"By Raven's black heart, who would blame you if you had killed yourself by now in terror?" He gazed into Dougal's confused face. "You are a brave one, aren't you? I can see it in your soul."
Dougal opened his mouth to protest, but the norn shushed him. "Of course you didn't kill her," the norn said. "Just look at you. How could anyone imagine you could manage that?"
The norn paused for a moment to swallow hard, and Dougal feared that the drunken warrior might become sick. "But that's not the point," the norn said, recovering. "Not at all. It's not that sweet Gyda is dead. It's that you've failed to say a word about it to anyone. I heard she died, but nothing else. There's an epic tale to be spun there, I'm sure, and Gyda deserves for her part in the grand saga to be told. No true norn fears death-only being forgotten."
The norn's hand grew heavier then, and Dougal put up his arms to help steady the tottering giant, whose spirit-laden breath smelled strong enough to make Dougal's eyes water. As he did, he knew that he was too late. The norn's eyes rolled back up into his head as he crumpled forward.
Dougal tried to slip out of the way, but the norn was too big to avoid. The massive warrior's chest came down hard on Dougal's legs, pinning him to the ground. Dougal howled more in frustration than pain.
"Dougal!" Riona rushed to his side. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine." Dougal struggled to extract his feet from beneath the norn's bulk. "Just get him off of me!"
Scowling in disgust, Doomforge reached down with both hands and heaved the slumbering norn onto his back.
"Who is he?" Dougal asked as he pulled himself to his feet.
"Gullik Oddsson," Killeen said.
Doomforge whistled at this, a strange, low note that emerged not from her lips but her teeth. "The Oddsson? I heard he single-handedly defeated a score of destroyers in the old dwarf mines beneath the Dredgehaunt Cliffs."
Riona blew out a long breath. "He's supposed to have stormed aboard the schooner Watery Gravestone, slaughtered Captain Deadbeard, and then taken command of the ship to terrorize the Sea of Sirens."
"Gyda told me he slew a mad grawl with his bare hands when he was only a child, no taller than me," said Killeen.
"He's a drunken ass who tried to kill me and nearly broke my legs," said Dougal. He kicked Gullik in the shoulder. The norn didn't even stop snoring long enough to acknowledge it. "And he's not sleeping in here."
Doomforge grunted. "How do you suggest we move him?"
Crusader Naugatl and a squad of guards showed up then, drawn by the sounds of the battle. They gaped at the norn and then at Doomforge, but they put their swords away at a sign from her.
"Leave him here," she said. "Secure the door and window. Post a squad of guards, and come find me as soon as he shows signs of rousing." She pointed at one of the guards. "Have another room prepared for Keane. Right now."
A guard ran off to fulfill his orders, and Doomforge sauntered after him, motioning for the others to follow. "Come," she said. "I can't speak for you, but after that, I need a drink." Killeen produced a blanket and laid it over the snoring norn's chest, then turned to the door as well.
"Are you coming?" she said.
"I was serious about that nap," said Dougal.
"I still need to get something from the bazaar," said Riona. To Dougal she said, "Can we leave you alone for more than five minutes?"
"Maybe," said Dougal, "if the rest of the world will stop beating me up long enough so I can get some sleep."
It isn't mind-reading," said Killeen, "and we aren't all connected into one big mass mind. However, before we come into the world, the sylvari are united in the Dream of Dreams."
The three of them sat at the end of a table large enough for a platoon. Dougal had slept at least six hours in the most comfortable bed in all of Lion's Arch, and had been roused only unwillingly by Killeen saying that Riona was back and dinner was in a half hour. It was already dark, and a heavy moon shown through the tall windows.
Dinner was excellent, a rare treat for Dougal. He had spent many of his years on the road, able to eat only what he was willing to carry with him. As a result, he had survived on mostly water and hardtack and the occasional bit of small game he brought down.
Tonight, though, Soulkeeper had made sure that he, Riona, and Killeen had the finest food and drink available in Lion's Arch. They dined on succulent roast mutton, braised moa, fresh breads, and a selection of the finest fruits available from the city's busy harbor market. They also split a pair of bottles of wine that was older than anyone at the table and finer than any Dougal had ever tasted.
It was not the first "last meal" Dougal had enjoyed before heading off on a job from which he had no assurance he would ever return. He hoped it would not be the final one despite his misgivings, and he was determined to make the most of it either way.
Riona had set Killeen off by asking the question "You're five years old. How do you know so much?" Indeed, it was a question that plagued Dougal as well. Unlike Riona, he had known a number of sylvari, and they always surprised him with the depth and breadth of their knowledge.
By the same token, there were matters that were completely beyond them. Emotions seemed to be a hard concept for them to understand fully, as was tact. The sylvari he had dealt with over the years would often unknowingly offend others by pointing out obvious and uncomfortable truths.
"We are the bounty of the Pale Tree, which grows at the center of the Grove," said Killeen. "Long ago there was a human warrior named Ronan who found the seed of the Pale Tree in a cavern. Ronan tired of war and, along with a former foe, a centaur named Ventari, traveled to the south and planted the tree in what would become the Grove.
"Ronan passed on, and so, too, in time did Ventari, who spent his life tending to the young sapling. Before he died, Ventari carved his tablet and set it down at the base of the tree. When we awakened, that tablet became our law, and we were infused with the spirit of both brave Ronan and gentle Ventari.
"We were not there when all this happened, but we know it because of the Dream of Dreams. While we were quickening within the golden fruit of the Pale Tree, the tree spoke to us of the world outside. She taught us, if you will, of the nature of the waking world.
"We are not all-knowing," she continued. "The Dream of Dreams is not like a tome of all knowledge. But it does give us a life before our life, in which we learn much of the world we are coming into. Fire is hot. Wild animals can be dangerous, but many can be tamed. Here is the proper way to use a sword. This is how you cast a spell, if you are so disposed. We come into the world with knowledge of the world, but not necessarily the experience."
Riona shook her head. "Is there a difference? Experience gives you knowledge."
"For humans, most likely," said Killeen, "but not for us." She picked up an oversized drumstick. "This is the leg of a young moa. I know that it was a moa from the Dream, and further that it is well cooked but not overcooked. I know what it tastes like but have never tasted it myself." She took a bite of the leg, and chewed for a moment or two. "Chicken," she said at last, the word muffled by the food in her cheek.
"I don't know what is weirder," said Riona, looking a little uneasy, "your telepathic dreams or the fact I am watching a plant eat an animal."
"Many plants eat animals," countered Killeen. "Flytraps, ibogas, jacarandas, pitcher plants. The oakhearts chase down and mash animals they encounter and use the remains to fertilize their young."
"Of course they do," said Riona. She turned to Dougal and whispered, loudly, "Creepy!"
If Killeen heard the comment, she did not respond to it. "But we don't have telepathic dreams. In the Dream of Dreams, one grows one's identity. When one is Awakened into the world, we leave the Dream behind, for the most part. But what we learn in the world goes back into the Dream to help new sylvari understand. The Firstborn entered into a world without sylvari, but what they learned helped all that followed them. So, too, what I learn will help future generations."