Page 110 of Somnium

She pointed to the curved line at the center of the drawing. “This one acts as a labyrinth. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s enough to get Oneirios nice and turned around if he tries to access your dreams.”

“So he can’t get to us while we’re asleep?” Cadi asked.

Sera nodded. “Exactly.”

“And the others?” Elias asked, his tone clipped. The faster they got through this explanation, the faster they could move on to the next steps and get Oneirios out of his head. At least partially. Sera shot him a look, and he lifted his hands in dramatic capitulation before dropping them back down to the table.

“These two are your waking and sleeping states, then this one here connects them so the sigil will work in both realms. Since dreams aren’t my realm, I wasn't able to build something that would apply directly to your sleeping state, so this is the next best thing. That extra line there basically makes it so that, even though your physical body is holding the sigil, it will transfer to your dreams to protect you there.” Her eyes shifted to Elias. “This won’t sever his binding, so you’ll still need to be on the lookout for any attempts to influence you through that.”

Elias worked his jaw and nodded. As if in response, a sickening tug wound through his chest, its intensity making his vision pitch. He leaned forward against the table and dug the tips of his fingers into his forehead to combat the stabbing pain behind his eyes. At least he knew he was still able to resist, though he didn’t much care for the headache when he did.

“Has it been bad?” Sera asked. He cracked his eyes open to find her watching him, her face twisted in worry.

“At first, yeah,” he mumbled, “I think he’s getting bored though. That was the first one today.”

Sera nodded and continued to study him with a look he couldn’t quite read. Though, if he was being honest, he didn’t really have the brainpower to try at the moment. With any luck, Oneirios would find something more amusing than tormenting him. And with this sigil …

Maybe this would all be over soon. Maybe he could finally breathe again.

“What about this one?” Cadi asked, pointing to the circle and pulling him back to the drawing on the table.

“That’s just the tiniest sacred circle you’ll ever see,” Sera replied, “it contains the whole design and sort of holds it together.”

Cadi’s eyes stayed fixed on the paper, a small crease beginning to form between her eyebrows. “And this—I mean you’re sure it will work? It just seems so…simple.”

Sera grinned, then leaned over to nudge her shoulder. “Weren’t you the one on a deep dive about sigils a few months ago?” she teased, “It’s all about intention, and with the amount that I poured into this design, there’s no way Oneirios will be able to bust through unless he binds himself to every soul on the continent. And if that happens, him hacking your dreams will be the least of our concerns.”

Cadi returned Sera’s smile, then, for a brief moment, her eyes flicked to Elias before they returned to their friend. “Why didn’t you do this earlier?” she asked, and Elias didn’t miss the pain that touched her voice. He knew exactly what she meant. Why hadn’t they guarded his dreams right from the start? Then none of this would have happened. Sera moved to answer, but Elias spoke first.

“We couldn’t risk it,” he said softly, nearly forgetting his words when Cadi once again fixed her piercing blue gaze on him. “If Oneirios had tried to access my dreams and they were blocked he would have known I was up to something. Sera taught me how to safeguard any thoughts that would give away what we were doing and we—we thought that would be enough.”

Cadi’s grip tightened around her coffee cup as she pulled in a breath and nodded. The desperate look in her eyes nearly tore him from his seat right then. He needed to go to her, to hold her and show her that everything was going to be alright. But how could he when he didn’t even know if that was true?

Cadi cleared her throat, then pulled her eyes from his and turned her attention back to Sera. “So, do we just need to put this on our walls then?”

“Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than that,” Sera explained, “unlike a ward, in order for it to fully work in the long term it needs to be physically tied to you in some way and bound with a ritual. So, who’s up for tattoos?”

Cadi and Elias both pulled a face at the suggestion. Sera scoffed, her eyes going wide at their mutual and immediate rejection of her idea. “What? Don’t tell me you’re suddenly ink-averse.” she said to Cadi as she eyed the spot where her phoenix tattoo lay hidden beneath the fabric of her jeans.

Cadi shrugged and tapped a finger against her mug. “It’s not that, I just—I mean this won’t last forever, right? I’d rather not have a permanent reminder of it on my body.”

Elias nodded his agreement. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of this shit storm every time he showered, or every time his hands brushed the curve of Cadi’s waist. His jaw tensed, the memory of her warmth beneath his palms threatening to fray what was left of his restraint.

“That’s fair, sweetie. No tattoos,” Sera said. “How about a ring?”

Elias shrugged, not completely opposed to the idea. Cadi, however, frowned again.

“What now?” Sera asked. It was clear the threads of her saint-like patience were beginning to wear thin.

“Sorry! I’m just terrible with rings, I always lose them.”

“Necklace?” Sera suggested.

Cadi pressed her lips together and shook her head.

Sera’s jaw tightened, and she fixed Cadi with a glare before tossing up her hands.

“You know what, I love you, but you’re both pissing me off today. You’re getting rings and you” —her finger jabbed Cadi’s shoulder— “will just never take it off, understand?”