Dreamslinger, page 19
He bit his lip. “Knowledge of the three Gifts was another thing the king decreed be kept secret from foreign trialeers—at least until the Trials were over, anyway. Royal Hangukites all know the legend.”
Aria’s mind spun, trying to piece all the various bits of information together. “Okay, but what does the Bleeding Bloom even do?”
Lion winced. “It grants a small piece of Gardener Igong’s very essence.”
“Gardener Igong is the God of Death…” Tui remembered.
“Which means the Bleeding Bloom has the power to… kill?” Aria asked.
Tui whistled. “I can see why they call it the Touch of Death now.”
Lion nodded solemnly. “It’s supposed to hold immense power—enough to destroy entire worlds if it falls into the wrong hands.”
I cannot give this up. I will not give up on my daughter, do you hear me? I refuse to give her a broken world! her mom had screamed before her demise.
It made no sense. If the Bleeding Bloom had the power of ultimate destruction, how did her mom believe she could use it to help Aria?
Lion continued to shuffle his feet.
“Don’t tell me there’s more,” Aria groaned.
“The Bleeding Bloom…” Lion started. “It’s what the anti-slingers have been trying to steal for years. It’s one of the reasons the kingdom has been so closed off from the world. To protect it.”
Aria frowned. “How do they even know it exists?”
“The world tour ten years ago wasn’t just about showing the world our powers,” Lion explained. “It was about information sharing, too. About pooling knowledge and sharing wisdom.” He huffed. “Not that it was reciprocated or anything.”
Tui’s eyes widened. “Wait, wait, wait, hold up the bus. Are you saying Aria’s mom was… an anti-slinger?!”
Lion got flustered. “I’m not saying she was, but I’m saying she was after the same thing as the anti-slingers.” He threw up his hands. “Look, I’m as confused as you guys! She was your mom, Aria, but she was my hero, too. And until seeing that water-lily’s-eye testimony, I didn’t know any of this. I thought she’d died in the Great Tragedy, like my mom.”
Aria remembered that’s what Nam Samchon had thought, too. The general public must not have known she’d tried to steal the Bleeding Bloom.
She shook her head fervently, trying to get a clearer picture. Had her mom’s time in Almiro changed her so much that she’d joined the anti-slinger movement? Her dad had said she’d been bled dry by the discrimination and hate, until she was no longer the woman she used to be. Could she really have been brainwashed by the anti-slingers to hate her own kind so? Like Maxwell Forsythe?
And then a question struck her over the head like a hammer. If her mom had been alive only a couple years ago, why hadn’t she come back for Aria? Why had she hidden herself from Aria this whole time? Why had she abandoned her own daughter?
Suddenly, anger surged through her like a jolt of electricity, and she felt Rio zing with fury beside her. The mudang was right. Ko Iseul, Ersa Loveridge, whoever she was—was only out for herself.
A new round of tears cascaded out of Aria as Rio made a deep howling sound. “I can’t believe it. My mom’s a traitor who abandoned me, and my dad’s been lying to me my entire life. I’m basically an orphan. I’m… I’m all alone.”
Tui took out a bunch of neon Band-Aids from her pocket and slapped two on each of Aria’s hands, and one on Rio’s forehead, too. Then she wrapped Aria in a tight hug.
“Well, that’s hardly fair,” Tui scolded. “Like Nam Samchon said, family aren’t just the people you’re born into.”
“Yeah, we’re family, too, remember?” Lion added, joining the hug, who was quickly joined by Rio, Echo, and Tweak.
Tui laughed. “Not every day you can say you have royal blood in the family.”
Aria’s head snapped up, and she stared between Lion and Tui. Come to think of it, Lion had spoken about his abo-mama earlier, and Tui hadn’t been surprised. “Does this mean you know about—? But the king said—”
“Abo-mama doesn’t always know best,” Lion said defiantly. Then he grinned. “Besides, I’m the Rising Sun of Royal Hanguk. I should be able to share my identity with whomever I choose.”
