Cater’s Dream

Malleus sends all of Sage’s Island to sleep in Book 7 so that they might enjoy “unending happiness,” and for Cater this seems to manifest as a dream world where he is Housewarden of Heartslabyul.

Cater rides a skateboard into the courtroom of Heartslabyul to oversee the trial of a student who has been accused of annoying him during a game of croquet. With dream-Trey’s encouragement he calls the prefect, Grim, Leona and Silver as witnesses.

It is discovered that it is Cater’s unbirthday, and the trial becomes an Unbirthday Party. Dream-Trey provides spicy foods, while Riddle DJs.

Deuce wonders of Cater secretly has a problem with Riddle, leading to this dream, and Leona asks, “How could he not?”

From Leona and Idia we learn that Heartslabyul was “a run-down dump where anarchy reigned” before Riddle, and Leona and Idia suggest that Trey and Cater possibly manipulated Riddle to overthrow the old system: “Manipulating the king to build the kind of country you want. Happens all the time, right?”

Dream-Trey, Dream-Riddle and Cater start pressuring the group into eating at the party, and they are all revealed to be darkness, including Cater himself.

Silver realizes that his unique magic must have accidentally identified one of Cater’s clones from his unique magic as the real Cater.

Ortho explains, “Dreams are worlds of imagination where nobody has a corporeal form. I can see everyone’s aetheric structure, and even I couldn’t tell that was a fake. It goes to show that Cater Diamond’s signature spell is fueled by a very potent imagination. Then again…maybe he views himself objectively even in his dreams?”

The real Cater appears and Dream-Riddle tries to protect him. Trey assures Cater that he will handle everything on Cater’s behalf, nearly awakening Cater.

Dream-Riddle attacks Deuce and Grim with his unique magic and Cater wakes up, saving both of them with his unique magic.

Cater attacks the dream versions of Riddle and Trey. Dream-Riddle calls him housewarden, while Dream-Trey asks him not to leave them. Cater responds, “File those lines under, ‘Things Trey and Riddle would never say to me, EVER.’”

Deuce approaches Cater about being unhappy with Heartslabyul in the real world but Cater assures him that, while he isn’t completely happy with it, he is not interested in taking the housewarden position from Riddle, and would probably lose if he tried.

Cater insists that he and Trey “aren’t the kind of nefarious schemers that would take advantage of younger students” and while Leona seems unconvinced, Deuce decides to believe what Cater says.

Cater wonders why it is that he had the dream that he did and Silver assures him that there is no need to read too much into it. Cater says that he is “already over it,” but follows with, “…Just don’t tell Riddle, okay?”