Book Five, Chapter 99: Clara- Part II
I heard speaking in the next room, so I quickly left, but I didn't find myself in the main hallway like I expected. It was another version of Clara’s room. I had simply walked from one version to another.
Inside of the second room, Clara sat staring forward as if she were in a coma with her eyes open.
With nothing else to see, I continued moving forward out the other door, and I was yet again inside another version of Clara’s room. This time, she had lost a lot of hair and looked terrible. Agnes stood over her, spooning some strange concoction into her mouth.
"There, there, darling," Agnes said. "This will make you feel stronger. Mother’s love is the best cure."
I left the room again, and in the next room, Clara was stronger. She was practically radiating youth and beauty.
In the next room, she was sickly again but not comatose.
The next room was once again filled with women who cried and applauded as Agnes detailed the level of care she had to give her daughter.
Agnes worked up a tear and told them again it was just a mother’s duty—that she came from a long line of healers, truth be told, and that she always intended to pass her craft down to her daughter. "But I never prayed for these horrible circumstances in which to teach her."
In the next room, Clara was lying in bed, and a young woman sat at her side, reading a book to her. The young woman continued to read as Clara looked at me and said, "Mother and Father have always provided me with one of the servant girls to help me when I was sick. I’d gone through half a dozen by this point until, eventually, they picked her."