No

Tally was having a lovely dream, one which he frankly preferred to his real life in recent times. In the dream, his love affair with the queen of this land had never ended, she had never opened the portal, and the invasion had never begun. This version of the queen was rather rose-tinted, compared to how she actually had been, but Tally was inclined not to notice this from inside the dream. That was, of course, until his peaceful fantasy was rudely interrupted.

Tally and the queen were relaxing together on an endless beach, before a frozen ocean made of glass, lit by a purple sunset, until suddenly the Queen vanished, replaced by a different familiar face.

“Tally!” Brim immediately shook him by the shoulders. “Tally, you have to wake up.”

“Wha…?”

“It’s me! Tally, I know you like your privacy, and I don’t normally like to intrude on your dreams, but this is important. You aren’t safe!”

Slowly, horribly, Tally realized the unreality of this world, and the illusion began to break. Tally rubbed his suddenly aching forehead. “I can’t remember… what happened?”

“You’re about to be someone’s dinner,” Brim replied bluntly. Tally racked his brains. “I still can’t… what was I doing? How did I fall asleep?”

“You got jabbed with a tranquilizer,” Brim said sadly. “Do you remember stepping into a trap? A big net?”

“Oh yeah…” the events leading up to his unexpected nap began to come into clarity. The more he remembered, the more worried Tally became. “Oh, shit!” he said finally. “What’s going on right now?”

“I have no idea,” Brim’s shoulders sadded sadly. “I’m tied to you. As long as you’re asleep, I have no idea what’s going on outside.”

“Well, how do I wake up?"

“We have to try something,” Brim urged him. “It might already be too late!” Brim spent a long time trying and failing to get Tally to wake up, mostly by startling him in true ghost fashion, but never managed to do it. In the end, all she ended up doing was ruining Tally's sleep, while he anxiously waited for the **** wear off on its own.

When he finally came to, it was to the face of Mi Iau, shaking him awake. “Welcome back,” she smiled. It was nighttime now, and her face was lit by the flickering of a campfire.

Tally sat bolt upright, mind full of fears of being cooked alive, but when he looked past Mi, he saw the campfire was several feet away. Around it stood Ance, Prennel, and the lizard-woman, who was notable for not being in the middle of trying to kill and eat them. Looking closer, Tally observed that she had a damp patch around the crotch of her pants. She also appeared to have relinquished Mi’s sword back to its owner.

“Sorry you had to miss all the fun,” Mi said. “That dart knocked you out for hours.”

“What happened?”

“Say hello to Zori,” Mi gestured to the lizard-woman, “new addition to our team.” Seeing that Tally was now awake, Zori waved and walked over to him.

“She was already converted by the time I woke up,” Mi explained.

Zori grinned, and bowed down for Tally. “Hello, sir. Sorry for drugging you earlier, but I’m all better now. I’m looking forward to serving you, if you’ll have me.”

“Tell Tally what you told me,” Mi prompted her.

“I’m pretty skilled as an archer,” Zori began, “and I’m very good at sneaking around without being spotted. I know a lot about wilderness survival, and making improvised weapons. Oh, and I can hold my breath underwater for about three times as long as a human can. If you think my skills would be useful, I’d love to join your group.”

“That sounds excellent,” Tally said, “We could use someone like you. Welcome to the team, Zori.”

“Thank you, Tally!” Zori squealed. “I’ll get started packing right away.”

“Prennel will help you,” Tally said at a slightly louder volume, so Prennel would hear. Prennel immediately halted her conversation with Ance in her haste to obey, uttering no protests at all.

“Off you go,” Mi instructed Zori, who went over to Prennel to get started packing up her belongings. Mi nestled up closer to Tally, and spoke in a low tone, “it’s not all good news, I’m afraid. We really need to do something about Ance.”

“What did she do?” Tally glanced at her out of the corner of his eye: She seemed innocent enough, poking around at the kindling of the campfire with a stick.

“When I woke up from Zori’s tranq dart, she was just in the process of recovering after being converted. Very delirious and suggestible. I caught Ance trying to hijack Zori’s brainwashing by convincing her that I was the one she should obey, not you. She wanted to steal Zori away for my benefit.”

“Uh… wow. What about Prennel? Why didn’t she try to stop Ance?”

“I don’t think Prennel really knows any better, to be honest,” Mi sighed. “She seemed completely oblivious to what Ance was trying to do, she was just happy Zori suddenly turned friendly for some reason. Truth be told, Tally, if I hadn’t stepped in and set the record straight, Zori would be under my control right now instead of yours.”

“She’s wrong about that part,” Brim’s voice echoed in Tally’s mind. “Zori couldn’t just be 'tricked' into obeying Mi, the conditioning runs deeper than that. I brainwashed her for you, and no one else.”

“Well? What are we going to do about this?” Mi pressured Tally. “By trying to sabotage Zori’s brainwashing, Ance has proven herself a threat. Please, tell Brim to make her loyal to you instead. It will make things so much simpler for all of us.”

“She’s being dramatic,” Brim’s disembodied voice assured him. “There was never any danger. Ance will obey Mi, and Mi obeys you. Ance won’t do anything to harm you, because she knows that would upset her mistress. Come on, let’s keep her the way she is. I like having a bit of a loose cannon to spice things up.”