“What do you mean?” I asked, standing up so fast that my chair fell backward.

“Huh?” he looked surprised at my reaction. “You got a problem with my looks or what?”

“What …” Then I realized he hadn't heard the story about the Disk. He had no idea what was going on.

“Half, can you see yourself in that mirror?” I asked.

“Can I see myself … what's wrong with you, man?”

“Can you?”

“Can I … of course I can.”

I walked around the table until I was behind him. Then I reached forward to steady the Disk in front of his face again. He looked back at me in the mirror.

“Oh my gosh, I can't believe it.”

The others were looking at me like I was nuts, and I realized that none of them had heard the story. Everything had been crazy from the instant Hood brought Inori and me back from New York.

“You guys, he can see himself. Do you know what that means?”

I was met with blank stares. I grabbed the Disk out of his hands and walked around the room, shoving it in everyone's face. One by one, they saw the absence of their reflection, and surprise and confusion filled the room like helium in a balloon.

“Only one person in the world shows up in this mirror,” I said. I walked back to Half, made him stand up and put his back to the others. I put the Disk in front of his face and tilted it so that the others could see his reflection. I dropped the mirror to my side, stared at him for a second, and then turned to the others.

“The Half is the Dream Warden.”

I had to take a few minutes and catch everyone up on what had happened with Inori and Farmer. I told them about the Riddle of the Red Disk—that you needed the Disk, in other words, a mirror, to realize the truth behind Erifani Tup, and you needed the truth behind Erifani Tup, or Put In A Fire, to figure out that the Red Disk was a mirror.

That part was hard to explain, but I told them the point was that whoever showed up in the mirror was the Dream Warden, and was supposed to help me beat the Stompers by using the Grand Exception for everyone on the planet. I told them about Farmer, and the Fourth Gift, and anything else I could think of.

“Now we just have to figure out how to do it,” I said, mentally exhausted from trying to explain everything. “Half, how can you be the Dream Warden and not know about it?”

“I'm telling you, man, I don't know anything about it. So how in the world would I know why I don't know anything about it? Just because I can have more than one brain at the same time doesn't mean I'm that much smarter than everyone else.”

I gave him a blank look. “Good point. I guess.”

“Well,” said Joseph, “maybe we should sleep on it. Let the old juices stew a while as we sleep. We'll figure it out.”

“Yeah,” said Mom, “and I guess we don't have to worry about the Ka coming after us.”

We talked a little while longer, mostly about nothing, and then went our separate ways to try and get some rest. As I lay there, looking up at the ceiling, I thought about how weird it was that I was getting some sleep so that tomorrow I could go back to sleep to meet the Stompers. But I told myself that nothing should seem weird anymore, and five minutes later I was dead to the world.

It was still dark, hours later, when Half shook me awake, his face frantic.

“What's going on?” I asked.

“I've figured it out,” he said. “I know what it means to be the Dream Warden.”