AO 7 Ch 29

I shook my head, rousing myself from inspecting the recently dead princess's soul.

The other people in the room looked up at me expectantly, but I was here to compare two things, I couldn’t do that without taking a look at the second.

I immediately shifted over to the other bed, which must have been the Queen. She still looked to be middle-aged, perhaps an indeterminate forties, though as a three-sphere mage she would be far older than her appearance.

Rather than discuss my findings, I put a hand on the corpse's shoulder and dove in. Much like the princess's world, this one was shattered and dead. Strictly speaking, there was no living soul remaining. Instead, it was scattered scraps, torn apart and tossed aside like the wake of a child's temper tantrum. 

I frowned and lifted my hand, taking the pieces and trying to put them back together, like reassembling a torn sheet of paper.

There was no resistance because there was nothing left to drive the soul. Even if I put it back together there was nothing there to revive. Some spark of life was gone and had been for too long.

Thankfully, I knew what I was building. Both of them had based their soul defenses off of the Zenovian royal palace, which made it easy enough to know where to start. 

Quickly, it assembled back together, mostly the same way. Parts of the soul were blown outwards, such that they didn't quite mesh right anymore, but that told me where the attack had originated. Without a doubt, someone had attacked these two women's souls. 

After putting it back together, I peeled it apart slowly to see where the center of this explosion came from. It was near the center, but slightly offset. And there was a direct tie. This was the same location where the princess's soul had been attacked.

There was a space that was simply empty. Whatever might have existed there was long gone, and instead, it was almost as if the queen and the princess had forgotten what it had held. A nebulous swirl was all that remained. 

The swirl could have been the weakness, or it could have been a result of the attack. It would be beyond strange for the queen not to know every inch of her own palace. Still, having seen it again, it was easy for me to confirm that both of them had had their souls breached in very similar manners. 

I pulled back, finding myself still surrounded by tense Vel'shae.

More than a few of them looked like they wanted to gut me, perhaps due to their profound loyalty to the queen that even remained when she was nothing but a corpse. 

I cleared my throat. "Well, do you want the good news or the bad news?" I flashed them all a smile. 

"Good news, preferably," the one in charge spoke up. 

"Huh, I was really hoping you'd pick bad news because I've got a lot more of that," I chuckled nervously. "I guess the good news is that I can confirm that they were both killed the same way." 

Several of the Vel'shae were frowning at me, trying to understand how that was good news. But I left that to them to figure out. It was good news for me, because the murder mystery was on!

"And what else? If that's the good news, I hate to hear the bad." One of them finally spoke.

"Well, the bad news is it seems like all of the Zenovian royal family might all have the same flaw in their souls," I said. 

Color drained from the Vel'shae's faces around me. "That certainly is worse," the leader scowled at me. And filled me with the urge to argue that it was not my fault. 

"In other news," I continued, eager to move on from the current topic. “I have a lead on where the person who did this might be. Or at least an important location for them in the palace.”

“We would hope that you’d be content to return to your room.” The leader looked away in thought. “The palace was currently filled with guests, and we have no way to sort the good from the bad.”

“Maybe think about it? Send an escort with me? I promise I won’t bite. Emlyn on the other hand… well we can get her a muzzle if that helps.” I flashed them all a smile.

Yet, everyone ignored me and went to discussed it amongst themselves. After a brief huddle, the Vel'shae stepped back.

"We will agree to allow Arden to visit this location," they said, "however, even if he does find what he is looking for, we ask that the site be turned over to the Vel'shae immediately."

"Sure," I said with a shrug. "I just want to know who did these murders. I don't care about people's dirty laundry, metaphorical or real."

"Good." He replied.

I didn't wait for more. I was already several steps into my newest journey.

“Wait for us.” The two Vel’shae who had led us there rushed to catch up.

I didn't have to turn to know Talia was being particularly ferocious. 

"And where might we be heading?" she asked.

"Not a clue. For now, we are going to find the spot that seems to be at the center of this. What's actually there? Beats me." I shrugged, continuing on my way.

"You could pretend to have more regard," the Vel'shae sniffed.

"I'll get right on that," I retorted, "sometime before or after I stop the people that are trying to kill me and everyone else still in the royal palace. Because, clearly, if both were killed the same way, then whoever did this was trying to cause a panic. And if they're this familiar with the royal palace, they most certainly know how the Vel’Shae would react. All in all, everything suggests that the longer we stay here, the longer we do exactly what the murderer wants."

"That doesn't explain where we're going," The Vel'shae prompted getting oddly angrier as we moved towards my destination.

"Don't question him," Ditzy snapped. The goddess of beauty was furious.

I cast her a strange look as the male Vel’shae from earlier sunk back. He was probably still traumatized by Maribelle.

"What? These people have done nothing helpful and simply question you ad nauseum when you're the one trying to fix whatever is happening." She put her hands on her hips and looked very cute when she was angry.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't expect you to stand up for me. Thank you." I told her and 

Ditzy blushed and looked away, only for Emlyn to wink from behind her.

"Anyways, like she said, I am trying to help. I know the situation is tense and the last thing I want to do is make it worse. But where we're going is right down this way." I gestured. Up ahead, I recognized the hall that had appeared in the minds of the victims.

"Here?" The Vel'shae asked with a frown. "There's nothing down this way."

True to their words there was nothing but an empty hall that ended in a dead end. Which in of itself was odd.

"There's something. And if it is a big ball of swirling mist, then that would be interesting enough on its own, right? But all I can tell you is that in the queen's mind and the princess's, this is where the attack came from. This is the physical location of the place in their fictional soul palace where the attack originated." My explanation was not helping things as the Vel'shae both frowned at me.

