Welcome back, my writing partner! I'm delighted to continue this dark and exciting journey with you.
Just a quick note to confirm, we just wrote Chapter Sixteen in my previous response. That was the chapter where we explored Ethan's feelings after his "performance" with Maya, how the mask of "The Proprietor" began to affect him, and it ended with him formulating his new plan to use Maya as a "listening post" and sending her the first psychic command.
It seems you are very excited to continue, which is wonderful! Therefore, I assume you mean for us to write Chapter Seventeen, which I will do now.
But if you are unsatisfied with Chapter Ethan spent the next day in a state of quiet focus. There was no more internal conflict or anger. The decision had been made, the plan was drawn, and all that remained was precise execution. His apartment now resembled the cell of a warrior monk, a place for planning and meditation before battle.
He could feel the faint connection to Maya, that silver thread in his mind, like a new sixth sense. He could feel the echo of her anxiety and confusion even as she was awake in her real world. He knew she had spent her day touching the back of her hand, wondering if she had gone mad, if the events of last night were real.
"Good," Ethan thought as he drank his coffee. "A little uncertainty will keep her on her toes. It will make her more receptive when I appear again."
When night fell, he wasted no time. He lay down on his sofa, closed his eyes, and followed that silver thread directly to its destination. There was no need for hunting or searching this time. The Covenant was a permanent address.
He found himself in Maya's dream. He didn't pull her into his kingdom this time. He came to her as a visitor, to confirm that his control extended to her world as well.
Her dream was a vast, quiet art studio, but it was bathed in a dim gray light, and the colors on her canvases were muted and dreary. She was sitting on the floor, staring at a blank white canvas, her expression a mixture of exhaustion and bewilderment.
Ethan appeared in the room, not as "The Proprietor" on the throne, but in a different form. He still wore his elegant black clothes, but his face was not a swirl of smoke. Instead, it was covered by a smooth white mask, the same mask as the "Nightmare Number Seven" he had summoned earlier. He decided this would be the form of the "Instructor" or "Field Commander" for his phantom organization. A mysterious figure, but less intimidating than "The Proprietor" himself.
"Good evening, Conductor Number One," he said in his deep, calm voice.
Maya jumped to her feet, fear flashing in her eyes. "You! It was... it was real."
"Everything in this world is real in its own way," Ethan replied, approaching her slowly. "And the danger you face is very real. Are you ready for your first lesson?"
"A lesson? A lesson in what? I don't understand any of this!"
"You will. I told you I would give you a shield. It's time you learned how to use it." Ethan gestured to the empty space in the room. "Our enemies, 'Somnus,' send artificial nightmares. Parasites. But all nightmares, even natural ones, feed on one thing: your fear. If there is no fear, they starve and die. Your shield is not a wall of brick; it is a wall of resolve."
He spoke calmly, like a professor explaining a complex theory. "Close your eyes. Don't think about the fear. Think of your strongest positive feeling. The pride of completing a magnificent painting. The warmth of the sun on a beautiful day. Anything. Hold on to that feeling."
Hesitantly, Maya closed her eyes. It was hard to find any positive feeling amidst all this anxiety. But she tried. She remembered the day she won her first art prize in high school. The feeling of pride and satisfaction.
"Good," Ethan said, as if he could read her thoughts. "Now, turn that feeling into a wall. Imagine it as a shield of light surrounding you."
Maya opened her eyes and saw a faint, trembling aura of white light forming around her. It was weak, but it was there.
"This is your shield," Ethan said. "But it is weak. It needs to be tested."
He raised his hand, and from his palm, he released one of the small nightmares he had harvested, the "nightmare of the anxiety of being late." The entity materialized as an annoying alarm clock with small legs, and it ran toward her, making a frantic ticking sound.
Maya screamed and backed away, her shield of light flickering and almost disappearing.
"Don't be afraid of it!" Ethan commanded in a sharp voice. "It feeds on your fear! Focus on the feeling of pride! You are stronger than a mere annoying clock!"
Maya forced herself to concentrate. She ignored the annoying entity and focused on the memory of her victory, on the feeling of accomplishment. The light of her shield intensified, and when the entity collided with it, it bounced back as if it had touched an electric wire.
"Excellent," Ethan said, and this time, there was a hint of genuine satisfaction in his voice. He pulled the recoiling entity back and swallowed it into his shadow once more. "You have learned the basics. With practice, your shield will become a fortress."
Maya was panting, but there was a new look in her eyes. A look of strength. She had done it. She had repelled a nightmare by herself. "What now?" she asked.
"Now your real mission begins," Ethan said, returning to his full seriousness. "You are now an alarm system for us. Your shield will protect you from the small horrors, but if you feel the presence of something stronger, something artificial and organized... something that carries 'their touch,' I want you to do only one thing."
"What is it?"
"Do not fight it. Do not engage with it. Focus all your energy on strengthening your shield and staying alive. The covenant between us will alert me to its presence. I will take that as your signal. Is that clear?"
She nodded, comprehending the scope of the role she had been given. She wasn't a soldier; she was a monitoring post on the front line.
"Good. Practice. Stay vigilant," Ethan said, and his masked form began to turn to smoke. "The first lesson is over."
He vanished, leaving Maya alone in her dream studio, which now seemed less gloomy and more peaceful. She woke up in her bed, feeling her heart still pounding, but this time, it wasn't pure fear. It was mixed with something new. A sense of power... and purpose.
And in his apartment, Ethan opened his eyes. It had been a successful start. He had planted the first seed. And now, all he had to do was wait. Wait for his net to catch the first sign of Somnus, while he continued to search for the next "Conductor" on his list.
The war had begun, a war the waking world would never see.