Chapter 146

Chapter 146: Ashes

Heidi did not notice anything strange in her father’s tone.

“Yeah,” she nodded calmly and said: “I just went to Mr. Duncan’s antique shop with Vanna. I chatted with Mr. Duncan for a bit, then gave Nina a hypnosis treatment, and after that I came back with Vanna.”

When she reached the end, she hesitated for a moment. She wondered whether she should tell her father about what she had heard from Nina about the fire, and about Vanna’s strange reaction after hearing it. In the end, she still pushed that thought down.

She remembered Vanna’s unusually serious expression in the carriage very clearly. This matter might involve dangerous hidden powers, and it might already be serious enough that just speaking of it could draw some prying gaze. Her father, like her, served God of Wisdom Rahm as a Truth believer and could barely be counted as half an supernatural, but like most Truth Believers, he was closer to a pure scholar and was not good at dealing directly with dangerous things.

Morris kept his gentle, calm expression. He nodded lightly and said, as if in passing: “You stayed there quite a while… Did you forget the time while chatting with Mr. Duncan? He really is a very curious man.”

“Uh… not really,” Heidi looked a bit embarrassed at once. “It’s just… I lost some time while giving Nina the hypnosis treatment.”

“During Nina’s hypnosis?” Morris raised his eyebrows when he heard his student’s name. “It didn’t go well? Is her mental state very bad? Was she affected by that fire at the City Museum?”

Heidi almost wanted to roll her eyes at this string of questions from her father: “You really do care about your student, huh—relax, she’s fine. She was only a bit anxious to begin with. After my relaxation and guidance, she’s completely okay now. It won’t affect her final exams. When I said it delayed me… I meant something else.”

Morris made a curious sound: “Oh?”

“Ahaha, I’ve probably just been a bit too tired lately,” Heidi gave two awkward dry laughs. “After I hypnotized her, I fell asleep myself, and slept straight until evening…”

“You fell asleep yourself while you were hypnotizing Nina?” Morris’s expression finally changed a little, but he quickly brought it back under control. “That’s not like you.”

“People slip up sometimes, and I haven’t had a vacation in ages,” Heidi waved impatiently. “Come on, stop asking. I’m already an adult, but if I come home a little late, you and Mother both get this tense and throw questions at me one after another…”

Morris only looked quietly at his daughter for a few seconds. Then his face showed the same gentle look as always, and he shook his head with a smile: “Alright, then I won’t ask. There’s food in the kitchen. Just heat it up a bit. I’ll go check on your mother.”

“Okay.” Heidi nodded. After saying goodbye to her father, she headed toward the kitchen. But after only a few steps, she suddenly turned back. “Oh, right, you still plan to go visit that antique shop again later, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Morris was already standing at the bedroom door. The wall lamp on the corridor wall beside him cast a dim yellow light, spilling mottled shadows across his aging face. “Is something the matter?”

“I left in a hurry today, so I didn’t have a proper talk with Mr. Duncan about Nina’s situation. I’ll write him a letter later. When you go over, you can take it with you.”

“No problem,” Morris nodded. Then, as if speaking more to himself, he muttered softly: “I really do have to go again…”

Heidi left, but the old historian with graying hair still stood quietly at the bedroom door. He seemed to be deep in thought. After nearly ten seconds, he finally let out a soft breath and pushed open the dark wooden door.

The light in the bedroom was still dim. In the tastefully decorated room, only a small wall lamp was lit. The yellow light fell down, faintly outlining the shape on the bed.

Morris turned and carefully locked the door, then slowly walked to the bedside.

“Dear, are you alright?”

He spoke softly to the heap of writhing ashes on the bed that still kept a human outline.

From that pile of ashes, which had a blurred human shape and drifted and writhed without stopping, there came a faint whispering sound, as if answering him gently. Among the ashes, the almost-finished knotwork sash made a light rustling sound. Bright silk cords, pulled by the ashes, slowly threaded back and forth, weaving one knot after another, slow yet steady.

