Chapter 146: “Ashes”
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When Heidi began recounting her day to her father, she noticed nothing unusual in his demeanor.
“Certainly,” she responded openly, nodding for emphasis. “Vanna and I visited Mr. Duncan’s antique shop today. We had a brief chat with him, and then I performed a hypnotherapy session for Nina. After that, Vanna and I came back home.”
As she finished, Heidi hesitated. She wondered whether to tell her father about Nina’s comments on the recent museum fire and Vanna’s odd reaction to the news. Ultimately, she decided against it.
She couldn’t shake the memory of Vanna’s grim expression during their drive back. Heidi suspected there were dangerous forces at play, so ominous that even mentioning them could attract attention. Her father, Morris, was a devout follower of Lahem, the god of wisdom, just like her, but he was more of an academic than someone skilled at navigating such perilous matters.
Unaware of her internal struggle, Morris maintained his calm expression. “You seem to have spent quite some time at the antique shop,” he observed gently. “Did you get caught up talking with Mr. Duncan? He’s quite a fascinating character, isn’t he?”
Heidi’s cheeks flushed slightly with embarrassment. “Not really. The hypnotherapy session with Nina just took longer than expected.”
Morris’s eyebrows lifted in surprise at the mention of Nina. “With Nina? Isn’t she one of my students? Did the session not go well? Is she emotionally distressed, perhaps due to the recent museum fire?”
Heidi had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at her father’s rapid questions. “Dad, you’re so invested in your students, aren’t you? Don’t worry; Nina is fine. She was a bit anxious, but my relaxation techniques helped. She should be ready for her finals. The delay was for a different reason.”
Intrigued, Morris made a curious sound. “Oh?”
“I guess I was more tired than I realized,” Heidi admitted, chuckling awkwardly. “After hypnotizing Nina, I actually fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the evening.”
Morris looked momentarily surprised but quickly regained his usual calm demeanor. “Falling asleep during a hypnotherapy session isn’t like you.”
Heidi waved her hand dismissively, showing impatience. “No one’s perfect, Dad. Besides, I haven’t had a break in a long time. Can we not turn this into an interrogation? Both you and Mom worry so much if I come home a little late, as if I can’t take care of myself…”
Morris gazed at Heidi for a moment before his face softened into a kind smile. “Alright, I won’t ask more. There’s some food in the kitchen you can heat up. I’m going to check on your mother.”
“Sure thing,” Heidi responded, nodding. She took a few steps towards the kitchen before turning back to face her father. “You’re planning to go back to the antique shop later, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Morris confirmed, pausing at the bedroom entrance. The hallway’s muted yellow light exaggerated the lines on his face, casting him in shadows. “Is there something specific you want to tell me?”
“I left the shop hastily today and didn’t get to properly discuss Nina’s situation with Mr. Duncan. I’ll write him a letter about it; could you deliver it when you go?”
“Certainly,” Morris nodded. Almost musing to himself, he added softly, “Yes, I do have to make another visit.”
After Heidi went to the kitchen, Morris stood at the bedroom threshold, deep in thought. His eyes seemed to focus on something distant, and after nearly fifteen seconds, he sighed softly and opened the dark wooden door.
The room was dimly lit by a small wall lamp, casting a soft glow that barely illuminated the figure on the bed.
Morris securely locked the door behind him and cautiously approached the bedside.
“My love, how are you tonight?” he whispered softly.
On the bed lay a pile of ashes, eerily maintaining a human-like shape and emitting faint murmurs in response. From within the ash, a delicate knot was being woven on a strand of beautiful silk cord, moving meticulously from one loop to another.
“You’ve always had remarkable craftsmanship,” Morris praised, interpreting the faint murmur as acknowledgment. His face brightened with a warm smile. “The one you made for me still holds a special place in my study.”
The room fell into contemplative silence, as if time had paused. After about thirty seconds, Morris broke the stillness. “Heidi went out today. When she returned, I noticed one of the carnelian beads on her bracelet was missing.”
The pile of ashes froze momentarily, then emitted a low, guttural noise, almost like a growl.
“We’re not entirely sure what happened. If it’s a sign of divine intervention from our Lord Lahem, it implies Heidi encountered something potent enough to breach her psychic barriers. But Heidi herself seems unaware of any danger, and I didn’t sense any malevolent intent aimed at her,” Morris spoke slowly and deliberately. “It’s almost as if she unwittingly ‘brushed against something,’ activating the protective magic in her bracelet.”
Morris abruptly stopped, focusing intently on the subdued murmurs from the ash-like form on the bed.
“When I pointed out the missing bead, Heidi realized it was gone. But here’s the complicated part—she thinks the bead was never there,” Morris added, nodding. “I believe it might be a self-defense mechanism, perhaps stemming from her intuition or even a form of ‘enlightenment’ from our god of wisdom, Lahem. Regardless, this innate protective instinct is preventing her from delving deeper into the matter.”
