His worries ease as the night progresses, and he even lets himself doze off for a few hours while the guardsman takes the watch. But the pull of Salo’s ghost is stronger and more insistent than ever, and the battle to deny it is so ferocious it gives him terrible nightmares. He wakes up with a start, drawing a glance from the guardsman. Unwilling to risk those dreams again, he decides to take the rest of the watch and let the guardsman sleep. The three awoken are still exactly as they were when he dozed off, but the sphinx has lifted off its base, now engulfed in a red aura. Flakes of
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