With the vision gone, your attention returns to your companions. You look around the table to meet Honourshine's puzzled expression, and Moonflower's big, teary eyes. The latter prompts you to shift closer to the bat pony, and give her a big, comforting hug.

Moonflower: "(sniffle)"

Honourshine: "You told me that you'd been injured before, but that was harrowing to watch."

You invite Honourshine to join the hug, but she raises a hoof and shakes her head in decline. Perhaps later, when you're alone, you figure.

Lexicon Anathema: "Now you see why that spell is forbidden; one wrong move would've been a feast for wendigos."

Honourshine: "... Hm. But what did we witness, exactly?"

Lexicon Anathema: "We saw the moment the Blood Seal was cast from the Yggdrasil Seed's memory. Now we know who cast it, and why the seal is in the dreamscape."

You ask Lexicon Anathema if she can enlighten you on that matter.

Lexicon Anathema: "Of course. In a time before time, the spell Blood Seal was designed by angels as punishment against violence. The blood of the victim was used to imprison the assailant, either until forgiven in life, or for all eternity.

The Lords of Law forbid the spell following the War of Fates. For a mortal to cast such ancient magic, he or she would've had to have been taught to wield the Light by the angels themselves."

Honourshine: "Angels? They truly exist...?"

Lexicon Anathema: "They do, but they're creatures of Light in a world of Darkness, so their presence is far lesser now than it once was."

So while Empyrius made it possible, it was Solar Flare — a wielder of Light — who actually cast the spell, you conclude.

Lexicon Anathema: "Nh. As for the seal, it was cast into the Yggdrasil Seed. The Seed itself is like a piece of the firmament; it acts as a window to the Great Beyond, and within its reflection is a fragment of the dreamscape — the link between here and there."

Moonflower: "Oh...! So the dream with the red door, it comes from the Seed?"

Lexicon Anathema: "It comes from the soul within the Seed. Think of it as a portal you cannot fit through unless you are dreaming; it leads to somewhere far away, but that place is also right here, in the Seed."

Moonflower: "Ohhh..."

Honourshine: "And what was that about the sun...?"

Lexicon Anathema: "Little more than the ravings of a madpony. This Empyrius was corrupted by a shard of the Philosopher's Stone, meaning that his mind was eclipsed by the will of those who created it."

You recall being told the story of the Philosopher's Stone by an historian in Amblerta. According to the tale, its purpose was to grant the unicorns the power to reclaim the sun and moon for themselves.

Honourshine: "I see. That is unsettling. As for giving him a second chance... Blaze, are you certain it is safe to meet with him by yourself?"

You offer your foalhood friend a confident grin, and assure her that you have overcome impossible odds in the realm of dreams before. To that, she returns a little smile.

Honourshine: "Knowing you, I dread to imagine what kind of odds those were."

Moonflower: "Heehee...!"