NOVEL NEXT Conjecture
Chapter 43 Conjecture
Before the hat had come to speak with Aleshia, the entire soul space had been shaking violently, filled with Kailey's hopelessness, bewilderment, and anguish. As mentioned earlier, the space within Kailey intensified her emotions, acting like an echo chamber for Kailey's raw feelings. However, because Aleshia was still a part of Kailey, she could influence or change the emotions inside the space by using her own emotions and reasoning to overcome Kailey's feelings. With the guidance of the witch hat, Aleshia suppressed the emotions that had filled the space.
"I understand now. Thank you for helping me get out of the predicament and calming me down," Aleshia said with gratitude. She felt calmer and more capable of changing the situation and expressing her thoughts. The witch's hat asked Aleshia what she could see happening to Kailey inside her soul since they were connected at a soul level. The soul space Aleshia currently occupied was distinctly different from the one where she had made her soul. The previous space was only characterized by bright blue skies, while the current space was filled with land, hills, and forests. Aleshia calmed down and found herself in a space filled with grassland. Despite being outdoors, the scene seemed unreal. Various panels were displayed around Aleshia, showing the vision of Kailey's eyes. They also held reports of Kailey's condition.
With the question from the hat in her mind and the emptiness inside her, Aleshia fervently scrolled through the feeds the panels showed. She dissected the images on the screen to better understand the nuances and came to a conclusion. She announced it to the witch hat that was connected with her. "Let me start by saying, I heard you say the book Kailey read was called The Tome of Desire, am I correct?" The hat replied, "Correct." With the hat's agreement, Aleshia continued with her monologue. "I believe, from what I have been told by Kailey, she had wished to find a cure to a curse she had and pinned her hopes on finding the cure in this ruin since all of the evidence pointed to it having said cure. Another reason might be that we are connected in the soul, which could have caused the Tome of Desire's effect to work differently than in other cases.
The hat digested these words and responded with its own conjecture. "The more likely reason Kailey was affected differently than the others might be because her soul was connected to yours. Since your two souls were intertwined, the connection between you and her could have caused it to affect her differently."