"Murphy, Murphy! Don't scare me—wake up, come on, wake up!"
The dazed vampire lord heard the frantic calls. His consciousness quickly returned, and then he heard Triss's worried scream. When he struggled to open his eyes, he saw her looking terrified as she gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Well, aren't you a cute little dummy?
Murphy reached out and placed a hand on Triss's shoulder, letting her know he was all right.
His thoughts were still rather hazy. Triss helped him out of the biological pod, where he had been lying naked, and draped a robe over him.
He sat on the steps nearby, panting as he rubbed his forehead and tried to make sense of the astonishing scenes he had just witnessed in the memories of Salokdar, which he had accessed through the Blood of the Sinborn.
Several minutes passed before Murphy finally let out a breath.
He looked at Triss beside him and said,
"You'd never guess what I saw in that dream, Triss. I think I know what the vampires' original sin is now. I know why we're called the 'Eternal Sinborn,' why everyone—even the evil gods—hates us, and why the whole world is against us.
"We deserve it.
"I learned everything from the information Salokdar left in the Blood of the Sinborn.
"It's too much to bear."
"Are you sure you didn't just see an illusion?"
Triss asked suspiciously,
"I know some powerful vampires can store information in their blood for those who come after them, but Salokdar had long since forgotten everything about the Golden Age. How could he have left any information behind?
"And even if he did, he would've left it for me."
"That means Salokdar actually remembered the past. Maybe that's why he embraced the Twilight. Those sins were too heavy for him