"Alright. I'm going to retrieve it from the temporary vault."

He does that.

Oh joy the yelling is back.

What happens if it and Dusk's dimension interact?

"Oh, that's ... new. I don't think I can keep it up long, it's effortful, but I can mute it." (The clouds swirl overhead, though not as heavily as last time Felix was in her dimension.)

"Maybe we could use it to move the dreamshard during an emergency?"

"Mmhmm. I should be able to keep it up for a while if I'm meditating - not flawlessly, but decently well. Enough to get us some breathing room at least."

Nod. "At least is an alternative."

"Mmhmm. And, while we're here -" she closes her eyes, and then opens them again after a few seconds. "Yeah, I think it is sentient. Wrong kind of thing for my storm to react to, though."

"Well... I don't even know how to react to that. Is it the sort of sentient that we can communicate with?"

"Not easily, but I can work on it. It's pretty alien."

"Thank you." He blinks. "If it had any volition on the matter then maybe it decided to take me here and maybe it can take me back."

"Mmhmm." She goes thoughtful, and then sighs.

He looks at her both inquisitively and concerned.

"It wants dreamshapers, right? First thing it did when it got here was that; that's what it does. And it's more likely to give us what we want if we give it what it wants. And I can do that, but." Sigh. "There are basically two ways of doing that, and I'm not thrilled with either of them."

"That is the most likely explanation unless we were victims of a rather unlucky string of coincidences. I'm definitely not thrilled about new dreamshapers... too much variance. What are the two ways?"

"...three, actually. But the first two have the same problems, more or less. Recruit non-force-sensitives somehow, or buy a bunch of non-force-sensitive slaves; I don't think defending them would end up being that much of a problem - not if we can satisfy it so it stops yelling, anyway - but then we've got all of them obligated to answer to me, and - anyone reasonable's going to be terrified of that, with a Sith. Or, I can get a bunch of apprentices - there are a couple ways of doing that, the fastest one would be to challenge some other Sith for theirs - and let some of them be dreamshapers. But if I wanted an apprentice, I'd have one already."

He shifts uncomfortably. "Yeah, that- do you have any idea how long it would take to communicate with the shard? There is a fourth way, but it isn't one I'm thrilled with either."

"I won't know until I've tried it, but my guess would be basic communication within a few weeks to a couple months, enough for negotiation within three to six unless it wants something more complicated than we're guessing."

Slow nod. "It did take a year to jump. I don't know if this indicates it was gathering strength, running out of patience or it needed me to be around the specific location where I vanished from. I also don't know if it requires dreamshapers frequently, but it might."

Nod. "I can focus on figuring that out - I'm more or less going to be inventing a shared language with it, it's not going to be fast but I can prioritize things. What's the fourth way? It might turn out to matter."

He wants to say that it was Trevor idea, but that sounds unfair. "I can make people. I could make some and offer them to be dreamshapers if we all agree it's a good idea."

She considers. "I think I prefer the slaves. It's - unpleasant - but if we're taking them from a worse situation it is genuinely better."

Felix makes a pained face, but nods. "You can..." He waves. "judge them magically? Or Force-ly?"

"I can read minds, yeah."

Nod. "I should- uh, dreamshaping is personality based and it's hard to predict what specific personality traits are going to generate. But it might be a good idea to show you what we know so you can make informed guesses. Direct the resulting dimensions to things that are useful or at least harmless."