The room was quite. More than twenty people sat at a bar in the room. They seemed to have frozen when Zena entered the room.
In a moment chaos erupted. The people at the bar moved. Sparks of essence lit the room as all of them summoned memories.
"Show us your hands now!" One of the women at the bar commanded.
Seeing the hostility Zena raised her hands knowing full well she couldn't fight twenty people.
"Oh thank the gods, she only has five fingers." A few of the people sighed in relief at the sight.
The woman who spoke first walked toward Zena
"Please follow me." She said as she walked to one of the many doors in the room.
In the next room over she stopped.
"I'm Healas. May I know your name."
"I'm Zena."
"Nice to meet you Zena. May I ask how you managed to get here?"
"Um sure. When I entered the Dream Realm I was out on the tracks, so I got on one of the trains. Fell unconscious, met the Lloyd, the mayor of this city. He told me to come here."
Healas' face was in disbelief, "I don't think you understand how lucky you are. Those trains have an anti-personal array on them. When it is used the warrior Clock Works show up. Second you managed to meet the one Clock Work who has sided with us. Also that Clock Work is not the mayor of this town, he is the unofficial ruler of the Day Clock region."
"Wait how would he be the only one siding with us if he is pretty much the ruler, couldn't he make all the others help us."
"You would think that, but no. You probably asked him about the Clock Works right. Well they are programs with fragments of souls. So their basic program is to remove anything that can hinder their work. That is the most basic command. Apparently ever since the Night Clocks corruption their program has been altered making that basic command something deadly to anything not a Clock Work. Lloyd on the other hand is a leadership class Clock Work. He is the last of the leadership class Clock Works. Meaning his rules are final, but he can't make any of the Clock Works do something against their core programs. The best he can do is make us part of his companions when he is around us."
"So unless we are with him we will be attacked, but Lloyd said they can't awaken as we can due to their pseudo souls?"
"The normal Clock Works have pseudo souls. The warrior Clock Works don't they have something else. Something that Lloyd doesn't know about. They aren't corrupted. Most of them are Awakened with some being Ascended. The worst part though is that there is at least one transcended among them."
Zena felt a chill go down her spine. Transcended were only discovered after Awakened Ascended as their Nightmares often had a being of that rank in it. Now Zena was learning that a being of that strength has an enemy.
"Is there no gateway that we could use to escape?"
"Unfortunately not. Some of the newer Sleepers here told us about how almost all cities or important structures had gateways, but for some reason this place doesn't have one. A few of the other Sleepers actually had a theory on why this is, the lack of corruption or anything to due with the Spell."
"Why would that have anything to due with a gateway." Zena look confusedly at Healas.
"Lloyd mentioned something once. Apparently the Dream Realm was not a thing long ago. The Clock Worker made this place after it came to be. Or at least a replica of the original one. Lloyd has a gap in his memory. Something happened and they were here. Anyway the Dream Realm absorbs and changes things. So we speculate that because this place was made in the Dream Realm there will not be a gateway here. The chances of us exploring outside this region and finding one is also unlikely."
"Why is that?"
"Well apparently we are north of the Hollow Mountains."
"Wait. The Hollow Mountains. The death zone that nobody has managed to pass or survive beyond it."
"Yes that one if the information the newer Sleepers have told me is true, but yes. Every region around us is much more deadly than this one. Actually this one is probably the only safe place north of the Hollow Mountains."
"So we are totally screwed is what your telling me." Zena felt empty hearing this.
"No there is one chance for us to escape."
"And that is?" Zena asked with hope in her eyes.
"We would have to challenge the second Nightmare."
"Great the only options are wait here, explore a death zone, or challenge the second Nightmare. Yep we're doomed."
Healas tried to cheer Zena up even if it was a little, "I mean at least he have a guaranteed exit if we clear it."
"Where even is the seed of nightmare?" Zena had pretty much given up hope after Healas' last statement.
"The Night Clock."
"I thought it was sealed?"
"It is, but the seed is on the other side, or actually between the Clocks."
"So why hasn't anyone tried it then?"
Healas coughed into her hand and muttered, "We haven't found the seal."
Zena had a deadpan expression hearing this. "Have y'all not asked Lloyd he should know where its at."
"He does know where its at. He won't tell us as that threatens all the Clock Works."
"Great just great. So what are the chances Lloyd turns on us if we unseal it."
"Almost guaranteed. He almost did when we mentioned it to him."
"So we can't look for it either then?"
"Yes and no. We think we know where its at."
"I though you just said you didn't know where."
"Well it is not an exact spot, but the most likely place for it to be."
"And where is that."
"The Central Spire. Which is also the current headquarters of the warrior class Clock Works and where the Transcendent Clock Work is most likely to be."