Madame Oneiro was flustering about in a chest near the counter. Both of them were becoming extremely frustrated, with the sleeping shell on the bed and each other.

"What are you searching for?" asked Hallastro.

"An item which could possibly help your friend! An item which I haven't used for a long, long time..."

"Well hurry up about it!"

She grimaced and emerged with a looking glass of some sort. She blew on its dusty surface and revealed a scarlet lens. Hallastro examined it with puzzlement.

"What is it?"

"It is what is known as a Lens of Truth. It allows invisible objects to be seen with the naked eye."

Strangely, Hallastro felt as though he had seen an item like it before, very recently. No, not an item like it. He had seen the very same item.

"And how will this help us reach Ningan?"

"The mind itself is not visible to the naked eye." she lifted her veil. "But with this magical Lens, all of his dreams will be unearthed."

He watched her lean over the silent body will lay still and place the mystical lens over his forehead. Her expression would jump from a twist of confusion to a look of horror. It left Hallastro in complete uncertainty. Eventually she dropped the Lens back into the chest and turned to tell him exactly what she saw, so he hoped.

"It seems that Ningan's is drifting between two worlds." she announced. "However, one of these worlds is the world we know: Reality. The other is a dream, configured from pieces of Ningan's imagination. He is trapped between them, as though some force of evil is pulling him to each one."

"So how do we get him out?"

"The only way we are going to remove him from this cycle is by confronting his dreams themselves. We have to journey into his mind and see things how he does. Once we do that, we need to alter the events which occur. To do that, mwe need you to dream yourself."

"But I don't know anything about Ningan! He's just a convicted criminal that I'm paid to guard!"

"It seems that you would know more than you think. I will fetch the pendulum and put you to sleep. Then, it is up to you to remind Ningan that he is still dreaming and get him back to the world of reality. But you had better hurry. By the looks of things, a terrible disaster is going to happen within both of these dreams and destroy his mind. This will force him to choose which dream to die in."

"How much will it cost?" he asked stupidly.

"I'll do it free of charge. Now focus on the pendulum while I recite the spell..."