"...Due to the corruption the Black Emperor has condemned. I have settled with the arrangements the seven Gods intended.
"Castiya family had the other Sequence 1 Hand of Order in their possession. I should have Entella's blessing to take it. As for the other one...
"I will need the Sanguines for their approval...
"The empire wouldn't last as predicted..."
Written in the papyrus paper, the following words became blurry and unrecognizable.
These are Ancient Loenese! Selina's heart skipped a beat.
Sequence 1? This is my first Sequence 1 name discovery? How exhilarating! Sanguines, Castiya... is Entella the name of a grounded angel of the Castiya family? Sanguine family?
Selina was left disappointed by the following words fading into the dreamy mist. But by then, the girl had already closed the book, placed in a drawer and left the room.
When another blend of chaotic violent and gold color engulfed her vision. Selina found herself yet again in the girl's shoes.
She was behind a red velvet curtains, behind the wall next to a very large balcony, equipped with stone railings and intricate marble floor.
Selina suspected at the moment that this is the earlier hall's balcony. However, at the same time, it was different.
Distinct that it left a few crests, like the candles from behind the balcony, completely aligned. They're symmetric!
Trunsoest was there with his back facing Selina.
"He" was clad in a dark tasseled robe, where its interior designed a golden surface. "He" wore a black-iron crown and while "His" face was obstructed, "He" gives off a scholarly ruler temperament, now deprived of any accessory except the crown.
Beneath him, millions of people looked up, eyes on his presence.
As the vast skies interlocked with the rising sun. Trunsoest casted his gaze at the crowd beneath. At that moment, the people's voice raved the scene.
The dream produced multiple incandescent spots, to which the girl fell and so is Selina.
She braced herself for the dream's following scenes, and upon the end of the wormhole to which the incandescent spots created, another room appeared.
The heavy, large double-doors displays asymmetric details like the metallic frozen wreathes.
At the following second, a pool of viscous dark liquid began pouring beneath the door where the woman faced.
Selina felt the girl's despair crept.
Right as the liquid reaches her, a singular light made the darkness dispel from a spot.
Tracing it—a lamp.
3-0137!
...
Selina's eyes fluttered open and this time, Klein wasn't there.
She woke up on a piece of coat acting as a layer from the rundown mattress. Almost immediately, she realized that if Klein had left, it meant Dunn was awake!
Her heartstrings tugged and she rolled over to see the couch. Dunn was indeed standing in front of Klein, discussing certain things.
"Then perhaps Selina can leave early." Dunn said casually.
Klein, only having his long-sleeved linen shirt, strapped with gun-holster, shook his head slightly and said, "It's likely just the fatigue of brewing... So Captain, what did you saw in Sir Rous's dream?"
"Nothing notable." Dunn set his eyes onto the sleeping tenant. Who's dressed in a rugged linen shirt and typical worker's pants.
"He had a dream of running away from his old man as a kid. Even now as an adult was running away. Perhaps it indicates a deep-seated desire to leave him and start anew."
Klein was equipped with dream deciphering. It was one of the lectures Old Neil thought him. Thus, after a thought, he explained,
"Maybe. But considering the lost of grandfather, it's likely it could also indicate that he never lose thought of him."
Dunn stared at the sleeping man, nodding slightly as he moved on, "Let's head to the next person on our list."
"Klein?" Selina's voice spoke. "Oh, I'm sorry I fell asleep."
She smiled sheepishly upon seeing Dunn fully awake.
"Frye will take your place. So next time you won't have to join. By the way, did you dreamt of anything?" Dunn's voice suddenly turned solemn.
"No, I have not." Selina answered languidly.
Are they sensitive to whenever I fall asleep and dream? Well, it's clear that because of this, I was almost killed by Morroy...
Dunn nod once and casted his gaze down to where the main entrance resides.
"This might be too dangerous for you."
Having said that, he glanced at Rous, who works as a cobbler one last time before turning around.
...
On the trip, Selina was spent on staring the moving houses and roads, preoccupied by what Dunn said.
She was wondering the reason behind it.
Then upon reaching the next house at another street. Dunn alighted first, before Klein offered a hand for Selina.
Once again, another building that is unremarkable and peeved with multiple clothes hanging everywhere.
This is to be expected, in lower street, it is common for women of the house to become a maid, capable of handling any work, including laundry, which is sometimes done in their home.
On the entrance, Selina could see wooden tubs filled with white water and one girl scraping the stain off a shirt.
She only had her gaze fixed for a second before retracting it back to see the entrance.
When they reached the second floor. The wooden floorboard creaked as they strode pass a candle lit area, filled with hanging robes and sheets.
They arrived at a door at the end of room. There, Dunn knocked thrice and waited for the muffled steps to stop right at the door.
"Who is it?" an eight year-old child peaked his head from the gap.
Selina and company casted their gaze down to see him. Dunn was the first to lift his top hat and smiled softly at the child,
"We're here to see Mr. Bouret, is he here with you?"
He should be attending a teaching program of the Church by now... Selina muttered inwardly.
Right on the heels of that, she heard from within, a rush of heavy steps coupled with a man's heavy breathing.
