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All connected senshi are pulled in after Nyx! (If they had not voluntarily followed XD)

Somnus
"Stay quiet!" Somnus hissed, bursting through the invisible barrier and immediately going between the group of senshi and the world that had suddenly opened beyond them, her stance defensive with one hand held out before her and the other held to the side, as though to protect the group she had bound herself to. Before them was a castle, tall and dark and well fortified; there seemed to be no single light source, but the scene was lit by a soft, diffuse light, similar to starlight. Shadowy sentries patrolled the parapets of the militaristic building, though none were looking their way yet.

The blonde turned her head to talk back to them, but kept her gaze forward. "This must be the stronghold of whatever is keeping these dreams together - look!" 

From their knot of people, the string they had been following continued through to the castle, connecting with a wall. At a 30° angle from them, another string emerged and disappeared off into another direction, and then, farther away, another, and another, as though the castle were the center of a web or the hub of a wheel. 

"Whomever is running this must be inside; if we can take this place down, the strings should disconnect and the connected dreams - and dreamers - should be free to wake up."

Nyx was suddenly gone, and everyone followed after her with little hesitation. Crysdal caught Hadley's look before the younger girl went in and hesitated, wondering what it meant, but as Somnus caught up to her and then immediately entered, she followed, half pulled by the string, half rushing to follow the others and make sure they were okay. 

The castle was... odd. There was no ground - it was just floating in the darkness that had surrounding the clouds - the space between dreams, or whatever it was. It wasn't like the dream they had exited - there was no illusion of atmosphere or anything else, it was just... a gloomy, foreboding looking castle suspended in nothingness. Or, suspended in the center of the strings. She traced each faintly glowing line until they terminated at the invisible wall they had passed through, which seemed to extend in all directions like a sphere surrounding the stronghold, and wondered which one would lead to her friends... and her doppleganger. She frowned, returning her attention to Somnus. 

What they were going to do was apparent - storm the castle, defeat the Chaos entity, save everyone - but how was another thing entirely. The scenario felt... familiar? Not in that she had personally been through exactly this - though she had been present at one or two of the aftermath of stronghold captures - but... ! "Wasn't there a training on this earlier today?" she asked suddenly, her voice an urgent whisper. "Did anyone attend it?"

It was not all that unexpected in hindsight - the string couldn't be just standing stretched in mid-nothing like that. Yet it still felt surprising to be suddenly pulled into this other area. An invisible portal? Well, it didn't matter.

A floating castle, guarded by shadowy creatures, which appeared to connect all the strings of nightmares... Honestly, it seemed like your average enemy stronghold you'd read about in fantasy books. Was this the creation of someone's imagination?

Then Crysdal referred to the trainings? Nyx averted her gaze, her eyes fixated on the sentries instead. "I don't know," she muttered. She hoped no one would ask what classes she had attended.

Nothing about their change in scenery evoked any particular feelings in Sailor Xtal-Diamante. When too many things are unusual, none of them seem so. She accepted it as she accepted so many other places and things that had been encountered thus far, feeling the vibrations emitted from the others in the group as her only guide to whether this was "usual" to the majority. It was not, but that was just as well.

The question from Sailor Aegle reminded her that it had not been so long since she had sat through those instructional courses. Unfortunately, she could not quite recall whichever one the blonde alluded to. Reading the entire list of available seminars hadn't been interpreted solidly by the rocky soldier. Whatever Crysdal was looking for, this was not information she could claim to know.

The castle floating before them seemed ominous, though it was the dark shadows patrolling around the structure that pulled Hadley's attention. Experience had taught her that such creatures rarely ever turned out to be friendly. She would need to ready herself for a fight.

Crysdal's question confused Hadley for a second. The idea of training and seminars felt so far and away. A disconnected thought that must have happened hundreds of years ago by now.

She ran through the different classes she'd attended, but none of them had anything to do with strongholds.

