The Phoenix Chronicles: The Curse of Lustria

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Agantia

(NARRATED BY LOLA SETLER)

I was staring blankly at some tree on a random dirt path, wondering what the average volume of a commercial airplane cockpit was, when I realized that I hadn't been medicated for the day. And upon recognizing this, I tried to think of all the things that rhymed with the acronym, "ADHD," proceeding to form a song out of it. Amidst my efforts, I soon came to my senses and recalled that this was not a thing that normal people did, which reminded me once again that I needed to—

A furry critter darted up the tree I had my eye on.

"Ooh, it's a squirrel," I realized aloud. "Hm... I wonder how many two-syllable words rhyme with that."

"Ms. Setler, may I inquire what you are up to?"

I turned to find Impretis Lucia, eyeing me with utter confusion. "Oh, um... I guess I was going for a walk because I got bored," I explained as coherently as I could manage. "So, uh... Anyway, what might you be up to, Impretis?"

"Oh, much the same," she responded. "I, too, am going for a walk. Something about this little patch of woods helps me recover from stress."

I barely caught what she had said, but my hyperactive brain was able to highlight one thing: "stress." Everything about Lucia's body language seemed to change when she spoke that word. "What're you stressed about?" I asked.

"The workload," she replied quickly, her eyes drifting up and away to her right. Her tone sounded highly synthetic and abnormally aggressive.

In other words, Lucia Clarita was a terrible liar.

I took a wild guess: "What, did you fall in love with my brother, too?"

It was pretty subtle, but I saw her right shoulder tense up and her left eye twitch. That gave me the answer as it was, but Lucia denied it anyway: "Why would you ask such a thing? Is he not already engaged to another girl? Esther is much more beautiful than I. Even if I were in love with him, I would not stand the slightest of chances!"

I couldn't help but smirk. How was it that Cameron was able to attract so many women? It definitely wasn't his "charming personality." Esther deserved a gold medal for being able to stick with him for more than an hour. The former Maiden even whipped him into shape every now and then, whenever he'd start to become annoying.

And trust me, Cameron needed that in his life.

"I take it you see through my bluff," Lucia surmised as she examined me.

I very much wanted to press her further about her feelings, but I got the sense that she really didn't want to talk about it. Thus, I brought up a new topic instead: "Have you ever had a dream where some voice whispered dark secrets to you and told you about the future?"

Lucia was obviously taken aback, but she answered anyway: "I have always had meaningful dreams, including some like you have described. However, for the past seven years, I have only dreamt about—" For whatever reason, Lucia stopped herself.

I wasn't going to let her escape that easily.

"What have you dreamt about for the past seven years?" I demanded.

However, it was immediately after asking this that my mind deduced the answer for me. It was doubtful that Impretis Clarita had developed any sentiment for my brother over such a short span of time, unless...

Lucia was far from answering, but I blurted it out anyway: "So, you've been dreaming about Cameron...."

As expected, she tried to dodge the question: "Ms. Setler, may I inquire as to why you bring up such a topic to begin with?"