Axel stood with wide eyes, mouth ajar, looking at one of the mirrors. “Wow. This is trippy, and so cool. Why don’t they teach us this stuff in school?”
Loki pulled a piece of chalk out of his bag and drew a huge circle on the wooden floor, encompassing the mirrors and the coffin in the middle.
“That’s like creating a medium to commune with the other worlds,” Fable said, “In your case, the Dreamworld.”
“Exactly,” Loki agreed. “It’s called the Epidaurus Circle, named after an ancient Greek town. A high priest used to come and heal ill people in the middle of a circle like this one. He healed them by entering their dreams.”
“Except that in your case, you’re killing them,” Axel noted with a forefinger on his lower lip.
“I understand why you have to use mirrors,” Fable said. “Mirrors have been used to imprison demons, and commune with other worlds throughout history.”
“Not to mention that Bloody Mary hides in one of these,” Axel stepped into the circle, marking his territory.
“I’d prefer it if you get out of the circle,” Loki warned him. “According to my notebook, this circle will become a monstrous gate sucking non-Dreamhunters into a nasty world beyond your imagination. Only Dreamhunters are allowed inside.”
Axel jumped out awkwardly, checking his clothes and looking around as if something from the circle had stuck to them.
Loki handed a number of candles to Fable; “You know what to do with these, right?” he winked at her.
Fable smirked. “Yeah, a witch always does,” Fable lit the candles one by one and placed them carefully adjacent to the circle. For a wannabe witch, this was as easy as ABC.
“Now we pull down the curtains,” Loki read from the notebook. “Axel?”
Axel jumped eagerly and pulled the curtains, conjuring darkness into the room, except for the candle-lit circle in the middle.
“Perfect setting,” Fable said. “Romantic, I have to say.”
“And I thought I was the one who was weird,” Axel mumbled, flicking her earlobe with his finger.
“Everything inside the Epidaurus Circle is called the Dream Temple. If you want to be my assistants, you’ll need to learn the terminology.”
“Whateva ya say, boss,” Fable giggled.
Loki grabbed his bag and got into the Dream Temple. He pulled out two ancient Obol coins he’d found in the bag and placed them on Snow White’s eyes. He was only following the instructions from the notebook. It said that the coins prevented the dreamer, in that case Snow White, from connecting the waking world to the Dreamworld with her eyes. It was a precaution used because some evil entities in the Dreamworld might want to escape to the waking world.”
Then Loki pulled out an hourglass from Charmwill’s backpack, and placed it inside the circle.
“So that’s what that for?” Axel knotted his eyebrows.
“It’s apparently an hourglass, but the notebook describes it as a ‘Waker’,” Loki read. “It has a switch where I can set the amount of sand, thus the time, I want to spend in the Dreamworld, and it only works inside the Dream Temple. The maximum time allowed in any dream is two and forty minutes.”
“What does ‘two and forty minutes’ mean?” Axel said.
“It’s a fancy word of saying ‘forty-two minutes’,” Fable said. “I remember I read that phrase in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which I’m sure you haven’t heard of.”
“Does it have zombies in it?” Axel said.
“It’s a Romance. Juliet drinks a poisonous potion that puts her to sleep for ‘two and forty’ minutes,” Fable said then suddenly stopped in the middle of her sentence, and looked at Loki. “Does that mean that Juliet’s poisonous potion might have been a Sleeping Death, too?”
“Please,” Loki waved his hand. “I’d rather not analyze.”
“You’re right; too much analyzing will cause confusion. We have to focus on Snow White’s dream right now,” Fable said. “
“So once the all the sand falls through the Waker, the Dreamhunter’s connection to the Dreamworld ends and he wakes up?” Axel wondered.
“Yes, as long as nothing prevents the Dreamhunter from waking up,” Loki nodded.
“What do you mean by that?” Fable frowned. “Could you stay trapped in the Dreamworld?”
“The notebook mentions that the Dreamworld could be dangerous. Previous Dreamhunters were unable to wake up from it, but it never explained how or why it happened. However, there’s another tool that allows me to send you a signal if I’m in danger and need help,” Loki said and pulled out a red ball of thread from the bag. “It’s called an ‘Ariadne Fleece.’”
“A ball of thread?” Axel scowled. “Looks like it belongs to someone’s grandma.”
“Watch closely,” Loki took the tip of the fleece and touched one of the mirror’s surfaces with it. The meeting point turned the mirror into a water-like surface, rippling as if he’d thrown a pebble in it.