Chapter 16 - The Farm in Irttat
Chapter 16: Prisoner of Mirror Lake 02
Lucita blankly wiped away the moisture on her face, stared for a moment, then lowered her head to look at the elf at the bottom of the lake.
These aren't my tears, she thought.
The elf’s pain was so overwhelming that, for an instant, Lucita felt it as if it were her own.
Lucita reached her hand into the lake water. The lake water was bone-chillingly cold, sending ripples across the surface.
She looked at that elf at the lake bottom and murmured: "Who are you?"
The air was thick with visible mist, distorting sound so that voices seemed hollow and distant. The elf’s voice traveled calmly through the water into Lucita’s ears: "I am Violet, King of the Elves."
"Elven King?" Lucita said: "Someone told me the last royal family was captured in the war over five hundred years ago. It’s been five centuries. The elves no longer have a royal line."
"Has it been five hundred years already..." Violet muttered to herself, then sighed: "Lucita—your current body is called Lucita, isn't it? I am that last Elven King who was captured."
Lucita's heart shook: "My current body? What do you mean? Also, as far as I know, the elven race's lifespan is limited to five hundred years. If you are that king, how are you still alive after five hundred years?"
"Do you know what the royal family means to the elven race? It's not power, it's the vessel of the source of life." Violet wasn't annoyed at being doubted. "Mirror Lake, this lake at your feet, the place the elves call the sacred lake, is the elves' source of life."
"In ancient times, the first elf was born from here and from then on occupied the world's forests everywhere. Mirror Lake has a heart. Its heart resides in each generation's royal family, using the royal bloodline as its conduit to bless every elf. Therefore, wherever the royal family is, Mirror Lake is there."
"I should have been killed after being captured five hundred years ago. After my death, Mirror Lake would have chosen a new king to bear Mirror Lake's heart and continue blessing the race. But humanity's great mages discovered this secret, so they refused to kill me. Instead, they sealed me beneath Mirror Lake. Since then, I have remained suspended in this void along with it."
"So if I never regain freedom, I'll live forever."
The severed royal bloodline. The disappearance of Mirror Lake. It aligned with what Sophia had once said. Lucita weighed the pieces in silence.
"Because I've stayed alive, the elven race has been unable to give birth to a new king, and Mirror Lake has been unable to manifest in the world again." Violet laughed self-mockingly: "The king who protects the race ultimately became the sinner who burdens the race."
"From your tone, you know about the elven race. So, how are the elves doing now?"
"Pretty well. They're living in seclusion now." Lucita already somewhat believed her and gave a general answer, then pressed further: "What do you mean by 'my current body'?"
"You don't know?" Violet was surprised for a moment, then explained: "Your soul and body obviously don't match. This body is absolutely not your original body. Your body is a hybrid mixing four races' bloodlines, but your soul is a pure human. They're rejecting each other while also gradually merging..."
At this point, Violet's tone gradually weakened, as if falling into observation and contemplation.
Lucita wanted to ask another question when she heard Violet speak again: "No, your soul doesn't belong to this world at all! The world's rules are also rejecting you. But the longer you live here, the more your soul will gradually cross the barrier of rules. When your soul completely finishes merging with your body, you would truly belong here."
Like a blow to the head, Lucita's mind buzzed.
She furrowed her brow. It seemed many phenomena now had explanations, yet she also seemed to have fallen into an even deeper fog: "How do you know these things?"
"The Heart of Mirror Lake within me grants me a fragment of authority beyond mortal races, close to the divine. It allows me to pierce the world’s rules and perceive what is real." Violet patiently explained: "Your body should have experienced some rejection reactions, right? For instance, losing perception of the world in some aspect."
Yes, first losing her sense of smell, then losing her vision.
Being seen through felt very uncomfortable, but she had indeed obtained some incredible information from Violet. She had never thought that she wasn't actually Lucita, but rather a soul of unknown origin.
Who am I?
Violet obviously understood her physical condition deeply. Since it had come to this, Lucita had nothing to hide: "Indeed, I once lost my sense of smell and have now lost my vision, but my sense of smell has recovered. As for vision, I can see you now. It's probably recovered as well."
Violet's tone was subtle: "Vision recovered? You've probably misunderstood."
"I exist in the void. Ordinary eyes can't see me. This has nothing to do with vision. I don't know why, but your ability to see me, to see the reality lies beneath appearances, doesn't rely on ordinary vision. Last time you came here following that mixed-blood girl, was everything you saw with ordinary eyes match what you see now??"
