Brin dreamt of [Witches], tonight the same as every night in the past few months since the battle of Hammon’s Bog.

Often, he dreamt of Bianca, the first living person to ever die by his hands. He’d feel her warm blood on his fingers and she’d scream and cry and beg for mercy. In his dreams, there were none of the important details like how she’d also been trying to kill him with a meat cleaver at the time, or how she’d set her abomination of a familiar on him. No, in this particular nightmare, he entered her home on his own and murdered an innocent woman. He felt all of the dread, guilt and revulsion that he hadn’t processed at the time, looking on with horror as his own hand plunged the knife again and again, powerless to stop it.

Then onto the next. He dreamt of Basil, and this nightmare followed pretty closely to the way it had actually happened in real life. Torture, and Brin with a smile on his face. Then he was in the forest, being pursued by undead.

But mostly, he dreamt of [Witches]. Horrible Siphani, with her thin white body clawing him to pieces, or implacable Awnadil, breaking him to pieces with spells that hurt his sanity to witness. “Mine! You’re mine! You belong to me! I’m your mother!”

Only then, it wouldn’t be Awnadil. Her face would change and he’d see that it was Aberfa the whole time. How he knew it was Aberfa he couldn’t say, since he’d actually never seen Aberthol’s mother. Somehow, in the way of dreams, he knew.

The only thing that made it at all bearable, was the fact that he knew it wasn’t real.

When Basil cut him, when the undead caught up to him, while Awnadil or Aberfa ranted in his face while twisting his body into something terrible, he felt the pain and fear, but [Know What’s Real] gave him a lifeline. This was all a dream.

At first, that realization always startled him awake, but he’d gotten some practice at this. If he let himself wake up, he’d be exhausted all day again. He needed to stay asleep. He had to endure it.

When he finally let himself wake up, he could see the light of dawn through his window. He’d slept for six whole hours. Not nearly enough to pay off the sleep debt, but enough to make him feel like a person. Today was going to be a good day.

He started with his regular workout. He hadn’t been pushing it as hard as when Davi was around, but it was important to keep up a routine, if only so that he wouldn’t be out of shape when Davi got back. Still, he’d made some progress since Lumina had arrived. Most of it from the training rather than his own workouts.

Strength +4

Dexterity +10

Vitality +4

Magic +21

Mental Control +15

Will +11