(From Rosanne)

I saw myself in the middle of an ocean of black water. There were no stars in the sky, no moon, and no light anywhere else. I could hear people calling for help, but no matter how much I ran looking for them, I couldn’t find them in time. I knew they were drowning, just out of my reach. In their place, monstrous creatures rose from the dark ocean and approached me. I couldn’t see them either, but I knew they were there. I felt one appear right in front of me, but just as it was about to catch me, something held them in place. A red thread had stopped them.

I woke up on the floor, with pain all over my body. I must have fallen asleep and slid out of my chair. My head hurt a lot, though I wasn’t sure if it was because of the impact against the floor or due to what I was putting my body through. At that point, I hadn’t slept for three or four days in a row. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but I couldn’t rest until I had found any hint of the whereabouts of the saintess. Otherwise, everything that Maxwell and Erzi had done to prepare for dealing with the curse would only delay the inevitable.

I took a sip of the coffee that was on the table. It was cold, as it had been sitting there since Eve brought it to me in the afternoon, and it was dusk already. I had turned the greenhouse into my private research center, and have spent most of my time there. I didn’t want Violett to see me like this, but I wanted to see and hug her really badly. I had told Sophie to keep her busy for the time being. I just needed to find a hint, anything, for all of this to be over.

—Don’t you know the answer already?

Someone said, and when I raised my eyes I saw them standing there, right in front of me. I could see them very clearly, but after blinking I realized it was just my own reflection on the greenhouse’s glass walls. The sky had turned quite dark as well, which made me think I had fallen asleep while standing up. My notes seemed to be in a different order and place than where I had seen them just “a minute ago”, so I could have added hallucinations and sleepwalking to the effects exhaustion was causing on my body and mind. I could hear both Carmila and Maxwell berating me for pushing myself so hard. I sighed.

—They are right, I need to rest —I said, trying to convince myself.

Just a few hours would be enough, but I still disliked the idea. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was that ocean of darkness. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door, which caused me to jump out of the chair I had sat without realizing. To my further surprise, the one who stood at the entrance of the greenhouse was my daughter.

—V-Violet?! What are you doing outside so late?! Where is Sophie? —I said to my baby as I unlocked the door and let her come in. The greenhouse was covered by the shield, but it was still worrisome to see her walking in the garden at night.

—I waited until she fell asleep, she doesn’t wake as easily as you when I move around —she said in a deadpan tone.

—Is…Is that so? —I said, but she didn’t reply.

She was looking at me with her piercing eyes, making me feel guilty.

—Mother, you are trying to find a cure for Carmila, right? —she abruptly said.

—Eh? Y-yes, something like that, but how do you know?

—I heard Sophie and the others talking about it. Let me help you.

—Help… me? —I paused for a moment—. It is pretty late, I was actually going to take a rest, let’s talk about it in the morning.

—How can I sleep when you two are suffering?! —she snapped at me. My baby’s eyebrows were furrowed, and she was barely holding tears.

I grabbed and hugged her. I had thought that I could keep her ignorant from everything that was happening, but she was too smart for it. Of course she would have noticed what was going on around, and would be worried about it. I decided to be honest with her… to a point.

—There is a person who can cure Carmila, known as the saintess. She must be almost as old as you are, but I have no idea where she might be. We have been looking for her all over the nation for any clue, but we haven’t found anything so far —I told her, after sitting on my chair again, still hugging her.

—Do you have any other hints?

—Mmmm, appearance wise, I only know she is blonde —I said, that’s as far as the game went to describe her—. A friend of mine, Christopher, was meant to find and adopt her.

I wasn’t sure how to explain this without telling her that, in one way or another, I knew the future.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

—Is that why we went to visit his house so often? —Violett said before I could think of any reasonable explanation.

—Uh, yeah. But I have not been able to get in contact with him. He has been really busy supervising the building of the radio towers in the northern territories.

She was looking at the papers I had over the table very intensively. After a few moments, she grabbed a map in which I had drawn the position of the radio towers Christoper had been working on, alongside some scribbles and notes on the outside of our nation.

—If you looked all over the nation and could not find her, and the person who is going to encounter her is busy out of the nation, doesn’t that mean that SHE is also out of the nation?

—I…

I was stumped, not completely realizing what my baby had said until a moment later. Of course, if Christopher was traveling through the annexed territories, that’s where it was most likely where he would find the saintess. How could I not realize that before! No, I couldn’t have done it, my baby must be a genius!

