#scarsdale

Earl lands eyes dark

"Shit! " Guzrela touches her wwrist "Stop him!" And the Count's simularcrum draws his weapon and attacks Earl

Zara clamps her hands over her nose and mouth, she can't breath in the gas, but her lungs are burning...

A blur of Earl who slashes at the Construct, the creation doesn't bleed! The sword strikes once, twice, three times... anyone else it would have severed a limb, but the construct is merely whittled... but it IS being whittled down.

"You? You I can hurt" Guzrela hisses preparing to cast a spell on Earl

"Knight's out knights out knight's... OW!" She clutches at her neck!

stolen stolen be your kisses 1122 says as he delivers his venom

Zara has to take a breath, and she pounds a fist against the glass in protest.

Annd she starts to black out.. even as the nocker starts to freeze up! twin forces of magic falling

Earl has speed on the goelm, for now..and gets more hits in, betraying he false hood with cuts as he works his way towards his trueheart "1122, I think I made a hole big enough. " he slamps his hands against the oher side of the glass and looks surprised "It's strong"

1122 goes into a hole in the skin of the consruct and vanishes under it's skin

Zara's vision blurs as the black claims her

.....

Zara out cold again, dreams once more, this time, the Dream is not manipulated by Guzrela

Probably an improvement!

She flies on a giant Raven's back "He is alive" It calls out

Her Hunter? He must be.

"Yes, I am proof of that. You are gassed and unconscious. You are helpless. But he fights for you"

"Oh... oh, I must help him. I was trapped." She remembers. "And hurt."

"You cannot help him, and yes, you are bleeding... death maybe looming for you before it comes close to him. But there is something you seek, and as Deaths' door looms close to the Dreaming, you have a chance to reach this treasure"

"There is?"

She sees passages black paths few dare walk, but the raven does not fly them, this is a dream of a dream... but the bridges to death cast a shadow.. forming patterns.. runes.. names!

"Did you ever wonder why Odin in myth hung himself from a tree?"

"For wisdom... he suffered to know."

"Yes... you did not choose this suffering.... but you can use it. Think of what you want to learn..focus on it. You are in the valley of the shadow of death, but fear no evil, for here you may learn"

"Oh, I must choose..."

"you have all the time in what maybe left of your world" The Raven says, as helpful as Ravens are likely to get

She looks at the patterns, the shifting runes. "I know what I have been striving for..."

"To change one Name to another..."

"A goal that feels close, but each step is longer than the first. Is that what you wish to try for?"

They veer towards that, but at the risk of losing other secrets. Oh sweet frustration

"Wait... there is... oh, there is aught I must fix... I must fix somehow..."

She can see it, weaves of... the Chain! It has a secret... it is but one chain, there are others but...

and an idea dawns on her as the Raven responds "Let us see what you can learn of his tether"

"...aye. It is a bane. The other book was lost..."

"One sluagh, he destroyed six..."

They are alike... and like is drawn to like.. she.. learns she can use the chain to find the OTHER chains! Seek what is in hand, but not the one IN the hand and.. yes, it will force the search elsewhere to the others

"They are linked!" Delight.

"Forged of the same metal, by the same hand" the Raven caws "A part of you perhaps realized, but it was asleep. Now , where death hovers over dreams, you may take that knowledge back... "The Raven says "If we live"

"My Hunter will win. He will save me."

"He must not die."

The Raven sings with her confidence and the love behind it

.... and meanwhile...