Chapter 996: Gifting Season
It felt like I was about to get bitten in the neck all over again.
Like, the feeling of anticipation was the same, the weight, the tension, only except this time I hadn't the faintest clue what to expect in the coming moments… and with my eyes clamped shut, every little thing I'd hear outside my world of darkness could had me expecting pretty much anything.
The wind's whistling note breeze past my ears, and if it wasn't just an act of overactive thoughts, it also sounded a little louder—the way it rustled the trees, ruffled my hair… ahh… maybe just a little peek wouldn't hurt.
"Don't open your eyes," Irene said, her voice practically booming in my head, and for all I knew, she could seriously be in there too with how she read my intent like an open book the very second I even thought of it. "Or go ahead if you're that impatient—spoil the surprise. You know, I worked very hard on this. But if that doesn't matter all that much to you, then—"
"Yikes, Irene, I get it. They're closed, they're closed."
"Just making sure you're aware of the risk."
Near my left, I could hear the soft crunch of grass, closer and closer, the familiar rhythm of shambling steps, and along with it, the sound of strained breath.
I spoke up again, a little concerned. "Adalia? That you over there? What's—?"
"She's concentrating," Irene interrupted. "She's fine. Let her focus," suddenly I felt that concern of mine get zapped out of my frontal lobe, as I felt Irene lean her forehead against mine, the breath of every word she spoke coating my lips. "Gonna do everything I say, right? Then focus, focus on me."
She's setting me up for insubordination if her orders were to focus. How could I even begin to do that with her doing what she's doing?
"Can I open them yet?" I asked in a moment of impatience and just general restlessness.
"Sure, go ahead," she whispered back, sounding much too sultry for my own good. "But you remember the risk, right?"
"Oh, you're such a tease, y'know? Unless that's the whole point here. Whispering in my ears, touching me everything, getting me all hot and bothered—is that the gift?"
"Yeah, I bet you'd like that."
"I already am."
"Good for you, but I got something even better in mind," then I felt a jerk in my arms, an escaping warmth, as Irene quickly slipped her hands away. I heard her take a step back and cleared her throat. "Alright, you can open them now."
I felt something was amiss before I even opened my eyes. A gut feeling that I haven't the foggiest idea why felt familiar to me. But before I could even start to unravel that mystery, I'd already swung my eyelids open to an even bigger one.
"Where…?" The rest of the question got stuck in my throat, and spotting Irene right in front of me, I tried again. "Irene…" only for that to get lodged beneath the first one instead, exacerbating the clog in my vocal cords.
It was like one moment I shut my eyes to reality, and the next, fluttered them open to a perfect dream world. The forest was gone. That open field where I swore I had both my feet rooted upon was replaced by a tundra of vast rolling hills and tall, bountiful reeds dancing to the sway of wuthering winds.
Gold and silver coated the greenery of the entire land, every blade of grass, every rustling leaf of an isolated tree. There were like miniature, tiny pinpricks of sunlight in one glance, then the pale, silvery luster of the moon in the next.
On the horizon, scattered sparse and distant were the flickering lights of what looked to be humble townships and villages dotting the wide, open plain I was suddenly thrust into.
But it was the view above that I couldn't stop looking at. Nothing but the most bewitching bloom of purple I've ever seen. It was like a giant blanket wrapped around the heavens, tinging the clouds, the stars, and all that shimmered above as it slowly rippled and oscillated like the violet tides of the calmest ocean.
And then there was Irene. Just Irene. The only thing I could properly comprehend amidst the surreal beauty of everything else. While I was still soaking in the view, she had already shuffled past me, her steps hidden in the tall billowing stalks of gold and silver. I found her scaled up on the shallow peak of a small hill nearby, admiring the breathtaking vista it had to offer.
I followed her up, feeling every light bristle of the grass, the chilling caress of the breeze; all familiar sensations suddenly so foreign and strange to me.
"Well?" Irene asked when she found me drawing up beside her. "Done with being shocked yet?"
"Not really," I said.
"Questions?"
"Lots."
"Like where are we now?"
"Among other things, yes."
"We are in the southernmost region of Frieden Rike," Irene said. "One of the more prosperous countries of Kronocia."
"Kronocia…" I muttered. Somehow hearing that added some semblance of sense to what I was seeing. In fact, I might already have guessed it. The real puzzle of it all truly, was, "How?"
"How else?" She snorted, waving her hands with an exaggerated flourish. "Magic."
That's when I realized I'd completely forgotten something. Or rather missing something… someone.
"Adalia? I turn to look at the spot where she should have been, where I last heard her, felt her. "Adalia's not here."
"Relax. She's still here, just somewhere," Irene spun around and walked over to the empty patch of grass where I was staring at. "You just can't see her at the moment, much less feel her."
"Why not?"
"Because that's how the illusion works. She's behind it, we're inside it," she gestured her arm in a wide arc. "This is Kronocia as I remember it. An illusionary visage she fabricated with my memories. Everything you see, hear, feel, and touch, just another part of her magic at work. That's the scariest thing about being under a Matriarch's influence, you can never really tell what's real or fake anymore. A good thing, in this case."
A visage fabricated with memories. Why does that sound familiar? That time during Christmas, convincing Adalia to reveal more about herself—I remember the inky blackness she whisked me away into. The sounds, the sights, the memories.
Granted, the effect back then wasn't as immersive and lifelike to this extent… but I suppose it was harder to sell the illusion having to rifle through fractured memories.
I took another look at the everything before me, the distant lights of settlements, the swaying glinting grass of orange and ash, and especially the captivating purple sky… consuming even the shafts of sunlight peering far from the horizon into its deep violet aurora.
Then, right then, it finally clicked; what exactly I have been staring at all along.
"Reenma."
"The cycle between cycles," Irene said, returning back next to me, a smile on her face upon seeing the realization dawn on mine. "The season of the Nara'hym. Your season."
"No way…" I felt breathless, rattled all over again at the newfound context of what I was seeing. "You did not seriously…"
"I did say I wanted you to see it for yourself, remember?" She said, loving every bit of my stunted amazement. "And I figured witnessing a season dedicated to one's birth would make quite the gift. What do you think?"
I barely remembered the details of that conversation, bits and pieces. I recall she said along the lines of never being able to do it justice with just words alone.
Now seeing the sight with my own two eyes… she couldn't have been more right… and I couldn't have been more glad she opted for the next best thing instead.
"It's beautiful…" I whispered. "...I don't know what to say. This is—"
I lost the rest of the sentence the moment I turned to look at Irene again. There she was, inches away, our hands a single twitch away from grazing one another's, and she was red.
The color of her eyes, the pigment of her skin. She pulled the knot from her braid, letting her hair flow loose down the slim arch of her back in a cascade of black, and somewhere down below, the flick and swish of a tail could be seen snaking through the tall grass.
"Woah," I staggered back from the sight of her, as well as the palpable sensations emanating from all around her. "Irene, woah, are you sure—?"
"You're going to ask if it's okay for me to do this?" She finished before I could say much else. "Nothing strange about taking off your uniform after coming home, is there?"
Then, with a sudden shock that nearly sent me flying out of my shoes, she grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me along to her pace.
"Irene—?"
"You think standing here is all there is to do?" She interjected once again. "It's a world made out of my memories, remember? There's much more to see around here than just this."
Down the hill, across the billowing reeds, and under the violet sky, she moved us forward. I couldn't help but notice the way she moved like she was free, the way she talked without that hardened tone in her voice, and most importantly, the way she acted like she was home.
"Oh…" Irene quickly glanced back at me, a mirthful smirk on her lips matching the twinkling red of her eyes. "...and it's Ruria."