I was still feeling a bit out of myself, and the accusatory glare of the doctor didn’t help. But at least I was once again able to breathe properly and my heart had stopped beating at twice its regular speed. Still, I didn’t know what the king and his two seers were talking about. I was sure I hadn’t said anything about the “Calliope’s curse”, nor did I have any idea what it meant.

—That’s because it is not a curse, not a human-made one at least —Maxwell said—, it is from a legend, a curse-like plague that turns people into monsters. It is also known as… Lilith’s wrath.

—Lilith’s wrath? —the king said, turning towards me.

I froze. Lilith, the mother of all dragons, was my direct ancestor, at least according to the legends. It wasn’t a secret that the king disliked and suspected me already, so it wasn’t hard to imagine he could decide to blame me for what would happen in the future due to that connection. And if he did, his only choice would be to “get rid” of me before Erzebeth could do anything to stop him. I needed to choose my words very carefully to avoid this death flag, but even after several moments, nothing was coming to me.

—I’m afraid I can’t give a full description of the plague —the doctor suddenly spoke—, I only know the name of it and a general account of it because I have been investigating the group that tried to kidnap Rosanne’s daughter, and I happen to come across it.

His words seemed to pique the interest of the king. I mentally thanked Maxwell for that distraction.

—I would need to re-do my research to be able to find the text where I found it. At that moment I thought both topics were unrelated, but I suspect the “church of Lilith” will try to use the “wrath of Lilith” for some reason.

—Mmmm, that is a possibility —the king said—, but that group’s activities have been under constant surveillance. If they were planning something as big as this, we would have noticed.

—Unless the perpetrators aren’t part of their main group itself. The kidnappers were supposedly from an extremist faction within them, and I doubt even our majesty has the resources to watch over every member of that group. Some might be acting without the support of the leader, so they will go unnoticed by the surveillance.

—That’s… not impossible. I’ll talk with her Majesty to dedicate more resources to investigate them. But if they managed to conceal themselves this much, I’m not sure that will do much.

—What about the ones that were caught? Didn’t you get any information from them?

—Nothing important, or at least that’s what Erzebeth told me —the King replied—, but she mentioned something curious about the female prisoner.

—Iridia… —I muttered.

—Yes. She apparently has been asking continuously to be able to send you letters, but Erzebeth strictly prohibited it.

—Maybe if she were to be allowed, we would get some information in return —Tiberius chimed in, after listening to the conversation from the sidelines in silence.

—It would take too much time, and again, Erzebeth prohibited it. Her authority is above mine, and I frankly don’t wish to go against her. Still, I’ll speak to her about it once she returns and see what we can do.

—I’ll go —I found myself saying.

—What? —the doctor said, dumbfounded.

—I’ll go and talk with her —I said. The idea made my stomach ache, but —, if it is out of my own volition, she won’t have any objection. I don’t want to do it… but if we can get any lead that might allow us to prevent those deaths, I’ll take the chance.

Maxwell’s face showed his disapproval of my plan, but he didn’t say anything.

—Fine. I’ll prepare the arrangements for your visit —the king said, turning around—, thanks for your cooperation. And Doctor, I hope you’ll keep us informed about your research of the Calliope’s curse.

—Of course, I’ll start working on it immediately.

—Thank you. I don’t think I have to mention that what we have talked about must remain between us, right?

The doctor silently nodded. Since there was nothing else we could discuss for the moment, we ended the meeting and the doctor and I left the room. I was able to walk on my own by that point, but Maxwell insisted on helping me. We might have gotten a bit lost in the hallways of the Academy. I recognized all the rooms and sights, but it seemed like I couldn't decipher how to traverse it completely. There was a map of the academy in the game, but to move from a room to another you just have to scroll through a menu. At one point, we walked through a hallway on the second floor, with a balcony that sat right above the gardens where the kids were playing.

They were playing tag, and somehow Alyssa had ended up being “it”. Despite the simplicity of the game, it surprised me how seriously they took it, especially Violett and Julius. At some point, Alyssa managed to pass “it” to Violett, and instead of going after her, my daughter went right after Julius. Erzi’s younger kid had fast reflexes and was avoiding each of Violett’s attempts of touching him, not as a kid playing, but as a trained soldier avoiding an enemy’s blade. My daughter didn’t manage to catch him, but she was putting a lot of pressure on Julius, he was barely able to keep up his distance from her. Even for me it was hard to believe that these kids were only 5 years old.

At that point, I noticed that the then sunny sky had been covered by clouds, and the air had suddenly become more humid.

—Violett! —I yelled, trying to get the attention of my daughter.

She turned around and waved at me, but before I could say anything more, it started pouring. Out of instinct, I… almost jumped from the balcony to the ground, but the doctor stopped me for long enough for me to think about it. I would have been fine, there was a bush right below us that would have cushioned my fall, but it was better to use the stairs. We arrived at the lower floor almost at the same time as those who were in the garden. The kids, Alyssa, and the princes’ attendants were soaking wet. I produced a little towel from my pocket and tried to dry Violett as much as I could.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

—Mo-mother, you are embarrassing me! —she protested, but I was too worried to listen.

—You are not going to do much like that —Alyssa spoke—, everyone who got wet, get in line in front of me!

They did as told, and she proceeded to generate a warm breeze from her hands. After a bit more than a minute, they were completely dry.

—That’s impressive, Aunty! —Julius said.

—Humph! It will be even more impressive when I learn to do it —Violett said, crossing her arms.

—I’m not sure drying magic can be more impressive no matter how you do it… —Gaius apologetically said.

—Kuh! That might be right —my daughter said, slightly embarrassed, then she turned to me—, are we going home already?

I thought for a moment.

—Y-yes, I need to start working on something.

