Villain's Second Heart: Trapped in A Fantasy Novel (BL)-Chapter 112: January 1

The vortex vanished. The magic subsided. Oberyn could see and hear again, but this was not where he had been.

He looked around. The place was completely new. Indoors. Confined.

"Ezra!" he shouted. "Bree! Where are you!?"

No response. Had that doll used teleportation magic on him? Had it caught Bree and Ezra too?

He had no idea if they were still at the farm or if they’d been taken elsewhere.

"Damn it!" he yelled. "Where am I!?"

Still no response.

He scanned the room. It was dirty, small, and unremarkable - stuffy and hot, like a basement. There was a door on the far side. Was he back in the farmhouse?

No... the air felt different here. Warmer.

He took a deep breath. No sense wondering what might be beyond that door when he could just go see.

He tried it, and thankfully, it was unlocked.

Dark stairs led upward.

He climbed.

Upstairs was the first floor. He was hit immediately by a blast of heat. A fire was roaring in the hearth, but the place looked abandoned. The windows were boarded up, though someone had clearly lit that fire.

The space was much smaller than the farmhouse had been.

Oberyn found the front door and opened it.

He wasn’t ready for what he saw.

Mountains. Snow. And he was high - very high. Cold air blew through him in an instant, freezing him to the core. He slammed the door shut and stepped away.

Okay... this was definitely not where he’d been.

Before he left, Rav had mentioned something about a "web" of magic.

Had he inadvertently traveled along it?

Could Bree and Ezra be in danger?

He turned back to the fireplace. That was when he heard it - a new sound. Familiar, but impossible.

A rocking chair.

The same chair from the farmhouse.

It hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Now, someone was sitting in it.

They rocked slowly, a shawl draped over their head. Oberyn couldn’t see their face. But whoever they were, they had noticed him.

Had they brought him here?

"It’s been months since you’ve come to this world," the woman’s voice said, "and it’s only our first time meeting. Hm..."

She turned slightly, just enough to let him glimpse part of her face.

"You’ve gotten so tall since I last saw you, Oberyn."

Oberyn stepped toward the woman as she turned to get a better look at him. Long, bushy black hair cascaded over her, partially obscuring her face. One of her eyes was visible to him, and as it locked with his, he was taken aback by how familiar it looked. Those deep amber eyes. Just like his. Like his father’s.

He took a guarded breath. He didn’t know who this woman was - not for sure. But he had a nervous feeling that he might.

She smiled shyly. "Come on, now. You mean to tell me you don’t remember your own aunt? I guess it has been quite a while..."

It clicked. He had seen her before. She looked the same as she did in his memories from long ago. He’d met this woman on the moon. She was his aunt. There was no doubt.

"January Madera?" he said quietly.

She laughed. "Oh, please. Call me Jan. ’Auntie’ probably feels a little too informal for now, right?"

She shifted, her yellow eyes burrowing into his soul.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. He hadn’t seen her in many years. Like him, she was likely barred from ever returning to the moon.

"An investigation, if you will," she remarked, rising from the chair and holding her arms out. "But before all of that. A hug, maybe!? It’s been far too long!"

She scooped him up and brought him in close, stuffing him into her thick coat.

"You’ve grown into such a handsome young man! Oh, you look so much like Andy when he was young, I can’t believe it... how’s your mom? Has she been keeping up alright? What about your neighbors, the Summers? Oh! Did you ever make it official with that girl you liked? What was her name? Oh, the Icarra girl...Tiana?"

Oberyn took a step away from her, guarded. It was good to see family again, but not in a situation like this. He had no idea what had happened to Ezra or Bree, and no idea where he even was. If he’d been kidnapped, accidentally teleported...

But everything she said - it was all real. And casual. She had memories of the moon. There was no doubt. This was his aunt.

"Jan, what are you doing here?" he asked again, dodging all of her questions. He looked at her and frowned. She read the concern on his face, and slowly, her smile faded into something more serious.

"I’m the warden of the northern country," Jan stated matter-of-factly. "This famine and the Harbinger who caused it are a major concern for me.

And so she confirmed - she also suspected a Harbinger was behind the famine.

He opened his mouth to explain, to try and make sense of the situation, but she held up her hand to stop him. "I laid a trap in that farmhouse. Seems you sprung it. Found a little doll in there, did you?"

"Yeah." He kept his reply curt. Regardless of who she was, he hadn’t seen her for years, and the circumstances of their meeting weren’t exactly normal. If anything, this had only made her more suspicious.

"Yeah, they’re creepy dolls," Jan said, trying to commiserate. "The Magician I’m working with, Eusevia, well... let’s just say she’s got a thing for those. She’s the Magician of Wood, you see. And she uses those as totems to direct her magic."

Totems, directing magic? Rav had said the farm was a hotspot on the "web" he foresaw. But Rav had been convinced that whoever created the web was also the one responsible for the famine...

"So are you trying to stop the famine?" Oberyn asked. He did not attempt to hide his suspicion.

Jan looked at him for a moment, reading his expression. Was she trying to decide what to say?

"Yes, Oberyn. More than anyone, I seek to stop the famine promptly."