Alma's Dreams (are Default) [An Eldritch Thriller]

"What just happened?" asked an astonished Zulema. "Your transformation just… wore off. It didn't appear to be your doing. Are we already too late?"

"Gods, no! It… wears off fast unless I get a steady drip of magic." Heloise's gaze fell. "I hated it at first, the way it turns me into a butt-ugly abomination, but the power is spicy. Y'know? And now Daddy Derleth's all 'it's gonna kill you.' Why can't I ever have nice things?"

"Maybe if you ever did anything to deserve them."

"Shut. UP. Right now. Or I will literally grind your STUPID bird bones between my teeth!"

"Ah… Yes. Da—Derleth I'm sure knows of a way to help you with your predicament." Zulema turned from towering man at her side down to herself, then to the witch. "L-Loise, we have a lot we should probably discuss right now and I'm sure you must be freezing. Let's head inside, shall we?"

Heloise gave her a look. "Inside? Inside where? That ratty old tree stump? I don't think that's gonna change anything, Zula."

"Hrm." Derleth groaned as he walked toward his tree, circling around to the backside while the others followed. As he crossed through the illusory passage, the witch swore loudly.

"This was here the whole time?! Merde ! How did I not find this earlier?"

"It is not magic," replied the eldritch man. "This pocket dimension is more akin to science in nature. It would not have been something detectable to you by any magical means."

"Well, don't mind I do!" Carthas waddled through the snow past the portal.

"Ugh." Heloise scoffed as she entered.

The glacial ex-priestess followed behind them. She was always in awe at how such a huge space could fit in a much smaller area. Walls on each side that would normally end halfway through the forest. Massive doors within colossal walls that towered over the biggest tree outside. It felt like entering into the throne room of a world-reigning monarch. Then again, perhaps that's exactly what this was.

"Brr!" The witch shivered from head to toe, hugging herself tightly. "You should've warned me walking through that barrier felt like cannonballing straight into an icy pond! This isn't funny! This place is not any warmer than the outside!"

"Really?" Zulema seemed surprised. "It always just felt refreshingly cool to me. I suppose my body really has changed more than I realized… Being stuck up here for so long, just standing out in the snow like it's nothing has become second nature."

"Ugh, we still so gotta talk about that! Like, exactly how long have you been a badass ice knight?! And seriously, what the actual fuck happened to your eye? Spill, babe! Spill now!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Zulema stayed silent for a moment, then cast a glare toward Derleth. "I suppose an explanation is due, since you know this much already. Just… give me a moment."

The knightess's eye fell closed as she began to focus. The armor of frost encasing her body shimmered and melted on her skin, swirling around her limbs and torso like a living glove of glowing white water. The liquid enveloping her swirled along her skin before resolidifying and forming into a fanciful, ornate robe of ivory. A sacred dress with silvery lining acutely akin to her old nunnery robes, but tight around the waist and with a frilled, asymmetrical hem that cut off right above her left knee and a strap of fabric that hung down from her hip.

"Oh my Dark God! Zula! You look totes gorgeous! You can literally just change your dress on the fly?! I would kill for that power. Like, actually. Whose throat do I need to slit for a magical wardrobe switch?"

"Loise…" Zulema's eye slowly fluttered open, gazing down at her newly-fashioned dress. "I wasn't even sure this would work. I've only just recently gotten a handle on this ability and I'm very glad I'm not standing naked in front of you right now."

"And there yet remains a gulf of knowledge to cross if you ever wish for the cold that moves through your body to obey."

"Zula, is this guy ever not a downer?"

"Not in my experience." Zulema sighed. She looked beyond to one of the translucent window panes behind the throne, making her way toward the ethereal imagery of the landscape that was an entire universe away. There was a languid, faltering rhythm to her steps, as if her very body resisted crossing into the room's depths.

"Okay, what the fuck?!" The witch, who followed not far behind, was in sudden awe at the horrifying beauty of the alien world. "Merde alors… This dude just keeps, like, an eerie alien snowglobe shoved in here?! Look at those things just stomping around in there like they're alive!"

"That is my old realm." Derleth's voice bellowed behind them. "A place I can never return to."

"Oh. That's like, kinda sad."

Zulema looked back at Heloise with an awkward smirk. "Of all the people I pictured coming to my rescue, you were not among those I was imagining."

Heloise crossed her arms and shrugged, scoffing proudly. "Ouch. I risk frostbite and my manicure, and this is the thanks I get? Pfft. No one ever expects me, Zula. Makes it more fun when I actually do make my entrance."

"Still, I… I just wanted to thank you. It's nice to have another actual human to talk to after everything…" Zulema clears her throat, trying to find the right words for her confession. "Right, where do I begin? I'm sure you've heard your fair share of unpleasant rumors about the Scarlet Church. Outrageous and downright vile rumors that get spread among the rabble." The ex-priestess clicked her tongue before recomposing herself. "S-Sorry. It's still very touchy for me, but I suppose there always was a kernel of truth to it all. And I believed it was all necessary—in the name of Macha."

"Most of your little Church bootlickers act that way, so I can't really hold it against you. Seriously, if you weren't Alma's sister, I would've just lumped you in with the rest of 'em. But you? You've always been alright. For a Scarlet priestess."

"A title that no longer belongs to me…" Zulema squeezed her arm painfully as she leaned against the frosty glass, her gaze tracking the snow dripping from a strange, floating orb in the sky. "Loise. Would you believe me if I told you that among the Scarlet priestesses, there is a clandestine sect of women that are secretly trained to carry out the wetwork of the Scarlet Church? They call them the Scarlet Sisters."