So today’s the day. I spent some more time discussing the philosophy of the followers of Morpheus w/the owner of the hostel over the week. Now it’s time to find out what the connection is w/the group of kids over in urbs speculorum. Assuming he doesn’t stand me up. I overslept. Normally if my alarm doesn’t wake me up, after a while the sun coming through my window will. But I have neither – for that matter, alarms aren’t allowed in the hostel. Makes sense. In any case, it’s not like I have a time. So I head over to the school.
It’s empty today, being the weekend. But no sign of my contact, either. Was this whole thing a waste? No way to know just yet, I suppose. May as well look for clues.
After about 5 minutes or so of waiting around, the kid finally shows up. He apologizes for making me wait, but points out a small camera hidden in some weeds at the side of the parking lot. He explains that since we didn’t have a time set up to meet, he’d been monitoring the area and left as soon as he’d seen me.
I notice immediately that he’s not wearing any of the hardware his clique is known for. Recognizing my curious glance, he tells me that he and all the others share data constantly – if he was wearing any of his sensors, the others would know immediately that we’d met. He tells me that the only reason he’d agreed to meet me was that he could tell I wasn’t native – he wouldn’t have risked the meeting if I weren’t a pilgrim.
I ask him about how the whole thing started.
“Well, as you may know, the residents here in via dormiens are pretty… reclusive. They all stay inside most of the time, cataloging their dreams and practicing dream travel and whatever else it is they do. I don’t know. I live in the glass city; the only reason I came here today is because I know the streets are always empty. No one’s gonna see us.
Every now and again, though, they send out a monk who travels the city, meeting with people and writing down their dreams. Sometimes they even leave the city, and travel the world, looking for interesting dreams.