Narrator (Piper’s thoughts): After every battle, Lucidfall feels different. Not just darker. Not just deeper. Like it’s learning from me. Watching me. Trying to dream better lies.

  Scene 1 – [NEAR THE BLOOD CASTLE – DUSKSHIFT ROAD]

  The road ahead twisted and untwisted like a living serpent.

  Blinks walked ahead of them, arms out like airplane wings, scarf trailing, making whooshing noises with every step.

  Blinks: “Do you guys always fight creepy vampires and knight robots?”

  Thirteen (grumbling): “Only on Mondays.”

  Piper (dry): “This is literally my first time fighting stuff like that..”

  Thirteen groaned and stumbled a bit—still recovering from the hit Nigel delivered. Piper gently helped him along.

  Piper: “You should rest. I can carry your ego until it heals.”

  Thirteen (smirking weakly): “…Then you’ll need both hands.”

  Scene 2 – [CARNIVAL FOG – ENTRANCE TO DREAMSKIN]

  A strange, colorful fog rolled in. Lights flickered in the distance—red, gold, green. Faint music echoed, eerie and cheerful all at once. They turned a corner…

  And found themselves at the edge of a floating city.

  The Dreamskin Carnival.

  Suspended on hovering platforms and connected by glowing rails, the city buzzed with broken laughter and blinking neon signs: “WELCOME TO DREAMSKIN!” in warped letters. Clowns floated without strings. Merchants smiled with teeth drawn on their cheeks.

  Blinks (amazed): “…This is AWESOME.”

  Piper: “Or a trap.”

  Thirteen: “…Or both… let’s go in!”

  As they stepped into the crowd, they were greeted by a tall man in a shredded tuxedo, juggling memory orbs.

  Carnival Host: “WELCOME, DREAM-THINGS! To the Carnival of Skin! Play your joy, spend your memory, and maybe—just maybe—win your name back!”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Piper (In her mind): “I don’t like this place.”

  Scene 3 – [CARNIVAL GAMES AND SECRETS]

  They passed stalls run by forgotten demons and broken AI:

  One game offered to “Erase your sadness for a price.”

  Another asked for secrets as payment.

  A third promised “a smile you can wear forever.”

  Thirteen (serious): “Be careful. We don’t know what could happen here..”

  Blinks wasn’t listening. He was already at a dart booth, giggling.

  Suddenly, Piper felt a chill. A flicker.

  From a mirror-stall nearby, she saw something—her reflection didn’t move with her.

  It stared back—older, bloodstained, tired. Then it smiled.

  Piper (shaken): “Let’s move. Now.”

  Scene 4 – [THE WHISPERING TENT]

  In the center of Dreamskin stood a large tent made of stitched velvet and glass. Something called to Piper from within.

  Thirteen: “You feel that too?”

  Piper: “Yeah… like something’s waiting.”

  They entered.

  Inside: a circular room of mirrors, smoke, and floating cards.

  In the center sat a masked fortune teller—her face glowing softly, her voice a whisper from ten directions.

  Fortune Teller: “Little star… you’ve started to shine.”

  Piper: “Who are you?”

  Fortune Teller: “Someone who remembers before the fall. I’ve seen your fire. I’ve seen your knife.”

  Donmii’s blade—The Blood Knife—shivered in its sheath.

  Fortune Teller: “Soon, you’ll need it. And soon… you’ll need to Retry.”

  Piper’s breath caught.

  Piper: “…You know about that?”

  Fortune Teller (smiling): “Oh yes. The Truth has not forgotten you, Piper Orin.”

  Before Piper could say more—

  CRASH.

  The walls exploded outward.

  A hulking jester-like mech stomped into the tent, spewing laughter and smoke. Behind it, a massive spider-shaped puppet with a porcelain baby face and twisted limbs.

  Carnival Security, corrupted.

  Blinks (shouting): “GUYS?!”

  Scene 5 – [BATTLE IN THE CARNIVAL]

  The fight was chaos. The spider-puppet fired silk that turned into nightmares when touched. The jester-mech fired light beams that turned air into candy-glass traps.

  Piper: “PK Shield!”

  Blocked a falling neon wheel.

  Thirteen (now standing): “Don’t let it touch your thoughts!”

  Piper: “PK Flash!”

  Blinded the jester.

  Blinks—surprisingly—threw a bomb he’d “found.” It shattered the mech’s voice core.

  They pushed forward. Piper leapt over a stall, slashing with the Blood Knife, which absorbed red mist with each strike.

  In the final blow, she cast—

  [PK Starflare!]

  Exploding carnival suns rained down, turning the tent into a fiery prism.

  Both enemies fell.

  Scene 6 – [THE EXIT FROM DREAMSKIN]

  The fortune teller reappeared—floating, now clearly an illusion.

  Fortune Teller (to Piper): “You will be tested. Not by strength. But by what you are willing to forget… to keep going.”

  Then she vanished. As if she teleported.

  Scene 7 – [ON THE ROAD AGAIN]

  The trio walked away from the smoking remains of the carnival. Blinks carried a plush doll he stole. Thirteen limped. Piper walked in silence.

  Blinks (still cheerful): “Totally worth it! Sort of..”

  Piper (sighs): “…You’re both impossible.”

  Blinks: “Yeah, but I’m your impossible now, right?”

  Thirteen: “What—“

  Piper didn’t answer.

  But she didn’t say no either.

  Thirteen: “Anyways, let us keep walking my friends.”

  End of Chapter 5

  You may have guessed: PK Starflare didn’t just “appear” from Piper’s soul.

  It was inherited.

  Long ago, before Lucidfall became what it is—a realm of forgotten dreams and fractured selves—it was once a sanctuary of celestial beings. Among them was a Sun God, a radiant entity whose name has been erased from time but whose light has not.

  This Sun God was not a tyrant or a conqueror. They were a guardian, a bringer of warmth, clarity, and transformation. Their light did not burn—it revealed. They fought back the nightmares that sought to twist Lucidfall’s earliest realms.

  Piper is their descendant.

  That’s why her PSI feels different. Why PK Starflare isn’t just an attack—it’s a reawakening. It’s a dormant solar power encoded into her soul, passed down through bloodlines and buried beneath layers of fear and forgetting.

  And now?

  It’s waking up in her.

  Just like her ancestor, Piper brings light into a world that tries to survive in shadow. They share the same fire. The same stubborn defiance. The same need to protect—even if it hurts.

  Piper’s journey is not just survival.

  It’s inheritance.