Chapter 42:

A Long Night Awaits

Valkyria Squadron


It was a pretty dark night until suddenly, the biggest Moon I had ever seen came out of the clouds. In front of me was a huge castle, so big that it seemed to reach the sky itself, Its six towers look like complete buildings and beyond its dimensions, it was so overloaded with luxurious details that it is impossible to calculate how long it took to build a site like this. I was standing on the only path that connected that castle with a search that surrounded it, but with the naked eye, you could not tell where it led, because the dense forest and the darkness did not allow us to see much. It was a combination of gloomy and melancholic atmosphere of a place that was once beautiful and joyful whose time is long past. Within its walls, you could hear music that was in the tone of the place but more joyful and from time to time a great laugh in the background, but despite the fact that every cell in my body said that I had to get away from that place that would normally only bring problems, in fact, the most likely thing is that I am already in the middle of something, but even so, this is a place that I know and that was impossible for me forget it. It was in this place that we tried to make the best birthday possible for Maria. Because for a few years before the continental war began, my sister's health was quite low, they were really terrible years for her, so our mother proposed to try to fulfill her dream in some way, And in front of me, she could see the results of the effort. It cost them a real fortune to rent this place for a couple of days to be able to celebrate Maria's birthday, they all had to give a lot of money, to tell the truth, I still remember having to put up with a shitty manager for almost a year just to be able to pay my share.

But right now the question that I should ask myself is what is happening?

At first, I thought that all this was just a dream, but was it not supposed that when one is aware that he is asleep, it is just when he is about to wake up? But even if that's not the case this also doesn't look like when I was anesthetized to transport me in the alliance, I feel wide awake, this seems to be "real". I didn't know what was happening, but I knew that a very long night awaited me. Following the invitation of the music I began to enter the domains of the huge palace, as I progressed I could notice several differences in this place with respect to the first time I was here because although everything seemed vaguely familiar, there were other things that were not there here before. The corridors and the rooms were in their correct places, but everything was much longer, there were more pictures than before and much darker. The garden that was once very well cared for was now dry or with plants black as night. The windows were also bigger and more decorated, looking through them I looked at the sky once more and noticed something strange about the night. The moon was huge and bright, so he hadn't noticed the strange absence of stars in the sky. Raise your head and you will only see a huge white circle and clouds, but nothing else, there were no stars, and it was not because the place was very illuminated, because except for this place there was only a forest around it. During the party, the place was illuminated by LED lights, but now, seeming to go back in time, the important rooms and corridors had old lamps in chandeliers that were not there before.

When I was almost approaching the anteroom where the room with the party was, I noticed that there was a large mirror, so I looked at it only to notice that I was still wearing the little white girl, but the clothes I was wearing made me would fall back with fright, because I wore the same empress outfit that Nanami once wore, a gothic haute couture dress, just as she loved them when she discovered them in a magazine, she also had several gold accessories that indicated wealth, but unlike what Nanami used to wear, my dress was completely white, so it really gave the impression that I looked like a ghost. A ghost from a bygone era, that next to the moon was the only white that could be seen. But staying looking in the mirror would not help at all, so despite my questions about where I got or wore this dress, they will have to wait for more.

Fearing what I might find on the other side, I only slightly opened the anteroom door and took a look. I didn't know what to expect, but even so, I was surprised to see familiar faces on the other side of it. I could see my Aunt Damaris and Uncle Johhy talking while having a drink, I could see my cousin Arnold trying to sew his jacket quickly to return to the party, and even my uncle Jose sitting in a chair with a pale face, well Although this environment bothered him, he tried to bear it as best he could for Maria. Everything was just as I remembered, it was so much that I even had a feeling of deja vu because just like that time I was standing here at this door preparing to enter the party that would start in a few minutes. I even remember that around this moment, around seven o'clock at night, my mother appeared to ask me to bring Maria from her cabin so she could start the party, and as if she were invoking just that person, someone gently touched my shoulder, for what I turned to see.

"Darling, your mother says to look for Maria because the party is going to begin"

Only to get a tremendous shock when I saw a girl with golden blonde hair, her blue eyes gazed at me happily, in synch with her fox ears that moved rhythmically to indicate joy. It was Tamamo whom she had in front of me, she was wearing a dark suit that in some way resembled mine, in contrast to the traditional kimonos that she usually prefers to wear.

