Chapter 20: Mom! Please continue to be the savior!
Liang Lai’s fingers tightened on the drawer handle, knuckles whitening.
She took a deep breath, forcing a gentle smile.
“So late and you’re not asleep?”
Delucia leapt into her arms, hexagram pupils sparkling innocently in the candlelight.
“I want to hear Mom tell stories~”
She tilted her small face up.
Asteris stood quietly at the doorway, the left eye of her teddy bear now blood-red.
Her shadow loomed thick in the candlelight, its edges quivering as if tiny black tentacles writhed within.
“Alright.”
Liang Lai bent down, scooping Delucia up and taking Asteris’s hand.
The moment she touched Asteris’s palm, a piercing chill shot through her.
The corridor’s wall lamps stretched their shadows long.
Liang Lai slowed her pace deliberately, catching a glimpse of Asteris’s shadow.
A strange bulge protruded at its head, resembling a figure in a pointed hat.
“What story would you like tonight?”
Liang Lai pushed open the twins’ door, greeted by the scent of rose perfume.
The bedroom was warm and delicately decorated, with handmade star-shaped lamps above the bed.
But each “star” harbored a curled-up dark shadow.
“I want to hear about Mom’s past!”
Delucia burrowed into the goose-down quilt, a golden glint flashing in her hexagram pupils.
Liang Lai noticed an odd brooch on her pajama collar: an inverted cross entwined with crystal vines.
Asteris climbed onto the bed, placing the teddy bear neatly beside her pillow.
When she turned, her shadow still faced the door, as if another “person” lingered there.
“When I was a kid…”
Liang Lai sat on the bed’s edge, combing her fingers through Delucia’s white hair.
“I loved playing hide-and-seek in the monastery’s back garden. One time, I fell asleep in a rose bush and woke to find…”
Her voice flowed like a night breeze, but her eyes scanned the room for anomalies.
In the dressing mirror’s reflection, Asteris’s shadow slowly raised a “hand,” pointing toward the desk drawer.
It reminded Liang Lai of the parchment she kept there.
“What did you find?”
Delucia’s eager voice tugged at Liang Lai’s sleeve.
Her nails, now translucent crystals, glowed faintly blue in the moonlight.
“A little star hidden in every rose’s stamen.”
Liang Lai tapped Delucia’s nose, slipping a wisp of golden light into her brow—a sleeping spell woven with “joy,” learned from the parchment.
Delucia’s eyelids drooped.
But Asteris grabbed Liang Lai’s wrist.
“Mom, my bear’s eyes hurt.”
She held up the doll, black mucus oozing from its bloodshot right eye.
Liang Lai’s heart clenched.
Pretending to inspect it, she infused a “purification” thought.
Crystals spread from her palm but turned a murky purple upon touching the bear’s left eye.
“I’ll get you new eyes tomorrow.”
She kissed Asteris’s forehead, weaving “peace” into the gesture.
The child’s shadow shuddered, the pointed-hat figure shrinking into a ball.
When the twins fell asleep, Liang Lai tiptoed back to the study.
Locking the door, her legs buckled, and she coughed up black crystal particles.
The side effects of overusing Emotion Crystals were surfacing.
Her left pinky was semi-crystallized, recovery uncertain.
“Not skilled enough…”
Trembling, she retrieved the parchment.
It opened to a new chapter, titled in blood crystal:
Emotional Resonance: Mirror of the Soul
1. Gaze at a crystal in your palm under moonlight.
2. Recall the target’s strongest emotion.
3. Chant “Reflection” and shatter the crystal.
4. Note: Empathy may trigger backlash from the target’s memories.
Liang Lai hesitated.
This power was riskier than the last, but Asteris’s shadow was a thorn in her throat.
She bit her index finger, letting blood drip onto a note in the parchment’s corner:
Claudius needs a medium to parasitize through shadows. Find and destroy it.
The blood vanished into the page, replaced by new words:
A medium is usually an object carrying strong emotions from its host, its shape shifting with the host.
Liang Lai’s thoughts snapped to the teddy bear with its eerie eyes.
She tried to read on, but her vision blurred.
Crystal overuse was taking its toll.
“Tomorrow…”
She hid the parchment in a secret compartment and staggered to her bedroom.
Lying in bed, she stared at the ceiling, pondering why Claudius targeted her.
Was it because she’d saved Duoluosa, turning her from darkness?
Too petty for a false Pope.
“Sigh~”
Liang Lai shook her head.
“That’s unlikely. I don’t fully understand this world, but villains in novels don’t waste effort on trivial grudges. They’re likely after Alphonse VII… starting with easier targets like us.”
It made sense.
Duoluosa had nearly been manipulated by Claudius, exploiting her youth to make her do terrible things.
Liang Lai’s heart ached for the frail girl.
But one thing puzzled her: Claudius had no known ties to Asteris or Delucia.
The false Pope’s followers were Darkborn, not Shadowborn, who kept to themselves.
What was his aim with the twins?
“No matter what, I won’t let anything threaten the children’s safety.”
Her eyelids grew heavy, and she slipped into a deep sleep.
In Asteris and Delucia’s room:
“You felt it too, didn’t you, sister?”
Delucia lay on her side, staring at Asteris.
In the dark, Asteris nodded.
“My shadow feels heavy. Something’s mixing in, but… I can’t pin it down.”
Delucia licked her lips.
“It’s fine. We have a plan, but…”
Her eyes gleamed with frenzy.
“I want Mom to keep saving us!”
Asteris’s eyes widened, a flush creeping onto her cheeks.
“Yes! Mom’s our savior! She always saves us!”
She tore open her teddy bear, cotton spilling out.