2
I woke inside the dream-cradle with a pain in my hip. Its walls were currently pulsing a pleasing shade of purple supposed to, I thought, entice me to stay inside of it longer. But every time I woke up inside of it, I was more tired than when I went in – I rose up and pushed the lid open, finding Joshan waiting right outside.
“To your bed, my Queen?” he suggested.
“Please.” He reached in and swooped me up from the cradle, carrying me across the room to lie atop my bed – it was massive and had metal posters that rose up like trees with mechanical lilans nestled in all the branches to chime pretty songs. Despite my bed being bigger, the cradle out-massed it somehow, taking up one whole corner of my chamber, conduits snaking out of it in all directions, sinking into the floor and up into
