The sequence hiccuped a few times before going dark, a decaying reel with bits eaten away. Sorrow bloomed in Venkat’s chest. So things were that bad. Jai had plainly lost control of the wisps mid-harvest, and some of them had evaporated into the ether.

When the choppy nightmare resumed, the dreamer huddled, devastated, in a patch of unripe strawberries while her soul mate tucked a blue flax flower behind the ear of a laughing woman in a pretty sundress. Venkat assumed the man must have rebuffed the dreamer for this woman, but he’d never know for certain, not with the middle section missing.

Dodging Jai’s dull gaze, Venkat steered the remnants of the dream into the dreamstone and set it down. “Show me what else you have.”

Jai’s frown lent some feeling to his face. “That’s it.”

Fighting to hide his dread, Venkat crossed his arms. “You only harvested one dream?”

What survived of the dream was good quality, its level of immersion deep and its quotient of heartbreak high. Yet in two nights of harvesting, all Jai had managed was a single half-reaped dream. Venkat wasn’t sure Jai had even perceived the holes, and that only made him sadder.

He considered quietly buying it anyway, but the damage was too extensive.

Venkat knew better than to care about his runners this much. But while his kin were gone, at least he had Nayan. His runners had no one. He’d promised himself that no matter how long it took, no matter how many times his experiments failed, he’d come up with something to help them.

Jai pushed the carnelian vial at Venkat again and held out his empty palm. “One boon.”

Venkat knew he was itching to get his hands on his particular obsession, a tricycle. Jai was way too old to ride one, not that he cared. It didn’t matter that the boons could invoke anything at all; the dream runners wanted what they wanted.

Venkat imagined telling Jai that getting the tricycle wouldn’t grant him any lasting happiness. “I’m sorry,” he said instead. “Bring me something else, all right?”

If only Jai would argue. If only he’d do something to prove Venkat wrong.

There was no reason to expect that, not after the initiation had done its work, but Venkat couldn’t help scrutinizing him. Something. Anything. Please.

Jai closed his fist around the rejected vial, snuffing out that wish along with the soft light from the ruined dream. “One boon,” he said flatly. He darted back through the panel, presumably toward his room in the runners’ quarters.

Swallowing a sigh, Venkat opened his logbook to the day’s acquisitions and drew a blank line after Jai’s name. At any rate, he consoled himself, running his finger down the page, Indu and Srinivas had both delivered excellent wares earlier.