The Shaman’s body had no pulse.
But for some reason, Ava felt that he was still alive. He wasn’t completely dead... yet.
"I don’t understand," Drigo frowned. "You are telling me that he is dead but not dead at the same time?"
"He is a powerful Shaman. He would never leave a physical body once he died," Ava said. Or at least, she hoped so.
She had read about this from the Shaman’s Grimoire. At one point, the Shaman had been studying death and necromancy and realized that there are actually ways to destroy one’s body after death.
The Shaman didn’t want to leave his body behind after his death.
Or at least that’s what Ava thought.
And since the Shaman’s body was still around, she could only hope that there is a way to revive him.
"I have heard of that in the past but I never thought... it could happen." Baba chimed in, her face grim and it looked like her eyes were a little puffy— something that Ava never expected from the woman.
"It could," Ava said. She was determined to find a way to get the Shaman back.
After a few more minutes of talking about what happened at the south pole, Baba and Drigo left Ava and Matthew alone.
"It’s not your fault," Matthew said. "You do understand that, right?"
She nodded without saying a word.
"Look— "
"He asked me to leave," Ava said. "Even before I saw that woman... he told me to leave when I find something dangerous. He told me we will be meeting somewhere. That our lives are important. The usual spiel."
Ava couldn’t even cry at this point. For some reason, she felt useless and weak. She was mad for not being able to protect herself. If she could fight, if she had the ability to fight then the Shaman wouldn’t have stepped in and saved her.
She felt Matthew pull her into his arms. She sighed and buried her face into his chest, inhaling his scent. Until now, she still didn’t know what had happened. Who the hell is that woman?
And why would she tell her that she was her mother!?
"Don’t worry too much about that woman. As long as you are inside this plane, you are safe," Matthew said.
"Aren’t you supposed to say that you will protect me no matter what?" she asked.
"Do I have to say that out loud?" he responded before kissing her forehead.
"Do you think the Shaman survived and is just somewhere?" Ava asked.
"Yes."
"You answered without even batting an eyelid," she said.
This time, Matthew turned quiet. Then he sighed.
"The old man had claimed that he is dying but I believe that might not be the case," Matthew said.
"What do you mean?"
"Dream walkers have a way to live... forever."
"Hm?"
"At least, they can do that after traveling to another dimension, to another realm. As you know, the cosmos is complicated. Even I, cannot claim that I know everything under the cosmos. But did you know how lonely immortality can be?" he asked.
"I wouldn’t know that," she answered.
He chuckled in response. "Watching everything that you cared for— "
**BANG**
The two of them immediately turned alert when someone destroyed the walls inside the study. Ava frowned. They just finished fixing this place after Nero’s attack and now, another man destroyed it!
How unlucky.
"Is it true?"
A man appeared before Ava. Green eyes, black hair, and black long clothing.
It was him! Her father!
She took a step back as Matthew pulled her behind him.
"Why are you here!?" Matthew’s voice boomed inside the room.
"I am not here to talk to you," the man answered.
"You cannot be in somebody else’s realm."
"Not when you have the same blood running in your veins," the man uttered. "Isn’t that right... daughter!?"
..............
"Isn’t it funny?" Ava asked after walking for a few minutes with the man whom she once called her father. "I— I mourned for you." Seeing the shifters rip the man apart messed her up. She was so young then! How could she just recover from seeing the man who raised her being shredded into pieces by animals? By monsters?
For years, her hatred against the shifters was too much.
Then she discovered that not only was her father alive, everything from the start was something that he wanted. The pain, the loneliness, the feeling of not belonging somewhere.
She was a witch and yet she never learned to use her magick thinking it was a curse. That it was the one that killed her father.
For years, she thought she was a freak of nature.
And then out of nowhere, she discovered that he is alive.
Yet, upon meeting again, the man told her not to find him.
Ava could only shut down her emotion as she inwardly wonder if she was that unlovable. Good thing she had Matthew or she would have spiraled into depression and probably ended her already miserable life.
She chose to forget him, to just stop thinking about him. She thought it wasn’t even worth it to stress over people who don’t want you in their lives.
Ava wasn’t that smart but she understood that her father didn’t want to associate with her. The answer that Matthew showed her was like a wake-up call.
She was right.
First, she was a freak of nature. Someone who doesn’t belong in any world.
And second, her father didn’t want to see her or be associated with her. He said it was for her own safety and that he only wanted to keep her safe, to keep her away from his enemies.
But now? She was certain that the man never actually cared what happened to her.
The first thing that he actually asked was if her mother came back.
No greetings.
No hugs.
No How are you’s.
He wasn’t interested to know how she was or if she was injured. He just wanted to know if her mother came back.
She felt so stupid for not realizing sooner that to him, she never matter. He probably just raised her until she turned seven because it was what her mother asked him to do.
Then he left.
"I cannot say anything else that would make you feel better," he responded.
She scoffed in disbelief. She wasn’t asking him to make her feel better. At this point, she no longer felt anything. Not anger or disappointment.
It’s just nothing.
"I know," she uttered. "I didn’t ask to talk to you because I wanted some sort of closure or explanation."
The man stared at her.
"I want to know what happened to my mother."
The man nodded.
"She— She was raised to become a vessel," he said. "They pumped different genes into her. Demons and daemons and creatures from other realms. To make her stronger, faster, smarter. And for a few years, they succeeded."
"You mean Aliah?" she asked.
"Yes. She and her raised had been secretly experimenting on humans and other creatures, hoping to summon some celestials."
"Why?"
"To lift their curse."
"What?"
"They were banished by the King of the Nightmare realm, never to set foot in that realm again. To sustain them... they can only eat their own children and bath in their blood."
That....
Ava blinked. That is indeed a very cruel curse.
"They have tried every method to come back and lift the curse. Then they came up with the plan."
"The celestial realm..." Ava said. "So... they were made to eat their own children??"
"Newborns," the man answered. Just as they felt a gust of wind that moved his long black clothes. "They were made to eat their newborns."
"That— "
"Cruel?" the man snorted. "Those people betrayed their king and worked with the people from the spirit realm. They were punished for their sins."
"Because of that, they had been destroying realms."
"That— is true."
"And you cannot do anything about that?" Ava asked.
"I am no god. I cannot intervene in the— "
"Is that why you impregnated a human witch?"
"That was not supposed to happen."
"You— "
"There is no way that a guardian could mate with another guardian," he answered. "For some reason, your mother’s smell was very attractive to me. I later realized it was because of the mixture of different blood in her body. It was too late when I tried to distance myself. I have... learned to like her as a woman."
"How?" Ava asked. "If she was in captivity all this time, how did you meet?" If her mother was raised to become a vessel then... how did she meet her father?
"Dreams..." the man said. "We met in her dreams."
"Are you telling me she could... dream walk?’
"Yes."
"Was that the reason why she sensed me?" the Shaman said that Dream walkers can sense each other especially if they are in close proximity. This is how the Shaman found her. The thought of the Shaman once again made her frown.
"Yes," he answered. "I would love to talk more about the past but it is a part of the past for a reason. I would be more interested to know if... she did something peculiar when you met."
"Peculiar?" Ava asked.
"Peculiar like... try to possess your body."
"Why would— " Ava widened her eyes. "Her body is dying."
"Yes. She forced her body to sleep for years... to stop her body from exploding."
Ava swallowed. There is no way that a human witch could survive after they gave her different types of blood in her body.
"Are you saying that she purposely gave birth so she could live inside my body?" she asked while cursing inwardly.
...
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