There is a field of golden wheat that spans beyond the horizon. In the middle of it, is a girl looking around, uneasy while facing her.
She twirled happily before facing the girl again.
"Wha thu you think?" A heavily accented voice spoke full of excitement and joy. It was Alina's voice.
"I don't know Darga. Why do we need so much of this strange plant?" The girl said in a different language; The Barbarian language.
"It is a commodity in this world. After they mature, we can gather and sell them for money that we can use to free more of our people that are in their cities, where we cannot reach them."
"Why can't we free them the usual way?"
"Do you know why I keep reminding you not to kill anyone? It is because of the prejudice against us. If we kill them while freeing others from the slave trade, then all the other nations will all go against us and think we are incapable of being civil." She explained. "If we want to free them in their own lands then we have to do it by following their own laws. If we 'buy them' we can get them out of their lands and back home without shedding any blood on both sides and change their perception of us." Then she finished in the universal language. "That is the way to achieve prosperity and peace."
The scenery changed again and it did not look beautiful and peaceful.
*
There was gunshot.
It came out of nowhere.
It went through her and hit a young boy in the heart.
It hurts so much.
She should have been the one that died, not him.
Please not him.
Take my life instead.
*
"NOOO!!!!!!!" Amy opened her eyes and shot up from her bed gasping for air like all the breath in her lungs were gone.
She look over to see the figure again, just standing there, watching, no longer smiling but watch with an impartial expression as she is about to lose her life.
Anna came in to see Amy, gasping for air, with a look as if one were dying.
"Miss!!" she then looks in the hallway. It seems that there is a commotion. Amy wanted to keep screaming. This felt so real that she could feel it. The cold but odd warmth and the life draining in front of her.
The servants gathered around and calmed her down. Then her family appeared.
"You keep having so many nightmares that it's affecting your sleep, Amy. Why is this happening?" her mother cried.
Amy calmed down seeing her parents and other familiar faces until she collapsed in her father's arms after the adrenaline rush stopped. She's fine. She's not dying. She's safe in her bed.
"That's it. We need to call a doctor." he said. "Call for one now!" He ushered a servant who immediate ran out of the room.
They just keep getting worse. Amy frustratingly thought and she began heavily before closing her eyes again.
*
It started two days after she returned home from the Academy, she had dreams. Some are pleasant, others are unusual but they weren't disruptive. It didn't get this bad until a little a month ago. She even gets them while she is awake. After realizing what she is going through is not normal, she called for Alabaster's help and she didn't like what she heard.
*
With Viola's high perception, Amy had no choice but to sneak outside the mansion and into her workshop to meet Alabaster while she is still in range but at the same time, keeping Alabaster out of it.
After seeing him sneak in, he took off his cloak.
"Listen, these dreams and hallucinations..."
"Let me examine you first." Alabaster stopped her and examined her eyes, hearing and heart rate. "These visions of yours, I have seen them in our mental connection. It is just as I suspected, you have Temporal Disease." he declared.
Amy was in complete shock at this information. "What? But that's not right. If I have the disease, then I would've gotten it the moment I used the device."
"You traveled back in time and avoided the shock of being seen and changing the timeline, only exposing yourself to mostly me." he noted, "You got it the moment you return back to the present. Since it was a short time, the effects should also last temporarily."
"How long?"
"A couple of months to a year estimate..." he answered with uncertainty.
"I don't like that tone in your voice." she worriedly comments.
"It is difficult to say that the effects will get worse before it gets better."
"WHAT?!!" she outraged.
Alabaster has a determined look. "It will also be difficult to hide this once the hallucinations and visions become more solid. When it reaches that point, you will have trouble differentiating between reality and illusion."
"It's not contagious if we share a link, is it?"
"No, but it might be best to cut it off prematurely with Alina to prevent spoilers. You and I are pretty much the same now, so it doesn't matter."
She nodded as she began hallucinating Alabaster as his movie self again but thankfully it is transparent so it is easy to tell it is a hallucination.
"Yeah,"
"We might have to rethink our plans as well. With your mind deteriorating like this, you would be in no condition to go ahead with our next plans."
"I will leave it all to you then." she says. She pulled out a large notebook from her bag and gave it to him. "These are all the items I have recreated from my original life. With these, we can finally modernize."
"With the money, we can finally use it to fund our search for the succubus."
"Alina would need it more. If you gather enough influence, then we can free the slaves in places that she would not be able to reach. She has successfully eliminated the slave trade for her people. Now all that is left is everything else."
"We have going way too far ahead. The succubus is necessary for the plot."
"You said it yourself. I would be incapable of doing anything for a year. Who knows how far this could escalate. Since I will be staying home for at least a year, I will have to do work on our creations."
Alabaster seems to be slightly distressed. "I'll can do that and also keep an eye on you. I hope you don't mind me spamming Hecate often."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Did you think I spent the last month doing nothing? There is much work to be done. I will be busy for a couple but I will be close by you as a personal doctor. I am the only person alive right now who understands how to treat temporal disease."
Amy looks unimpressed. "Are you gonna use rats as a treatment again? You nearly killed all the rats available at the school. It is kinda hard to hide this. Besides I doubt you will find enough to keep my mind intact for at least a year."
"I searched for places that are infested with rats and gathered as many as I could after suspecting you have the disease. The ritual requires you to be in solitude but since we share a mental link, I will do it instead and transfer their brain power to you the moment your hallucinations become too real."
After huffing out a sigh, she looked at Alabaster. "Fine by me."
She then thought about something for a moment. "There is something I need you to do for me." She then gave him an envelope and a box. "I need you to find this man."
He opened it to reveal a picture.
He immediately recognized it, and he didn't even need to open the box to know what it is.
"Is it time?"
Amy nodded.
"Why him? I could-"
"My parents won't allow a man without any background into my home as my doctor. You can try to fake credentials, but it won't work here. My father is a deputy minister. He would know how to tell a fake from a real now. Also, this man is highly revered, but you see my mind and know of his true character already. I initially planned to wait a few more years to catch him but this man is already beyond redemption. You, on the other hand, focus on the task at hand."
"Very well."
"Also, I need some materials. They are very rare and it requires getting into monster territory."
"I think I know which one you are talking about." he said hesitantly, pausing for a moment before speaking, "alright, I'll see what I can do."
*
With the worms, she and Alabaster not only share their knowledge but their thoughts. He is on board with her plan and act on her behalf. She cannot let people see any connection with her and Alabaster. To live in this new timeline, he had a clean slate. He even decided to use one of his middle names as his new identity; Bowen.
Amy walked to her workshop with Anna trailing behind her.