I hugged her even stronger, and I praised her a lot. I could see she was blushing a bit. She was so adorable! I wanted to run all over the place telling everyone what my baby had found out. But despite my emotions being in hyperdrive, I was still aware it was the middle of the night. For the time being, I took Violett back to the house, and we slept together in one of the living room’s couches.

I woke up when the old grandfather’s clock chimed, indicating it was already noon. The sound was pretty loudy and very close to my head, but despite this, I felt pretty well rested, as if the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. To my surprise, however, everyone was surrounding me, looking at me with some weird expressions on their faces.

—Madame, are you feeling alright? —Sophie asked.

—I do, actually. Thanks to Violett we made a big breakthrough, we might be able to find the cure for the curse!

—T-thats great! But are you sure you are feeling good? Do we need to call the Doctor?

I was starting to get confused myself.

—I am fine, what are you talking about?

—Well, it is better if you look at it yourself… —Nora said, while Eve handed a small handheld mirror.

I looked at my reflection, and at first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I still had the same black hair, the same red pupils, the same face, the same horns coming out of my forehead.

—Wait, what? —I said, and took a look at them more carefully.

They were completely black, reflective like obsidian, but with some veins of gold on it. They were pretty small, barely longer than the thorns that Eve had, but it was still shocking. I was sure they weren’t there before I went to sleep. I dared to touch them, and to my disappointment, they weren’t an illusion. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t help but remember the night that they tried to take my baby away from me. I could feel my blood boiling. I heard a cracking sound.

—Ma-madame! —Sophie said, sounding alarmed.

I opened my eyes and found out the mirror had shattered in my hand. Sharp pieces rested against my skin, but I didn’t have any wounds. The fractures on the mirror made it look like I had been the one that had broken it, but that… that was impossible, right? Nora tried to take it away from me, but I stopped her before she cut herself by accident.

—I… I am fine, just bring something to throw the shards —I said, still a bit in shock.

Gabby grabbed a nearby trash can and held it in front of me. I dropped the mirror onto it, or at least most of it, I kept a piece of it.

—I’m going to do something stupid —I said—, I just… need to be sure of something.

They looked confused, but didn’t say anything. Against my better judgment, I slowly ran my finger over the sharp edge of the glass. I was expecting the worst, but I was more mortified when I remained unhurt. I even dared to squeeze it, the glass broke into very small shards, almost becoming dust, and my skin was still unfazed.

—M-madame!? —Gabby managed to say.

They all looked just as puzzled as I was.

—Oh, you finally awoke your draconic powers —Alyssa said. I had no idea when she had arrived in that room, but for how she was dressed, she seemed to have just woken up.

Her explanation made sense, but Sophie and the others insisted on me getting a full check up with Maxwell. I couldn’t agree more, aside from whatever I was going through, I needed to tell him and Erzi about Violett’s discovery. It would be meaningless if I didn’t tell anyone where the saintess might be. But there was one thing that was concerning me. Both when I broke the glass and when I turned one of its shards into dust, I hadn’t really tried to use that much force. For me it was like squeezing a lemon. The conclusion was that at that moment, I couldn’t control my recently found strength. That was a problem, as Violett was still sleeping on my lap, completely ignorant of anything that had happened. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her by accident.

—Sophie, could you wake up Violett? —I said, too scared to even touch my baby.

—Of course.

I raised my hands as she approached, just in case. She shaked my daughter’s shoulder a bit, and called her name. Violett raised her head a bit, with her eyes still half closed. She looked at Sophie, then at me.

—G-good morning, it is time to wake up —I said, a bit worried about what she would think of seeing her mother with horns coming out of her forehead.

—No, good night…—was her only response, before she put her head back on my lap.

Sophie and I looked at each other a bit confused. She held onto Violett and tried to pull her away, but my baby anticipated her actions, and held onto my hips as if her life depended on it. Nora tried to help, but my daughter was surprisingly strong. Alyssa refused to get involved. We eventually had to give up, and I was forced to carry Violett, taking care of every movement as if she was made out of very fragile crystal. By the time we sat to get breakfast, she was a bit more awake, just enough to be fed, but she still refused to let go of me.

Alyssa, Nora and Sophie accompanied me and Violett to the Academy, with our carriage being pulled by Adrian. I was carrying a sun hat to hide the horns in public. It was a bit dusty, since I haven’t used it in a while. It has been cloudy for so long, maybe more than two months to that day, but curiously enough, the clouds were starting to break as we approached the improvised hospital.