Tui stuck her tongue out at Lion. “Let’s be honest. I’m a little offended by how long it took you to tell me, but I won’t hold it against you forever. Juuust for a little while longer.” She shrugged good-naturedly. “Besides, the truth always reveals itself in one way or another, right?”
Aria’s deep-seated guilt ratcheted up at that comment. And she realized this was as good a time as ever to tell her friends her own truth. If they hated her for it, that would be Aria’s cross to bear.
“Um, on the topic of coming clean,” Aria started, twiddling her thumbs as her voice trembled, “I haven’t been entirely honest with you guys about who I am, or why I came to the Trials. And I want you to hear the truth from me.”
As they blinked at her expectantly, she told them everything. That her real name was Aria Loveridge. How she came to the Trials as a spy to save her dad’s career, and in a way, to avenge her mom’s death. But that somewhere along the way, things had changed. She’d met them. They’d become a family. And now she was here for the right reasons—to become a Fellow of the Royal League.
She thought it would be hard to be this honest, but the opposite was true. Tui and Lion listened patiently, without judgment, and the truth came gushing out. When it was all out, it felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, even as she prepared herself for the worst.
“Look, I won’t lie. It’s not cool what you did. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s against the kingdom’s laws,” Tui eventually said.
Lion nodded in confirmation. “And it would’ve been nice if you’d come clean a long time ago.” He sighed. “But honestly, who am I to talk? It’s not like I’ve been honest with you guys, either.”
Tui raised her hand. “I’d just like for it to go on the record that I, on the other hand, have been nothing but honest from the outset.” She shrugged. “But still, I get it. You were working under impossible circumstances. If I were in your shoes, I would probably have done the same.”
Aria felt heat building behind her eyes.
“And for what it’s worth, I really like the name Aria Love,” Lion added.
Tui nodded. “After all, you did all this in the name of love, right? For your mom and your dad. And I dunno, considering everything you’ve just learned about your parents, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to be your own person. Not Ko Iseul’s daughter. Not Jack Loveridge’s daughter. Just you.”
Rio buried her head in Aria’s armpit, nuzzling her until Aria laughed and shoved her away.
“I think someone agrees,” Lion said with a grin.
“Well, I guess it’s only fair…” Aria murmured, “since I named you, Rio, that you have the final say on mine?”
Rio let out a satisfied snort and waggled her stub.
“Then it’s done. From now on, I will forever be known as Aria Love.”
“So then, Aria Love, are you finally ready to hear about the ingenious idea we had for the Endearing?” Tui said, her eyes sparkling.
“Oh?” Now that Tui was saying it, Aria remembered why they’d come to find her in the first place.
Lion raised his brow. “You do realize the third Trial is in two days, right?”
Rio’s ears perked up then, and Aria gasped. “Two days?!”
She’d been so caught up unraveling the shroud of secrets around her that she’d totally forgotten about the final Trial.
“But we’re not ready!” Aria felt flummoxed, looking over at her seedling. Their relationship was only just on the mend. And apart from earlier when Rio carried her to the sensory decompression room on her back, Aria had still not managed to mount the dragon, let alone practice flying. And with Rio’s stub, they’d need more practice than most to get off the ground.
The worry came crashing over her, and she reached out to grab on to Rio. At this rate, there was no way she’d be passing the Endearing. And if she failed, the rules stipulated that seedlings had to be returned to the Asleep. After everything she’d lost, she couldn’t bear losing Rio, too.
She buried her head into Rio’s neck. “No, no, no! I won’t let them take you from me!”
Lion tapped Aria on the shoulder, and when she turned around, there was a glint in his eye. “Well, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about. Tui and I have been studying the rules around the Endearing. And just after you left the Harvest of Service, we had a light-bulb moment.” His cheeks glistened with excitement. “We think we’ve found a way to make sure you pass the final Trial.”
“And you’ll be pleased to know,” Tui added, as Rio bumbled away to chase Tweak, hitting the table and throwing the lowlight lamp to the ground. “It doesn’t involve Rio having to be coordinated, let alone do any actual flying.”
