Chapter 159

Her eyes wandered over everything as though seeing for the first time. She noticed strange writing on the wall and had just bent closer to examine it when she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. Startled, she whirled around to come face to face with Aden.

“Ilyin?” he asked softly, confusion in his eyes. He was wearing the same shirt he’d worn before joining her in bed. She looked back over at her dream-self, still wandering the ruins. She was still accompanied by her Aden, who was dressed more appropriately for roaming outside.

“D-Den?” she stammered in disbelief. Over his head, suspended in space, she could see the ten-color mobile.

I’m in the foresight dream with Aden?

“How…?” Aden started to ask. He stared at the doppelgangers exploring the ruins. But despite his confusion, Aden was always quick to catch on, and he’d heard enough of Ilyin’s dreams to know what they were like. He looked about and spied the mobile above his head.

“This is…,” he said, a little flustered as the conclusion sank in. But the Duke of Winter, more than most, was familiar with the ways and feeling of divine power. “This is a dream. Your dream.”

“I didn’t think you’d come with me,” she said, eyes widening.

“This is because of the red cloth?” he asked.

“It seems so,” she replied. Even the power of the Duke of Winter could be transferred. There was no reason to believe her foresight couldn’t’ be as well. And that made the theory of the foresight’s connection to the divine power of the winter region that much more believable.

“Can I look around a little?” he asked, peering at the ruins around them.

Ilyin nodded. This was her dream anyway. As long as they didn’t encounter the violet-eyed being, she could do whatever she wanted.

Aden always led her in the winter region, but here their roles were reversed. Ilyin took Aden’s hand and took a few steps back. They instantly shifted position, moving towards the wall, to an enormous engraving. It was a tree, so large they had to take a few steps back from it to see it all.

“A tree…,” Aden mused. Ilyin pondered it, slightly confused.

“They – the other us – said this was the Milton’s ruins.”

That means it was in the winter region. So why is there a tree?

She looked at her. The dried vines on the walls must have been green and alive at some point.

“A long time ago,” Aden said, almost whispering reverently as he traced the lines of the tree with his fingers, “Biflten had more than just winter.”

Ilyin felt she’d heard that before, that there’d been trees in Biflten. How long ago? How old were these ruins?

There’s no sign of traps that I can find.

They heard the dream-Aden and looked over at him. He was walking carefully with the dream-Ilyin, examining the ruins as they explored.

“This feels strange,” Aden said. His voice was low, as though he were afraid of being overheard. Not that their dream-selves could see or hear them in any way. Ilyin chuckled.

“I also never imagined I would share a dream with you,” he added.

They looked at the engraving again. The great tree was in front of them, but it was one of many – a huge forest. Ilyin couldn’t believe the number of leaves rendered in it, the exacting detail of it all. But as they scanned over to the right, it changed, becoming sparser.

“Winter,” Ilyin whispered. A log house sat underneath the great tree. Several people stood in front the house, and monsters stood beside it – one that looked human, and five that clearly weren’t.

“This person,” Ilyin said, pointing at the human-like figure among the monsters. Aden glanced at it, but his attention was caught by something else.

“Look at this for a moment,” he said. Next to the forest seemed to be a map.

Ilyin remembered the map of Biflten that she often saw. It had many similar points to this one, except for one – the Milton, in the southeast.

“Wha-?” she said, confused. Instead of a Milton, a beautiful human was drawn there, along with the same Biflten mansion and the estates of the other houses. So . . . were there five monsters and five houses? Not just Delrose, North, Mille, and Elo, but . . . Milton?

“The Miltons once lived here. And they looked human? They looked beautiful?” she wondered.

Aden traced the engravings of people by the log house.

“They’re Miltons,” he whispered. Ilyin turned to him. He seemed uncharacteristically hesitant.

“Ilyin,” he said. Their doppelgangers had joined them at the engraving, and Aden’s voice intertwined with that of his dream-self as they both spoke.

“I met the person you’ve spoken of, Ilyin. The violet-eyed being,” he said.

“You weren’t hurt, were you?” she asked quickly.

“No, not at all,” he assured her. He fell silent for a moment before continuing. “The way he was dressed, the way he looked, he didn’t seem human at all.