Next day.
Jace stood in the basement of his house.
On the table situated in the middle of the basement sat a black cat.
Nyx.
"Are you ready?" Jace asked, as he looked at Nyx.
Nyx's emerald eyes shone with determination as she nodded her small head, "Meow!"
Jace inwardly shook his head. Even though Nyx could talk like humans, she still preferred being herself more.
"Go on then," Jace said.
Nyx nodded again and just layed on the table just like that, by hypnotizing herself to sleep.
Jace sat on a chair and waited for a moment or two. Seeing that Nyx had indeed fallen asleep, he called his marionette near—who had been standing aside the whole time.
Soon Jace hid in the reflection of a metal card—which he made his marionette keep on his person—and through his marionette, he walked into Nyx's dream.
When Jace walked into the dream, it wasn't a surprise for him to see that the dream was of his own house—or rather, their house.
As for Nyx, she seemed to be chasing some rats through the hall, rats of abnormally big sizes.
It was quite a simple dream, but then again Nyx was a simple person/cat.
Nonetheless, Jace took control of the dream and made the rats disappear; later, he hypnotized the cat to make her awake and stay lucid in the dream.
Nyx sat on the couch in the living room, Jace sat toward her left on a single-seater. She looked around carefully at the place; it was hard to believe that she was in a dream—her own dream.
She too was going to have this power after her successful advancement. Jace had already told her about it, so she was quite excited!
"After I exit the dream, wait for about 20 minutes and then start recalling feelings of extreme joy or anger... I'd go with anger," Jace said seriously as he looked at Nyx.
Nyx nodded, seeming a bit nervous. Jace had already told her how he was going to complete her ritual and what she herself needed to do.
Jace got up, walked up to Nyx, and patted her small head. Nyx purred a little. "Good luck..." he said.
Without wasting any time, Jace exited the dream and walked into the real world.
The ritual to becoming a Sequence 5 'Dream Walker' was to make a contract with a spirit world creature, a 'harpy', and do some things, but the essence of the ritual was to gain lucidity in the dream after consuming the potion.
Audrey Hall, AKA Miss Justice, completed the ritual by directly gaining the blessings of The Fool's (Klein's) paper angels to stay lucid in dreams.
And this was Jace's way to perform the ritual; He just walked into Nyx's dream and made her lucid; now all he had to do was brew the potion and feed it to Nyx externally.
In the basement, Jace got out of the metal card's reflection and stood before his marionette.
Jace looked at his marionette with emotional eyes, but he sighed... 'It's time.'
Thud.
His marionette fell down. It was gone...
A few minutes later, the Beyonder characteristic manifested.
Jace didn't waste any time and started the process of brewing the potion on the other side of the basement, where he kept his chemistry apparatus.
The main ingredients for the 'Dream Walker' potion were 'a dream catcher's heart' (which was a replacement for 'an adult mind dragon's complete brain'—impossible to get) and 'a mind illusion crystal'.
Through some effort and time, he had gotten the 'mind illusion crystal', but he couldn't find the 'dream catcher's heart', so he had to discard his marionette for the Beyonder characteristic.
It was sad, but then again, this was the reason he had gotten the Dream Walker marionette anyway.
As for the 'mind illusion crystal'... he would just have to find the 'dream catcher's heart' later and then sell both the ingredients to Natalie for Sarah...
Soon enough, he had the glass of potion in his hand.
He looked at the time on his pocket watch and waited for a few more minutes, going according to the time he had given to Nyx.
A few minutes later, he walked up to the table on which Nyx was sleeping, opened her mouth gently, and poured the potion in!
'It's all you now, Nyx. I've done my part.....'
——
Next morning.
Jace sat at his dining table, on which the sun shined beautifully through the curtains...
After the long night, Jace had cooked himself a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon with bread.
As for Nyx... well, she sat before him on the dining table eating a bowl of cat food. Her advancement was successful; she seemed happy and excited enough.
Jace was happy as well. He was proud of his little cat.
'A dream-walking cat, huh...' He thought it was quite bizarre.
He looked at Nyx, who was calmly eating. "Within a week, get acquainted and used to your new powers. We are going to fight a Sequence 5 soon; I'm going to need your help," he said.
Nyx looked up as Jace talked. "Ok~" she said in her childish voice.
Jace nodded and continued eating, though his heart felt a little empty knowing that he currently had no marionette...
'Well, I'll just have to get another one....'
——
In the evening.
Jace walked in the street. It wasn't crowded.
After making a few divinations, Jace was here to get his new marionette.
As he walked in the street, a distant figure among others was walking towards him. He knew the person, of course; it was 'Harold Gunderson', the Scribe.
Pulling his hat down, Jace continued walking.
Soon the distance between them lessened to about 6 meters. That's when Jace looked up and removed his hat.
As soon as Harold's eyes fell on Jace, his body stopped moving!