The Triad of Finity by Kevin Emerson

him.
    “How about you?” Sebastian asked Phlox.
    “Thrilling,” she said sarcastically. Phlox had also been punished: banished from the Central Council. She’d gotten a job as a hostess at L’organo Sanguinante, the classy restaurant in the Underground Center. “Well, we did have quite a dinner rush, and I did seat all the waiting families in perfect order,” said Phlox proudly. This kind of organizing always pleased her. “But,” she added bitterly, “they still look at me like I’m some kind of criminal.” She scowled and dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “And school, Oliver?” she asked.
    “Mmm,” Oliver mumbled.
    The only thing that made their nights bearable was that they were miserable together, wanting to stop the prophecy, yet making no progress.
    Which made what Oliver had to report next difficult: “Carly got her demon tonight.”
    “Really?” said Phlox. “I didn’t realize she’d started cohesion.”
    “She hadn’t, until like, last week.”
    Sebastian shook his head. “That’s not right. These cohesions are happening too fast.”
    “Some people say it’s the media and today’s culture,” said Phlox. “Kids are growing up faster than they used to. …”
    “I don’t know,” said Sebastian, “There’s got to be more to it than—”
    “There’s something else,” said Oliver.
    Phlox and Sebastian both turned to him. Their faces went blank, almost like they knew what was coming next.
    Oliver swallowed hard, feeling a twist of nerves in his gut. “I had a cohesion dream.”
    “Your first …” Phlox began, but trailed off, glancing up at the ceiling.
    “It’s okay, Mom, just say it. Yes!” Oliver shouted toward the ceiling, “I had my first real demon dream! Illisius is on his way. Happy?”
    Sebastian reached over and patted Oliver’s arm. “It could be some time yet.”
    “Years, even,” added Phlox.
    “Or any day now,” muttered Oliver, “considering how fast it’s happening to everyone else.”
    They each took another bite. Not so long ago, Oliver had lied about having had his first demon dream, and his parents had been thrilled. Things had certainly changed.
    “Well then,” said Phlox in that high-pitched tone that indicated that she’d made up her mind about something, “I’ll have to let your grandmother know. She’d slay me for not keeping her in the loop about such a big event in her grandson’s life, even one like … this. Besides, they’ll need to start preparing.”
    “For the end of the world,” said Sebastian, sharing a serious gaze with Phlox.
    They both turned to Oliver, their terse expressions focused on him. Oliver looked back. Here they were, and there was nothing that could be done.
    “Let us know as the dreams progress,” said Phlox.
    “Okay,” said Oliver. He felt his guts knot further. The end of the world …
    They finished dinner in silence.
    Friday night began uneventfully at school. Oliver found the same view out his window during cohesion: fog and starry water, a railing of some kind of steamship. It stayed that way through most of the cohesion session, but then, near the end, it changed.
    The water began to solidify into true liquid, the stars vanishing. The fog started to lift. In the far distance, a land mass took shape. Oliver could make out a lighthouse, high bluffs behind it. Other lights on the hills to the south. Illisius’s ship was arriving at a port, but the session ended before the ship docked.
    Cohesion was exhausting, and Mr. VanWick took care to keep the sessions short. Still, Oliver wanted to stay longer. His insides were knotted with stress. He needed to know what he was seeing through the window, when it was, how close Illisius was to now.
    No one else reported any change in their progress. Lythia, Theo and Maggots maintained their usual distance and animosity all through class.
    At midnight, they went to Force Awareness and Manipulation with Ms. Nikkolai. They were working on floor-to-ceiling leaps,