Riddle’s Dream

Malleus sends all of Sage’s Island to sleep in Book 7 so that they might enjoy “unending happiness,” and for Riddle this seems to manifest as a dream world where he is magicless and living at home with his equally magicless parents: a housewife mother and novelist father. 

In his dream Riddle hates studying and does not go to school, instead doing street performances in a two-person band with Chenya. The group agrees to join their band for the chance to speak with him, and at his home his living room is covered in photos with friends and family from events that never happened.

Idia observes, “It’s finally happened. We’ve got someone so immersed in their dream that their entire life has been rewritten from the ground up.”

Riddle becomes displeased with the group for whispering as they discuss how to wake him up and they begin telling him about the Riddle of the real world. Riddle tries to end the conversation but Ace refuses to cooperate, and Ortho declares he wouldn’t want to be in a band with Riddle as the leader, enraging him.

Darkness appears and the group tries to escape but Riddle declares, “I’ll have the head of anyone who tries to leave my house!,” and they are suddenly surrounded. Idia says, “It’s the house. This isn’t an NPC taking human form. The house itself is the darkness!”

The group looks into the kitchen from where they had heard Riddle’s mother’s voice, but opening the door floods the room with tea.

Sebek wonders if Riddle’s mother turned into tea but Idia says it is possible that she never existed to begin with. While they heard her voice, they never saw her in person. Idia explains, “In a dream, you can manifest anything your imagination can supply. But if you can’t imagine something, you can’t manifest it accurately. Maybe Riddle could only imagine the audio component of a nice version of his mom, not the visual component.”

Ortho asks, “Then this house is both a trap designed to keep Riddle locked up and immersed in his dream, and a vicious monster engineered to eliminate us since we’re trying to wake him up?”

The group is suddenly attacked by dozens of arms that try to drag them deeper into the tea while the disembodied voice of Riddle’s mother tells them that they will never escape. 

Ortho fails to track Riddle’s aether readings, saying, “it’s been jumping all over the place-the attic, the basement, even inside the walls.” Idia corrects him: it’s not Riddle that’s moving. “The whole house is shifting like a 3D puzzle in real time.”

As the tea gets deeper the group realizes that they are shrinking in size, and then it starts to rain as an unseen Riddle weeps, crying that he wants to be let out: the rain is his tears.

The group convinces Chenya to take them to Riddle and he guides them into a deeper level of the dream which seems to be an alternate timeline where Trey failed to overwrite Riddle’s magic on the day of the duel in Book 1.

Riddle never overblotted, instead instating a reign of terror, with the dream versions of Trey, Cater, Ace and Deuce obeying his every command as he observes, “Ruling through discipline and fear is how order is upheld. Mother was right… I was right!”

Trey nearly awakens Riddle, but the dream versions of Trey and Cater encourage the dream versions of Heartslabyul’s dorm students to praise him. Leona asks, “What’s so great about getting fawned over by illusions of your own making? It’s gotta make you feel empty inside, right?,” and Riddle responds, “It…makes me happy. Even if this is all a dream… I’m happy. After all, I’ve proven myself right. Everybody respects me. They genuinely fear me, and love me! It’s fine if it’s absurd. This is my ideal kingdom made manifest!”

Riddle orders that the group be beheaded and they are set upon by over a hundred students of darkness who chase them into Heartslabyul’s rose maze. Riddle nearly awakens from memories of being pelted with an egg in Book 1 but the dream version of Trey and Cater warn him not to remember, saying, “if you go back to reality, you’ll be all alone and hated again.”

The group is chased through the rose maze by doppelgängers of one another that capture one member at a time. When Cater is able to catch the dream-Trey in a lie about trying to transfer dorms to Scarabia in order to escape Riddle, Cater observes, “That means Riddle wouldn’t put it past us—the way he perceives us. Riddle really doesn’t get it. Followers have their pride too, y’know?”

The dream-Trey responds, “I hope you know I always thought someone like you was worth a baker’s dozen of his peers,” but it is not confirmed if this is a thought from Riddle’s own mind.

When Trey is able to catch the dream-Cater in a lie about Cater trying to overthrow Riddle and become Housewarden himself, he observes, “What was it again? If you can’t imagine something, then you can’t manifest it in a dream? I guess since Riddle got his spot by overthrowing the last housewarden, it makes sense he’d expect some challenges himself.”

After Cater, Leona, Silver, Sebek and Trey are captured, the remaining members of the group decide to attack Riddle using Deuce’s unique magic, with Ortho acting as his shield.

Ortho defends Deuce from Riddle’s unique magic but Riddle’s elemental attack spells threaten to blow them to pieces. Desperate to help, Ace manifests his unique magic: the ability to trade his magic for that of another, using Riddle’s own unique magic against him. Deuce hits Riddle with his own unique magic, successfully awakening him.

As Riddle is swallowed into an abyss Ace and Deuce refuse to let him go. Riddle orders Trey and Cater to take them away, getting dragged into the darkness alone.

Inside the abyss Riddle is met with the overblotted version of himself beheading students of his dorm. Riddle observes, “I don’t come off as very intelligent or sensible,” while his overblotted self insists that he is always more calm, exceptional and normal than any other: “So why…? Why is it no one will follow me? They all look at me like I’m some kind of monster!”

Riddle points out that he never makes the slightest effort to listen to the people around him, and “That’s the problem with you—no, with me.” 

The overblotted Riddle of the abyss responds, “You’re childish and prone to anger. Everyone at school hates you.You cling to your study desk, fighting desperately to maintain your top academic spot. After all, if you lose that spot, you truly have nowhere you belong.”

The abyss-version of Riddle declares that it will never allow him to escape and Riddle asks, “Shall I show you REAL tyranny?,” voluntarily turning into his overblot form to do battle with himself.

Riddle declares, “I will continue to run as fast as l am able. To be the strongest and most correct — someone worthy of having everyone bow before me!”

Riddle wakes up in his previous dream where his mother suggests he must have fallen asleep as she read to him. Riddle responds, “If I fell asleep while you were reading to me, you’d yell at me so much, l’d wish l’d never woken up at all,” saying, “How dare you impersonate my fearsome, awe-inspiring, beloved mother? That is a grave, GRAVE crime!”, and defeating the darkness.

Riddle says, “I will no longer stand idly before a door that won’t open. I’ll force my way through any passage, even one as narrow as a keyhole. That…is MY way!