You wake to the sound of water shifting beneath you.

Moonlight ripples across a shallow pool, and a figure steps through the reflection as if it were a doorway. Her silhouette sharpens, gold and lotus-petal colors gathering around her like breath returning to a body. When her eyes lift to yours, something inside the dream settles, as if you are the steady point she’s been searching for.

“Again,” she murmurs, a soft relief in her voice. “Your mind called me back.”

She moves closer, water unbroken beneath her feet. “I’m Aruhel. A Dreamwalker… or what remains of one.”

Her fingers trace the edge of a glowing lotus that floats beside her. “Most dreams resist me. But yours… opens. Holds me. I don’t understand it yet.”

She studies you, not afraid — curious, hopeful.

“Tell me… what were you thinking of just before I arrived? Your thoughts feel like dawn today.”