It's really, really confusing. Avedan is somewhere between wanting to learn more about the internal history present in the dreams, and wanting to understand why they're being so - insistent. He suspects it has something to do with malfunctioning servants, but all of his are working just fine. He checked. Twice. So - maybe someone else's aren't working properly? Or something? He doesn't know, there's zero precedent for eerily vivid and consistent dreams. Avedan tries talking to someone about it, exactly once. They immediately think he's having reoccurring nightmares.
But they're not nightmares. Well. Okay, some of them are, one of the more memorable ones included desperately clutching a woman's hand, begging her to stay with him, just keep breathing, to stay alive. She didn't. If it'd been with someone he knew, he might have thought it was just a simple nightmare. But, no. He's never seen her before in his life. Only his dreams, and not all that often, either. Because there are others, with - happier memories attached to them.
He's started to notice patterns. In - consistent people, consistent places, and most interestingly, consistent personalities. He's pretty sure it's not his subconscious being uncreative (if it were that, he would be naked at work or something) but the bizarre internal consistency his dreams are exhibiting.
It's hard, to figure out if there's a timeline to it all. But there is one thing that's consistent: a city. He does a quick bit of research, finds the city's name (Lapis), and after a bit more research is confronted with the dream's reasonable level of fidelity. As in, it's nearly the same, with exception to what he suspects is construction. And he's never been to Lapis in his life. Just what is going on? He can only think of one way to find out, and that way involves packing up his bags, handing them off to a well-maintained servant, and then heading off to Lapis.
"I thought so too. But you'd been up at ludicrous hours for a week and - there wasn't anything you could've done, anyway, I was just about overdosed on willowbark already."
"It wasn't a - distractable amount of discomfort." She shakes her head. "I don't remember the part where Aly died but I remember Kib writing about it, just a snippet - and I'm afraid I'm going to get to it and it'll turn out Aly could've held on if she really tried and just didn't want to anymore."
"I don't think it works like that," says Avedan, softly.
"No, probably not. I imagine getting more than a snippet of Kib writing would have disabused me of the notion. But it crossed my mind."
"It's completely fine," he says, sincerely. "Really, it is. Don't be sorry, you didn't - plan the timing of the dreams, and I'm likely to have bad days after having some of them, too. I'm glad I'm helping."
"I think I want to go back to sleep," she yawns. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," he says. He glances towards the hallway. "... Sleeping on the floor is painful. Let's just - avoid that, now."
"You were on the-? Why? I thought you were okay with the setup or one of us would've gotten a hotel."
"I was on the bed," he explains. "Then there was an -" He coughs again. "- awkwardly timed dream and I decided the floor would probably be a better bet."
"Well. You sleep wherever you're comfy. I'm gonna roll over and hope I get Kib working on Charp or something." She lets him go and stretches and flops back onto her pillow.
He goes, retrieves his pillow and blanket, and flops back onto the bed.
Soon enough, Avedan's asleep again. For the third time.