"Tamamo !"
"But what are you doing here !?"I asked surprised

"Your mother sent me to tell you that ..."

"It does not matter"
"Why are you here!!?" I quickly tried to make her understand the important point of the conversation.

"I'm your wife"
"And I promised you that we would always be together"

I really wonder if she likes to tease me like this, if she is playing dumb, or if she really doesn't understand the situation at all.

"But what are you talking about?"
"Can you also enter my dreams?" I asked her again a little angry

"This is a dream?"
"Is that why I don't remember getting up?" the goddess asked as she brought her hand to her head.

"You didn't suspect anything like where are you !?" I asked her seriously

"At Maria's birthday party"
"Your mother told me"

"Tamamo, can you stop playing?"
"Right now I need the supposedly cold and calculating girl you claim to be"
"This is serious"
"Do you have any idea what the hell is going on?"

The girl's eyes closed for a moment, then she opened them again but with a much colder look, her posture also changed, she stretched her back and showed a much more dignified posture. It was almost like seeing her as if she had been possessed by a lady worthy of the palace we were in. Just by seeing her change her position I could remember that I had in front of me a true goddess, someone so majestic, powerful, and wise that in theory, she is outside of human understanding, but then I remember that one day she was jumping on the sofa in the living room like a child for hours and that impression is removed.

"I really don't know"
"I didn't know it was a dream until now that you mention it"
"It's weird, I was assuming this was all normal until I just talked to you"
"I was with your mother talking for a while but she didn't say anything strange"
"She continued to act normal, along with how I think she just thinks that this is normal" She said with a slightly monotonous voice but trying to sound pleasant, I think she was trying to reassure me by my way of acting before.

"Sorry I didn't mean to sound angry"
"It's just that this is all so weird that I'm very nervous"
"I just wanted to know more about what was happening" I apologize to her

"It's also my fault for continuing to act like this even though right now what you needed was someone to trust"
"It is my duty to know what you want and when"
"Even so I failed as your wife, I will try my best so that it does not happen again in the future"

"Please don't be so strict about that."
"I really like you with how happy you tend to be around me"
"But at least I hope you understand that if we are in a situation like this, the last thing a person wants is to be treated as a fool"

"While I was talking with your mother, your father also came and talked with him for a while"
"When it happened I did not care, until now that he spoke to you again"
"I think your mother was not aware of the importance of that matter either, because she continued to behave as if that was the most normal thing in the world"

"What the hell!?"
"My father is here !?"
"But that should be impossible, he is dead!"

"Well you were supposed to be too, but that didn't stop you from coming back?" Said the girl in a slight tone of mockery.

"What the hell is this all about?"
"What is happening here and where are we?"

"Allow me to think a little what I think is happening" said the lady of the moon
"From what we believe, this is not a normal world, because although we do not remember waking up"
"We just take it for granted that you were here before"
"Besides that, the place does not match what I know of the modern world"
"That doesn't tell us much, just the possibility that we are trapped in a dream"
"But the most important thing is that according to your family this is Maria's birthday party"
"Is there something important that happens to her every year?"

"She is a normal human, she was a little sick but that has already been solved"
"But this specific birthday party is something that happened seven years ago, in Hungary"
"But now after the war, I don't know what happened to this place, but I doubt it would remain intact "
"What I'm sure of is that this place wasn't what it really looked like on that birthday"
"This place is so much bigger now, and there wasn't so much forest around that time"

"So we can deny that we were transported or that it is time travel"
"Is there any other important information that will happen during this party?"

"Well, after this we were at the party for a while, then I talked to my father for a while, then we came back to see the fireworks, and then we went back to the main room to see a magic show, like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. , and after that, I think we had a little family dinner in Maria's cabin in the woods at dawn"
"Although now that I think about it, at one point in the night I think a police patrol rang out, but it didn't matter"
"Do you have something in mind Tama?"

"I have no idea yet, this is all very confusing"
"But personally I think that by following the events that happened tonight we will be able to discover more about what is happening"
"So I suggest that we go where Maria would be and bring her back as originally happened"

"I think you're right"
"Staying here talking won't help us get back home"
"We must move on"

I told my wife while I took her hand to walk together to the forest, because among all the strange that was happening, only she and her moon were the only things that gave me peace of mind at this time.