I could get up right now and the others would tell me if we were good to go. Capes without powers in the dream world, functioning inside Alice’s looking glass, digging into the systems. Spelunking into the crevice to access the crystal from the side closest to our world. Or being told by the Wardens that we had to go fight a Titan, that we can’t spare the manpower.

In a way, I hated every answer. There was a security in every answer.

Why was it so much easier to think clearly with a head on the pillow, when we were furthest from being able to handle those crises that came to mind?

I touched my hair where I’d been touched with a brush of gas. A wisp of the more noxious stuff must have seeped in through the mouth of the forcefield, touching the top of my head. It still stung.

I was in the midst of gathering up my energy, ready to throw off warm covers and face unpleasant reality, when my brain slipped a gear. Natalie as a member of the team, a mental image of Natalie in the dream room.

I used flight to get free of the covers, wincing at the momentary pressure of heavy fabric on my foot.

I floated into the other room, so I wouldn’t make the floor creak.

Didn’t matter. I had just reached the massive kitchen with its central stove when Kenzie appeared behind me. I put my hand on her shoulder.

Byron had only come in recently from the cold; though his face wasn’t flushed he had a few stray snowflakes and water droplets. Rain sat with Chastity, cards on the table in front of them. Natalie was frying something on the stove, while Sveta sat on the counter, watching. It smelled like hash browns.

“I have a suggestion,” I said. “It might be too late. It might cost me respect with… Sveta, at the very least.”

“What’s the suggestion?” Sveta asked.

“Is there anything saying we can’t bring non-capes into this?”

“Which part of this?” Byron asked.

“Every part of this. Getting them into the dream room—”

“You need powers,” Kenzie said. “To connect.”

“Is it powers?” I asked. “Or is it having a corona? The node in the brain that—”

“I know what it is,” she said. “I mean, we can try.”

“Then the attack squad, getting people into the cracks, into that weird landscape. If powers are turned off, like they are in the dream, or if they’re weak, like they are if you dive in there… it doesn’t really impact them, does it? The unpowered?”

“You want to bring the Patrol into this?” Sveta asked, sounding doubtful.