Chapter twenty-two (8)

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Back in the Lucen mountains, Lucy was being led by Matriarch Lilac down a wide winding staircase. 

It was a path carved out from the mountain, leading down from under the nunnery to what seemed like the heart of the mountain. Lanterns lit the way as the two moved silently. They only stopped when they both stood before a ten-foot guava wood door. Matriarch Lilac pushed it open to reveal a large circular hall. Lucy walked in after her, her steps echoing from the stone floors across the wide room. The room was brightly lit, one would not be able to tell they were so deep into the mountain.

In the middle of the hall stood a statue carved from the largest topaz Lucy had ever seen.

"Topaz?" Lucy asked.

"It is not as you think. This was here before the nunnery ever stood," Matriarch Lilac explained. Lucy approached the statue to have a better look. The light from the torches reflected off its mirror-like finish, revealing the shape of the statue. A woman's form was revealed to Lucy's eyes. The woman's body looked completely normal; her form was wrapped in a draping dress, but some parts were odd. Her arms looked to hold up the hall's ceiling as her fingers broke out into what seemed like tree branches. Her hair was no hair. It instead flowed upwards into leafless tree branches like her fingers, spreading out all over the ceiling. Her flowing dress was carved out into roots, spreading out on the floor around the statue.

"What is it?" Lucy asked.

"No. Who is it?" Matriarch Lilac corrected.

Lucy could not take her eyes off the statue. She noticed that the statue's eyes seemed to follow her as she moved.

"You react quite well. Many cannot stand her forever staring eyes," Matriarch Lilac complimented.

"Who is she?" Lucy asked.

"This is Lilian Vaine, the first Lady Thraine," Lucy was shocked by that answer.

"You speak as though she is real," Lucy frowned.

"This is her," Matriarch Lilac explained.

"I see," Lucy's shock faded. She finally understood Matriarch Lilac's meaning.

"You understand?" Matriarch Lilac raised a brow.

"I already knew you had all the ingredients to open a path to the other realms, except the quarter bloom tree and the heart of The Unending Sea that I completed for you. Of all the immortal bodies I had thought you had come into possession of, the body of Lilian Vaine was not on the list," Lucy said.

"Discovering this body made me think of the possibility of crossing realms. It triggered my search for the other ingredients needed to make the portal," Matriarch Lilac explained.

"What I do not understand is, you never said Lilian Vaine was accomplished in the arts and cultivation of the being. How can an ordinary person have an immortal body?" Lucy asked.

"She was given. History tells us she lived for three hundred years, but not many know that the general king had gifted her with three immortal bodies. She died at three hundred, which means she never got the chance to use the last body. You are looking at it," Matriarch Lilac explained.

"Lilian Vaine. She held too many secrets," Lucy said, "How far did she rise in the realms?"

"Rumour has it, she was about to step into the higher realms before her death. She spent too long in the middle realms,"

"Yes, a little too long. You had said she rose to the middle realms a little too quickly. That means she spent at least a little over two hundred years in the middle realms. Why?" Lucy asked.

"No one can actually say. It is known that a Thraine ought to be provoked before she moves. The higher realms must have never been in her sight," Matriarch Lilac guessed.

"Yet when she died, she returned all of her bloodlines to this little world? No. Something made her stop at the middle realms. Something high up in the higher realms," Lucy said.

"I assume it could be seen as so," Matriarch Lilac said.

"In any case, it matters not. I only wish to reach my goal," Lucy said and turned away.

"I have prepared a comfortable transport for your long journey. You will be very pleased," Matriarch Lilac said to Lucy's leaving form.

"Then allow me to thank you in advance," Lucy continued to leave. This made Matriarch Lilac smile. She had brought her here to show her how the portal works. But, it seems it is as Lady Wickshire had said; she is not interested in the details, she only wishes to use it at will.

Lucy returned to her chambers to see a familiar figure sitting on her bed. She only paused for a second, before closing the door behind her.

"You enter a male prohibited area as you please?" she approached the man on the bed.

"Dear wife, you should at least welcome me first. I came at the risk of my life," he said pitifully. Lucy looked into his dark eyes and scuffed.

"If you could be killed by anyone in this lower realm, it would be beyond disgraceful,"

"Still..." he started to complain.

"Why are you here?" she asked him.

"I rarely get to see you. Shouldn't you be more affectionate with this man?" he asked as though wronged.

"You are a man?" she asked coldly.

"If not, what am I?" he raged playfully.

"Ask me again when you are older. This lady does not live in a world of illusions. You and I are still children," she said and his eyes darkened slightly.

"Have you never wondered if my looks match my age?" he said and Lucy paused. He was right. This boy before her, even though he looked no older than eighteen, but at his level of power, should he be this young? His kind of power takes millennia to attain. This must not be his true age.

"You are so serious over the smallest things," he said with a laugh. Lucy could not tell if he was joking before, nor did she care. He could be thousands of years old for all she cared, she chose him as her husband for a reason.

"Why have you come?" she asked.

"I will be leaving today," he said mildly, stretching his arms and tucking them behind his head full of long black hair as he laid back on the bed.

"Where?" she asked.

"Very far," he said.

"I see," she said mildly, "You do not think me worthy to know,"

"I do not think you care to, you only asked to be polite. You once said you will only demand to know such things when you can stand beside me as an equal. I await that day," he chuckled darkly, as though he did not believe that day will come.

"Then I will no more be polite," she said.

"You. What you plan to do..." he started to say.

"When did you become polite?" she asked.

"I do not understand how your mind works, so I will not pretend to. But, I know you are leaving this world soon. Take Mr Jodanham with you" he said seriously.

"So you can keep an eye on me?" she asked carelessly.

"Will you take him?" he asked.

"The moment you interfere in my business is the moment I cancel our engagement," she warned with a dark smile.

"Good. Take him. He is with your guards right now," he said and faded into the light.