375: A dreamlike truth (part 2)

A dreamlike truth (part 2)

Egon's face underwent a series of emotions: initial surprise, followed by a concealed but undeniable glimmer of hope in his dark eyes. For a fleeting moment, she entertained the whimsical idea that he might somehow be privy to her thoughts, considering his intrusion into her dreams.1

Impossible.

He countered with a smirk. "Regardless of how you view it, this method surpasses the alternative of sneaking in through the window."

This time, he was the sole one enjoying the joke, while she became preoccupied with thoughts of Noctavian.

"...Sometimes, I wonder who is actually raising whom... But I've come to realize that you two will end up having more fun together than he and I ever will."

He shrugged, "We're men; our bonding is different."

She arched an eyebrow. "You're a grown man, but he's still a child." A teasing smile formed on her lips. "Yet, mentally, the two of you seem to be on the same seven-year-old wavelength."

He moistened his lips and then grinned at her. "I'm pleased you think of me as a genius like our son."

"That's not what I meant at all." 

"Adelaide," he said with a serious tone, "While being here is... incredible, I must be mindful of the time. Are you going to tell me about Andreas's first mate?"

His first mate? Larissa had always been Andreas's only mate, and that was the complete truth. But Adela understood what Egon was really asking.

"How can I encapsulate that person in just a few sentences?" she wondered aloud.

"By recounting something substantial she did to make you hold a dim view of her," Egon responded, his tone dark, mirroring his somber expression as they sat across from each other.

She had a plethora of such stories, but one stood out as the most twisted. However, before she shared it, she needed to address something. Discussing Andreas had always been a sensitive matter with Egon.

"...What if what I say sounds unbelievable?"

"I will believe you," he vowed.

His assurance burned.

"...Why would you?"

"Because you are the one saying it. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I do learn from my mistakes, Adelaide." 

Despite yearning to hear these words for years, their luster felt somewhat diminished after such a prolonged wait.

"You're seven years late with that statement... I, too, learn from my mistakes, My Lord," she retorted, mentally creating the distance she desperately needed to place between them. "Since this is my mind, allow me to furnish visual evidence that leaves no room for doubt."

With a conscious decision, she transformed the scene around them, and now they were both inside one of her memories, experiencing things from her perspective. They watched as she eagerly walked toward where her father would be seated in the estate's library, waiting for her.

Adela froze the scene when her memory self reached a particular statue—a female warrior with hair flowing down to her waist, a sword gripped in one hand, and the other hand missing.

"Do you know who this is?" she asked him.

"Yes. The famous Emorian Queen who led the uprising against the First Empress. The beginning of the resistance against tyranny... I recognized her because of her lost hand," he replied, reaching the point she intended.

"The Queen's hand. Do you know who cut it?" she questioned further.

"Of course. The First Empress."

He had answered confidently, but it was the wrong answer, and Egon could discern from her expression that it was incorrect. Furrowing his brow, he awaited her correction.

"It was her twin, the woman you came here to ask questions about," she clarified.

"The Oracle!" He exclaimed, his eyes searching Adela's for more confirmation.

She had expected him to look around for something she would show him, but he genuinely appeared open to believing anything she would tell him. It piqued her curiosity and made her want to test his willingness further.

"...Two nameless, extremely powerful twins were both obsessed with Andreas. One openly engaged in dark sorcery, while the other secretly did so... The First Empress was a natural; she quickly surpassed her sister and could raise armies and create packs. But how could she have competed with the one who could see the future?"

Adela's amazement matched Egon's own at how readily he seemed to accept her words.

"The First Oracle foresaw Larissa's arrival centuries ago; she even heard Larissa call him by a different name. So she cast a spell on Alkadim, a very juvenile love spell as far as we were told..."

She shuddered, recalling the day her son had recounted that story to her.

"The Oracle's obsession ran so deep that once that spell was unleashed, Alkadim genuinely believed she was his mate," Adela explained, shaking her head in disbelief at the lengths the woman had gone to. "I think she tried to become Larissa, even going so far as to change the color of her black hair to red and giving Alkadim the name Larissa uses now."

There it was—the greenish hue that Egon's face often assumed whenever the topic was the First Empress. Now, he exhibited the same reaction upon learning the truth about her twin.

"She lured Andreas into Lanark's mines and convinced him to forge an alliance with the Emorian rebels. Those attacks you witnessed today? She had been scheming to assassinate her obsession's true mate for centuries... How astonishing is that?"

"...To be honest, I always found it strange that one of the twins could be the embodiment of evil while the other was so pure. But for such a divine gift to be coupled with such malicious intent..."

While Egon tsked repeatedly, Adela felt that labeling both twins as equally evil was unfair.

"Look at this," she said, revealing a snippet from the very first vision the Empress's Heart had shown her: Andreas kissing House de Lanark's signet ring in the Empress's chambers and then being struck by a thunderbolt that pushed him away. "The First Empress cursed that ring on the day she received the Queen's hand."

"Andreas... Does he know that the First Empress didn't cut your ancestor's hand?"

"He probably believes one of her men did it." 

His brow furrowed. "Why would the Oracle send that hand to the Empress?"

"That's the wrong question... Why would the Oracle cut the Emorian Queen's hand?" Adela countered.

"...Why?"

Adela's expression turned deeply disquieted. "It's the hand the Emorian Queen employed to shake hands with Andreas when they entered the pact."

Egon swallowed back a surge of nausea, and Adela's stomach churned in tandem. Whenever she thought about the Oracle's obsession with Andreas, it reminded her of the deranged warlock who had shattered her life by kidnapping her years ago.

"So she cut her hand out of jealousy and sent it as a warning?" Egon slurred strangely.

"Yes?" She answered, wondering what came over him all of a sudden.

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