She remembered, then, that Ari had attended a class that might have been helpful. Sadness struck her like a splash of cold water, pooling in the pit of her stomach. She and Ari had agreed to exchange information, but... there'd been no time. They'd only sat down to review when Ari had been taken by the sleep.

Hadley tried to push the darkness of sorrow away with a small sigh. Instead, she clung desperately to the hope that this was exactly the place they needed to be in order to save the fallen.

"I didn't attend anything like that," she answered, her voice soft.

Was this it?

Before Shadow could start taking a hard look at the keep, Sailor Somnus emerged from the invisible barrier and rasped to the senshi team to keep quiet. From behind her, the man in black gazed forward at the castle and the dark shapes which patrolled its perimeter. A worried whisper interrupted his train of thought, but fortunately redirected it onto a parallel track rather than derail it entirely.

Shadow replied in a similar tone of voice, briefly turning his head towards Aegle to confirm the raised question. "Yes, but I went to a different panel." She was correct that a discussion on enemy strongholds had been planned. Unfortunately, Shadow had bypassed it in favor of a panel that focused on analysis and statistics. He had chosen to improve his ability to examine an enemy for signs of weaknesses; now was the time for him to start putting that knowledge to use.

Jasper turned his attention onto the dark fortress, searching for usable information from their limited vantage point. If all he could find was a mere blind spot in the patrols, then that would at least be a start.

Sailor Roshar


She was swiftly pulled into a dark dreamscape, with a castle too! It was floating which seemed odd at first but she quickly reminded herself that this was a dream after all. Somnus fussed at the group to be quiet, but Rai was too busy observing the castle from their current position. When Crysdal posed her question about the seminar's, Rai sheepishly avoided eye contact with anyone in the group, pretending to keep her eye on the shadow sentries patrolling the castle. She had, unfortunately, zero interest in the formal education and whenever she was forced to attend lectures, she found it hard to pay attention, much less stay awake during them. She had managed to pay some attention in the first panel of the day (the one on ability cast time) but the rest of the day she had either snoozed it away or simply ditched the classes, opting to explore the hotel and find food.

Awkwardly scratched the back of her head, Rai replied, using Shadow's answer as a good excuse to use, although it was a lie.

"I went to another panel as well. If it were up to me, I'd just run in there, sparks flying and all that. But..." she dragged her word, half attempting to think of something the group might be ok with, "I don't think alerting the enemy to our position is the best idea. Maybe there's a hidden entrance?"

She did used to sneak in and out of places a lot in her childhood. Being sneaky was important if you wanted to eat. However, if there was no hidden entrance, would the team be up for a distraction?  She could certainly provide one and it would give her a chance to release the charge she could feel building up inside.

The first thing she looked for on the other side was Nyx, and once she saw that her sister was there, alive and well, finally her heartbeat started to slow down from the panicked drumming that filled her with anxiety before. She stood by her twin and looked at the castle before them, curious and impressive at the same time, the kind of place she had never seen before. It seemed to be patrolled by some kind of guard as well.

Somnus told them this was what they were looking for, and all they needed to do was take it down. Good, that seemed easy. But then Crysdal asked about training? She frowned, trying to remember the lecture in question. "Pretty sure I chose something else for that timeslot, sorry," she replied with a low voice.

She narrowed her eyes at Nyx, who didn't even know it was a thing. Her sister was behaving very irresponsibly at that conference, and all after chiding her too...

She personally liked Roshar's approach best. At least instead of talking about strategy for another hour.

What a vexing situation this was! Crysdal correctly identified a seminar whose knowledge could be applied to the puzzle posed by the dark castle, but the number of those who admitted to seeking other classes during that timeslot was displaying a troubling trend of growth.

Shadow turned his attention back to Roshar, briefly tilting his head when she confessed to wanting nothing more than to dash inside and call down the thunder. He was mildly impressed that she could restrain herself, and that sentiment began to grow when the senshi of storms raised a rational plan. Trying his best to hide a smirk, the tall man voiced his agreement to her proposal while grinding his right fist into the palm of his left hand.

"I like your thinking. If we don't find a way in, we can make our own way."