CHAPTER XXX
in which no one gets a good nights sleep...
To Sleep Perchance to Dream
After witnessing the end of Glad's horrifying rat regeneration experiments, the Silver Foxes head off to bed. Glad stayed awake a while longer to brew more Regen Two potion. Upon drifting to sleep, Eierryn awakes to find herself alone in a forest like area where the trees look like cut outs. She isn't alone and can wake the trees into animals. None are helpful in figuring out where she is. Nor does pinching herself wake her up. She ends up pursued by and eluding a direwolf like creature who consumes the first person who tried to help her. She finds another person who stabs her awake. Eierryn wakes sleeping. Everyone else wakes at her sleeping. Glad gives her Regen potion, but also collects some of her leaking Brenthian blood before the wound closes. No one else corroborates her strange dream, so Glad tries to trigger it by laying in the exact spot she did.
Glad wakes in the desert. Imagining where he was brings him to a hilly area. He imagines he tavern they slept in and ends up producing a table, some liquor, and Kennis, the skeleton with mug in hand they found in the tavern. He interrogates Kennis for a while before summoning Doug, the raft. Doug appears as a giant, mentally slow, winged Brenthian and carries Glad about. They come across a house in a hill inhabited by an old lady who directs them to the Tailor by pointing skyward. Doug takes Glad in that direction. They hear the roar of a dragon and see scaly dragon body parts slithering in the clouds. But no Dream Wraith. Instead, a sand wyrm jumps skyward and almost swallows them both. Glad escapes by launching himself off Doug, sacrificing the Raft-Dwarf. He eventually finds a tailor shop inhabited by more people killed during the war. They direct him back towards the old lady who is actually a Dream Wraith but before he reaches her, he is chased by the sand-wyrm again. He roars, stopping it in its tracks and it licks his face. Glad awakens covered in wyrm-saliva and returns to drinking. On inspection, Doug no longer works. Prixus and Elias think it can be fixed, but will need time. Eierryn blames Glad for leaving Doug behind, but no one takes Glad up on the offer to return to dreaming and rescue Doug from the wyrm's stomach.
Ra'Jira sleeps on the roof far away from everyone else in order to avoid all the nonsense. Upon drifting to sleep, he awakes suddenly in a forest. Finding himself in the dreaming, he falls asleep there. Ra'Jira wakes up in the real world without having been stabbed. Apparently, it is exactly that simple.
A Stalking Shadow, Two Boats, and A Band of Nulls
The gang decide to trek it to Wharf 3. They pass Wharf 1 after checking for signs of the direwolf. There aren't any. Near wharf 2, they encounter a moving shadow they can't communicate with. Against Ra'Jira's advisement, Glad tries to access its friendliness. It is not friendly. The shadow engulfs the ground around Glad and corrodes his shoes. Glad escapes by taking flight.
On the docks of Wharf 2, they spy Wharf 3 in the distance and two men who have tied up a boat. They sneak their way towards it. Ra'Jira spies through the window of the hut they're using and takes note of the black metal weapons they are hauling around and their suspicious talk of trade. Glad ignores this and wanders up to the wharf alone. He walks to the end of the pier, sits down, and meditates. Drifting into a dream state he meets the Weaver who is interested in the Silver Fox's business but preoccupied by the void in the dreaming centered around the tied up boat. Glad remarks on it as well, mentioning that his staged quasith was drained when passing it. He predicts that the men are likely Nulls themselves are smuggling Nulls. Another void approaches from across the water ... a boat in the waking world. Glad agrees to investigate and is woken by Weaver. Under the auspices of being a travelling hermit mystic, he gleans that the approaching band of men, all of whom look like they could fight, have come from a dangerous area to the Northeast of the lake with goods they already have buyers for. They impress upon Glad the dangerous of the area but he disregards their worry and goes off to commune with his pillar.
Glad shares what he found after regrouping. It's decided to simply ask the Nulls how long they intend on staying. Glad does just that and scares them off to Wharf 2 with his madness act. They seem unconcerned about the shadow lurking near there, implying the danger should scare off eavesdroppers.
Interview With a Wraith
When the Nulls leave, the Silver Foxes make the Weaver an offer. He seems interested in helping free Equinos, who it is familiar with, from LeShrac's grip. But he is uncertain of whether a suitable dream can be tailored. He requests a night to think it over and entreats the Silver Foxes to sleep nearby rather than risk sleeping in the dreams of unfriendly Wraiths.