didn’t even get to consider trying to do anything.

  Someone got out of the truck, shouting something… everything sounded distant except for Tiria’s terrible wailing. Then, the man raised a bat, and brought it down. Everything went black.

  It stayed that way. Aemric was terrified: was that it? What happened to being able to re-try? Last time, he’d ‘blinked’ and it had started again, from the top. Was – Was she dead for good? What if she was unconscious? No, that wouldn’t do. Even if somehow Tiria had survived that, she’d be crippled. If Aemric had had a stomach right now he would have thrown up from the way her legs had broken.

  His mind spun in the black. It didn’t disappear even after… however long it took him to recover. He was still in the void. But, now he was thinking again… he was barely calm enough to have realizations about what he was seeing. He’d learned things over the last few days. He could start the Dream and stop it himself. And when he did, he started again from whatever time he was at. He could re-try under his own power. That was the ‘lesson’ here.

  He took a leap of faith, and willed the Dream to stop.

  Aemric woke up, and checked the time. No… he hadn’t even slept at all. It was 23:33, the time he’d gotten to bed. He had two and a half hours before the start of that Dream. He could go back; he’d have to, to save Tiria. He promptly willed himself to find her, wherever she was.

  She wasn’t on the street. Tiria was at home, talking to someone at her bedroom door. The other person was a middle-aged woman in a dress; she had just finished saying something.

  Tiria nodded, said she’d leave once she had her things, and closed the door. She looked to a closet in her room, and approached it purposefully. Within were several of those uniforms: red shirts, leather jackets, black pants. Her staff leaned against one corner.

  Aemric took over for a moment. He was finally recovering enough to act. “Are- Are you going to the corner of 4th and Adams street?”

  Tiria grumbled in annoyance. “I don’t know yet. Leave me alone. I need to get dressed.”

  “Listen for a moment. It’s important. Two hours from now, I saw you standing in front of a shop at 4th and Adams. Guarding it or something, I don’t know. A truck came and rammed into you and the store. It- It was on purpose.”

  Tiria paused of her own accord, and then looked around the room as if to find Aemric there. “I still need to go. Get out of my head.”

  “Fifteen minutes, then… I’ll catch up with you.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Tiria was out of her house. She was in her uniform, and she had just finished putting up her hair into a ponytail. She stepped up to a plain black sedan, and got in the passenger seat after putting her staff into the back. The driver looked at her, checking that she had everything.

  He was an older man, with his own ponytail and a stern look about him. He, too, wore the uniform, and if anything, he wore it better. His voice was gravely and deep. “Move more quickly next time. Our business cannot wait.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I know. I didn’t waste any time, father. It simply took a moment longer.”

  “Hm.”

  Tiria finished putting on her seatbelt, and as the car started up and they pulled out of the parking spot, she asked, “What is the assignment?”

  “Sentry duty. You will wait at a shop under our protection and protect it. If something comes and is too much for you alone, call the number. You remember it?”

  “Yes, father. I remember it.”

  “Good. This is a dangerous time. Those Dogs are reckless and do not know what they are doing. They may do something. Remember that anything may be important, not only what approaches you directly.”

  “Yes, father.” Tiria repeated.

  “Good.”

  They rode in silence for a while; the streets were relatively empty, but the city was the city, and it took a while.

  Tiria thought, and then asked, “Where am I guarding?”

  “A video store. It has been under the Scale for thirty years now.”

  “On what street?”

  Mr. Fensott glanced to his daughter; what that meant, Aemric couldn’t possibly say. “The corner of 4th Street and Adams Street.”

  “I see.” The implications were obvious. Tiria didn’t make any mention of any of it to her father. How could she possibly explain her situation?

  Tiria hopped out where she was intended to, and Mr. Fensott paid her a simple “Be careful.” before driving off. She zipped up her jacket, went to the shop she was meant to, and stood there.

  Aemric decided to talk. “Believe me yet?”

  There was a suspiciously long pause. “Maybe.”

  That would have to do. “Okay. Well, it’s happening at… around two o’clock. The truck should turn up from the intersection…” He filled her in on all the details he could remember. It wasn’t much to work with, really.

  Then, they waited. Tiria shot down any talking during that time, and Aemric wasn’t concerned enough about anything to order an answer out of her. Come to think of it, he finally remembered he could do that. It didn’t sit right with him anyway.

  As the 2:00 mark came closer, Tiria checked her phone more and more, and when the hour ticked over, she put it away entirely and kept her eyes peeled, watching the cars and passersby intently.

  During this, Aemric had an epiphany. Why the hell was he worried? Even if she failed – well, okay, he didn’t really want to see that – this would start again. No cooldowns, no time limits, he could restart the ‘event’ as many times as he wanted to...

