Timeless Ties || Volturi Kings

10. Meltdown Pt. 1

Sleep is so thin, outta habit
Hard to tell the real from the dreams you imagine

— Niall Horan

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On that Sunday morning, Alessia awoke with anticipation, yet disappointment lingered as her professor hadn't provided the response she desperately needed. Julia remained unresponsive as well. Surprisingly, despite the circumstances, Alessia felt an unusual sense of tranquility. The dream she had with Helios seemed to really have bestowed calm upon her. As peculiar as it felt, she decided that the next time she dreamt of him, she would express her gratitude, even though she felt a bit silly for considering to thank a mere character in her dream.

After brushing her teeth and eating breakfast, Alessia opened her laptop and accessed her Notion to review her tasks for the day. After contemplating her options, she decided to give herself the early morning off from studying to pursue something more interesting that had been on her mind for a while. The places Caius and Aro had mentioned in her dreams caught her attention. Although she had a faint recollection of hearing about them before, she couldn't recall when or where. To satisfy her curiosity, she turned to her ever-reliable companion, Google, to embark on a quest to see if she could find those locations.

As Alessia delved into various websites, her determination paid off when she stumbled upon a map titled "Historical Europe: 1300 BC." A sense of excitement washed over her as she realized that this was precisely the period her dreams with Aro and Caius were set in, if the names in the places were anything to go by.

Alessia's eyes fixated on the titled map, and she found herself captivated by the intricate details depicting the territories of long-gone civilizations that once flourished across the continent. The names of the Thracians, Cimmerians, Dorians, Illyrians, Mycenae, Slavic, Lausitz culture, Celtic Lighur, Iberians, Basques, Etruscans, Sicans, Italics, etc., were all there. She had heard about at least three of them from Aro and Caius, indicating that her dreams had taken historical accuracy seriously, if she chose to ignore the supernatural aspects of them.

Inspired to explore further, Alessia decided to juxtapose the past with the present. She opened two maps on her laptop screen — one displaying modern-day Europe on one half, and the other showcasing the ancient civilizations.

With focus, she compared the locations of the ancient places with their contemporary counterparts, though some intrigued her more than others. For instance, the Thracians, whom Caius had talked about, once thrived in areas now encompassing Bulgaria, Romania, and parts of Turkey. The Cimmerians, who resisted the Dacians, roamed across lands that now form Ukraine, Belarus, parts of Russia, and its surrounding regions.

The Dorians resided in Macedonian regions and northeast Greece, while the Illyrians had claimed territories that now make up parts of Albania, Bosnia, and Croatia. Mycenae — Caius and Aro's home — was practically the entirety of Greece, minus the northeast.

The Celtic Lighur people once inhabited areas now known as France, Germany, Switzerland, part of Austria, and the Czech Republic. Alessia was familiar with the Iberians, as their heritage lingered in the regions of modern-day Spain and Portugal. One place that particularly caught her attention was the Italics territory, with borders nearly identical to present-day Italy, minus the part where the Etruscans reigned their command.

It was all very interesting and Alessia bookmarked both sites so she could go back to them at any time without the need to repeat the entire Google search process.

Afterwards, she accessed her Introduction to International Relations course materials and delved into her assignment. The task at hand was straightforward - to respond to five questions related to the book "The Twenty Years' Crisis (1919-1939)" written by Edward Hallet Carr. Luckily, her professor had already specified the exact pages to read for answering these questions, making the process a breeze.