Aru Shah and the Chamber of Lies

Warnings and Lasagnas

"What do you mean?" Aru asked, her heart pounding so loudly that she couldn't even hear the sound of her own breathing over it.

"Your nightmares...they're not ordinary ones, now are they?" Sheela said, tilting her head questioningly.

Aru shrugged. "I dunno...I guess not?"

Mini suddenly clapped her hands together. "What if your dreams are more of a warning? Like, we got to know who our new enemy kinda is through your nightmares, right?"

"So you're saying that Shah has been having some kind of...prophetic dreams?" Brynne concluded.

Aiden frowned. "But based on what you've told us, it doesn't exactly seem like you're seeing the future, right?"

Aru awkwardly nodded. "Yeah. It's more like... I dunno... an infiltration?" She sighed and glared at the ground. "It's hardly a gift."

Mini patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Cheer up, Aru. I'm sure it won't last forever."

"We don't really know that, though," Rudy pointed out. Aru's spirits sank and Mini glared at him in response.

"Well, we can figure out the prophecy thing later," Nikita said. Everyone turned towards her. "The question now is who exactly is our enemy? Aru said that he didn't give her his name in her dream, and now supposedly, we have to find and defeat or stop his plan in like seven days."

"Should we let the Council know?" asked Aiden.

Aru thought for a second and nodded. "I don't really see the harm in doing that. It's not like we have any more information anyways."

After finishing the chocolate cake Aru's mom had bought for them, the seven of them were about to go to the Otherworld when a voice called.

"Brynne? We're home!"

Brynne momentarily looked panicked but she quickly schooled her expression as she went to go greet her uncles.

Aru exchanged worried looks with her friends. They came to a silent decision to not tell Gunky and Funky about the whole thing yet. It would just worry them and nothing was even confirmed yet.

"You're home!" Brynne laughed nervously as her uncles looked at her kindly. They finally noticed the other Potatoes.

"Hello," Gunky greeted. "What have you guys been up to?"

"They were just here to taste my new lasagna recipe," Brynne supplied.

Funky grinned. "Can we have some too?" He patted his stomach. "We're starving."

Brynne nodded and quickly ushered the rest of them to the portal, when Gunky asked, "Are you guys going anywhere?"

Before the rest of them could say a word, Sheela piped, "We're going to the Otherworld to meet Urvashi and Hanuman. We wanted to ask them about how the reparations for the Night Bazaar are going."

Aru let out a silent breath of relief. That was a good excuse. It wasn't the truth, but it wasn't a total lie either.

"Haven't you guys heard?" Gunky said, helping himself to another serving of lasagna.

"Heard what?" Aiden asked curiously.

"The Council has been asked to oversee the overall operations for the damage that the Sleeper's army has caused." He waved a hand lazily in the air. "No one knows where they are now. They could be half way across the globe for all we know."

Well, that's just great, Brynne muttered through the mind-link.

Minu frowned. I can't believe they would leave without telling us, especially since they said that they would give us updates regularly.

Aru nodded. Maybe the real reason they left was to gather information?

Yeah, but I still feel like they would tell us before-hand if that was the case. Mini responded.

Well, whatever the case, what are we gonna do now?? Brynne asked.

"Brynne? Is something the matter?" Gunky paused momentarily from his meal.

Brynne shook her head quickly. "Nah, it's nothing." Then, she awkwardly pointed to the stairs leading up to the second floor. "We're all gonna go hang out in my room. You two can finish up the rest, if you'd like."

Her two uncles didn't even stop to grunt out a reply. In only a couple seconds, the last pieces of Brynne's delicious lasagna had vanished.