Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 19: Collusion

"He's been gone for several years," Ella pointed out. "Wasn't he sent out on some sort of mission for the crowned prince?"

"Yes. He was. And considering how big of a loon our ruler is, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if a single request took many years. If the mission was about magic, Papa would have kept working to achieve his goal no matter how long it took. He's very stubborn and proud, you know."

"Indeed I do," Ella muttered, "but I also know that Dimitri wasn't the kind of man who wouldn't so much as send his only daughter a single letter in seven years."

Amelia's shoulders sagged, but then she straightened up again.

"The mission wasn't allowed to be disclosed to the public, if you remember," she mused. "Perhaps whatever he's doing right now requires him to break off contact. Perhaps it's dangerous. Whatever the case may be, my father is definitely still alive. I can feel it."

"Well, he can't help us if he isn't here," Ella muttered. "Did he have any notes or scrolls on dream walking?"

"No," Amelia sighed, then proffered, "but I do remember everything he told me. Dream walking involves disconnecting one's soul from the body, but that's why it's dangerous. The caster's spirit is thrust into the Ethereal Realm, and sometimes, when things go wrong, physical objects end up going there, too. People included."

"I'm aware," Ella drawled back, getting up and setting the empty teacup on the counter. "When we were little, your father told us stories about magic, remember? The reason we're even looking for a Dream Walker is because of that ability. I need someone who can take me there."

"Eh? What could you possibly want to do in the ethereal realm?"

"Memory absorption," she curtly explained. "Coming into spiritual contact with the soul of a deceased mortal is what causes memory absorption."

Amelia's hands fell still and she slowly turned around.

"Ella, what are you planning to do?" she asked, looking a bit uneasy. "Tell me. Why are you looking for a necromancer and a dream walker at the same time? And what does any of this have to do with Phil? Why are we making this journey?"

Ella's lips pressed together and uncomfortably folded her arms.

"I... I want to conjure the soul of Xaphile's lost lover and intentionally absorb her memories with dream walking," she admitted. "That is why we're making this journey."

"What?!" Amelia squeaked, mouth dropping open. "Why?!"

"First and foremost," Ella muttered, mouth tightening into a grim line, "that creature is highly unstable in the mind. He truly believes that he existed on another world where he killed himself, but regardless of whether that's true or not, I can see it clearly in his eyes that he actually wants to die, even now."

Amelia's face went white.

"Ella," she said, setting her things down in horror, "you don't think he would...?"

"I don't think, I know," Ella reluctantly admitted, not meeting her eyes. "He really wants to kill himself, Amelia, and he came frighteningly close to doing it on the night of that huge storm. I'm also pretty sure that it's my fault. When I flogged him, I must have shattered his sanity."

"What?!"

"I didn't stutter!" Ella snapped, then lowered her head into her hands. "I saw it in his expression after I whipped him. Before I did it, his eyes were harder than steel, but when he called my name and I reprimanded him for his insolence, the look within them completely changed."