The Dream

The Dream is "a collective unconscious world shared, created and experienced by all those who sleep in Sayrem; though we go here every night, little is known about how it functions; though there are a gifted few who can manipulate this space — Weavers, we call them — and each night, at midnight, the Ministry of Rest, who is here to ensure we have a restful night's sleep, employs their Weavers to send us the Midnight Message — their empty words and propaganda."The average person is subject to the the whims of those who can manipulate the Dream and normally experiences what the Weavers at the Ministry of Rest are wont to do. Weavers such as Pashmina Myron, however, can resist the pressure of the Ministry of Rest's Dream and adjust the area around them. During her first night at Rail Care, as she explores the area around the office she keeps in her own dream, Pashmina senses an untrained, young, very inexperienced Weaver somewhere in Five Irons and sees how Vee and The Professor are affected ."that night, they and many others in Five Irons did not experience the Midnight Message; rather, it was something ... stranger, much more dreamlike, anxious and surreal." The Ministry of Rest keeps tight control on the Dream and will have the Vanguard look through every house if a Weaver's actions threaten it because, according to Pashmina:"It's very easy to make the Dream unwoven if you don't know what you're doing. Imagine that you're making ... you're using a loom and, every time you loom, you're putting a new thread through, and you're switching it, and you're kind of making a picture; now, the dreams, as we know, are made by the Ministry of Rest, and all of them together each have their own spindles, and their own tools, and together they make a glorious tapestry thanks to the king. However, pockets of that tapestry can become unwoven, simply because a very young dreamweaver goes out at it with no skill. Imagine taking a pair of scissors to one section of the tapestry; you cut string, everything becomes undone."The Dream doesn't extend beyond Sayrem, the consequence of which Erion, a Sleeper who spends a lot of time out of Sayrem discusses with Vee :

"The weirdest past about being the city," Erion reckons, "is the Dream stops". To which Vee replies: "It's strange when it's just me in my head." And Erion adds: "I almost miss it, even that damn Midnight Message."