“As for myself, I intend to investigate the situation personally,” Morris declared.
The ash mound on the bed subtly undulated, acknowledging his resolve.
Shaking his head, Morris continued, “I recognize there might be risks, so I’ll take precautions. I’ll pray and use divination for guidance. However, I feel compelled to go. I’ve visited that antique shop before. It seemed like a typical store, run by a hardworking proprietor and frequented by an earnest young student—Nina. At that time, I didn’t detect any malignant energy or dark forces.”
“So, if the danger only manifested today during Heidi’s visit, then Mr. Duncan—the shopkeeper and also my student—may be in some form of peril. I have a moral obligation as his mentor and a spiritual duty as a follower of Lahem to investigate.”
Finishing his words, Morris paused to listen to the barely audible whispers from the ash form on the bed. Deep in contemplation, he finally shook his head.
“No, I can’t involve the cathedral authorities. Their methods, though effective, are too aggressive. They prioritize stamping out heresy and neutralizing evil forces, which could inadvertently endanger Mr. Duncan. Plus,” he paused, sighing softly before continuing, “I’d rather not attract the cathedral’s attention to myself. After all, I am a heretic in hiding, a man whose faith is slowly waning.”
Morris’s voice softened as he looked at the ashes on the bed—the remnants of his wife, who had perished in a terrible fire eleven years earlier. His eyes fixated on the shadowy imprint she left in this world.
A part of the ashes lifted, resembling an arm that gently caressed Morris’s cheek.
“I understand,” Morris bowed his head, his words both a mumbled soliloquy and a confession to an unseen divine presence. “I am a man of inconsistent faith, too fearful to fully sever myself from Lahem’s grace. On that day, the god of wisdom granted me the sight to see through illusions. But I lacked the courage to use it fully; I chose to live in a partial reality where I could keep you close, though not in a form I could hold. In doing so, I’ve trapped myself in this strange limbo.”
As Morris raised his head, he tried to cup the ethereal arm of ashes in his hands, but his fingers passed through the delicate form.
“How I wish I could be as blissfully unaware as Heidi, to perceive another facet of you, another version of your existence. It’s been eleven long years since I’ve actually seen you.”
A delicate noise arose from the mound of ashes on the bed, like the soft rustle of sand shifting or the gentle crackling of a hearth. Morris attuned his ears to the sound, feeling his emotional turbulence slowly subside.
“I understand,” Morris spoke softly, as if in an intimate conversation. “All of this is temporary. Every performance reaches its end, and whatever force answered my desperate prayers that day will eventually come to collect its due. In many ways, I’ve been ready for that moment for a long time. When that time comes, I’ll disappear entirely from this plane, vanishing without a trace. Even the shadows of my presence in subspace—the echoes of a once-living man—won’t interact with this world through the power of the ‘wish’ I made.”
As he spoke, Morris lifted his eyes to the ethereal shape within the ashes, dimly lit by the room’s faint light.
“But until that inevitable day comes,” he paused, his voice tinged with sorrow and hope, “please, stay with me, even if it’s just for a little while longer?”
Holy fuck. This story keeps getting better and better
Holy cow! I caught up with the story in the most anticipated clifhanger
Damn.
So there are “some” pland citizens that are dead but are still “alive” as an ash remnant. Maybe Nina is already dead?
probably that’s why they didn’t see nina in her own dream but doesn’t duncan can see through tempered reality?
you must not read the few chapters back thoroughly, Duncan already ask Nina about is she having a dream that night when Duncan invade Shirley’s dream, but Nina says that she didn’t dream about looking at the fire instead kicked by horse and cow, that’s why Duncan didn’t see her that time
THIS BEING KICKED SO HEAVILY MATCHES SHIRLEY’S BEATING THE SHADOW IN HER DREAM WITH HER DOG
Pretty sure the fact that Nina dreams about being kicked by a cow is a reference to the time Shirley said how bad her sleeping posture is.
no, at least what I understood is that Morris has been blessed by an evil entity to provide for his wife a little longer. Sort of like Ron who used some kind of blessing to cure himself of his illness, possibly
Why mr. Morris giving me old neil vibes, stoppppp i don’t want it?
I miss old Neil T_T
ohh no \ not this again haih
Well I certainly wasn’t expecting fucking that. I have been wondering since they went to the factory if the reason no one has had children in that area is because they aren’t alive.
And if so, how many other people in Pland are ghosts moving around with ashes as their anchor. I even thought for a moment that maybe most if not all of Pland was burned, and the people dead, but everyone thinks and sees it all as normal.
Should not be all. But all people from 6th district probably dead.
Fuck yeah my theory was right, the reason theres no births is because these mfers dont exist, how can they give birth