How to Fail at Adventuring (III)

It started off well.

They entered, they settled, they were seen to by the ghost-like servants. Treated like kings – and queen! – while they talked, ate or studied the spellbook of Rhialto the Fabulous, or Marvellous or whatever he would never be calling himself again on account of being dead, though insanity did not necessarily heal upon passing so perhaps the man would be as incorrigible in the afterlife as well?

You cannot deny me. You may as well ask to live without blood or deny you breathe air!

It quickly became clear, though, that only Khelben and Elminster were still able to stay up and spend time on productive pursuits. So long as they didn't interact at least, though Cyrus assumed it was at least partly an act or consequence of being forced into a situation where interaction and leisure had to be considered Things of Importance.

I am of you and within you; I am what you should have been!

Cyrus, Imoen and Gorion felt the sleepless night catching up to them, and while they would normally have managed more than one in a row, the situation was far from usual and Gorion was far from young and spry. And he did not have Mystra's Grace or the lingering effect of an ancient Mythal to render him ageless like the other two.

You were not born to live; you are fuel for the return! I shall act as you were born to! You will surrender to the instinct! To the blood!

So Cyrus took only the time he needed to explain the little he knew or understood off the sudden compulsions and its causes before turning in. The mansion's quarters actually beat everything Candlekeep had offered, save perhaps the quarters of the Keeper of Tomes and First Reader.

What do I want?! Your life, your soul, your body!

Not that the extra comfort made a difference. Cyrus was more than ready to sleep for a while.

I am the instinct! I am the blood!

It figured that things would only get worse from there, though he could be excused for not thinking it would happen so soon or while he was asleep.

After all, he'd never had a dream before.

Fall to your knees—you can do no other! I am within you. I am your essence.

That night he had the first.

The first dream.

A dream he nearly did not return from at all, and which promised that he would not return from the next.