Luke remained guarded outside her room.
Sometimes he would leave, but he was always close by, he was always around. Alyssane could hear the distinct sound of his steps crossing the corridor, like a restless ticking clock.
He did not answer any more of her questions.
But they were slowly eating her up alive.
With no one to ease her worries, her confusions, how could Alyssane remain at peace? Her fate was undecided, and now, even the fate of the city she was in seemed dark.
The next morning, Alyssane found out that the city was not entirely abandoned. A few people would wander about during the bright hours, but as soon as the evening started to fall, everyone would leave the city.
Luke refused to tell her what was wrong.
On her second night at the tavern, Alyssane stuffed some pillows under the sheets and sneaked out from the windows. If they really wanted her to confine her, the knights should have chosen a different place.
How could she calmly sit when the other world was so closer? When the answers to her questions were lying just beyond those gilded walls?
As soon as Alyssane reached down, she broke into a run through the empty streets.
'I will return before anyone finds out!'
Escaping without a proper plan was only going to get her dragged back into confinement and suffer punishment. For now, even half an hour was enough, all Alyssane wanted were some clues about what was wrong with the city.
If eventually she is required to make a run from the knights, she had to understand her options.
Gasping for breaths, Alyssane slowed down in front of a small shop.
It was the only one with its door slightly open. The windows were dusty, and it almost appeared as if no one had entered the shop in ages.
Alyssane creaked the door open, welcomed by a scent of rotting wood and old things, nothing else could be felt or seen in the darkness.
Feeling uneasy, she decided to turn back but a voice stopped her.
"Careful," an old lady said, "These are dangerous times."
Alyssane stared into the darkness, trying to see something but only the shadows stared back, "Dangerous?"
There was a long silence.
"Curse," the old lady murmured without emotion, her voice hollow, "Everyone is cursed. Everyone is dying."
"What do you mean?" Alyssane hesitantly walked deeper inside the shop.
The darkness never dimmed, as if it was woven from wicked magic and not the shadows of nature. Her body stiffened with each step she took, but there were worse things that awaited.
Alyssane was not truly afraid of anything anymore.
The old woman said nothing.
But she flicked a lighter, and lit up with a glass lamp. The warm glow spread and revealed the shop's aged treasures making Alyssane's breath caught up in her throat.
'This has to be unreal.'
It was like being inside a pirate's vault, wherever her eyes went, there was something unusually distracting―overly ornate antiques, relics that seemed to be from another time, all lying over each other like junk.
But nothing took Alyssane back as much as the giant painting hanging in a corner.
It was of a goddess in a ferocious stance, her bare skin was black as the night. Instead of a pair of eyes, she had numerous white glaring eyes opening on her forehead,
Her hair were wildly tousled down to her feet and an unsettling smile stretched on her lips.
"The Goddess with Thousand Eyes" the old lady whispered, her voice tinged with more sadness. "No one remembers her name now."
The old lady was a small woman, barely reaching Alyssane's elbows as she walked there while tightly holding the lamp.
"A Goddess?" Alyssane whispered, her gaze unable to move from the painting for a long moment.
"She knew everything, saw everything." The old lady said in a low voice. "Sometimes, she cursed or blessed people with her sight… her visions…"
Alyssane replied, "I have never heard of her."
The old lady smiled dryly, "Of course, you haven't."
Most of the temples were destroyed during the Warring Era, the ancient history crushed and its fragments selected by the kings and emperors to create new gods that better suited them.
"But… no…" the old lady whispered to herself, "to the east… no… not there… was it the river?"
She closed her eyes and shook her head repeatedly.
Alyssane did not notice the sudden odd shift at first, her thoughts lingered on all the things the goddess could mean. The visions.
'Perhaps I am seeing visions…'
'Or am I in a denial?'
The old lady grew silent once again.
Her gaze was unfocused as she stared at the image of the goddess. But then, she turned and walked towards the door and looked at Alyssane.
Alyssane nodded with a smile as she proceeded to leave, "Can you tell me what happened with the city?"
The old lady slowly frowned, and a few moments passed as the meaning of Alyssane's words dawned upon her. Her gaze was still strangely distant.
"Fire." She murmured, her lips parting to say more but they did not move as half a minute passed by, she was standing still, her lips slightly parted, and her gaze was wide as if watching something neither of them could see.
Alyssane paused in front of the old woman, "Are you okay?"
The old lady said nothing.
Her heavy eyes blinked slowly as if trying to fight off the daze of sleep. But then, she collapsed. Her lamp shattered on the ground, its metal shards digging through her face and neck.
Alyssane flinched, staggering back a few steps as she watched the blood seep out from the old woman at a frightening speed. Her eyes were only half open and her lips formed a deep frown.
She murmured as the blood choked her words, "You must le-leave…"
A firm hand grabbed Alyssane's shoulder.
Startled, she looked up, and found Kazmun's intense gaze staring into hers―eyes filled with a cold heat that simmered under her skin.
Kazmun's gaze darkened as he lowered it to the side of her face, and slowly but roughly brushed off a drop of red.
"Why are you always in the wrong places?"