Chapter 255: The Logic of Dreams
Fog curled around a woman who was in turn draped in a worn leather cloak, which covered her entire body and had its hood up. It was ragged at the edges, especially around the hood, and had a few patches on it from where it had been torn and repaired, most likely from snagging on bushes or thorns.
Thanks to the strange lighting, the source of which Belladonna could not detect as it was yet another mystery of this space, the woman’s face was half shrouded in shadows. Her eyes were hidden from view, but Belladonna could still see the bottom half of her face, revealing a hidden beauty.
A delicate jawline, a petite nose and full lips that were twisted into a mischievous smile that reminded Belladonna of the Brownie statues.
"Wouldn’t do what? I’m not doing anything?" Belladonna asked with a frown, looking over this strange woman whose presence only added to her confusion.
"Aren’t you?" The woman replied, her voice coming not from her body, but directly beside Belladonna.
Belladonna flinched and stumbled backwards, whipping her head towards the woman that now stood beside her. She glanced over to where she had once stood, finding the area completely empty. A delayed teleportation? Some kind of body double?
"Tsk tsk, there you go. Doing it again." The Strange Woman chastised with a click of her tongue, causing Belladonna to frown deeper and grit her teeth in irritation.
"Doing what?!" She barked back, glancing around and waiting for the woman to teleport again.
However she remained corporeal as she glided through the fog, over to the half formed figures from Belladonna’s dream. By now they should have formed fully, but they seemed to have frozen the moment that Belladonna looked away.
As the woman approached, their formation unpaused, but it didn’t get much further before the woman blew softly, scattering the figures and the entire forest of fog with a single breath, like she was blowing out candles.
"You’re thinking." The woman explained, or at least she spoke like that explained anything, before glancing over at Valerie and flashing her another mischievous smile.
"Curious, so that is how you see yourself, hmm?"
Valerie frowned again, wondering what the hell this woman was talking about, before following her gaze down. She looked at herself and found... herself. Her real self, was standing here in this strange realm.
She wasn’t dressed in the outfit that she had been wearing when she logged into the game. Instead it was her favourite outfit. It was nothing special, comfortable lounge pants, a very worn out t-shirt that used to display a video game reference before the design faded, and a warm hoodie.
It was her favourite not because of how it looked, but because it reminded her of times long passed. When she could just comfortably relax, not have to care about her condition and spend her nights playing games without a single worry.
Even more than her outfit, Valerie could see her body was like it was before her condition started to ravage it. However, just like before, as soon as she started to think about it, her body started to shrivel and a chair started to form from the fog.
"No!" Valerie shouted, clenching her eyes closed tight and trying to banish the thoughts away, but getting rid of thoughts wasn’t that easy. It was the issue of the pink elephant. Someone shouting at you ’Don’t think of a pink elephant!’ immediately makes you think of one.
It was such the case, that a pink elephant started to form out of the fog. Valerie was so busy focusing her mind, that she did not notice the creature’s appearance, but the strange woman naturally did and could not help but laugh at it.
Not thinking about it wasn’t working. Her mind was going too fast, and kept going back to it no matter what she did. Not only was the chair still forming, but the pink elephant was too. Changing her focus, the two of them halted their manifestation, before slowly dissolving back into fog.
When she finally opened her eyes, she raised up her hands and turned them over as she inspected them. They were not the hands of Valerie, but of Belladonna once again, as instead of trying to banish the thoughts she simply focused on who she was at this moment and why she was here.
She was Belladonna right now. Not Valerie. Not a cripple, not a normal girl. She was the Baroness of Blood, and she was here for answers and power. Even if she was Valerie... that girl was gone for good.
Her ’normal self’ was no longer frail and helpless. No longer normal. Belladonna and Valerie, they were both the Baroness of Blood. That is who she was.
Taking a deep breath, Belladonna’s form solidified as she set her eyes on the woman before her, who slowly applauded.
"Very good. See? I told you, thinking. It can get you into a lot of trouble, especially if you let your mind wander. Here, a thought is all it takes to be reality. Think of it like an endless dream. Illusion, reality, neither exist and yet they both do.
It all relies on you." The Strange woman said with a mischievous smile and a cackle, before she dissolved into fog once again.
"You seem to know a lot about this place," Belladonna said lowly, her amusement gone as she stared at the empty space in front of her. She sighed again, before turning on her heels to face the woman that had silently appeared behind her.
The two of them directly face to face, so close that they could reach out and touch each other.
"So, who are you?"
"Me? Well, I go by many names." The woman said with a sigh, before another version of her appeared next to Belladonna.
"Lady of the Lost." The duplicate said, before another spawned. "Guider of the Dead. The First Trickster. Patron of Thieves. Mistress of the Mist, that one is my favourite, I just love the way it sounds." She said with a laugh, or more accurately her duplicate did.
With each announcement of a title, a new duplicate appeared to announce it. Slowly but surely creating a circle of hooded women around Belladonna, before it was the one in front of her that spoke again.
"All of these names, and so many more. But you may call my Sylvi. Goddess of Trickery."
