[quote]"Alice dear, what are you up to?" it said, staring at her.[/quote]

"Whoa-!" Lin exclaimed, almost dropping Hez from surprise.

[quote]the face slowly vanished with a chuckle, a mumbled "well see" escaping before it vanished.[/quote]

"Yeesh... Should've expected that from your Wonderful Horror-thingy world, Alice. Still caught me off guard," Lin sighed in embarrassment.

She led the group back to the museum and told them with a smile, "Wait here for a moment; I'm just gonna unload the lil' scamp here. Just find a place to set that scale on or whatever. It doesn't matter where."

Lin headed upstairs to the Employees Only area - which was hidden behind a bookshelf full of different artifacts - and entered the girls' bedroom. It was relatively normal except that Hez's half was painted white and Lin's blue, and they each had different beds, dressers and tables done in their respective colors and styles. Hez's style was more plain and simplistic, while Lin's was funky and creative. A vase of white carnations sat on a table on Hez's side while some blue roses were on Lin's.

Lin nestled Hez in her bed, then took a moment to feel her forehead. Yes, it was weird for an Oneiros to be asleep in the dream world, but this just meant the real-life dreamer would have a dreamless night. Lin had noticed Hez suffering from a fever and terrible fatigue. All she could do was sigh in worry.

[i]That last purification's taken a much greater toll on her mind than usual; she had to take care of three people at once. I hate to admit it, but we needed her ability, even if it puts her at risk - no one in Vivi-Dream can purify such corrupted artifacts like she can. If she wasn't with us, the rest of us would have needed to purify it together while dealing with those monsters at the same time. But why did those dungeons fuse? Why did three people's subconsciousness meld together into that nightmare? Why did Hez have to exert so much energy at once? There seem to be more and more dungeons than there are Oneiros to take care of them...

Oh... I wish Hez would spawn a zone of her own for me to investigate, then I could find out more as to why she's still in a coma. Waking up would be better, but that doesn't look likely...[/i]

Lin shook her head. She couldn't waste too much time thinking about all of this. She left the room and reunited with the others, replacing her sullen mood with a chipper tone as she said, "Well let's take a walk around, shall we? It's a big place, so try not to get lost!"