Indeed different.
Violet's account matched what Lucita had seen. Last time she came here, it was lush with flowers and trees, full of vitality. This time, flowers and leaves were scattered, decayed and crumbling.
So everything she saw this time was the Real?
As for why her eyes suddenly could glimpse the real, Violet wasn't clear, but Lucita had some speculations.
Last time when she smelled "life" and "death," Sophia had also said her sense of smell could perceive the real.
From current observations, her soul and body were in a process of rejection and fusion, and successfully fused senses would seem to undergo evolution, gaining the ability to glimpse the real.
Following this trend, it was foreseeable that hearing, taste, and touch would all be the same.
She felt an unexpected flicker of anticipation.
Violet seemed willing to answer any question. Lucita asked all her speculations and doubts at once: "So you're the one who lured me here? You knew I could see you? What do you want to do?"
"I lured you here through dreams, but I didn't know you could see me." Violet answered unhurriedly, one by one: "I had a premonition in the dark that the opportunity to regain freedom lay with that girl called Garcia, so I've been calling to her for the past hundred years, but unfortunately she could never see me. Until you followed last time, only then did I know this prophecy applied to you."
"As it turns out, I was right. You can actually see me directly. Glimpsing the real, that's a characteristic of divine bodies. Even I, relying on Mirror Lake's heart, can only glimpse certain specific world layers. Luring you here was me exerting influence on you in the dream world."
"Divine body?" Lucita's thoughts flashed quickly.
Then, after her soul and body completely merged, would she evolve into a so-called divine body?
Violet explained: "You should know there are many different kinds of power in this world, various racial talents and magical power. Actually they're distributed in different world layers. Different races can perceive different world layers and thus possess different powers. Only divine beings' consciousness can naturally see through all world layers and obtain all powers. This is why they can hold authority over the world."
"A divine body is the body of a divine being."
"As for what I want..." Violet let out a light breath, looking through the lake water and surrounding treetops toward the night sky, like a weary long sigh: "It's so obvious. I want freedom."
Lucita still retained a thread of wariness and hesitantly found an excuse: "But I can't swim. How can I save you?"
Violet smiled as if seeing through her: "You have merfolk bloodline. How could you not know how to swim?"
"I've never swum before."
"You'll naturally know how once you're in the water."
"These chains are so thick, and I don't have a key. How can I break them?"
"Once the seal is broken, they'll naturally break. The seal objects are at six corners of the lake bottom. Dig them all out and the hexagram magic circle will break by itself."
Lucita was at a loss for words.
Violet instead took a step back: "I know you can't fully believe me based only on my one-sided story. You can contact the elven race, right? They should still have my portrait preserved. Go get it and look, then you'll know."
"Then you'll have to wait, I won't save you tonight?"
"Five hundred years have passed. What's waiting a bit longer?" Violet sighed: "What I lack least now is patience."
Since Violet said this, Lucita felt somewhat guilty instead. She softened her tone: "I'll confirm as soon as possible."
"Thank you." Violet showed a vague smile: "When you have time, could you come chat with me?"
Lucita was noncommittal: "If I have time."
As expected, seeing Violet didn't rely on vision.
Lucita's vision still hadn't recovered, so the return journey was exceptionally difficult. If the thorns on the path hadn't pierced her soles leaving blood, and if her sense of smell weren't exceptionally acute, she probably would have truly been lost in the forest.
Supporting herself against trees and stumbling back to town, there still weren't many people in town, probably the sky hadn't brightened yet.
Locations in town were easy to distinguish by scent. The meaty smell at Ida's, the wheat fragrance at Teresa's shop, the fishy smell at Sylvette's house, all were good positioning tools.
Lucita: No need for a guide dog, I can guide myself.
In the end, she used scent positioning to feel her way home.
At this moment, the first rooster crow came from Ida's farm.
Dawn had broken.
After a whole night of turmoil, Lucita was exhausted.
She used healing arts to heal the cuts on her feet, changed out of the nightgown that had been torn by branches when she unknowingly entered the forest, took a simple shower, then rolled onto the bed wrapped in the blanket and fell asleep.
She woke up again in the afternoon.
Ravenously hungry, Lucita looked at the white bread in her space with no appetite whatsoever.
She'd been eating bread for half a month now. She practically felt sick at the sight of bread.
Lucita picked up her blind cane from the corner, loaded up some silver coins, and decided to treat herself at Lily’s tavern.
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