Chapter 214
Chapter 214
ARIA
* 66%
Finished
Then-slowly, gradually-I felt something change. The blood flow didn’t stop, but it slowed. The wound didn’t heal, but the active bleeding reduced to something less catastrophic. My body felt strange-numbed in ways that had nothing to do with cold-but the immediate dying sensation cased slightly.
Stasis. The nightshade had put my wound into stasis. Bought me time.
Not much time. This wasn’t a cure. Wasn’t even close to proper medical treatment. But it was something. A temporary measure that might keep me alive long enough to… what? Get help? Find actual medical supplies? Hope that someone discovered me before the hightshade’s own toxicity became a problem?
I lay there, bleeding more slowly but still bleeding, my thoughts struggling to organize themselves into anything coherent through the combined effects of blood loss and poison.
And that’s when I saw her.
Another Ivory. Walking through the trees, heading toward a small pond I could just barely see through the forest growth. Moving with purpose, like she had a destination in mind.
I blinked, certain I was hallucinating. Certain the blood loss or the nightshade poison was creating visions. Because I’d just watched Ivory walk away after stabbing he. She couldn’t be over there by the pond.
Unless…
My foggy brain struggled with the thought. Struggled to make sense of what I was seeing.
The Ivory by the pond reached the water’s edge and knelt down, beginning to wash something-her hands, maybe? Her knife? I couldn’t see clearly from this distance.
And then I saw movement to my left. Another figure. Another Ivory, this one gathering herbs from plants growing near an outcropping of rocks. Moving with that same focused precision I’d observed so many times in her laboratory and gardens.
Three Ivories. I was seeing three different Ivories, all dressed identically, all moving independently of each other.
This wasn’t real. Couldn’t be real.
But it was happening. Three identical figures, all doing different things, all appearing completely solid and present.
Magic. Illusions. The Ghost Council creating magical duplicates of competitors to confuse and disorient us. To make finding our actual partners nearly impossible when we couldn’t trust that the person we were seeing was real.
Which meant…
Which meant the Ivory who’d stabbed me might not have been real. Might have been an illusion designed to test whether I’d attack my own partner, whether I’d fal for the deception, whether I’d survive when my supposed teammate turned hostile.
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15:04 Wed, Jan 14 D GD.
Chapter 214
But the knife had been real. The wound was real. The blood was real.
Illusions that could cause actual harm. Magical constructs solid enough to stab, to injure, to kill.
66%
Finished
How was I supposed to find the real Ivory when I couldt trust that any of the Ivories I saw were actually her? How was I supposed to survive when my own partner’s image could be weaponized against me?
I lay there on the forest floor, poisoned and bleeding, watching three different versions of my partner move through the forest doing three different things, and I realized with terrible clarity just how thoroughly I was fucked.
The Hunt had barely started.
And I was already dying.
With no way to know which Ivory was real. No way to call for help without potentially attracting another hostile illusion. No way to survive this on my own.
I was alone. Dying. Surrounded by illusions of the one person who was supposed to be helping me.
When every version of my partner I saw might be the one trying to kill me.
The Ghost Hunt had officially become a nightmare. And I was trapped in it with no way out. Bleeding. Poisoned. Alone.
Mark