Aria stared wide-eyed at her friends—no, at her family—and she found a surge of hope rushing through her. She had no idea what their idea was. But she trusted them. And if they were sure, then maybe, just maybe, she still had a chance to become a second-year Novice after all.
“NOW TAP ON THE SIDE of the chima like this,” Junghee encouraged Aria, as she demonstrated the specific drumming pattern that would activate her new hanbok design.
Aria copied the motion on the side of her dress. “Like this?”
Before she even finished asking the question, a tingle spread through the material. When she looked down, the full-length hanbok had transformed into a knee-length version, maintaining the traditional crossed collar but with a breezy, pleated wrap skirt. Aria repeated the drumming pattern, only for the dress to return to its full graceful length.
“It worked!” Aria exclaimed.
“It’s coated with shrinktipede saliva,” Junghee explained, triumphant. “I thought it might be a good hanbok to wear for the Endearing today. This way, you’ll be agile getting on and off Rio, and still be fashionable.”
Aria pulled her maid into a grateful hug. “I love it, Junghee. Thank you.”
Junghee pulled away and pretended to have something in her eyes. “If you don’t pass today, I’ll hunt you down and dress you in your sleep. And I’ll make it extra rash-inducing. Mark my words.”
Before Aria could respond, Junghee wagged her finger at Rio, who was still dozing on Aria’s bed. “And you, I’ll never make you a mermaid tail again!”
At that, the seedling bolted out of bed and gave Junghee the biggest puppy-dog eyes Aria had ever seen. The maid laughed and wrapped her arms around the dragon. “Oh, let’s face it, I’d make you eight and turn you into a merdragon octopus if you asked!”
Aria laughed, too. But only on the outside. Inside, she was terrified. And desperate. And…hopeful?
But instead of shoving the emotions down into herself, she allowed them to rise to the surface. Then, taking a big breath, she embraced the whole onslaught of feelings, letting them be what they were. Nothing more, nothing less.
And as she did, a word came to her. And she coined it in her mind:
BRAVSPARK (Noun) (Aria origin): The moment when you realize that fear and hope are two sides of the same coin, and that wanting something so bad it hurts just means you must be doing something right.
Before she could leave the bedchamber, two butterflymails arrived, fluttering eagerly in front of Aria’s face.
One was from Nam Samchon and Saemi, inviting them over for family lunch soon. Samchon’s belly laugh rumbled jovially as he declared he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so Aria and Rio had better pass the Trial today.
The second was from Librarian Yong, who claimed she’d discovered a way to make her snackpan tree grow new types of snacks. If they passed today, she’d allow Aria—albeit reluctantly—to test it with her favorite bung-o-bbang fish pastries.
Aria waited expectantly for something from her dad, despite how their last communication had gone. But nothing came. It made her heart fissure with a pain that was hard to describe, and for a moment she wondered if she could really do this.
She took off her lucky number eight pendant and placed it with her dad’s domino tile. Yes, she could do this. And she didn’t need these lucky charms. Today, she had Rio, and she had her friends. And that was all the luck she’d need.
As if reading her mind, Rio came to lick Aria’s hand, and she took a deep breath. “All right, girl, time for you to become a sapling, and for me to become a Novice. Let’s go.”
By the time Aria and Rio turned up at the slumbersanctum, the forty trialeers were all jumpy and wide-eyed, knowing that by the end of this Trial, their cohort would be half the size. Even Jina, who was normally full of misplaced confidence, was quiet in the corner with her henchman, Eugene, and their solar phoenixes.
“Welcome, trialeers, to the final Trial,” the king announced promptly, as the four Head Scholars and four palace matrons gathered each of their gajok together. “As you are aware, today we will travel to the Asleep to embark on the third and final Trial—the Endearing. For abundance of clarity, let me spell out exactly what will be required of you and your dreampanions today.”
