On Para Island in the Berserk Sea, Angel had once "strayed" into a vast dream. It was a nightmare sustained by the negative personality that had formed after a senior Nighthawks deacon lost control while attempting to advance to Nightwatcher.
At the time, Angel had discovered that the Hidden Holy Emblem Arianna had given her, imbued with a trace of the Evernight Goddess's blessing, allowed her to remain lucid within a dream, even one created by a demigod who had lost control.
There was no doubt that the Pale Empress, Sia Eggers, wanted Angel to explore Tizamo Town's dream precisely to exploit this ability to remain lucid in dreams, resolving all the trouble without being affected by the dream itself.
But how did she know I had the power to resist Dream Invasion? Simply because I'm now the Goddess's blessed? Or did Death's Divine Revelation give her some hints? Angel pondered this and pressed further:
"Since your preliminary investigation turned up nothing, how did you know all the abnormalities were inside a 'dream'?"
Sia adjusted the crown on her head, but stopped short of straightening it completely, lest she slip into that state of utter arrogance. Then she explained:
"First, based on the peaks in Tizamo Town's death toll and the timing of the various outbreaks of hysteria I mentioned earlier, we deduced that the power hidden deep within the town appeared in mid-December every year. Then, during that period last year, the Numinous Episcopate sent some of its members to infiltrate the town. They ate the local food, drank the local water, and slept in the same buildings as the residents... trying to make contact with that power in this way."
*That's much the same procedure the Orthodox Churches' official Beyonders use... As an organization that evolved from the