As mentioned before, Dream possessed three divine artifacts: a leather pouch filled with Sands of Time, a crown resembling a gas mask, and the Dream Gem—a huge red gemstone with eight hearts and eight arrows, worn around the neck on an Iron Chain.
But Daniel did not keep these things on him at all times. Morpheus was the perfect cautionary example: he had been captured and imprisoned by humans while carrying all three artifacts, which had then fallen into enemy hands. It had taken tremendous effort to recover them afterward, with Death's help.
So the pouch of sand was usually kept in the castle bedroom now. The Sands of Time were too dangerous, and it felt safer to keep them within sight.
The gas mask was the most frequently used, so it hung in the second-floor corridor, ready to be pulled over his face whenever necessary before going out.
As for the Dream Gem—or rather, the Nightmare Stone—its primary function actually had more to do with Nightmare. It could also be regarded as the key to that prison known as the Nightmare Dimension. It was usually useless, and rather heavy to wear around the neck.
So Daniel placed it in the Great Hall of the castle. There was an altar there, a place that could be used to contact his siblings when necessary. He put the Nightmare Stone on the altar and considered it very safe.
Under normal circumstances, it truly was safe. Not just anyone could enter Dream's castle, and people like the butler and the Gardener naturally would not dare touch their master's divine artifacts.
But Insomnia was different. When it escaped, it relied on its special connection with the Nightmare Stone to steal it with ease, then immediately vanished into dreams and slipped away.
It learned quite