Chapter 205: Learn how to create a portal

Azura’s POV

The heavy silence of the room settled over us once again, broken only by the soft, ragged breathing of the man on the bed.

I kept my eyes pinned to Torin, watching the way his features twitched as he hovered somewhere between deep sleep and consciousness.

His long eyelashes fluttered against his pale skin, and his jaw worked silently as if he was trying desperately to speak to someone in his thoughts.

Then, Torin stirred on the mattress. His chest rose with a sharp, sudden intake of air, and though his eyes remained tightly closed, his dry lips parted.

A single word slipped out of his mouth. It was incredibly quiet, almost completely inaudible in the still room, but it cut through the quiet like a bell.

"Angel..." he mumbled, his voice thick with exhaustion.

I blinked, shifting my gaze from his pale face over to where Rhydor stood.

My brows pulled together as I replayed the soft word in my head. It sounded so full of longing, so completely out of place for a hardened warrior like Torin.

"Who is Angel?" I asked, my voice laced with pure confusion.

Rhydor shifted his weight from one foot to the other, lifting one of his broad shoulders in a slow shrug. He looked down at his sleeping brother, his expression turning thoughtful as he scratched his jaw.

"Maybe he is talking about the lady he met back in Hollowcrown," Rhydor muttered, thinking back to our time on the road.

My frown deepened, my curiosity flaring up instantly. "Lady?" I repeated, leaning slightly closer to the bed.

The moment Rhydor mentioned Hollowcrown, a sudden memory sparked in the back of my mind. I remembered a conversation from a brief moment where Torin had let his guard down.

He had once mentioned a spectacular woman, someone he referred to as an angel.

It was the same person he had secretly been searching for ever since that day.

I turned my head fully to look back up at Rhydor, my eyes narrowing.

"Did you actually see this angel yourself?"

Rhydor shook his head quickly, stepping back a bit. "I only know she has blonde hair. That is all I know about the whole situation. He kept the rest to himself."

I turned my face back toward Torin, watching the painful way his brow furrowed in his sleep.

A cold, unsettling feeling began to take root deep in my stomach. In my mind, a dark thought started to form. I truly hoped this mysterious blonde woman was not what I was currently thinking.

We already had too many hidden enemies wearing friendly faces, and the last thing we needed was another beautiful trap ensnaring one of our best men.

I pushed the worrying thought away for now, knowing we had a much more immediate crisis breathing down our necks.

I turned my attention to Genevieve, who was now sitting perfectly quiet on a wooden stool nearby, her hands folded neatly in her lap.

"So what do we do about Isadora?" I asked, my voice turning completely serious as I addressed the matriarch. "We cannot keep her unconscious forever with Aunt Alisa’s medication. But we also cannot let her stay awake. Every single time she opens her eyes, she is going to try to create another one of those dark portals and escape us."

Genevieve gave a slow, deliberate nod of her head, her wise eyes reflecting the gravity of the situation. "You are completely right, Azura. If she stays awake for even a few minutes, she will definitely try to create a portal to run back to her masters."

She paused, letting her words hang in the air as a thoughtful, incredibly calculated expression crossed her gentle face. She tapped her chin with a finger, looking at the stone floor.

"But what if we actually let her create it?" Genevieve suggested softly.

I stared at her, my jaw dropping slightly in sheer disbelief. "What?" I gasped, wondering if I had somehow misheard her.

Genevieve kept her calm demeanor, continuing as if her wild suggestion was the most logical thing in the world. "I would love to learn exactly how to create a portal like that."

My eyes widened in immense surprise, my mind struggling to process what she was implying. "You do not know how to do it?" I asked, assuming a woman of her immense power knew every magical trick in existence.

Genevieve shook her head slowly, a small, humble smile touching the corners of her lips. "I do not know everything, Azura. I am still a person who learns new things every day."

I rubbed my temples, my breath escaping in a frustrated huff. "Then how do you expect her to teach you? She hates us. She is not just going to sit down and show you how to manipulate the air to do it."

Genevieve’s smile widened into something a bit more mysterious and clever. "What if she does not even know that I am learning from her while she does it?"

My brows knitted together even tighter, my confusion growing by the second. I looked at her, silently begging her to just explain the riddle.

"We need her right now," Genevieve continued, her tone turning practical as she laid out her thoughts. "We cannot just forcefully remove her entity from Isadora’s body yet. Besides, we do not even know for sure if the real, innocent Isadora is still trapped somewhere inside that physical body or if she is locked away somewhere else entirely."

"Even the real one is not innocent," I noted.

Then I paused, a sudden realization hitting me as I thought about the mechanics of soul magic. "Wait. Is it actually possible for Isadora to still be inside her own body? Even if someone else is actively controlling it and using her vocal cords?"

Genevieve nodded firmly, her expression dead serious. "It is quite possible for Isadora to be suppressed in the same body, locked away in a dark corner of her own mind. But at the same time, someone who has mastered this dark magic very well can entirely take a body without keeping the main soul in it. They can cast the original soul out into the world."

"So we cannot actually get rid of this imposter until we know for sure that the real Isadora is still in there?" I asked, wanting to make sure I understood the rules of this dangerous game.

Genevieve gave a careful, measured response. "It is not that we physically cannot get rid of her. If Isadora is in there, or even if she is not, if I truly wish to destroy the entity and get rid of her, I can do it in a heartbeat. But we desperately need to know where the real Isadora is hidden if she was cast out."

She paused, her voice dropping into a soft, intensely focused register that made the hairs on my arms stand up.

"The only way to find out that information is to let the fake Isadora create a portal," Genevieve explained, her eyes shining with tactical brilliance. "The very second she opens that tear in the fabric of the air, I will be able to read the magical signature. We will see exactly where she always goes. We will finally know the exact location of where we need to look to find our answers."

A rush of adrenaline hit my chest, and I leaned forward in my seat. "So how do we do this safely without letting her escape?"

Genevieve shifted her gaze over to the bed, her eyes landing softly on Torin’s bruised features. "We need her to wake up to execute this. But I would need Torin standing right beside me when it happens. I cannot anchor that much wild magic alone. And right now, as you can clearly see, Torin is not in his best physical shape."

I moved my gaze back to Torin. His eyes were tightly squeezed shut now, and a deep line formed between his brows.

His fingers twitched against the bedsheets, and a low, pained groan escaped his throat.

He was clearly trapped inside a vivid, terrifying nightmare, fighting a battle in his own mind.

"So when does this plan actually happen?" I asked quietly, looking back at Genevieve.

Genevieve turned her full attention back to me, her expression turning incredibly stern. "You need to go tell your aunt to keep giving her the medication. But tell her to be extremely precise with the dosing. We do not want to give her too much. We do not want to weaken the real, fragile soul if it is still fighting inside that vessel. We just need her to stay completely unconscious until we have Torin fully ready to fight by our side."

She held my gaze tightly, ensuring the absolute weight of her instructions settled deep into my mind.

"That way," Genevieve said, her voice ringing with a firm, steady authority. "There might actually be a good chance of this plan working out for all of us."

I nodded my head slowly, accepting my task. But despite the solid plan, my deep frown did not leave my face. If anything, it only grew heavier.

I sat back on the bed, my mind completely racing as I thought about the sheer mountain of problems piling up around us.

So much was happening all at once. Every single thing in our lives felt completely uncertain, like we were walking on a thin sheet of ice that was cracking right beneath our feet.

I frowned even harder, staring into the dim shadows of the room as the storm brewed all around us.