[h3]The Hunter's Dream[/h3]
While Farren took a moment to sit and recover, Ophelia knelt and called upon the Messengers to learn more about the chalice they had received from the Vileblood Queen. She would likely be concerned when the little ones did not respond immediately, as they usually did, but waiting a couple of seconds would see their diminutive helpers emerge from the ground as they always had. On top of that the gloom that had gripped the Dream finally seemed to fade, and little by little light and color returned to the world as the final vestiges of the Winter Lantern's ominous presence faded.
Dutiful as ever, the Messengers responding to Ophelia's summons promptly produced and unrolled a scroll with what information they had been able to gather from the Nightmare:

[QUOTE=Messenger scroll]
Pthumeru Yharnam Chalice
A chalice that breaks a labyrinth seal.
Use it in a ritual at the tomb altar in the Hunter's Dream to break the seal of the old underground labyrinth.
As ancient great Pthumeru wallowed in the insight and power they had accrued, they abandoned their humble origins and sought ever-greater mastery of the Old Blood.
Their arrogance brought about a scourge of beasts... and the scourge of beasts brought about the creation of Hunters.
“Kill the beasts... all of them... they are all beasts... we will hunt... you and I, my abyssal mentor. Forever.”[/QUOTE]

Torquil tried to smile, but the expression came out twisted – both because of his inhuman features and his lack of sincerity – and did not reach his eyes. He lowered Fulmen, relieved that their enemy had been slain before he had to fight it again, and when Farren approached took his hand and smiled with an iota greater enthusiasm than before, but still clearly strained.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but changed his mind before he could even form the sentence in his mind. “We've got to make you more hardy,” Farren had remarked, which seemed a fine suggestion on the surface, but then Torquil actually thought about how that would have helped him. He was already [I]very[/I] strong, he was quite aware of that, yet he had been utterly helpless against the grabbing hands of that monster. And if he had been more durable, able to regenerate more... would all that accomplished not have been making him trapped there for longer? Just the brief time he had already spent there, with the creature... the feelings, the sounds... He had to suppress a shudder. At least when the Mad One had killed him it had done so by smashing in his head, which had left him dazed for the duration. This time the death had not only been much more gruesome, he had also been fully conscious and aware for the entire thing.

It only took a few seconds while everyone else was busy with other things before Gerlinde returned, too, though she did so through the other doorway. Unlike Torquil she seemed entirely indifferent about having just died, and though she seemed initially serious as she had before, it only took briefly scanning the interior of the workshop with her eyes for her demeanor to shift back to normal and her eyes to light up in a fiendish smile. Leaving the others to what they were doing, Gerlinde hopped merrily to the pile of dust that remained of their adversary and started sifting through it.