Dream People I — The Mysterious Magic Visitors

CHAPTER 22

Alyssra's Accusation

Alyssra's interview with Daniel began politely. She explained FREEDOM's history and showed him evidence of the Festival of Floating Lights. Daniel watched the images with growing horror. He had never seen Maerina before, never heard the name, and remembered no dream resembling the festival. When Alyssra displayed the blurred face of the visitor who had lifted her mother, Daniel understood why she had wanted to speak with him. 'You think it was me,' he said. Alyssra did not deny it. She explained that the old recording was incomplete and that his appearance had stirred a childhood memory.

Daniel answered that he had not been there, at least not in any experience he could recall. He also admitted that his dream memories were imperfect. Alyssra heard the uncertainty as evasion. Her voice sharpened. 'My mother died while someone like you vanished.' Mac stepped forward, furious at the implication that her father had deliberately harmed a stranger. Daniel raised a hand and asked her to wait. He looked directly at Alyssra. 'I'm sorry your mother died. I can't prove a negative from a dream I never had.

But I won't confess to something I didn't do.' The words were calm, and that calm made Alyssra angrier. She ended the interview before she said something she could not retract. Sardrith reviewed the recording afterward. He warned Alyssra that similarity was not identity. QUIDRIX confirmed that no reliable biometric comparison

could be made from the old footage. Alyssra knew they were right, yet the possibility of losing the only suspect she had ever felt close to overwhelmed her. She walked through the FREEDOM galleries, past decades of testimony, and stopped before Maerina's photograph.

Seralyn found her there. 'He was frightened when I saw him,' she said. Alyssra answered, 'So was the person who dropped my mother.' Seralyn did not argue. She sat beside her and waited. Sometimes friendship began not with agreement, but with the refusal to leave another person alone in grief. The Question Alyssra Could Not Ask Alyssra arranged the interview room so that Daniel would see Maerina's photograph before the festival recording. She had imagined this moment for years. In her imagination, the visitor always recognized the image and confessed. Daniel instead looked puzzled, then devastated by the account of what had happened.

She hated how sincere he sounded. She hated even more that sincerity proved nothing. Mac's anger rose across the communication channel, but Daniel asked his daughter to wait. He did not dismiss Alyssra's grief. He also refused to accept responsibility for a tragedy he could not remember and for which the evidence was incomplete. After the interview, Alyssra returned to the old footage. She watched the stranger's hand fade and Maerina begin to fall. She paused the recording before the impact. For the first time, she noticed that the visitor had been trying to descend. She could not forgive the outcome. She could, however, begin to separate the question of intention from the fact of harm.

Seralyn found her sitting alone and did not offer an easy reassurance. They remained together until the room grew dark.