Location: Myriad Realms, Lil Red Storm Realm, Ceed World, Trophy Section
Having dealt with Dalie and Corey, I returned to the Trophy Section to deal with Dredre’s new abilities and the other eleven card spirits besides Frosette before heading to the Card World with Redfall and Agent Forger.
"Dredre, did you grow the jungle on the Freedom city on purpose, to get back at Dalie for taking Ceed as her sibling without your permission?" I asked, knowing full well she did exactly that. There was no need for resorting to the third degree; this was Dredre we were talking to. The kindest soul of us all until I tricked and forced her to resurrect someone who wasn’t actually dead, almost killing her. Now she has an unexplainable connection with the ’river of reincarnation,’ which was growing stronger by day, allowing her to actually resurrect the dead.
"I don’t know. But I do think the city does look better with the green garden atop it," Dredre answered after thinking, and wondered if her beef with Dalie stemmed from Ceed or because the latter wanted to force her to produce more forest spirit to join her family. Actually, she was happy to see Ceed go independent and start her life, even if it was under Dalie and Wyatt. Also, she loves to produce forest spirits, the more, the merrier. Therefore, that wasn’t it.
"Well, it is not up to us to decide that. It is Dalie’s city. All we can do is suggest our ideas to her. Next time, just talk to her. Dalie is more open-minded for a celestial," I said, believing Dredre’s every word.
When I say Dalie was open-minded for a celestial, I don’t mean that celestials were a narrow-minded bunch, unwilling to consider new ideas or opinions. They were selective about where these new ideas or opinions come from. This could be seen when the Celestials excluded Dalie from their conversations because she was a celestial spirit and not a true celestial. This wasn’t an issue with Dalie, she willingly offered her life to an unknown sentient organism with unclear intentions just to experience kinship when the opportunity presented itself. Though she was very selective of whom she considered as family.
Listening to Dredre, I had begun to think Dredre didn’t really know the reason behind her actions. Also, it wasn’t news that she preferred lush woods over the concrete jungle. My guess was that these changes in her were the effect of her connection to the river of reincarnation growing stronger.
There was also a little possibility that the visualization method I created for Dredre using my primordial soul pupils might be working beyond my estimation of it when I created it. However, I couldn’t be sure until I had more test subjects, which was impossible.
I could reach out to MayMay, but the thought of meeting her after a long time scared me because of all that accumulated withdrawal. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ate me the moment she laid her eyes on me. Just imagining the numerous possibilities of what meeting MayMay could lead to gave me shivers and, oddly, a little excited.
Either way, I had stumbled upon a way to help pixies gain new abilities. It could have been a potential goldmine if not for the entire pixies race being an enslaved race belonging solely to one powerful entity, the Librarian. Therefore, for now I had to be satisfied with seeing Dredre growing stronger using it without showing any concerning side effects. I couldn’t wait to see what Dredre would develop it into.
"Dredre, since when were you able to move between the planes of the living and the dead?" I asked, as I knew how and why but not when her connection to the river of reincarnation grew strong enough for her to travel between two planes.
"Um, after I achieved grandmaster mastery of the visualization method. I have a feeling that I will soon be able to achieve sage mastery as long as I piece together the missing links. Do you think I will transition to an elder pixie then?" Dredre answered to the best of her knowledge and eagerly asked if her accession to elder pixie was just around the corner.
I wasn’t surprised that Dredre mastered the visualization method to the grandmaster mastery and was even preparing to advance it to sage mastery. It was too fast by standards but not the pixie race’s standards. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹~𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮~𝚗𝚎𝚝
"I am sorry, Dredre. I no longer think that the changes in you, though similar to an elder pixie’s traits, are signs of you developing into one. I will need to consult an expert on this, as I am beginning to think it is something entirely different," I apologized, recanting my previous speculation that changes in Dredre were signs of her developing into an elder pixie. I did so because these changes came with new abilities that weren’t heard of in their race. As much as I was heartbroken about disappointing her, I couldn’t lead her on as I had no idea what it took for a pixie to develop into an elder pixie. All I could do was make assumptions, and they weren’t always correct. That was what happened here.
"I thought so. Becoming an elder pixie wouldn’t be easy," Dredre sighed, a little disappointed but not enough to lose sleep over it.
"Easy? You do know that I almost lost you and had to resort to extreme methods to bring you back?" I said in disbelief, recalling how Dredre lost consciousness reviving Redfall.
Yes, Redfall had already made it to the living plane and found a suitable vessel, my calamity daughter gem, but he was still tainted by the breath of erosion, slowly eroding what was left of his soul. So, he wasn’t truly alive until Dredre stripped his soul of the breath of erosion eroding it. Giving Redfall a new lease on life. That was why it took so much toll on Dredre, threatening her existence.
"Well, I was unconscious throughout that ordeal. So I don’t think it counts," Dredre remarked nonchalantly. I couldn’t help but chuckle because that statement made Dredre a daredevil by the pixie race’s standards, excluding the elder pixies, of course. From getting scared by a passing wind to casually brushing off a near-death experience, Dredre had grown a lot. That’s my girl.