Page 122 of Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

“One day,” the monster whispered. “Over, and over, and over, and over. That same day, erased each night, so she can live it again the next. For centuries. Millennia…”

It reached out, delicate, and pinched the sheet between two claws. “I have failed to kill you,” it whispered. “But the machine will not make this mistake again. It will send one who does not know you, who cannot be influenced. With that one will come an army.”

“What…kind of army?”

“There was a city once,” Liyun whispered. “I remember wisps of it, as I travel here to feed, to try to remember. Whenever the machine lets go of us, we come to your land, to seek ourselves. Futinoro. You know that name?”

“A city,” Painter whispered, “that was destroyed entirely by stable nightmares.”

“It happened because the spirits managed to contact the people there,” the monster said. “The machine ordered the city wiped out as a result, to prevent anyone from knowing the truth. It sent dozens of my kind to achieve it. I was there. In a dream, I was there.”

Painter sat back and released a long breath, his eyes wide. They’d assumed that failure had come from the painters not doing their jobs. But if it instead had been a direct assault…

That changed everything. He snapped his attention back to the beast. “They’re coming here?”

“From the west,” Liyun said. “A hundred nightmares. Strong as I am. Fed by the machine to make them dangerous and stable. Flee. Flee and pray to the spirits.”

Her eyes lingered again on the stack, and then she withdrew, taking his picture with her.

Yumi dreamed.

And had nightmares.

Yes. The irony is so thick, you could spread it on your toast. Don’t focus on that. Focus on what she heard. Because unlike most nightmares, this one was only sounds.

Voice one: “She’s breaking through the patch.”

Voice two: “Strengthen it.”

Voice three: “We should cut these memories out with the machine. All of them, stretching back the entire month.”

Voice two: “We don’t have the strength for that. And if we did, she’d notice. It would upset the balance.”

Voice one: “And if she breaks through?”

Voice two: “We deal with her, then try again.”

And…after that…nothing…

Yumi awoke feeling exhausted, which was not a good sign. But the daystar was out, bright in the sky. And she’d always considered itsappearance to be a good sign. An omen that the primal hijo would be open and welcoming today.

There’s an old joke that mentions lost items always being in the last place you look for them. It doesn’t say anything about memories though. Those, once lost, are the sorts of things you don’t even know to look for.

Yumi stretched, then settled herself on the warm floor to wait for her attendants.

Who never came.

Eventually Liyun opened the door, looking frazzled, her hair messy and her bow untied. Yumi was shocked. Liyun breaking protocol? They’d done the exact same thing for what seemed like forever. Now Liyun came to her door before Yumi even had breakfast?

“The town,” Liyun said, “is sick.”

“Sick,” Yumi said. “Theentire town?”

“Yes,” Liyun said, then put her hand to her head. “I…don’t remember how I discovered it. But something has happened, and…and you need to remain inside today. In prayer and meditation. Yes, that is what you need to do.”

Yumi leaped to her feet. Was this her chance? Protocol broken. Could she ask? Strangely, she found her timidity completely absent. Though she’d worried for weeks about even asking, now it came out easily.

“I,” she said, “would like to visit Torio City for the festival in a hundred days. You will see that it is arranged?”

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