I8: Like poison given to work a great time after

[Sean Hall]

Sean was sleeping. It was the voices he heard first. Voices of people in ecstasy. Voices that spoke words without meaning that resounded with power.

Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal. Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal. Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal

At first Sean saw only darkness, and then felt something warm drizzling onto his face. He opened his eyes and saw red sky. A full moon through a haze of red as if the moon itself had been dealt a mortal wound.

ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal

The volume of the voices rose and Sean saw red hands at the periphery. The warmth he felt was coming from them. That was when he heard the screams in the background and the smell of viscera assaulted his nose.

Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal

The hands lowered towards his body and he could feel their warmth as the trace shapes on his limbs. But it was the cold iron at his wrists that seemed to override this sensation.

Guul i fwata wgah uul'gwan h'iwn.

The voices no longer sounded human and crackled with barely restrained power. Sean could smell ozone. That was when he saw the face of a man with dead eyes above him. The man's smile showed teeth filed to points. The man carried a twisted blade that seemed to carve reality around it. The blade went down towards Sean and he could feel as it traced a line of fire across his chest. The blade moved slowly as if what he was doing was of incredible importance.

Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal. Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn gu-

The chanting was interrupted by an impassioned unintelligible scream of grief and rage. The world snapped back into focus as Sean stifled a scream of his own. He saw a familiar ceiling. He was back in his dorm. He was safe.

"What...w-what was that," Sean said hand on his chest tracing the lines of an old scar on his chest. One that had nearly faded away.

[Gaius Montgomery]

"That was you bloody freaking me out," a sleepy Guy grumbled.

[Sean Hall]

"Sorry..." Sean said getting out of bed and grabbing a shirt. "Just a bad dream. Think I'll go grab some fresh air."

[Gaius Montgomery]

"Just a bad dream? It sounded like you were reciting prayers to the bloody Old Ones."

[Sean Hall]

Sean was quiet for about a minute as he pulled the shirt on, and then a pair of pants.

"Well, I am a mage," Sean said sounding unsure.

[Gaius Montgomery]

"You're going to go find Altamira aren't you?" he asked. He sounded, perhaps, vaguely disappointed not to be confided in.

[Sean Hall]

"I don't know what it was, Gaius," Sean said in perhaps the harshest tone Guy had ever heard Sean use.

[Gaius Montgomery]

"Not like the silly muggle would get it anyway, right?" he muttered as he rolled over to go back to sleep.

[Sean Hall]

"Why would you when I don't," Sean said then exited their room the door closing loudly.