Vessa woke up to smoke clogging her throat and stinging her eyes as she fought to draw breath. Orange juice stung at cuts in her mouth and all along her skin. The over powering floral scents adding to the assault as Vessa fought to see around her.

  She grabbed at her number, which was sinking, and held it at 100% as she coughed and stumbled. Finally, making it out of the smoke. She could see fire all around her in distorted orange; there was no yellow or red, not even a pretense. She was in the field of flowers all of which were orange their stems nonexistent. There was no green anywhere. The flowers, an army awaiting command to attack.

  Vessa looked up at an orange sky and wasn’t surprised when she wasn’t able to find blue or white. She turned around and around and there, coming out of the flames, was the Umbaan rep. Robes of orange and a glow around him encasing him in his color so completely it was hard to make him out.

  Vessa reached for him and got nothing but a faint echo with her mind hurting. Would she have been able to get ahold of him if she hadn’t been straining to be in the ocean of numbers over and over again? Or was this the outcome either way?

  Vessa looked all around for any bit of non orange, but even she was in the shades and hues of the color. Her skin, her hair, her clothes.

  There was no grey from the smoke that had assaulted her. Not anything but orange. Vessa didn’t know what else to do.

  She wanted to run, but in the moment of her thinking that, she stumbled to the ground, unable to move.

  “I was trying to be lenient with you, but how can I be when you break the basic rules?” The Umbaan rep’s voice was everywhere and nowhere, like the captured star and moon light of her home Constellation skies.

  “I didn’t mean to. I am sorry. Please don’t hurt me.” Vessa said, her mouth moving as her body was once again her own. For a moment, a hallway appeared around Vessa, her arms held as she was being dragged. Orange snapped back into place. The stinging citrus burning even more.

  “There is no escape. Though you surprise me. Was your asking about the Dreamers more about you than me?” The Umbaan rep asked as Vessa tried to catch her breath. Numbers, there were no other numbers, only her own.

  She was back in the dream, horribly cloying with orange, but better than being dragged to the Learning Center. Vessa could still feel hands grabbing her arms as her feet and shins scrapped across the ground.

  “Answer me!” He yelled as a flash of one shade of orange took the entire dream before settling back into the variations. Vessa sat on the ground, her breath not coming, somehow answering.

  “No.”

  “I don’t believe you. What was your purpose in telling them?” He yelled and the whole world was yelling, as Vessa was desperately grasping. Except there was nothing to grasp at, but herself, her number echoing. She was screaming. Another flash of a hallway, of being dragged, knowing that screams reaching her ears were a demonstration of what her voice would be doing once she was in a room.

  “Stop that!” The Umbaan rep yelled as orange flashed all around Vessa. How did one breathe? Was she breathing? Where were the numbers always present in her mind? She curled into a ball, screaming as the Umbaan rep was speaking.

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  “I knew you were lying, though I did not know Number Assassins could access the dream.” He said and Vessa curled herself tighter, waiting for the pain that was sure to come.

  “Answer me! Why did you tell them?” His voice boomed and Vessa’s answer was drawn out of her. Her voice was both answering and screaming at the same time.

  “I didn’t mean to.” A long silence as Vessa stopped screaming, her breath ragged, her heart pounding. The Umbaan rep spoke again and Vessa looked up to feature rather than blinding orange.

  “You speak the truth. Very well, Vessa tell me how you didn’t mean to. You have created quite the mess for me to clean up.” He said, his voice coming from one direction, instead of everywhere. Her body no longer stinging from orange juice, finding every cut. She gasped for breath. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t being dragged down the hall to the Learning Center. This was a dream.

  “This is a dream, yes. But that is no small thing, and even if you were to wake, pulling the same trick as last time. You would find no escape. I have people on the ship. Yes, you’re on a ship, in case you thought you were still on the planet.” The Umbaan rep said and Vessa paused in her panic. As she tried to adjust to his new demeanor, one question played in her mind. How did he not know she knew that already?

  It was a twig, as Vessa drowned in her terror, but she grabbed hold of it. Could there be a spell to detect speaking about magic? If true, that meant he hadn’t heard any of her conversation. Not that how he figured out mattered.

  “Who?” Vessa whispered as her fingers grasped at the flowers. They felt wrong. She breathed out again. If she couldn’t escape through color, maybe she could through texture.

  “A necromancer for one, among many others who can stand against you.” He said and Vessa nodded as she worked up the courage and energy to feel at the flowers and escape.

  “I am sorry I came off a little strong. I did not wish for the same early departure as last time, and our rules are in place for a reason.” He said, and Vessa forced herself to sit up. The dream around them was still purely in variations of orange. His number was still unreachable.

  What was she supposed to say?

  “If you’re truly sorry, you’ll let me leave and come back when you have your temper under control.” Her voice came out as a monotone, as if nothing that had happened had actually bothered her all that much. Several moments passed in silence, Vessa feeling at flowers between her fingers.

  “Very well, next time you sleep we will both come back with a better attitude, and while I know you are shaken by the kid. I expect you to follow our laws. Allowing you to join us is no small thing. We risk the wrath of your people. In this risk, we expect you to act accordingly, by being a model to all those within the Umbaan and those outside of it. They rely on us to show them how to act.” He said as Vessa nodded.

  “Very good.” He said and moments later, Vessa woke up. Her head pounding, orange stinging her mouth and the smell of smoke filling her nose.