25. Visions

Wind whistles loudly outside the window as you stare out into the darkness. It's late and Rurik doesn't appear to be joining you for the night. A restless feeling has been steadily growing since you saw the rune in the snow the other day. After a moment you find yourself walking over to the side of the bed and slipping your hand between the mattress. The vial still feels strangely cold as you turn in it over to look at the engraving. Firelight flickers hypnotically in the reflection of the smooth glass as you stare down at it. When you run your finger along the carving you start feeling rather strange. It's suddenly become suffocation hot in the room and you move back to the window. Throwing it open you lean out of the frame and take a deep breath of cold air. The uncomfortable feeling slowly subsides and you eventually pull back inside. Snow blows in through the still open window and you notice the flask is still in your hand. Slowly unclenching your fist, you set the vial down, then pull the window shut.

You return the flask to it's hiding spot under the mattress and try to put it out of your mind. After a while you eventually retire to bed and try to sleep. Despite the thick mattress you swear you can feel the glass object digging into your back through it. A moment later you sit up quickly when a lone wolf cries out in the night. Breathing out deeply you hesitantly reach back under the mattress. Your fingers pull back slightly when they connect with warm glass but you steady your nerves and pull the flask out. The object has somehow become so warm it's almost uncomfortable to hold onto,yet, you find that can't seem to let go of it. The sound of your heart beating sounds like a deep rhythmic drum in your ears. Without taking your eyes off the vial you slowly raise your other hand and place your fingers on the wax seal. It slips off easily as if it's already become half melted. Tentatively raising the flask to your face you're met with a deep, yet, strangely intoxicating odor. Despite this, you hold your breath before quickly downing the contents.

After a moment your trance is broken and you become more aware of what you've just done. Dropping the object from your hand you breath in anxiously. You have no idea what was inside that flask and it could very well be poison for all you know. Sitting still you wait for what feels like an eternity but nothing seems to happen. Eventually you feel yourself relax slightly and wonder if this was just Ulf's way of tormenting you further. Picking the now empty vial up from the bed you slide back under the mattress and lie down. As soon as your head reaches the pillow beneath it you feel yourself hit by an unexpected wave of drowsiness. Your eyelids have grown incredibly heavy and your body feels as if it's melding into the bed. With a final deep blink you feel yourself slip into unconsciousness. After you fall into your deep sleep you find yourself having a strange, but somewhat realistic, dream. You start off in the keep, or some distorted version of it, but it's completely empty. The hallways seem to waiver and melt slightly as you make your way down them. Looking out a window you can see you're on the second floor and continue forward.

When you arrive at the end of the hall you're confused when the door before you leads directly into the forest behind the keep. You step out the frame and turn around to see nothing but forest behind you. Looking down you're standing in the middle of a path that leads deeper into the forest. As you make your way down it, the dark trees seem to bend down into each other, and their tangled mess of branches resemble an archway. You continue following the path until it ends before a strange wooden, hut, like structure. Thick smoke is pouring out of an opening on the roof and you can see dim lights inside. Your feet seem to move on their own as you make your way down the rest of the path. The door before you opens without resistance and you find yourself in a strange, dark, room. A low fire blazes in one corner yet the only light seems to be coming from the few candles spread around the area. Strangely, the flames on the tips of the candles flicker wildly as if they're being blow about by an unfelt wind.

Making your way around a large table, covered in strange herbs and plants, you stop before a large wolf skin draped on the wall. You start reaching your hand out to to touch it but hesitate and pull away instead. There's another small table against the other wall and you see pieces of parchment on it. Next to the parchments is a stone pestle and bowl that has a strange dark paste inside. You push the bowl aside to look at the parchment behind it and recognize Ulf's strange symbol mixed in with a line of glyhps. Frowning, you look down and see a lock of hair pinned to the parchment that looks eerily similar to your own. Running your fingers through your hair, you find a small chunk missing at the end that you had noticed before. The shadows before you suddenly seem to grow longer and you feel the hairs on the back of your neck rise. Turning around, you don't notice anything at first, until your eyes slide over to the now empty wall where the fur had been.