He spoke over the deathly silent cohort. “In today’s Trial, we will test your ability to Journey through the threshold into your Season archway on your dreampanion seedling, whether that be running, swimming, or flying. Your task will be to return from your Season armed with your seasonbilities, which is, of course, the true objective of the Endearing.” He cleared his throat. “As you are untrained, your seasonbilities will be raw and untamed. But this is expected. As long as you can demonstrate the presence of a seasonbility, you will be deemed successful.”
Adebamgbe Bolaji, the Nigerian trialeer from Summer Palace, put up his hand. “What will happen if we fall off on the Journey?”
“If you were to fall off your solar phoenix as you are flying to your archway, Trialeer Bolaji, you will wake up and find yourself back in the slumbersanctum,” the king responded. “And you will be escorted home, as your time with the League will have come to an end.”
“And our seedlings?” asked Misha Mora Perez from Autumn Palace.
“They will remain in the Asleep, returning to whence they came.”
There was an audible gulp as the trialeers clung harder to their dreampanions.
“Those of you heading home today will revert to having recurring dreams of the Heartsglade, as you did before the Trials. Regrettably, you will not be able to control or wield any seasonbilities going forward. They will remain raw and unfiltered as they were before the Trials began,” the king continued. “For those of you who do pass today’s Trial, you will soon learn what we call lucid traveling with your dream guides. And unlike those heading home, you will learn to control and wield your seasonbilities as second-year Novices.”
Everyone winced. Way to spell out the divide. And the chances were as good as tossing a coin.
“If we fail, can we come back next year?” Mason asked hopefully.
“Yeah, can we return for another try?” Daxia echoed.
The king shook his head. “The League does not allow second chances—not because we don’t believe in them, but because the Asleep does not grant dreamers with a second dreampanion.”
Aria shared a startled look with Tui and Lion. So this was it. One try and one try only.
“Any final questions before we reconvene in the Heartsglade?” the king asked.
Tiare ran her hands down her two pigtails and cleared her throat. “What if more than twenty of us make it to our Season archways?”
“Good question, Trialeer Taina. We will be timing each of your Journeys. If there are more than twenty of you who pass, you will be ranked from quickest to slowest time, and we will take the top twenty.”
Panic gripped Aria’s chest, and Tui squeezed her hand. Aria was hopeful their plan would work, but would she be fast enough?
“Then without further ado, palace matrons, please prepare your trialeers for travel,” the king concluded.
Their Sang-Gung Mama helped tie their seedlings to them using the special red string, and then giving them each a tight hug, she wished them luck before sprinkling their heads with slumberdust.
“Hope to see you all as Novices,” she murmured thickly, as they all closed their eyes.
Autumn Palace was first up, and the king and Head Scholars led the forty trialeers toward the sea in the west. The archway was at ground level but far away from where they all stood, looking like an airport runway made of autumn leaves. Aria shivered. The West Sea of Floating Leaves looked beautiful, but the experience of falling through them into the empty abyss was anything but.
Head Scholar Tak and his harvest tiger, Kit, stepped forward with a clipboard and stopwatch.
“Let’s get this Trial on the road,” he announced, twiddling his mustache gems excitedly. “First up, Zahra Amini. Please approach the edge of the sea with your seedling.”
Zahra was as calm as a painting as Tui gave her a quick hug, and she jumped on the back of her harvest tiger, Rahi, and approached the edge.
“Good luck, trialeer,” Head Scholar Tak declared. “Please begin your Journey in three. Two. One!”
As he activated the stopwatch, Zahra’s tiger confidently leapt onto the leaf-covered runway and began running. Each footstep was as light as a feather, hardly denting the amber leaves that were floating on air. They were making good time toward the archway when Rahi’s footing suddenly slipped, making Zahra lurch dangerously off her seedling’s body.
Everyone gasped. Zahra screamed, but she managed to grab hold of her tiger before she fell, hanging on by one hand, even as her legs dropped below the leaves of the sea.
“No!” Tui yelped. “She’s slipping off!”
The seedling roared in panic, not knowing what to do. It spun around in circles, making things even worse for Zahra. Aria felt her body tense as she watched Zahra cling on to Rahi for dear life.
