The Dream Keepers' Academy

At the Dream Keepers' Academy Alice is ready for a first solo crossing, but a younger apprentice, Nil, freezes with fear at the threshold. To give Nil courage, Alice gives up that crossing — and walks through her own fear of the dream's dark.

Dream keepers step across a threshold into other people's dreams to tend them gently. Alice has earned a first solo crossing, long dreamed of. Nearby a much younger apprentice, Nil, is shaking: his first dream is a winding path where bright clearings and dark deeps alternate, and the dark comes first, so he cannot take a step. Alice is afraid of that dark too, but hides it. The Dream Master reminds them that each keeper crosses alone and no one is made to go. Alice chooses Nil over the solo crossing: goes first, leads him through bright clearings and through the very dark she fears — until Nil finds the courage to step on his own.