On Dream Wraiths

"So what are these things?" A loud thump at the metal door, we'd been hearing it for a couple hours now.  It was kind of maddening how much effort they were giving to breaking down the door (you think they'd just give up? I would!).

"Dream Wraiths, or Nightmare Wraiths.  The illusion we saw outside was taken from your own mind, why I could see it before you could ask is because its a real illusion. Most likely one of these nasties followed you and stole the thoughts from you to craft the illusion, then they just projected it as a group. Normally they do smaller stuff, a pretty lady, pile of precious coins, food or water to a dying person.  This is quite unique as far as Valyra's memories go of the beasts." Valyra while evil, had hunted and killed just about everything in this world, its knowledge that really comes in handy, even if the memory of what she did to the creatures isn't the most pleasant.

"So its rare for them to work together?"

"Almost unheard of, they aren't even pack hunters, being able to project someones dreams doesn't really need support, pick off the occaisional lone traveler or couple and they can live for a while on the meat. To see this many in one area working on a single illusion to kill two people? Something is very wrong here, very very wrong." I hadn't noticed but the banging had gone away.  Lorissia's face was kind of obscured in the half dark of the oil lamp, but I was sure she was quite well aware of what having a group of evil things grouped together to kill her would mean.

"I just don't understand Trezlan! Why now? I've been living my life away from this legacy why come after me now?"  It was a good question, obviously it was someone involved with the Red Hand as well if my days of torture were any indication.

"I fear we're about to find out Lorissia, and I fear I don't really have a lot left in me to get us out of this one." I hadn't realized how much power the flare spell had taken out of me until I lit up the room briefly, it took all of my concentration to maintain a very minor fire spell (I didn't realize it at the time but I had been partially neutralized from the start of our little adventure at the mansion of the Kulinara, sometimes illusions work to hide more than just squalor).  We huddled there in the dark, holding each other close, waiting for the end.  Obviously I made it out or this volume of stories would be hard to discover, but still back then I figured my days were up.  A common thought for me now that I think about it.