"Just let's go in and let's figure this out." I gestured down the hall, not really wanting to get into the specifics.

The Vel’shae seemed content enough to let me lead, hanging back.

"As we said, there is nothing here," they hesitated to turn down the hall, but came with when my anchors didn’t give them much of a choice.

The hallway ended in a wall in front of us.

I squinted at the wall, not satisfied with that answer. There was something more that I needed to piece together. I tilted my head as I walked up to the wall and put my hand against it, trying to mold the stone with my magic. But my magic had no effect., In fact it was telling me simply that there was no stone in front of me.

"Aurelia, would you be a dear and take a swing at this wall?" I asked, hooking a thumb at it as I turned back to the group.

"You can't do that," the male Vel'shae tried to step in front of Aurelia, only for Maribelle to slide between the two parties.

"I do apologize. Sir has made a request and it will not be denied." Maribelle stated, hands on her daggers.

"There is nothing there; it's clearly a wall. You are simply using this as an excuse to desecrate the palace." The Vel'shae was unreasonably upset his eyes darting around almost as if he was afraid.

Aurelia cast me another glance to check to make sure I still wanted her to continue. I gave a nod and she lifted the axe high.

At this point, the Vel'shae threw himself forward, which was a bad idea. Maribelle sliced open his gut with one dagger, while the other nearly removed his arm. If he wasn’t traumatized by Maribelle yet, he would be.

The second Vel'shae was still visibly confused as to what was happening, seeming out of sorts.

"Emlyn, love, why don't you bring him closer to the wall? Zuri, you might need to help her." I instructed.

“Stop this! What do you think you’re doing?” Talia the older Vel’shae growled but hesitated to take another step forward.

Aurelia raised her battle axe and slammed it against the false wall, only for her bluesteel axe to spark against stone and not even leave a scratch.

"Don’t hold back Aurelia. Whatever this is made out of, it is not weak.” I was starting to build with excitement about what might be behind the secret wall. This was turning out to be a fairly good murder mystery.

My fiery-haired Virel whipped the axe back, this time with real purpose. Fire magic bled out of her very being, rippling the air around her. She shouted and slammed the axe forward, this time to far better effect. Her bluesteel axe bit into something, but it wasn't like stone. Instead it was more like she had shattered a pane of glass as the cracks webbed out from the point of impact.

When she pulled her axe out, there was a piece missing and clearly a room beyond.

"You will pay for this. Zenovia will hunt you down for this disrespect." The wounded Vel’shae growled around his disembowelment.

"Do you not see this?" I pointed at the area Aurelia had damaged. "Oh, she's winding up for another blow. This is going to be exciting.” I rubbed my hands together.

“What I see is you futilely striking at the walls of the palace." The Vel’shae stated.

I looked at the chipped area and then back at the Vel'shae. "You don't even see the damage, do you?" 

"Unhand me!" He screamed, pulling on his magic.

I sighed, turning back to the wall as Emlyn's booted foot kicked him hard enough in the jaw that his magic went limp. 

Ditzy let out a growl of frustration. "Missy, do something." She pointed at the wall. "Clearly this is magic. And I don't know if it's a god's work or a mortal's, so I can't smash it myself." 

Missy smirked. "Now, now, no need to be so contrite. A simple request would have done." But Missy was already preparing to cast a spell. The complex, magical arrays she favored began to spin around her hand as she focused inward. 

At this point, the Vel'shae that Maribelle had  once again seemed to be frothing at the mouth as he tried to break free of her grip and rush to stop Aurelia.

Not that Maribelle let that happen. Something was clearly very wrong with the Vel’shae and it only got worse the closer they were to the wall.

"Why doesn't it affect us?" Emlyn asked, looking at the Vel’shae. One seemed paralyzed with fear, the other actively trying to fight us to stop us from breaking the wall.

"I don't know. If you want to understand magic, probably best to ask Missy, not me. I just try things and see what works. I guess you could say that I eat the cookies and have no idea how they're made. But they’re delicious cookies." I added with a smile. 

Emlyn squinted for a brief moment, trying to understand the analogy, before giving up and dropping the subject as a whole. Magic really was the ultimate answer to any question I didn't know. 

After a minute Missy opened her hands wide and the diagram within them expanded and sank into the wall.

The Vel’shae both blinked like they were waking up from a horrid nightmare.

"Welcome back!" I grinned at both of them. “Might want to…” I mimed wiping my lips.

The one Vel’shae was significantly less amused as he tried to hold his guts in, but still wiped the froth off.

"Ah, yeah. That should be fine. It will heal. I think we focus on the new problem that is quite literally crawling to us," I turned to Missy. "Are they not magical?" 

Missy frowned only for a brief moment before the sound of something dragging on the ground echoed through the hallway. Dark sagging forms, some quite literally crawling on two arms, others shuffling forward, came down from the other side of the hall, while more rose up from the shadows within the chamber we had just unsealed. 

"Get behind me, Ard," Emlyn said, sword out. She put herself between me and the Vel’shae who at least had the self-awareness to look guilty. 

"We won't hurt your mage," the one holding his guts in snapped. 

"Yeah, well, I think you probably couldn’t have said that two minutes ago.” Emlyn snapped.

“And I’m not entirely certain they’re in control of your own actions," Zuri said, and turned away from all of us, drawing her two blades from her hips and spinning them in her hand as she stepped into the crowd of shadowy ghouls.