Dream, Halkem, 2 (Theophany)
Halkem desperately melds into the granite block floor of the dungeonlike records storage room as he feels Grinder's hand absorbing strength from him. Immersed in cold, tomblike stone, Halkem succumbs to the imperative to sleep.
As he sleeps, he dreams. He finds himself stepping out of the stairwell into the guardroom. Two guards and a dog lie there in pools of their own blood, shredded by vampiric claws. They are dead, their wounds unbound.
Halkem wants to stop, knowing what's bound to come next, but his feet seem to move of their own accord, through the next room, which is empty, and down the stairs into the dungeonlike records storage room again. There the young human duelist, his body stunted by unnatural dwarfism, lies, his throat slit and blood everywhere.
As he looks at the duelist, Halkem seems to see the young man's life flash before him - Edgar Strakenburg, son of merchant vitners who fought his entire life to be taken seriously against the deformation of his dwarfed body. Halkem sees the boy being teased by humans and bade'in both. He sees him learning to duel in a vain attempt to gain respect. He sees Edgar being spurned by women who find him unattractive, yet still managing to muster some sense of honor and good-will when others might have become bitter and angry. He sees Edgar walking through Parkside at night, sword drawn as he escorts people through the Ward during the midst of the vampire scares. And finally, Halkem sees Edgar being attacked by Strutter as the two people he's guarding run off. Vampire and duelist fight fiercely against each other, but the vampire's greater strength prevails, and Strutter picks up the young human and carries him off, into the darkness.
Halkem looks down at his hands, and sees blood on them. He looks at the body again, and it is the body of the Celebrant that Halkem saw in his very first dream, a man with a long braid and ragged clothing. The Celebrant's throat is also cut, and he lies there dead.
(The next evening when Halkem arises he awakens with the knowledge that he has offended Carrick. He will receive no more spells until he has performed a selfless act of good sufficient to atone for murdering a vampire's charmed victim in cold blood. At fourth level, Halkem is expected to remember that Carrick forbids him to intentionally kill or allow someone to be killed. As part of his curse, Halkem sees vivid scarlet blood on his hands. The blood cannot be wiped off, and stains anything he touches.)