"Ah! Y-You're all here." The father of the child, Bouret, came to widen the door further as he smiled wearily.
"T-Tyre, go ahead and finish your bread, I'll be here to talk with these gentleman."
The boy, who's face had some residue of food, nodded and was the next to rush back into the room.
"Come in." Bouret gestured and side-stepped for their entry.
The greeting wasn't as much as treating them for a meal. Bouret was only a dock worker who spends the rest of his days fishing for a chance to participate in loading cargos.
As for his son, Tyre, he had went out of his way to do the dishes in the apartment's communal area outside.
And after he was and have been sent off by his father to do an errand. Bouret nodded at Dunn's words and laid down on the rugged, brown couch.
Him and his son wasn't the only tenant in this single room, so they were temporarily been escorted out through a license.
"Alright, I will sleep now." It was clear from Bouret's expression that he had been suppressing his emotions under an impression.
He would smile often, his son Tyre seemed to also adopted it by looking normal. But for Selina, she knew that from their aura, their health is degrading.
A sign of stress, fatigue, and emotion for their wife and mother.
Putting those thoughts aside, Selina once again unlocked the briefcase and took out 3-0137 out of its compartment.
I hope this will be done soon...
...
A mirror of a hallway washed the scene.
Selina saw a portrait from a lens of a girl. There, she tilted her head to see a young boy with her. With dark-ebony hair, clad in a white uniform attire.
For a split-second, the portrait had but a misty figure, who was dressed in a dark ceremonial robe, holding a scepter and a dark-inlaid crown.
It wasn't that the portrait is unrecognizable. But the young boy right where the lens of the girl Selina inhibits bore the a peculiar mold to the Trunsoest with dark hair.
Could it be "His" childhood? Selina suspected, but could only theorize at the moment.
Following that, she saw the young man turned and pivot to the hallway.
At this point in time, she felt the dreamer's intense emotion surge. From a blink of an eye, the young man reappeared inches away.
Selina then saw herself running after the boy, reaching her hand out, wanting to be reciprocated.
Ultimately, the scene yet again faded. Darkness surged to which Selina saw herself falling.
The light grew dimmer and dimmer, until it vanished to a spot.
3-0137 then appeared yet again when Selina scanned the deep abyss.
...
Dunn had not woken up. It allowed Selina to briefly explain to Klein what had happened, from the first to the second and third dreams.
"You've seen Alista Tudor? And Trunsoest?" Klein almost raised his voice while whispering.
Selina nodded. "I need to see more."
Right as she reached for 3-0137 Dreamcatcher. Klein quickly took the lamp and pulled it away.
"This is getting dangerous! Are you sure Mrs. White still guards you?"
Although his voice was low, she could tell he was getting worried and deeply concerned.
"It's fine." Selina reassured. "On behalf of Mrs. White, you can trust us."
"..." Klein was utterly helpless. Sure they needed the dreams as power source for their charm. However, it doesn't justify losing her.
If what they're trying to obtain for protection, and it risked the one he swore himself to protect. Then it would be pointless and stupid.
"This is the last. If you did not find any nightmares, then well find another source." Klein firmly said.
I now have Mr. Azik for help and guidance. Someone who had lived hundreds of years ago and have been losing memories...
When he heard from Selina herself that she encountered a suspected remnant of Saint-level battle, frozen inside the Sealed Artifact, that's when Klein's anxiety spiked.
"Alright." Selina nodded without protest She knew better than pressing, and most certainly wouldn't burden Klein with concerns.
She had seen a fair amount of dreams, and she was also partly occupied by how far the dreamworld could protect her.
Thus, she reached for the lamp again, and for the last time she fell asleep.
...
Under the swaying, glitching trees. Producing a a chromatic distortion of red, cyan and magenta. Darkness loomed from above from giants.
From the reflection of the puddle, the starry sky filled with galaxies appeared.
But centering them was Selina's vision of the world. She inhibits a figure constantly twisting and reverting.
At some point, hairs grew on her skin, the scene returned to the same spot. Again, her right eye bled, making her lens of the world bathe in crimson, the scene circled back.
The attempt was constantly reverting in a loop. And each loop does Selina gain lucidity, retracts again to when she wasn't
There were no lights in the distant, no screams, no voices. Mere, complete, and utterly suffocating silence.
Splash!
Selina saw herself get mutilated. She woke up.
Splash!
A wolf gnawed at her abdomen, its pristine teeth smudged with her blood.
Splash!
Time and time, Selina's body was torn, her face infested, her eyes crawled, her beautiful face consumed in the darkness.
At that moment, without even knowing she had suffered multiple cases of death. Selina gained lucidity to a familiar open field.
She was pulled by the dreamworld again!
But by then, she stood frozen, blank, and uncannily calm.
Whoosh!
Only after did a strong gust of wind hurled at her face, did she snapped.
Selina clutched her shoulders, eyes unmoving, face paling. Horror...
Nightmare... Pure horror...
The soil integrated with her lower half mimicked what it had done during her breakdown with the dream storm and dragon's breath.
However, she took quite a long time to recover the mental facilities she had lost.