“Yes, it’s really beautiful. Your handiwork has always been good,” Morris heard the reply in that faint whisper. He smiled, praising his wife’s weaving as he said: “I still have the one you made for me hanging in my study.”

The room fell quiet. In the dim light, time itself seemed tricked into freezing at this moment. But after half a minute, Morris still broke the silence: “Heidi went out today. When she came back, one red agate bead on her bracelet was gone.”

The ashes on the bed suddenly went still and let out a low murmur.

“I still don’t know exactly what happened,” Morris spoke slowly. “If that was one of our Lord Rahm’s protections taking effect, it means Heidi ran into a danger today that was strong enough to pierce her rational defenses. But Heidi herself doesn’t know anything. I didn’t sense any malicious intent on her either. It looks more like she brushed past ‘something’ without knowing, and passively triggered the bracelet’s protection…”

Morris suddenly stopped and performed a Listening Rite, tilting his head toward the faint murmurs coming from the ashes.

“Yes, after I reminded her, Heidi noticed the missing part of the bracelet. That’s the problem—she believes that red agate bead never existed in the first place,” Morris nodded. “This is a kind of self?protection. It might come from her own intuition, or it might come from the ‘enlightenment’ of the God of Wisdom. But either way, this protection is stopping her from learning more about certain things…

“As for me? I want to go investigate. I’ll go by myself.”

The pile of ashes on the bed rose and fell slightly.

Morris shook his head. “There may be some risk, so I’ll do prayer and divination in advance. But I must go. I’ve actually been to that place once. It only looked like an ordinary antique shop. A diligent shopkeeper and a studious child lived there. I didn’t sense any malice or evil power lurking in it at the time…

“So if the dangerous factor only appeared in that shop today when Heidi visited, then the master of that shop might also be under threat. My student lives there, so I have to go see.

“After all, I am her teacher, and also a Servitor of the God of Wisdom…”

Morris spoke softly. Then he heard faint whispers from the ashes on the bed again. He tilted his head, listening with the Listening rite for a long time, before slowly shaking his head.

“No. We can’t alarm the people at the Cathedral… They might handle it more effectively, but their overly forceful style could also put my student in danger. For the Church’s Guardians, suppressing heresy and wiping out evil always comes first. And…”

Morris paused and let out a quiet sigh before he went on: “And honestly, I don’t really want to draw the Cathedral’s attention. After all… I am a man whose faith has already wavered, and who hides a heretic.”

His voice grew low. His eyes, carrying the power of gaze, rested gently on the pile of ashes on the bed—rested on his wife, who had already died in a great fire eleven years ago.

Rested on the shadow she had left in the mortal world.

The ashes slowly rose. A stream of ash seemed to gather into the shape of an arm and lightly brushed across Morris’s face.

“I know… I know…” Morris lowered his head, as if talking to himself, yet also as if confessing to some unseen presence. “I am someone whose faith has wavered, and I’m too cowardly to fall completely. The God of Wisdom gave me eyes that could see through falsehood that day, but I weakly closed them and made an unrealistic wish. I wanted to keep you in this world, yet I couldn’t completely lie to myself… and instead, I trapped myself in this most awkward state…”

He raised his head and lightly closed his hand around that drifting strand of ash, but his fingers passed straight through the dust.

“I really wish I were as ignorant as Heidi. Then I could see your other form clearly… I haven’t seen you for eleven years.”

A soft sound came from the ashes, like sand rubbing together, or like a small, warm fire crackling. Morris listened to the sound, and his heart slowly calmed down.

“I understand, I understand… This will all end. Every stage has its curtain call. No matter what answered my wish that day, one day it will come to claim its destined price. I’ve actually been ready for a long time. When it comes to take that price, I will make myself disappear from this world, cleanly and completely. Not even the shadows of Subspace will be allowed to use this one ‘wish’ to reach into the Mortal Realm. But…”

Morris raised his head and fixed his gaze on the outline of ashes in the dim light.

“But before that day comes… stay with me a little longer.”