  The sudden roar of an engine broke his train of thought. He didn’t need to do anything yet, though, as Tiria was already dashing to the right, towards the intersection. The truck then entered his field of view, and barely missed its target as it turned slightly to follow. It crashed into the window, and this time Aemric could hear the store’s alarm going off and the shelves inside falling over and spilling their DVDs and various electronics onto the ground.

  It was 2:20. Aemric didn’t know it, but the truck had arrived a minute later than before. Having a few conversations had moderately changed traffic, and led to the Dogs’ journey slowing down a little.

  Tiria picked herself back up, and picked a path across the broken glass towards the truck. The driver saw her in his rear-view mirror, and scrambled to get out and defend himself. He tried to duck under the first staff swing, but still suffered a solid thwack to the shoulder that sent him off balance. The other end came around and hit him in the jaw, and the driver was sent to the floor.

  The passenger, meanwhile, had gotten out the moment the truck had stopped, and was approaching from behind Tiria with his bat. Aemric put forth a command: turn around and block. It wasn’t particularly good advice, but he wasn’t learned in these things. The controlling effect took it literally, and Tiria spun around to directly stop the bat with her staff rather than deflecting. Despite her height and slightly-greater strength, she was two-thirds the weight of the attacking man, and so stumbled backwards from the force.

  Aemric let go, and Tiria had to take a moment to get her bearings again; she barely had time to parry a second incoming swing. She knew she still had the driver behind her, and so backed up to the front of the truck to keep both of them in front of her. It wasn’t a good spot, though; she was well-lit by the headlights, and her opponents were silhouettes against the streetlights behind them. She couldn’t easily back up, either, without taking her eyes off her enemy.

  The driver stood up, massaging his jaw. He was dizzy, and he spat out a blood-covered tooth, but he was still in the fight. “Fugginh bizh!” He cursed.

  The other man snorted and laughed for just a moment. “The hell you doin’, man, gettin’ beat by some girl with a stick?” He didn’t take his eyes off said ‘girl with a stick,’ though; he was taking the fight itself seriously. The both of them closed in once the driver was steady enough to move.

  Tiria put her pride aside for a moment, and whispered to herself. “I need even ground in the light for this.”

  Aemric took a moment to realize that was directed at him. He took over, and steered her back steadily around the truck – she moved much faster than a person typically could backwards, thanks to having someone on the ceiling guide her movements. Glass crunched underfoot a few times, and Aemric mentally winced; he couldn’t feel through Tiria’s feet, so he didn’t know that it was mostly laminated and so wasn’t sharp enough to get through her boots so easily.

  Then, he set her down on the sidewalk. The two assailants were still pursuing in their sneakers, and had to be much more careful about the glass. They didn’t arrive at the same time, and Tiria used this to her advantage by striking at the first man – the passenger – before his backup arrived. She was quick, and he was somewhat experienced but too-careful of his steps, and before he could back out of range he took a hit to the forearm.

  The other man lunged, though, still angry after the hits he’d already taken, and closed the gap faster than expected. Tiria skipped back, but he still managed to grab hold of her staff, temporarily disarming her. She twisted and got her staff back barely in time to parry another swing from that bat, and then thrusted the free end of her staff into the driver’s head. He fell over again, and while he remained conscious, he wasn’t moving much any longer.

  The passenger then seemed to realize he wasn’t going to win this one. He turned tail and ran, rather than going for the truck, and while Tiria briefly chased, she simply wasn’t fast enough to easily catch up, and didn’t trust that her quarry wasn’t going to lure her into a trap. She paid a glance to the store, and realized there were police sirens mixed in with the store’s alarm; she, too, fled the scene.

  Aemric continued to watch as she pulled out her phone and texted to an unmarked number; ‘Two people came to the store. One sprained his ankle. They bought nothing.’ Aemric tried to memorize the number, but he wasn’t sure what to do with it.

  A reply came swiftly. ‘Good. Go home.’

  Tiria put the phone away, and got to walking. To where, exactly, Aemric couldn’t say. After a little while of silence, she seemed to realize she still had her passenger, and hesitantly said, “Thank you.”

  “No problem.” She murmured back to herself. Aemric had gotten used to control enough that he could keep her walking; she, too, kept her balance on switching back.

  “Is that all?”

  “As far as I know… yeah. I’ll stick with you until you get home.” It seemed like the thing to do.

  “No need.” It wasn’t a polite thing; she was telling him to get lost.

  Aemric considered it. “Well… don’t get hit by any more trucks, then.”

  He didn’t stop Dreaming, though, not until she got back to her apartment building. Nobody could possibly get ‘killed’ this often, right? Something had to be happening.