Heidlin imdiately looked behind her when she heard that. She first pulled the blanket over Valentina tighter, then stood up and asked toward the outside of the Gate,
"Who is it? If you’re here to ask for news, then tell them Valentina has already woken up, but she still needs ti to rest, so ask them not to co disturb her for now..."
"Eh? Mother Goddess bless, Miss Valentina has already woken up?"
A soft, girlish voice drifted in from outside, making Heidlin pause for a mont before she asked,
"Sister Ilois?"
Heidlin pushed open the Gate, revealing the last remaining Moon Rabbit Species, Ilois, dressed in a nun’s robe outside.
She first glanced at the broken eggshell scattered all over the floor, then looked at Valentina on the bed and greeted her with a smile,
"Miss Valentina, it’s truly wonderful to see you again."
"Sister Ilois..."
Heidlin seed to have a good relationship with Ilois. Once she saw it was Ilois, she let her in, then closed the Gate again.
Ilois made a gesture of prayer for Valentina, then smiled as she examined her current condition. Behind her, Heidlin, who had walked over, asked her,
"They didn’t send anyone over to ask?"
"As long as Valentina was taken away from the roots, there would be no danger in the birth. Since there’s no danger, they’re in no hurry. Right now they’re in the middle of discussing things with that Iceberg Queen..."
"That’s good. I thought they’d be insane enough to rush over the mont Valentina just woke up..."
Listening to the two of them talk, Valentina was a bit confused, so she asked softly,
"Roots? What happened before I ca out of Nirvana?"
"Ah, it’s just that... Miss Valentina’s Phoenix Egg was... leaning together with those World Tree roots at the base of the Wutong Tree. They didn’t check beforehand and never expected those roots to sprout and twine around the Phoenix Egg. In the end, it was that Iceberg Queen who did everything she could to hack apart the branches around you and fish you out."
"Branches, huh..."
In Valentina’s mind, the image of that foul‑mouthed little girl in a ruqun suddenly flashed by. She kept feeling that this process was sohow connected to how she had been injured before...
That person who called herself "Tao"—no, that Elf—where had she gone now?
"Right, Ilois, did you co here just to see how the young lady is doing?"
"To see... yes, but also no... I an, I wanted to confirm whether Miss Valentina had woken up. If she had, there was sothing I wanted to tell her..."
Ilois waved her hand, and the pair of rabbit ears atop her golden bangs trembled slightly as well. After saying this, she added,
"It’s about... Mr. Fisher."
"Fisher?!"
"Him?"
Valentina hurriedly sat up, her wings behind her spreading slightly out of her control, bringing with them a touch of howling north wind. Ilois pressed her lips together and quickly held down her nun’s robe to stop her skirt from being whipped into a frenzy by the wind, but she still couldn’t stop Valentina from pressing on,
"Does Ilois know where he went, where he is now?"
"I... Mother Goddess above, I don’t know... But four years... and a bit more ago, he ca to my Healing Corruption Church. By then so ti had already passed since the curse was resolved, and then one night he suddenly visited, along with that talking relic book..."
"And then?"
"Mr. Fisher was in terrible shape. When I found him, he was... skin and bones, collapsed at the front Gate of the Healing Corruption Church. The snow had almost buried him already, and if it hadn’t been for that book calling ... Anyway, it seed like Mr. Fisher had suffered so kind of fatal injury inside the Wutong Tree... his condition was all wrong, like an old man on the verge of death... He said he was being chased by Death, and that he was very likely going to die soon..."
Ilois twisted the hem of her nun’s robe. Facing Valentina’s unbelieving gaze, she went on,
"Mr. Fisher made a phone call to Nali inside the church, like he was settling his affairs... Before he called, he told he might go back to his hotown once. I asked if he would co back, but he didn’t say anything... Then a strange Kado man ca to the church, like an enemy of Mr. Fisher. I don’t know what they talked about inside, but not long after, Mr. Fisher left the church..."
"And then!? These past years... has there been any news of Fisher?"
Valentina pressed her with question after question.
Only now did that ominous premonition gradually spread through her heart. She suddenly rembered her last conversation with Fisher before she fell asleep, and now, looking back on his words, they abruptly seed laden with aning.
Perhaps even back then, he had already been grievously wounded and simply hadn’t told her.
So where was he now? What did it an that he was being chased by Death? Did it an he was about to die? Had he found a way to solve it?
Ilois pressed her lips together and glanced at Heidlin beside her. Heidlin seed to have already known what she was saying, and her expression was a bit hesitant.
But faced with Valentina’s extrely agitated gaze, she still couldn’t help but speak first,
"Young lady, rest a bit first. Eat sothing and then we’ll talk about this."
"Heidlin... I need to know what’s happened to him..."
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