“Prince Tal,” Electra flashed as bright as lightning. “Will be Romulus Merlot.”

“Phenomena Willow,” said Stellaris with so much excitement that she’d supernova. “Will be Julianna Cabernet.”

“What?!” Ashlan roared in disbelief.

“NOOOOOO!” Doogey screamed as he threw his hands up over his head.

“I cannot believe it,” Ashlan said, stomping so hard on her cloud, Mena was afraid she’d burst it. “All those years of classical training, all to lose to some crybaby clown!”

Doogey was equally distraught. “Now I won’t get to wear that fabulous dress and kiss Tal,” he pouted.

“Worry not,” Electra said, nervously looking at the students who were ready to riot. “Neither of your performances were in vain. For…”

“For,” Stellaris said, picking up where she left off. “Your righteous vengeance, Miss O’Ryan, will serve you perfectly as Tyrone.”

“And your fabulous flamboyance, Doogey,” Electra added. “Will suit you best as Metrocutio.”

Both runner ups groaned and grumbled to themselves. Ashlan was brick red and even the Tessellation’s were afraid to offer their caustic remarks. Doogey rested his face on the edge of his plate. “What’s the point of eating when you’re a second banana.”

Mena almost felt bad, but thanks to her wicked mother, she had become her theatrical successor and gotten to live her dream of acting with Tal.

“See you soon on stage, my Julianna,” Tal said, blowing a kiss very uncharacteristic of his angst.

Mena pretended to catch it and swooned back. “Bye, my sweet Romulus.”

When Mena headed back up the cloud wall to her dormitory, she had to pinch herself. In the Academy of Dreams, you never knew what was real and what was…well, a dream. But this was indeed real.

That night, Mena was so ecstatic, she could barely sleep, but when she did, she had a most unusual dream.

After some deep breathing, she awoke in a place quite different from her dorm. Gone were the pale, snowy blue walls of the dream castle. Instead, walls of shadowy black were erected; only illuminated by a white outline. The windows revealed an ominous black hole sun rising in a purple sky. She rose from her bed, which was also as dark as midnight. Peering left and right, there were several posters pasted on the wall of the starlet, Taylor Witch, but even Way Way looked different. Her eyes were traced with raccoonish eyeliner, and her garb was spiky and jet black. These were of Way Way in the middle of her edgy “Look What You Made Me Brew” phase.

With a rude yawn, Mena kicked out of bed. She spread open the arching doors ahead of her and wandered into a long hallway. She strode along it, reaching another arching set of door and burst through them. At the sight of what lay inside, Mena wanted to scream, but she didn’t. Instead, she asked, “Hello mother, did you need me?”

“Yes…” Anguish said, her face a frosted pink. “We may have Autolycus in our grasp, but our battle is far from over.”

“What do you require me, mother?” Dark Mena asked in a falsely sweet tone.

Anguish rose from her shadowy throne. “All the while, your light half will be searching for three sages in Dula. You will be as well.”

“I am?” Dark Mena asked, holding her hands to her cheeks.

“Three Dark Sages,” Anguish said, causally tossing her flowing purple locks. ‘With negligible qualities.”

Anguish strode up to Dark Mena and said, “One sage who is cowardly and craven. One sage who doesn’t think before they act. And lastly, one who has no heart at all.”

“What will they help me do?” Dark Mena asked.

Anguish placed her arms on Dark Mena’s shoulders, who observed her mother with curiosity. Mena, being one with Dark Mena, still felt her hair stand on end with Anguish’s icy touch. “They will help us reclaim the Dream Heels for ourselves.”

“Ok, mother,” Dark Mena snickered. “That will ensure everyone has a bad day. Like they found an ugly toad in their letter box.”

Mena’s wicked mother shooed her daughter away with the flick of her wrist. “Do not dally now,” Anguish said. “They are having an infantile play so they can gain access to the mind jungles of Dula. Fortunately, for us, the Beasts are distracted. We will have easy access to their domain.”

Mena’s dark self nodded.

“Oh and daughter,” Anguish added.

“Yes?” Dark Mena said, innocently standing on her toes.

“It was a devil-send that you can see through the eyes of my brighter daughter,” Anguish said, throwing her head back with a laugh. “I almost forgot you and her are one and the same.”

“I’ll always be one step ahead of her.” Anguish burst a barrage of frantic laughs and shrieks that would terrify a banshee as Mena’s nightmare faded into the ether.

Mena awoke screaming.

“What’s wrong?” Both her friends asked.

“Through my dark self,” Mena said, her hands prying at her paling face. “Anguish can see everything I do.”

“You better have any naughty thoughts about Tal,” Janus quipped.

But Mena had no time for levity. “This is serious,” she screamed into her pillow. “I need to get her out of my head.”

She lifted up her pillow and started whacking her head against it, while screaming, “GET…OUT…OF…MY…HEEEEAAAADDDDD!”

“Mena,” May snapped. “No use beating your head against a brick wall, or a pillow in this case. Go down to Stellaris and tell her that you used Anguish’s magic script.”

Mena took a break from smacking her head with the pillow. It didn’t seem to be doing much good anyway. She gazed across the room at May, her eyes were popping and her hair was tangled and disheveled. “That’s what I should do,” Mena said, taking a deep breath. “Instead of acting like a liccan with my head cut off, I’ll go to Stellaris. Thanks May.”

