Chapter 35: Chapter 34 ∞ Dream
Life worked, not just mysteriously, but unpredictably as well—like taking a turn down an intersection, only to realize it was a dead-end. Setbacks happened every step of the way. One mishap after another would trickle down the lane like an annoying bump on the road. They were negligible though. One or two was fine, but if they popped up one after another, the car would start twerking harder than Rihanna. And that was annoying.
I was used to enduring the rough paths in my past life even though, in this one, I was very blessed—spoiled, really. I used to tell myself; if I couldn't find that well-paved path that everyone else had the privilege of having, then I would fly. Because…why settle for the ground?
Then again, life worked, not just mysteriously, but unpredictably as well.
These thoughts occurred to me in a rewind as I appeared in that bright and white room with that antiseptic smell once more. A rhythmic beeping sang beside me in chorus along with pained respiring. Nevertheless, contrary to my expectations, I wasn't exactly lying in the bed. Instead, I was standing in the corner of the room, watching my old self breathing through tubes I probably couldn't afford. I remembered feeling like dying instead. Living was already expensive to begin with. Surviving? That was another story.
I moved closer to my bedside, watching my old self, waiting calmly for the second of my death. If this was a long time ago, I probably would have had a break down, but being able to see it all like this in retrospect and also taking my new life into account, I was able to handle it better.
It would be a lie to say I felt better though.
I stepped back when the stranger appeared, my bringer of death—my grimreaper. He wasn't Amber. Amber, as far as I knew, served only as a guide to souls who've already left their bodies. This guy was human, made of flesh and bones. His hands, I would assume, worked to serve another.
And, today, it was asked to take my life.
I was now able to see clearer what he did. He had no needles. I probably would've died more peacefully if he injected something—but no. He began pinching my throat, fingers positioned just right to restrict my airways. However, he did it in a way that he would leave no bruises behind. My arms were broken so I couldn't fight him off, settling with helplessly suffocating until everything went dark.
I saw how my body went limp, followed by the man hastily making his leave. My life went out with him. The heart followed. The monitor shrieked as though panicked at the sight of me dead—or dying. The nurses poured in through the door and the doctor prepared to revive me. They shouted and yelled in codes, their voices flat with calmness yet ironically commanding of urgency.
I sort of expected this sight, but I didn't expect my mother to come crashing through as well.
So she did come.
"Tragic ending, huh?" a voice cued from behind me. "That's a cliché way to die, isn't it? Were you starring in a drama somewhere? This can't possibly be your life?"
"It happens."
I turned to see Amber walking over with his arms crossed.
"My mother thought you were my father," I told him. "I got three mothers, technically. I'm talking about number three."
"Yeah. I heard. Funny. I can't really have children."
"Really?" I found my gaze dropping to that area. "So it doesn't work? I remember throwing a kick. It wasn't because of me, right?"
"You think you can break me?"
"Didn't I?"
"I'm surprised you can be sarcastic at this point," he told me.
"Did I sound sarcastic?"
Amber glared at me. "I don't need you commenting on my fertility nevertheless. It's not like we're alive at all."
"Did your we include me?" I asked. "Are you saying I'm dead?"
He shrugged as though he wasn't really sure how to answer my question. "You're alive aren't you?" He turned to me with a brow raise before examining the situation before him. He watched the man exit the hospital room as fast and as discreetly as he could. "This is the reason why you were so traumatized you actually didn't want to reincarnate?" he asked. "What did you get yourself into before you died?"
"Wrong place, wrong time. They pushed me off a building hoping I'd die. Well, I didn't, so they came to finish the job," I replied. "Ah, unfortunately, I was that casualty in a battle bigger than myself even though I was just doing my best in surviving in my own, small world. Small fish caught in a net for bigger ones, apparently. I was just trapped in the middle and couldn't escape," I said. "It doesn't matter. I wasn't such a lucky soul to begin with and my life was pretty...mundane. This was the most exciting thing that happened to me."
"Yeah, I can see."
"Why are you here again?" I inquired as the world around me faded into black, lost in oblivion like all the other memories.
The room, the nurses, the panic—they all disappeared.
"To slowly break you in on the reality. As of the moment, I can only appear before you when the moon cannot be seen. The energies of this world work like clockwork, after all. Tick tock. The sun rises, the moon sets; the sun sets, the moon rises. Just think about what will happen when death starts nudging into places it doesn't belong. Thirteen years is a long time and I still haven't recovered my full strength. I'm really worried about what the other side of this world has become."
"In utter chaos, apparently," I replied. "There were refugees flocking to Erindal for sanctuary. They can't continue living in their side of the world anymore."
There was only nothingness around me, but I was walking on the firm floor with Amber in a room that seemed thousands of miles wide. Our footsteps echoed, the sounds coming back to us with at least a minute of delay.
"Have you found out what had caused this?" I asked.
"Even if I did know, I don't have the power to act," he said. "I was far too…damaged. I protected your soul and then protected you. That took a lot out of me."
"You protected my soul? How? You were trying to drown me in that…lake or river whatever."
"Oh, so you don't remember? Maybe you did inhale some of it after all." He tilted his head to the side as he gazed at me as though I was some weird specimen. "You don't remember being washed away by the river? Then after we were washed away into some…universe knows where…it suddenly turned into an iceberg scenario where we were both swimming in ice water full of wandering souls?"
I frowned.
