It’s hard to think with the world burning down around you!

For the second time in a year, you find yourself running from a burning ruin for your life. Thankfully, your room is located right beside the stairway leading down into the main area of the tavern. The few people you pass are either too drunk or sleepy to notice you, and you escape into the street without incident.

It is then that you realize you’d completely forgotten about your friends in your haste to escape. You turn back to the stricken inn, just in time to see the roof collapse over the upper-floor landing where the workers sleep. For the first time in a long while, the sensation of hot, wet tears sting the corner of your eyes. The thought of losing everything you’ve earned through your shameful work hurts, but knowing you may have just killed all your friends is anathema.

Though you’re uncertain of where to go now, you know for sure that you’re no longer welcome in Thorune. Even if the authorities fail to trace the crime back to you, the memories here are too painful for you to bear. You head for the town’s postern gate, evading the guards patrolling the street and the unsavory figures prowling the alleys. After casting one last, regretful glance at the tavern in the distance - which burns under the night sky as brightly as a beacon - you step past the gate into the forest beyond.

You spend the next half hour stumbling through the dense undergrowth, guiding yourself with a tiny flame conjured in your palm. The Verdona Forest had always been your favorite retreat during the day, but alone, in the dark, it is nothing short of terrifying. Your exhaustion is rapidly catching up to you, and a distant howl is enough to convince you to seek shelter for the night.

After ten more minutes, you come upon a hollow that seems deep enough to rest in. You gingerly step inside and discover it is uninhabited, much to your relief. Indeed, it‘s - somewhat ironically - more spacious than your previous room, and you prepare a fire near the entrance to ward off would-be predators. It does not work.

A soft, tortured groan just beyond the entrance attracts your attention. You peer into the darkness and recoil in fear at the three figures that shamble into the cave. They resemble zombies, with horribly disfigured features and burns covering their entire bodies.

The one closest to you seems female, with scorched auburn hair and - no, it can’t be! “W-we thought you were besssst t-thing to ever happen to ussssss, Thal! How could you do thissss to usssss?” Autumn rasps, her voice almost unrecognizable.

“We t-treated you like our ssssisster!” Another zombie groans with Logan’s voice. “And thisss isss h-how you repay usssss!”

You retreat deeper into the cave until you feel a wall pressing against your back. Cornered, you ready your magic as a last resort, but find yourself lacking the heart to attack your friends outright. They are barely two metres away when a tiny voice cries out in the back of your head: Wait, this isn’t how it happened! You found out later that the only person killed in the fire was Eddie, remember?

“Inscendia!” The effect of your fireball striking Autumn is nothing like what you were expecting. Her body dissolves into a thick black cloud that ripples sentiently in the air. Dream Flayers, you realize. They are malevolent spirits that invade the minds of sleeping victims, capable of taking any form they choose. Cursing, you realize that even in your dreams you are hardly safe from Sindarion. The other two Flayers dissolve into their true, vaporous forms, reshaping themselves into hideous monsters before your very eyes.

Meanwhile, your young, fifteen year old body has changed into your current, twenty-five year old one in the waking world. You feel your magical ability growing rapidly to match your actual strength. It seems the arrival of Sindarion’s Dream Flayers has blurred the line between your dream and reality!