“I do remember that much of the story,” she said. “Sylvester took the chemical approach. He studied herbs and plants looking for a drug that would do the job.”
“Nicholas took the engineering approach. Alchemists were notorious for trying to transmute metals with fire.”
“Ah, yes,” Chloe said. “The ancient dream of turning lead into gold.”
“Old Nick took it a step further. His goal was to forge a device that would produce powerful waves of dreamlight that could force open the channels between the dreamstate and the waking state and keep them open. Figured that would allow him to access the additional paranormal energy available along the dream spectrum.”
“Bad idea. That way lies madness.” She raised her brows. “Or so the Arcane experts believe. Just too much energy and stimulation for the human mind to handle all at once. The dreamstate and the waking state are separate for a reason.”
“Yeah, well, Nick was an alchemist. They were all a little mad. He also had an ego problem. He was sure that he was strong enough to handle the additional psi.”
“So he constructed the lamp. Then what happened?”
“Even though he was the one who created the lamp, he discovered that his own talent did not allow him to work it in the way required to open his own channels. He concluded that he needed a dreamlight reader.”
“Someone like me,” Chloe said.
He smiled at that. “I doubt if there is anyone else quite like you, Chloe Harper. But, yes, he needed someone with your talent and for whatever reason he was convinced the person had to be female. Or maybe he just assumed it would be easier to manipulate a woman. Took him a while, but he finally located a dreamlight reader in a small village outside London. Eleanor Fleming. She agreed to work the lamp for him, but the price was high.”
“How high?”
“She demanded marriage. Old Nick agreed to the bargain.”
“No wonder the legend had a bad outcome,” Chloe said.
“Eleanor worked the lamp. Afterward Nick took her straight to bed.”
“Poor Eleanor probably thought it would be okay to sleep with him because he was going to marry her.”
“Evidently. Shortly afterward Nick began developing his second talent.”
“Was it like yours?”
“The legend is unclear about the specific nature of his talent. No two are exactly the same, anyway. But whatever Nick got, it was definitely dangerous. He recorded in his journal that the initial indications that something was happening to his senses were the nightmares and hallucinations.”
“Is there any record that he experienced the blackouts and the sleepwalking episodes that you say you’re having?”
“No. But the side effects probably vary with each individual, just as the talent does.” He shoved his fingers through his hair. “There just isn’t much information to go on because so few in my line have been born with the curse.”
She glared. “Stop calling it a curse.”
He looked at her. “Got a better word?”
“Never mind. What happened between Nick and Eleanor?”
“By all accounts the affair continued, but Nick was spending most of his time back in his laboratory. That’s when the rumors began. The people who worked on his estate reported seeing demons and monsters on the grounds.”
“Oh, geez. He was running experiments on them.”
“Apparently. The local villagers became terrified of Nick, and the stories just got worse over time.”
“That’s what happens with a legend,” she said.
“Meanwhile, Nick was still plagued with the hallucinations and nightmares. He concluded that Eleanor might be able to fix the problem with the lamp. She was pregnant by then.”
“And no doubt busily planning her wedding,” Chloe said.
“You guessed it. She worked the lamp energy a second time and managed to stop the nightmares and hallucinations. That was when Nick told her that he had no intention of marrying her.”
“Bastard.”
“He explained that it was impossible for a man of his rank and station to marry the daughter of a poor tradesman, but he was quite willing to carry on with her as his mistress and to provide for the child.”
“Big of him,” Chloe muttered.
“Eleanor told him to get lost.”
“Good for her.”
“He disappeared back into his lab for a few months and started to work on new crystals for the lamp.”
Chloe folded her arms and frowned. “Why new crystals?”
“That’s another part of the story that is very unclear. The assumption is that he hoped he could use the lamp to develop a third talent.”
“Oh, for crying out loud. Idiot.”
“Yeah, well, he was a really brilliant idiot. What is known is that he created some new stones in his alchemical furnace and inserted them into the lamp. And then he went back to see Eleanor a third time.”
Chloe sighed. “By now she had a son, right?”
“Old Nick did have some interest in the boy. Like Sylvester, he was curious to see if his offspring would inherit his talent. I don’t think he ever wanted the encumbrance of a wife, but he had run out of money to finance his experiments. To shore up his finances he had contracted a marriage with the daughter of a wealthy landowner.”
“Eleanor knew about the engagement, I assume?”
“Yes. When Nick showed up on her doorstep again it was too much. She agreed to work the lamp for him one more time. And she did. But instead of using it to provide him with a third talent, she took her revenge by frying all of his senses with it.”
“What happened?” Chloe asked.
“There was a struggle. Nick survived. Eleanor did not.”
Chloe’s eyes widened. “He killed her?”
“It’s not clear. One theory is that the radiation that Eleanor unleashed affected her as well as Nick. She died at the scene, that much is known. Nick lived, but not long afterward his psychic talents began to fail. He realized what had happened and went crazy with rage. He was convinced that his old friend, Sylvester, had paid Eleanor to erase his new powers.”
“So that’s why he tried to murder Sylvester,” Chloe said.
“Yes. But before the final confrontation he went back into his laboratory one last time. He had enough talent left to finish forging one more stone to insert into the lamp. He called it the Midnight Crystal. He believed it had some extraordinary properties and that somehow it would ensure that one of his descendants would use the lamp to destroy the descendants of Sylvester Jones.”