"A few piddling assassination attempts," Enserric sniffs from the corner he parked himself in. "Nothing worth anyone's time."

"I'm glad everything's going so smoothly."

"This is what happens when an incompetent gets more power than she knows what to do with," Enserric sighs. "This Valsharess thinks she can do anything she wants just because she holds semi-deific power. Well, we're here to show her that's not how this works."

"Deals with devils, right? Man, why don't angels do that kind of thing."

"Hah. Perhaps they feel they can do any job they want done better themselves, whereas the devils have the perspective that granting some idiot their power results in rather a lot of evil being done without their lifting a finger."

"I think I'd be a very effective wielder of borrowed angelic power!"

"I'm sure you would, actually, but angels in my experience are very busy with what they do and need all the power they have. Oh, and of course there is the notable circumstance under which they do grant mortals power, but you don't strike me as a paladin candidate."

"Yeah, I ping Chaotic. Plus, like, what's the point of borrowing angelic power if you still have to level like a normal person about it, that wouldn't save hardly any time."

"Very true!"

Garrus stifles a yawn. "We've been up for a while now, I think - is it time to rest before the big climactic battle?"

"Sounds like a good idea," Valen comments. "You're likely to face an army tomorrow."

"What kinda accommodations are we looking at?"

There's rooms at the public house for them again! They're accommodating and come with complimentary deep rothe steak, which continues to taste not quite like lizard. The beds, of course, are silk.

Mmm, not quite lizard.

And when she sleeps...

A woman stands before her. She wears a crown, and truly ridiculous armor. She's slightly shorter than Belmarniss, but her heels give her a couple of inches. She's wearing perfume, something dusky and mysterious and only a little bit overpowering.

The Valsharess looks Belmarniss over appraisingly, and smiles. "So. You are the outlander who's given me so much trouble."

"...so, you're a creeper who invades dreams? Don't you have anything better to do?"

She smiles thinly. "Better things to do than investigate the one fated to bring my downfall? I think not, girl. You have humiliated me thrice now, something most do not manage once. You slew my right hand, Sabal, and that is no mean feat. And there is something about you. Your fate weighs on the world around you, another spider on the web."

"Are you hoping to get some kind of juicy intel out of me? How?"

"As long as we are both here, I thought we might speak. One power to another. I'm sure you have questions of your own - and if you care to answer mine in return, I would consider a trade."

"You don't seem that mysterious to me as a person and if I asked strategic questions you could, like... lie."

The Valsharess raises her pale brows. "You have so little faith in your own cunning that you cannot glean knowledge from a lie?"

"Is that what you're hoping to do with whatever I tell you?"

"What an odd child you are. Do they not raise you to compete with your foes, where you come from, but to give up before the game begins?"

"Honestly in spite of all my education I don't think we ever covered what to do if somebody hijacks your dream. It doesn't come up much on my planet."

The Valsharess smirks. "Nor here - it requires a great deal of power. More than most will ever see. But I have so much that I can afford to be... profligate."

She leans in closer. "I do not know what drives you, Belmarniss. But I know that you need power. Everyone needs power. Join me, and I can grant you might and magic beyond your wildest dreams."