'Is it really you?' Noble brought her hand to her mouth.
'It is really me,' Sarai assured her, pushing one of the long red braids behind her shoulder as she presented her ear. Behind it, the other half of [The Other's Voice] sat tucked neatly away.
Noble thought for a moment that she was dreaming, but that couldn't happen in a Nightmare, could it?
"AH!!!" she screamed, unable to contain her joy.
Alyx and Counsel, who were already startled by the Queen's offhanded comment, were now truly stumped.
"Are you alright?" Counsel backed up to Brenna's side.
Noble held her stomach to hide her bubbling emotions. "I'm fine. I just...."
'Tell them to leave immediately.' She sent the message to Sarai quickly.
"Leave?" Sarai said, her brow furrowing.
'Forcefully!'
"Leave us! Now! Lady Brenna and I wish to be alone." Sarai suddenly looked like Emira's twin. The performance was perfect.
Counsel stepped forward to object but Noble stopped him. "Don't worry. I can handle this. Everything will be alright."
"What?" The man looked even more stunned. Why did Brenna look so excited? "What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I will come and find you shortly." Noble nodded.
"I said get out!" Sarai's hand lit with fire. The soldiers and two men decided it was better to obey. They rushed out of the room with only Counsel daring to look back.
'I've always wanted to do that.' Sarai smirked and pretended to throw the ball.
'It was a little over the top, but highly effective.' Noble checked to see that the doors were shut.
While she was turned, Sarai rushed from her throne to hug her friend.
"Oh!" A rope circled around the redhead, pulling her back as a shadowy figure dropped from the ceiling.
"Don't move." the cloaked man brought a knife to Sarai's neck.
Noble rushed forward and pushed the knife away. "It is alright. We are on the same team."
"But you said..." the man started.
Noble blew out her cheeks. "That was before I knew the Queen had been replaced also."
"Replaced?"
"Also?"
Nickel and Sarai's voices overlapped.
"Both of you had better come with me."
Finding the hidden door, Noble used a little force to enter Emira's private chambers. The thought of how angry the woman would be about someone coming in without permission made her shiver.
But there was no longer any reason to fear.
The threat was gone.
Noble shut the door and ordered Emira's maids to leave.
When they were alone, she faced her two friends. Overcoming her aversion to touching Emira, Noble hugged Sarai tightly.
"I cannot believe you came!"
"I am just glad you are still in one piece! I was afraid it would be too late!" The redhead's eyes filled with tears.
"Let me make introductions. Nic, this is Sarai. Sarai, meet Nic. Welcome to my Nightmare. Well, our Nightmare," Noble corrected herself.
"Fireshing? That's you?" Nic pushed back his hood and dismissed his fabric mask.
"In the flesh, Laundry. Just not my flesh, I suppose." Sarai looked down. "I am very glad you made it!"
"Wait, you two know each other?" Noble understood they had met in the Dreamscape, but did not think they had any interaction outside the arena.
"Of course, we know each other! You think we each entered this Nightmare alone?" Nickel clicked his tongue. Finding a large armchair, he made himself comfortable. "We might be crazy, but we are not entirely suicidal like you."
"I think that is his way of saying he is happy to see you. I know I am." Sarai found another seat.
Noble continued to float. Both of them knew she could fly and lift objects, and she had too much excited energy to fake sitting right now anyway.
"Don't get me wrong, I am so glad you are both here...but WHY are you here?" Noble rubbed her eyes.
Was she hallucinating?
Sarai and Nickel exchanged silent glances.
The redhead coughed lightly, "Isn't it obvious? We came after you!"
"What would possess you to do that?" Noble had accidentally put her life in danger in a series of unfortunate events. But now these two had chosen this path willingly!
As Nickel had pointed out, they were crazy.
"You are my friend. I know you would have done the same for me." Sarai's words filled Noble with warmth.
'Anything for you,' Noble agreed.
"Before you go getting all sentimental, I came for totally selfish reasons. Even with the government's protection, things were getting a little too hot for my taste in the waking world. A little power-up should solve more than one of my problems." Nickel shrugged.
"Don't believe him. I was there when Fort asked for his help. Laundry was worried about you too."
"Details…" Nickel put his hands behind his head and stretched out his legs to rest them on the tea table.
Noble gasped.
"You've spoken to Fort? So he knows what happened? He knows I'm alive?" This point had been Noble's biggest fear.
That her husband and children would lose hope and give her up for dead.
"Fort and the kids are worried about you but are otherwise fine. When I left, your mother Lena had moved in temporarily to help while Fort worked extra hard to get you home."
Sarai pulled The Other's Voice from behind her ear. "Your husband is the one who gave me this. Someone named Captain Styss handed it over to the government during the investigation."
Noble recalled the man who was in charge of the strike force. He was both competent and kind.
"Since it hadn't disappeared, Fort knew you must be alive somewhere. He reluctantly gave it to me as well as a special Memory to transport it in hopes that it would help me find you sooner."
Sarai summoned a small box. Noble recognized the [Lover's Keepsake] from the government inventory which Fort had shown her before she left.
The humble Memory was barely big enough to hold the earpiece, but it had served its purpose well.
"I suppose I didn't need it, since you look like, well, you! But I had no way of knowing that before I got here." Sarai squinted.
"Yeah, what's up with your face?" Nic caught himself and coughed. "I mean, why do you look like you when we don't? I thought we were supposed to take other people's places and bodies for the second nightmare."
Noble winced. "My body fell through the gate, and straight into the seed. I guess the Spell decided not to change me to look like Lady Brenna."
There was the odd chance that Brenna looked exactly like a younger version of Noble, but somehow she doubted it. The people that the challengers replaced were supposed to be close semblances, not exact copies.
"That's some kind of bad luck, Noble. No one has ever fallen through a gate before. And you landed in a Seed? I didn't even think that was possible." Nickel picked up some fruit from a bowl and began to eat.
He seemed more at home here than she had ever seen him in the library.
"I had a little help from the [Portcullis Key]." Summoning the Memory, Noble held out the dark orb for the other two to see. "I was using it to go through the train and save passengers when the Gate opened. It seems like walls are not the only thing it can break through."
"You must have been so scared!" Sarai stood and hugged her friend a second time. "I know it took us a week, but we are here now you are not alone."
"A week? What do you mean it took you a week?" Noble held her friend's hands tightly when she pulled away.
"We got here as fast as we could, but you know how these things are..." Sarai stopped short.
Noble's face was pale. "Sarai, I haven't been here a week or even two. I entered the Nightmare six weeks ago..."