Villainess From the Stars

53. Dream or Memory (Multiple POVs)

[POV: Ralph Silvaine]

The soft features of Vienna Thorne wouldn't let the king go. He sat in his study, his mind worlds away even as he perused the recent census.

Time was quickly approaching when in the previous time-line, he'd turned back time.

Lady Adeena Nesrin was so sure it was because she asked for it never knowing he'd been studying for more than a year on how to do the same. Ralph Silvaine looked out his window overlooking his city and hummed beneath his breath, it was coming time to check how the core was doing. His aide had given him the recent readings their artifacts gave, but still no movement, just like the time before.

Leaving behind his study, he shrugged on one of his warmer formal robes it could get colder down in the caverns.

He walked through the stone-columned hallways and through the windows that were above the waterfall bridge down below.

Everything was for his people.

He wandered down the spiral staircase at the back of his palace and when he reached the bottom the guards checked his hands for any camouflage rings before letting him through the two-story double doors plain in comparison to what they kept hidden on the other side.

As he stepped through the doors he paused waiting for them to close and lock shut behind him before continuing down the aisles of glimmering stones. The walls inlaid with crystalline and rare Pōrteacaleum in its most raw form.

The dim light from the rows of glowing stones reflected off the crystalline stone hanging like stalagmites from the ceiling.

The deeper that he went in the more the glow faded until he stood at the base of the stairway, at the top was a multi-faceted core stone. Its faces were like windows looking into an opaque night where the stars seemed to have vanished from the skies. A shiver ran down his spine, but he shook his head looking back down at the readings over the last couple of years. No movement, no static, nothing.

He looked up to see what looked like a spec of dust on one of the faces, he brushed it aside but as soon as his fingers brushed against it the core stone shuddered. Ralph Silvaine fell back a couple of steps as he felt an odd resonance spread through his bones and then up and up until it felt as if a loud bell was ringing in his mind. He rubbed his temples.

Later that night as he lay down to sleep, his dreams showed a familiar cobblestone street he'd seen when he visited the capital of Wofford. A cloaked figure in an alleyway ran in a hurry through an alcove only for a figure in black to jump in her way...

[POV: Ravven Basilius]

He had just fallen asleep, he watched through his gaze as he followed after a petite figure who ran away from him. He sped up after her, worry in his chest and something like anger. Only for it to dissolve into fear as he saw the person he pursued let out a shrill scream as a figure jumped in front of her brandishing a knife. A pained cry came from the maiden as the figure lunged barely missing her neck and his blade ripping a sleeve. Crimson dotted the torn sleeve.

He ran forward, brandishing his sword quickly to get the figure away from the one he protected.