For an elf, rest was far more efficient than for a human. Though she could sleep the way humans did, she found reverie to be far more efficient and safer. She couldn't be caught off guard, she was as awake and aware of her surroundings as if she were simply reading a book, but the book was her mind, her memories, thoughts, feelings, all presented for reflection. The one flaw was, nightmares, especiallly Ariana's, could enter even Reverie.
She awoke strapped to a bloody slab, lights flashing occasionally around her. Guttural voices and malevolent whispers reached her ears from beyond the darkness, and even when the lightning came, nothing was there. Well, almost nothing. A familiar figure walked around the slab, his footsteps seeming loud and booming. Her exclamation stuck in her throat at the sight of her old puppetteer, Kir'Thalax. And she had hoped the puppet's strings were severed...The lich stopped to her right and produced a knife, even with the naked eye one could see it was sharp, impossibly so.
This is a dream..this..is just a dream, it isn't real... It was then she felt they were not alone. Behind her another figure stood. Spiders crawled over his form, his skeletal fingers twitching in rhythm with the Illithid's tentacles. This was the puppeteer...It gave a small sense of staisfaciton to Ariana to see Kir'Thalax as the puppet, even though she knew it wasn't real.
Through the mouth of the lich, the Nightmare's voice spoke: I assure you, this is as real as anything else. She didn't want to beleive him, she knew she couldn't, she'd give into her fear..it's what the Nightmare wanted..but she remembered how real her dreams could be; waking up with sword slashes across her body, burns on her clothes and hair..it's all too real.
Anger replaced the fear, or masked it. Ariana was always a bit too stubborn, she would make sure the Nightmare knew that. Though her movement was restricted, she whispered a spell, directing it to the lich hovering over her with a knife. The illithid burst into flames and writhed trying to put them out. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Nightmare's pain as well. Before the lich could lash out, Ariana fired a series of spells in quick succession, her skin of stone, her mind protected. The lich came back, singed, with what looked like a rusted saw. Holding down her head, he placed the jagged teeth of the saw on her forehead and started to move the bade back and forth slowly. The stoneskin didn't last long, she began to feel the pain, felt it grow to the point of agony, and she screamed. No doubt the Nightmare relished the sound. Soon, she felt nothing. She knew her head wasn't in one piece any longer, but she was aware of everything.
Tell Nell to stop her meddling, it is because of her you suffer. Tell Stela Cojocaru, Thomas Ashford, and Ashan to stop their investigation, they do not know with what they are dealing. The voice registered only confuison in Ariana. Who were these people, what was going on, why was -she- dragged into this? She saw the liich's tentacles reach for her , she squinted her eyes shut and wished it away like any other bad dream.
Ariana bolted upright to a sitting position. She was soaked through with cold sweat, and her breathing was heavy and irregular. She could tell she spoke in her sleep. After a change of clothes into something dryer, she stepped out of Nant Gaerwyn into the white night. Someone had anwsers.