“You’re welcome,” May said, her cheeks rosy and dimply. “Mummy always said, ‘until you get to be her age, always tell a teacher…unless you put a rotten egg sandwich in her lunch or something’”.

Mena got out of bed and wished her friends a pleasant rest while she was gone. She donned the school’s signature sky blue, cloud-covered bed robe and stole out into the night.

Pacing the corridors, Mena pondered what she’d tell Stellaris. It wasn’t as easy as it initially seemed; since she had gotten her role specifically through Anguish’s magic script, it would be harder to inform the play director about that. She’d have to admit she cheated and forfeit the role.

Even a long stroll through the twisty and turn-y hallways, sometimes even strolling on the ceiling, didn’t bring Mena the enlightenment she needed. Rather she wandered aimlessly in her self-proclaimed ‘conundrum of confusion’ until she had reached the headmasters chamber door. The familiar Dulian hieroglyphics squiggled along the wood until someone parted the massive doors. Mena expected the radiant glow and poofy pompadour of Stellaris, but instead, she got something unexpected and even scary.

A woman with eyebags and curlers answered the door, and most scarily, her face was a bizarre shade of green, making her look like an alien or even worse, one of Anguish’s crones.

“AIEEEEEEEEE a green hag!” Mena screamed with her hands over her mouth. “It’s Bubbel…or Toila… Can’t be Karen. Even she’s not THIS ugly.”

“Excuse me,” the woman answered in Stellaris’ voice. She put her hands on her hips. “I am Stellaris. I’m wearing au natural Beauty Green. How do you think I stay radiant after an eon?”

“Oh, my bad,” Mena giggled nervously, with Stellaris’ baggy eyes glaring from behind her green mask.

“Professor…er…headmaster,” Mena quickly changed the subject. “I’ve learned a terrible truth.”

“What is it, hun?” Stellaris asked.

Mena’s eyes bulged as she waved her hands in the air. “Anguish can see what I’m doing through my evil twin’s head.”

The dullness of Stellaris’ blue eyes immediately brightened. “That’s what I was worried about when she was created,” Stella said. “Somehow you and your evil twin are interconnected, and whenever you or her sleeps, you will occasionally have dreams of what the other is doing.”

Mena did a double take. Now her life was being permanently voyeur by her evil twin…and her wicked mother. “Miserable magicaps,” she moaned.

Stellaris surveyed the staircase behind her, looking for shapes in the darkness. “But this isn’t the place to discuss this. Come in.”

When Mena entered, she expected to see Gemini’s colorful planetarium with all its beautiful spheres fizzing around in bright hues. Unfortunately, all the planetoids had gone dark and hovered in the same location. It was nothing but a shadowy empty sky. Aside from all the boxes, Stellaris had moved from the Sun Tower, the study was surprisingly barren. The only thing that remained of Gemini’s presence was his dusty collection of ancient books. Mena missed the playfulness the chamber often shared with the handsome Clown Prince of Dreams.

Stellaris stopped by the central platform where Mena had taken her coronation in the stars. “When did you start having these visions of your dark self?”

“Tonight…” Mena said.

“Good,” Stellaris answered back. “Anguish hasn’t established the mind link for that long. And does she know about your link?”

“I don’t think so,” Mena responded back. “Or else she probably would have been more careful about what she said.”

Mena looked around the room and tried to play innocent. “What do you think caused it? Does this have anything to do with my mother being my purest essence?”

Stellaris was silent. “No,” she said at last. “That has to do with the deepest dreams that lie in your heart.”

“Hm,” Mena said, scratching her chin and pretending to be deep in thought. “Then what else could it be?”

“Something must have triggered the mind link,” Stellaris said at last. “Did anything happen recently/”

“Uhm…” Mena said, feeling a bit uncomfortable with her thoughts. This was her moment. Now she could reveal the truth to Stellaris about the book and…lose her place in the play in the process?

Mena bit her lip with her metal lined teeth. “You know what,” she thought “I’ll wait til after the play to tell her. I can have my play and eat it too…Wait that doesn’t make any sense…”

“Alright,” Stellaris said. “I’ll keep searching for any connections.”—she beamed brightly—"Fortunately, Mena. I have good news and great news for you…”

“Great news first,” Mena grinned.

“We have access to what Anguish is up to—”

“Yeps,” Mena smiled and put her hands behind her head. “She’s sending my dark self to look for ‘dark sages’”.

Stellaris placed her hand on her cream covered chin. “Yes, of course. Anguish needs anti sages to find the same pair of heels that we need sages for. Great work uncovering that, Mena.”

Mena did a happy dance in place. “And the good news?”

“With a high amount of concentration, and some Zen from the Mind Mountains,” Stellaris said. “You can close your dreams to your dark self. I’ll get Caligari on it. When do you have her class next?”

“Tomorrow,” Mena bobbed her head gently.”

“Perfect,” her ex-professor said. “I’ll get on that. You take a rest now and keep searching for that missing mind link.”

“Will do,” Mena said, and she nodded again.

She said goodnight to the headmaster and headed back to her room. But all the while, she wondered if not telling Stellaris was the right thing to do. All over a silly, little play and a chance of having a star crossed lover.