"No. Of course you don't." Amber sighed. "Of course you don't remember the important parts. No wonder you were so ungrateful. Well, I should've expected it because you were knocked out for the most part, but still. I expected you to remember something."
"I do remember something," I answered. "That biting cold feeling. I know about that."
"Makes sense," he replied. "But not enough."
"How do we go about this, then?"
He gazed at me, his amber eyes boring holes in my face. "The easiest way is to show you. I don't have that power currently, so wait for me in a month's time. If only you hadn't asked me to save that boy's life, we wouldn't be having any problems now."
"What's done is done, so shut up about it already."
He clicked his tongue. "Why don't you stop trying bringing up the past, then? Aren't you a hypocrite?"
"Hypocrite? Whatever. You're just a sore loser. Suck it up."
Amber glared at me and lifted a hand with his fingers positioned to make a snap. I stared right back tiredly and waited for him to do something—probably magic me out of this horrible dream and send me back to my corporeal body?
And he did. He snapped his finger.
All of a sudden, I was waking up to a large explosion. With my heart pumping so fast from the shock, I knew I wouldn't be able to return to sleep any time soon. Wide awake, I rose from my bed and trudged my way to the window with a displeased frown. I peered out to see smoke rising from the shed where Mistress Marga usually held her experiments.
As expected. This was another one of her epic failures. Until now, I couldn't understand how that woman was still alive.
I heard my mistresses' distant screams and groans of protest.
"MARGA WHAT THE HELL!"
"YOU FREAK!"
Mistress Marga's voice echoed out, "I'M OKAY!"
"NO ONE'S ASKING. GO DIE."
My lungs couldn't help but pump out a huffle—a huff and a chuckle? I didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed, but since I was already out of bed, I might as well just begin poring over the book Mistress Lili had gotten me. I was looking forward to reading that one. Perhaps I would be able to learn more about Vervalden from a…local perspective.
Pulling the blankets away from the bed, I wrapped it around myself and slouched before my table. I couldn't recognize the words before me at first but I soon started making sense of it. The benefit of death—something that transcended everything. He was talking about languages. After all, they were the biggest barriers.
The book tackled local traditions and expounded on the beliefs of Vertvaldenians towards the serpent, who they favored more so than the seven other entities. Nevertheless, they still did acknowledge the dragons considering they weren't exempted from the Conduit business. Not to mention the dragons were a key part of the balance.
However, attaining the patronage of the serpent was a rare occurrence, but it almost always meant dominance over the other elements. What made these Conduits so powerful was their capability of wielding fire and also, in the rarest cases, neutralization. The serpent's abilities boasted mainly of impenetrable defense, its weakness being only its tail which it lost in the battle against the seven dragons in the myths.
The only way to bring down someone with the serpent's heritage was for the seven dragons' elements to come together, which was why there was something called the Council of Dragons set to advise, oppose, and restrain the Warrior King. While having the serpent as a Deliverer wasn't really a prerequisite to getting the title, almost all those who ever held the name were. The Council was established as precaution and as constant reminder that to every serpent, there was a tail.
"Huh." My brow raised. "To every serpent, there is a tail. That's an interesting punchline."
Well, it made sense. No matter how powerful the serpent was, his losing his tail led to his defeat. Weirdly enough, it was what it used as primary means of offense as well.
Basically the equivalent of Achilles' heel in this world, I suppose, but it wasn't like Achilles used his heel to defeat his enemies.
Did he?
"Evy? Are you awake? Breakfast is almost ready." Mistress Lili's voice rang behind the door.
"Yeah. I'm up."
"When you're done, go and wake up the two other kids. Okay?"
Recalling those two abominations made me groan. "Why me?" I whined.
"Come on, darling. You know what you promised," she said. "You know they're always excited to see you, right?"
I stuck out my bottom lip. "Fine."
I read one more page from the book, catching an interesting bit that begged me to continue reading. Apparently, there was a catch to the Council of Dragons—there was no Conduit for Kaliya, the dragon of death. Until now, that is—but it wasn't like anybody knew that. There was never a precedent of a living person housing the blessing of death, as that would mean chaos. There was no way life and death could exist in one body, after all. It was one or the other.
Usually, these people would rely on other sources to wield death's energy. And it meant sacrifices. They wouldn't normally go for it, leaving it as a last resort. Nevertheless, it was crucial. After all, in order to sever the tail, Kaliya had to make difficult choices. One was the giving up of his life, which also, weirdly enough, took him to the peak of his power.
That was why whoever stood for Kaliya in the Council of Dragons was considered a proxy. They could be just an ordinary person or a Conduit. They were tasked, however, to fulfill their responsibility should the need come for it—make the sacrifice.
That was kind of harsh though, wasn't it?
Either way, the book was basically saying that Kaliya was enough to take down the serpent from cloud nine to ground zero—heaven to earth, at the expense of the life which he never really needed.
"Looks like I have nothing to fear, then," I told myself. "Except death?"
I shook my head.
I then reluctantly left the book on my table and rose to get ready for the day. I proceeded with my routine—a warm bath followed by selecting from the lineup of clothes in my walk-in closet. After finishing up, I proceeded to knock on the rooms of the two doofus-es and wake them. It seemed they have slept through the explosion last night. Or maybe they woke up and went back to sleep right after.
I took a deep breath. "RISE AND SHINE, PEOPLE! THE SUN IS UP! GET YO ASSES OFF YO BED!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone