Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 19: Collusion

Chapter Nineteen: Collusion

Amelia was frantically running around her home in search of things to pack. Ella watched from the kitchen table as she darted to and fro, lazily sipping a mug of tea as she frantically gathered a bunch of books and stuffed them into a huge satchel.

"Hey," Ella grumbled, looking at her with half-lidded eyes. "I said not to bring any damageable materials. Why are you packing books?"

"To teach Phil," Amelia said breathlessly. "They won't get damaged if I'm careful."

Ella scowled, but said nothing more, choosing only to watch as the bespectacled girl frantically threw several more things into the satchel. However, when a huge crystal-tipped staff literally vanished out of sight, she jumped and blinked at the bag sitting on the table, then jerked back and leaned beneath the wood, peering around with suspicious eyes.

Amelia paused, noticing her actions.

"Something wrong?"

"Yes!" Ella exclaimed. "Where did that staff go?!"

"Er, it's in the bag," Amelia said, looking at her a little strangely. "You just saw me put it in."

Ella gawked at her, then got up and hurried over to peer inside, but to her shock, it was literally right there... although, the satchel somehow stretched way deeper than it should have been able to.

"What in the name of all things good...?" she breathed. "Either my eyes are deceiving me, or this isn't exactly a normal travel bag!"

"Yes, that's right!" Amelia laughed. "It belonged to my father. All of his old traveling packs had magic imbued into them to make traveling lighter and easier!"

"A magic traveling bag?" she muttered, furrowing her brows when the girl stuffed thirty more huge books inside the satchel before adding a parasol and an entire armful of clothes. "How peculiar... I've never seen one before, but I have heard of them."

"This house is full of magical oddities thanks to my father," Amelia explained, throwing quite a few more odds and ends into it. "After my mother disappeared because of a failed dream walking spell, he became obsessed with uncovering the secrets of all magical types."

Ella froze.

"Your mother disappeared because of a dream walking spell?" she asked, blinking twice. "That can't be true. I once asked your father why your mother wasn't around and he said that she was traveling far, far away!"

Amelia's hands slowed for a moment.

"That's because she is, "she murmured. "She's so far away that there's an entire plane of existence between us, Ella. Dream walking is far more dangerous than you might think. I don't know what possessed you to consider using it, but if something goes wrong, the same thing could happen to one of us."

Ella felt unconvinced.

Amelia took no notice of her discomfort and headed over to the kitchen, rapidly gathering up all of her herbs from their containers.

"How could someone simply disappear?" she eventually asked. "That can't be possible, can it? There has to be a way to find her, right?"

"Nobody knows," Amelia murmured, grinding up multiple medicines with expert fingers. "Dream walking is one of twelve unexplored magics in this world, and the reason its so hard to find people who use it is because many mages are afraid of the consequences."

"Then why did your father continue to dabble in it?"

"Because my mother, as I just said, is still missing," she explained. "The reason my Papa left home in the first place was to take a job for some money and magic supplies to continue his research on it. His goal was to find my mother. He just hasn't returned from the job yet."