I, Ad Dakhla, scribe and chronicler to the court of the Sultan of the City of Bronze, do here set down at the latter’s request a catalog of the fantastic weapons which have passed through the city in the hands of pilgrims. I start with the Ever-Waking Blade, also called the Sword of Nightmares. It is said that to strike another with the blade, even its flat or its scabbard, will deprive the one so struck of several hours of rest and instead convey them to the striker. In this way, one could in theory go without rest indefinitely.

But it is said that for every hour of rest gained in this way, another must be spent later in life, perhaps at death, and this late rest will be marked with horrifying nightmares such as make mortal men quake. One swordsman, related to me as Samuel of Norton, was said to have possessed the blade and lived as a mercenary with it. But, stricken with fever at the end of his life, he supposedly howled for days as nightmares from the dream beyond, the deepest dream, tormented him. After he died, a look of horror frozen upon his face, the blade is said to have passed to one Louis Osborn, and passes from our knowledge.

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