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The giant black lizard man was still there, Emiliana saw. It hadn’t been a dream.

When he first arrived back at Dunehall, Emiliana had begun questioning her sanity again. It wasn’t until she was sure that everyone else could see him too that she started to think she might not have gone crazy.

But there was another reason why it was so surreal for her. Not only was this hallucination suddenly NOT a hallucination at all, but her brain had been disturbingly undisturbed by it. Every thought was so calm, so quiet, having no trouble assessing her circumstances despite the rest of her body being on the verge of panic.

By now, she’d attributed it to something being wrong with her fight-or-flight response. It was a natural biological process triggered by the brain’s perception of extreme danger. Her body had responded appropriately, but seemingly, her brain had not.

Or... perhaps it had responded, only differently. This calm did feel rather unnatural.

She could only imagine that it was Rasalased’s doing--though, whether or not the effects were temporary or permanent, she couldn’t say. If they were temporary, then they were taking a while to wear off, because she could still feel them even now, even with the Monster of the East looming over her as if he were the abyssal god of lakefire himself.

Emiliana stood and brushed herself off. She had plenty of questions she wanted to ask, but she decided to wait for Gohvis to say something first. It was obvious enough that he was the one in control here, and she would’ve only been repeating herself, anyway.

“How long ago did your power manifest?” the Monster asked.

Emiliana had to think about that. “A month or so.” She actually wasn’t sure. Too much had happened. Maybe it had only been a couple weeks. It felt more like a year, though. “Why do you want to know?”

Gohvis ignored the question. “Show me your face.”