In search of answers to their many questions, the organisations of the
world turned to their own people for assistance. In the city of
Hallifax, Researcher Inix Aalin conducted a series of experiements,
assisted by Chairman Zitto Shevat, Force Commander Elanorwen Pavok,
Shedrin Shevat, and several others. The city of Celest, meanwhile,
attended a sermon in the Deep Blue Cathedral - where Squire Conleth,
Ainsell and Chorist Laur listened to the priest speak of Raziela and the
Cursed Child.

In the commune of Serenwilde, the Hartstone tutor Dain led a trance in
search of answers. Whether the hopeful group spoke to the Keepers of
Dreams, or merely echoes of them, they were not certain - but it
galvanised their desire to assist. Their counterparts in the southern
forest of Glomdoring gathered to hear the words of Glumki, King of the
Redcaps, as he instructed them on the ways of nightmares and the dangers
inherent within.

Yet the basin remained still quiet; unnervingly so.

Almost a month later, the Engine of Transformation were called to a
piercing scream from near the city's stage. Rushing to aid, they found
Jinlu Ilithyia, the Boneseer, in the throes of a vision. Rendal d'Murani
and Ventidius De'Unnero led her to the inn to rest and recover from her
vision, and sought out Mistress Jezebel of the Geomancers for insight
into what Jinlu had seen.

As the citizens of Magnagora gathered to seek the earth for guidance,
the Contemplative Miseoki Tleeth stirred to speak to the slumbering city
of Gaudiguch, pondering in what would later be known to be a prophetic
manner on the way that dreams might become a real part of the world.

Deep in the mud, Mistress Jezebel led her charges to look down through
her power, down through the connection to the earth, down below the
Balach Swamp, down below the nightmares and the ash and the destruction.
Together they used their earth sight to look past a veil of power that
made them for a moment think to turn away - but girding their loins, the
Magnagorans pushed on until they found themselves in a marble series of
corridors and rooms.

Great murals swathed the walls in history, but there were no residents
within the hidden Enclave to grant them further insight. Though they
searched and searched, they found little but empty corridors, machinery
without engineers, chairs without owners. Resigned, they began to return
their thoughts to the world...but just as they did, something in the
Enclave shifted.

As Dreamweavers throughout the lands began to hear the rush of water in
their ears, Magnagora watched as the marble walls of the Enclave seemed
to turn to liquid that cascaded down to the ground. Iridescent motes
began to wink into being in the night sky, and as the ritualists
realised that it was not the walls of the Enclave melting but some magic
upon the Enclave itself, a great rush of power surged up from the Inner
Sea.

Then a voice spoke through the aether, saying that it was time, time for
the wardings to be lowered as they had not been since the time of
Vestera, the Dreamer - and the adventurers of the world began their
search. Many went to the Balach Swamp, the site of the vortex from
months before, whilst others went deep inside Great Muud Himself. Some
went to the depths of the Inner Sea, whilst others explored its surface.

It was Xenthos An'Ryshe who found the manifest dream that promised to
lead them to the Enclave, though it flitted through the water far too
fast to be followed. Yet eventually it was found by Tau Llaewell, also
of Glomdoring, who along with Xenthos was the first corporal body to set
foot into the Emerald Encalve since the Vernal Wars.

Joined by Rancoura So'hthae, they began to search. The Enclave appeared
deserted, but they had a sense of being watched, as if someone was there
that they could not see. Eventually, they placed their hands upon the
staff planted into the marble floor at the entrance to the Enclave...and
something jumped to attention.

Communicating through the staff was difficult, but eventually they
managed to glean that one of the Keepers of Dreams was speaking to them
through it - that there were other Keepers within the Enclave, also able
to speak through their own focal objects. The Keeper at the entrance
begged them to assist, and so the Glomdoring made their way to the heart
of the Enclave to battle the nightmares of Great Muud.

Entering into the construct known as the Aegis of Vestera, to a land
where the dreams of the Sleeping Child and the nightmares of Great Muud
were eternally in conflict, they began to fight. As the Glomdoring
assisted, others still tried to locate the Enclave, but it was some time
before they made it through. When they did, the other organisations
proved to be less secretive than the shadowed forest, and soon
adventurers from around the world poured into the marble corridors.

Soon a number of Dreamweavers arrived: Dinae De'Unnero of Magnagora,
Adracunin of Hallifax, Viynain Erid'in of Gaudiguch and even Chairman
Zitto Shevat himself separated from their corporeal bodies and began to
search. In their dream forms, they saw that the Enclave was not empty at
all; finally, the Keepers of Dreams saw them and looked upon the first
new faces they had seen since the time of the Vernal Wars.

Ecstatic, the Dreamweavers began to speak to the Keepers, to glean what
information they could. They met Kilmea Vertare, a loboshigaru follower
of Tosha who had been pledged by him to assist Vestera and defend the
Enclave. Todbo Palipih, a warm-hearted tae'dae who served as counsellor
to the Keepers. The stern faced elfen known as Caelain Arnoia was less
helpful to them, but the lucidian engineer Xoik Aquik and the head of
the Keepers herself, Ladae Mistskimmer, were more forthcoming.

As the Keepers conversed with the mortal dreamweavers, Xenthos An'Ryshe
pushed on, assisting each of them in turn. But as he moved from one
Keeper to help another, Chairman Zitto Shevat, who in dreambody was able
to communicate more smoothly with Keeper Caelain, usurped the
ascendant's control of proceedings. He promptly began to investigate the
dreamcatcher he had been given, travelling within the Aegis to seek out
the new dreams that had appeared there.

Unfortunately for the Chairman, he met a swift end at the short temper
of Celina of the Glomdoring, sparking a political debate that would
cloud the rest of the proceedings. Eventually, Xenthos resumed control
and began to continue to assist the Keepers, who were a mixture of
perturbed and confused by the commotion.

As Xenthos completed the last few tasks to re-empower the Aegis of
Vestera, some travellers persevered in conversing with the Keepers
through their focal objects. Tridemon Regalis of the city of New Celest
engaged the attention of Keeper Caelain, whose rude manner and perplexed
the polite demigod. Others still tried to assist the Keepers, but to no
avail.

Eventually, despite an uphill battle against spinning wise words and a
skill for puzzles that had onlookers worrying that they would be for all
eternity, Xenthos An'Ryshe succeeded in re-empowering the Aegis of
Vestera. Praising his name, Ladae Mistskimmer conveyed upon him the
title of honourary Keeper of Dreams, and blessed him for his assistance.

Before they departed, King Siam Star-eyes of the Shadowdancers shed his
corporeal form to speak to Keeper Ladae personally. After conveying her
thanks, she asked the King if she might pose a question - to ask what
had become of Vestera, the Dreamer. For though they had felt Him fade,
they still felt His presence even still. So it was that the King
delivered to Ladae the sad but triumphant news of the fate of the Last
Nine.

As she turned to pass this news onto her fellow Keepers, the King
returned to his waking body, a comment of the trill's still lingering in
his mind. What had caused the Aegis to weaken in the first place, after
so many centuries of strength?

Something was out there, in the Dreaming. Something far more insidious
than the nightmares of Great Muud. Something that was watching the First
World.

It was not a comforting thought.

Penned by My hand on the 7th of Avechary, in the year 410 CE.