—It is fine, next time I’ll win for sure —Violett said, looking at Julius out of the corner of her eyes.

—Hmmph! Next time I’ll be even faster and more agile! —the kid said, inflating his chest.

—We’ll see~! —she said, and ran ahead of us.

—Take care, Aunt Rosanne, Aunt Alyssa —Gaius said as he waved us goodbye.

The doctor went with us all the way to the Academy’s pier, where we got almost without getting wet thanks to Alyssa using a crude imitation of Erzi’s shields as an umbrella.

—I’ll be going to the capital’s library —Maxwell said—, I’m not sure how much time it will take me to find… that reference, but I’ll try to go and visit you soon, and we’ll discuss whatever I find.

I nodded, but I noticed my daughter was glaring at him.

—You better show up soon! —she said before jumping inside of our water chariot.

The doctor and I looked at each other and shared a metaphorical shrug, before I got in our transport and we parted ways. Due to my weak constitution, and our friendship, Maxwell has spent lots of time at our house during Violett’s childhood. For her, and even for me and everyone, he was part of the family. I wouldn’t mind if he took permanent residence there, we have plenty of unoccupied rooms and his company was appreciated, but some people might judge him for actually living at a widow’s house.

During Violett’s previous birthday, after everyone else had returned to their homes, Maxwell, Violett and I stood until late watching a meteor shower and talking about the constellations and stars.

—Over there, that constellation is called Gilgamesh, because it looks like a man hitting a bull, like the great king did when he defeated the heavenly bull, Gugalanna. And right next to him, is his loyal friend and partner, Enkidu, a wild man made of clay, the only one who could rival Gilgamesh in terms of strength —Maxwell said as we laid on the grass, looking at the sky—. Further to the south, that one that looks like a serpent, that is called Lilith, and is based on your mythological ancestor. It is said that the three of them traveled together and had many adventures, fought against very powerful monsters, and brought peace to the land. Because of their heroic actions, they were recorded on the stars.

—I am also going to do it! —Violett said, jumping to her feet—, I’ll surpass Lilith and appear in the sky, everyone will see my face every night!

I giggled a bit, and hugged my daughter.

—That will be a sight to behold.

The chariot swayed a bit, bringing me back to the present. Violet was sitting on my lap with my arms hugging her, as usual.

—Violett, darling, I have to tell you something… —I dared to say.

—Hmm? Is it something about what you talked about with the King?

—Y-yes, how could you tell?

—You looked troubled since you came back from seeing him.

—Ah, I see —I said, trying to soften my expression—, well… he assigned me a task that will require lots of work, so… maybe, I will have less time to share with you. It is for something really important, but I’ll still try to give you as much time as possible and-

I was interrupted by a pair of tiny hands clapping my cheeks.

—It is fine, I understand —my baby said, turning her face towards me.

—You do?

—You wouldn’t make such a big fuss of it if it wasn’t really important —she said, and then frowned a bit, pinching my cheeks—, and you already get obsessed with your projects sometimes and don’t pay attention to me!

—D-do I? I haven’t noticed, ahahaha, ouch! Sorry, sorry!

She finally let go and turned away.

—As long as you stay at my side it is fine —she murmured, and fell asleep soon after, as she did whenever we traveled.

Once we got back home, I took her to the bed and let her rest there. I went down to our study room, moving all the papers I had on the desk to a side, and prepared myself to tackle this problem. But where would I even start? Up to this point, I had solved all of the premonitions from the astral observatory because they were pretty mundane or they were mentioned in the game. But this one… It didn’t sound like anything that I remembered from the game.

And then, I had a sudden realization. Just like the interior of the academy that looked so familiar and so unknown at the same time, my memories of the game were also pretty vague. That I hadn’t given too much thought in the past five years didn’t help, as memory storage in the brain is pretty flawed. I got paper and a pen and wrote as much as I could remember. Even if it seemed completely irrelevant, it might become useful for another catastrophe five years from now.

I tried to recreate each dialogue and scene as vividly as possible, though I was aware I could be making up fake memories without realizing it. This ordeal took me several days, and through all of them, the climate didn’t change significantly. Sometimes it poured and others it drizzled, and it even stopped raining, but it was always cloudy, something unusual for that time of the year. I started to have some headaches, which I blamed on my lack of sleep and the increase in humidity.

After a week, I was nowhere near an answer, which was extremely frustrating. The only thing that helped me was hugging Violett, something that I was doing while sitting at the chair in front of my desk. I must have reclined it too far, and with our weight combined, the chair fell backwards. Fortunately, neither of us got hurt, but the fall must have shaken my memories because I remembered a brief dialogue that I had forgotten.

—Something like this happened in the past —an older Maxwell Conrad said to the heroine—, but thanks to your efforts, we were able to stop it before it got out of control.

—That’s it! —I said, still lying on the floor, full of conviction. But as the seconds passed, I started to have more and more doubts.

I still didn’t have any idea what the context of that scene was. I felt like I could see the memory just outside of my reach, but no matter how much I tried to remember what it was, something was missing. And Sophie and the rest stopped me from hitting my head against the wall when I attempted to replicate what had happened. It was in that embarrassing and awkward situation that the doctor found me.

—What are you even attempting to do?

—N-nothing… —I said, looking away—, did you find the information about the curse of calliope?

—I did, but it is pretty vague. I’ll tell you during the trip.

—Trip? Where are we going?

He looked at me in disappointment. It took me several seconds to remember a letter I had received a few days ago, from the King’s pen. The authorization for my visit to the Black Tower had been approved, and the date for it was set. At that moment I didn’t pay too much attention, I was focused on my task, but I pinned it to a board to review it later. It was right there, held by a pin, for me to see it whenever I raised my gaze from the desk.

—IT IS TODAY??!!