"So Ailsa, do you mind telling me what you're plotting this time?"
"Ah, when have I ever plotted?"
"Oh, really? You wish to play that card?"
"I'm sorry Aiden, I don't think I know what you mean, so do you mind telling me how I may be of help to you? , I have other things to attend to."
"Ah, yes, you're a busy lady, I was told you came out yourself this time."
Ailsa just smiled.
Since the moment Aiden started speaking, they had been going back and forth with roundabout questions and answers but never really giving any of their real intentions out.
They just knew in their hearts that this was just a probe.
But even a probe, "if it lasts too long, cracks will eventually appear."
Aiden had tried every roundabout question he knew and Ailsa expertly stuck to the questions as though she were unaware of the hidden meanings. Right when Aiden opened his mouth to speak again the massive building shook violently.
Aiden stood from his seat and looked around with alarm on his face.
"Ailsa, are you really not going to tell me what you girls are planning?, you know I can help and I will help. Do you wish for the captain to move by himself?" He looked at her with clear frustration on his face.
But his eyes narrowed when he saw her face.
Her smile was gone.
This was the second time Ailsa lost her smile in front of him since they knew each other. And he was also one of the few people who knew how terrifying her abilities were.
"What is going on here?"
"A dream, that is what is going on here." A calm voice sounded as the huge double doors were flung open. Evangeline walked in with slightly dishevelled hair but her regality shone brightly in the moment.
Her face also held a tinge of wariness.
Ailsa stood up to meet her while Aiden took large steps back as his gaze met Evangeline's.
He didn't know why or how but he felt like he had just died a couple of hundred times in that moment.
His hand subconsciously moved to his neck, cold sweat dripping down his spine.
"Who... who...."
"A dream you say my lady?" Ailsa interrupted his speech while descending the throne and standing to the side.
Evangeline walked past the both of them and slumped on the throne.
"We have to wake him up else everyone in this city will die."
Ailsa's gaze turned heavier while Aiden immediately panicked.
"Wait...wait...die? Like erased? What is going on?"
Evangeline looked at him with an expression of pure pity.
" Don't you know what happens when a human dreams?"
Ailsa shook her head and replied. "We all lost our ability to dream, even in sleep. After the fall it's a common phenomenon. It is now believed that it's impossible to dream because the realm of the subconscious has been replaced by our will."
Evangeline turned to Aiden to see if he also had anything to add to what Ailsa had just said but he was nodding profusely already in agreement to what Ailsa had just started.
Evangeline sighed and shook her head.
"You're all still just kids playing powerhouses after all. There's no time to explain for now. Any ideas to on how to wake him up?"
Aiden lowered his head in contemplation before nodding and lifting it again, he seemed to have figured something out, his gaze drifted to Ailsa and back to Evangeline. Their gaze met for a fraction of a moment making him tremble unconsciously.
He tore his gaze away and stepped forward.
"So correct me if I'm wrong. You brought that thing here without any means of controlling it and now it's unleashing one of it's abilities, which has something to do with dreams and you wish to wake it up....."
The more he spoke, the darker Evangeline's face became. Ailsa looked at Aiden with undisguised sympathy before taking two steps back as if she didn't want to be a part of the next course of events.
"ENOUGH!!!" A pressure descended on Aiden, exploding both of his legs into bloody mist, his face crashed into the marble tiles floor violently.
"Be careful of any words you say about the master else you wouldn't even know how you died." Her voice dripped with rage like a demon speaking from the depths of hell.
With a gentle tap of her finger against the armrest of the throne, the pressure vanished.
Another tap, his legs were restored.
He was raised up with another form of pressure bringing him back on his feet again. This time his trembling couldn't be hidden.
There were so many reasons why he was trembling but one word range heavily in his mind. 'Master?'
He kept asking himself.
' where do all this monsters keep coming from? Wait so if this one is just a servant does that mean the other one was more harrowing than this?, what has Steins gotten me into? I need to tell the captain...no wait...will I be able to leave here in one piece?"
He looked around the room with obvious terror written on his face.
At that moment, Ailsa spoke.
"My lady, he seem to have some kind of mental trigger, if we can trigger a specific emotion, he might react. The problem is we don't know how he'll react."
Evangeline nodded her head in agreement.
"As resourceful as ever, but since we don't know how bad his reaction would be, it's still the same as the threat his current state poses."
She closed her eyes for some moments.
The building trembled once again.
They all tried to remain calm except for Aiden who just wished to get out of the place as fast as possible.
"All I know is he has no affection, so we can't trigger a soft reaction. It only ranges from bad to worse. We just need to find the bad."
She stated.
Ailsa nodded. "I'll do it."
"Oh, seems you figured something." Evangeline replied with a raised brow , she was indeed surprised by Ailsa's action
"Alright, I'll take you there, for the meantime, you, the boy, get everyone out of this building."
She instructed while standing and with a touch on Ailsa's shoulder they both vanished from sight.