Ashes of Vile

25

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
The Subconscious And Its Telling

The night of bliss is hard to notice when one is asleep. And the night of terror is the only thing that keeps someone asleep, afraid to wake up to the possibility of the nightmare becoming real. Inez went to sleep expecting nothing but another day ahead. But she had dreamed of the forest again. Only this time, her time in seeing deeper into the woods were extended. She was still flying, somehow really aware the form she had taken: an owl.

It was dark and eerie and the moon glistened that reflected underneath the sky's opposite shimmer. It was the kind of bright gloom. Inez's senses seemed to be heightened, she was extremely aware of the little things around her. The birds that went straight into flight mode at the littlest sound, the ambience of spook, and the trees that rustled from the soft wind.

The forest was still identically the same. Inez went past the familiar trees, going way deeper into the forest. Her speed slowed down feeling the wind lesser. Inez, in the form of an owl, came to a sudden stop uncontrollably and landed on the mud. Her wings felt like it had hit a peak as she pushed the air down to balance herself. Nothing allowed her to push through the weight and gravity that stopped her from moving. She knew she was in her own form but not humanly. But she was still driven to do and see things without her own control and guide. She looked around and saw a glimpse of shining gold.

Something inside told Inez she knew what it was. But she couldn't bring herself to think. Inez stared at the shimmering gold harder, and her vision cleared slowly, revealing a gold ring with only a few tiny spots shimmering because of the dirt that dusted on it. Then it hit Inez like a pang. It was a gold infinity ring which she had seen before. It was the same ring retrieved from Maeve's family vault. And as she had possessed the knowledge, her vision started swirling into the darkness and she no longer saw anything. She no longer saw the bigger scape of the forest and the object that held meaning.

A bright light flashed and she was at a different place. No longer in the form of a seer. She was herself. She looked at her hands and in the flesh. She pinched herself to feel something, and she did. It was not a dream, it felt so real. But she knew this was impossible. She couldn't be in a physical form. She remembered going to sleep.

Her hand was on the cold ground and she looked up to see a great wall that kept soaring all the way to the top. The sky suddenly turned extremely grey and lightning sparked. The walls were overwhelming and her breathing started quickening. She was at the walls of Ashgrim. The walls no one could reach. But there were no watchmen.

Everything went dark. She could no longer see anything. Suddenly she was lying down, no longer kneeling and feeling the touch of the ground. She got up, startled. She was back on the soft bed, but her vision was still dark. She couldn't see anything. Her back was sweating although she felt extremely cold. Panicked, she touched her eyes. It was there. But her breathing was unbalanced and she felt as though she lost her vision.

Inez had awoken and his surreal predicament of unnatural foresight had stopped. Her heart rate slowly but surely returned to its regular pace. She put her hand on her chest, suppressing the panic and calming herself down. It wasn't too bright out as the sun had only started rising, but Inez spotted Cassidy idly by the door with her bright blue eyes. But it wasn't a normal sight because when Inez's eyes dropped down, she had seen Cassidy's hands surrounded with the source. And Abourne stood beside her, jaw dropped. "What did you see?" She immediately asked.

But Inez couldn't take her eyes off Cassidy who seemed to be detached from reality. She looked at the wall behind Inez and didn't seem to be in the right state of mind. Abourne noticed Inez's confusion and filled her in, "She came here at dawn but we couldn't get anything out of her. It's like she isn't really here. And she started doing that connecting thing with you and the source. We just let it be to do both of your thing."