Interconnected: Spliced Souls

“Cousin, has the plan… You know… Do you think he showed up?” Liealia whispered as we neared the end of the path leading to the duke’s mansion. It was cramped and hard to move, so how did that fat bastard hope to make it through here when even I had trouble?  

Something was fishy.   

At least the soft glow of light is just ahead of us. We're supposed to emerge from the basement. Is that correct, Servi? 

I nodded and focused on the conversation.    

“I know he did.”   

“Care to let me in? Sounds like you–”   

“Even we have our private affairs, Servi. And we cannot entirely trust you with everything. Have you wondered how we obtained this info? I may have said people have died to give us this fighting chance, but that was only partially true. We have a mole inside the organization supplying us with more help than you could ever imagine.”   

“Suppose you had a good reason to keep it a secret. Eh, I don't care. A girl like me has to have a few dozen secrets here and there, so you didn't get my full story.”   

“I figured that,” replied Liealia. Her cousin held a finger to his lips because we were inches from the light. I took point after squeezing past him and pushed forward against the wall.    

It was a giant hollowed barrel– like one of those you put wine in to let it age and develop a flavor. Llamare tapped my shoulder. It was a signal--one that he didn't hear anything, so we pressed forward and properly emerged into the basement. Those barrels covered the wall behind us, and the place smelled like expensive alcohol. It was cold and damp, with red, dried stains covering the floor.    

While we moved diligently to the stairs leading to the first floor, I stashed some of the large barrels and any wine bottles we came across in the ring for later.    

Although I was probably a kleptomaniac, it didn't hurt to do this because who knew what advantages this would give me in the future. And it wasn't like I would ever run out of space. Itarr even gave me her blessing and said to keep it coming.    

The stairs were whiny as we ascended. Llamare held his hand in front and slowly turned the handle. Suddenly, he leaned back and crouched close to the ground. Footsteps entered my ears a hair later as a group of warriors rushed by the door.    

He waited a few more heartbeats before turning the handle again. Liealia put her ear to the floor and nodded, causing him to open it. He rushed out and slipped against the wall, his weapon held in a ready position. His cousin and I joined him.   

We were in a hallway illuminated by flames in the rounded lights above us. They looked like regular LED lights, but I didn't see a switch on the walls. The carpet was gaudy gold, and the wallpaper was a similar hue with odd designs that I didn't much care for. But this place was a mansion in the truest sense.  

“That bastard has a safe room on the top floor there if our intel is true, and it hasn't been wrong yet. We take it easy, but we cannot sit on our laurels.”  

“Make haste slowly, then?” I asked Llamare. He nodded. “If we encounter anyone, they'll die before they know it.” Itarr, I can trust you with this, right? I sent a quick message and vanished my phone after it appeared in my hand. I saw the curiosity burn in Liealia’s eyes, but she held her tongue.  

I knew it was killing her inside.  

I will not fail you. I have weapons at the ready with [Telekinesis]. 

In my eyes, we had a 50/50 shot of getting it right on the first try, so we moved left and proceeded, walking slowly, yet with haste, until coming to a door. Peering through the stained glass decoration, I saw people standing in what I assumed to be the entrance hall. A tremendously tall chandelier with rubies, diamonds, and other sparkling jewels sat in the recessed crevices.   

They were all warriors with powerful-looking weapons that glimmered different colors, wearing armor that dimly pulsed with energy. They all faced one aged gentleman with just the slight evidence of gray hair. His eyes were narrowed and focused. The two shields on his back were unique, but was he a general? Or maybe a captain? If not within Canary, perhaps a member of Parrel’s personal guard?  

Llamare cursed under his breath and wanted to turn around. He thought there was no way we could kill them silently—without giving one time to set off a warning or alarm. 

“Just sit and watch. Partner, I'll leave it to you. Can you reach them from here?” 

Yes. I can pluck their weapons with [Telekinesis] from this range and use them. It should be more efficient, correct? 

“Yeah. Hey, watch this.”  

“Who are you even speaking– what the hell?! What kind of sorcery is this?!” Llamare and his cousin gasped as the enemies’ weapons betrayed them. Swords split heads, and axes carved a deep gash within armor, causing rivers of fire and ice to flow from the wounds. It was a whirlwind of death that a goddess orchestrated from the comfort of her own little soul world.    

And the best part?   

There was nothing they could do. Even if they could stop the sixty or so incredibly sharp armaments, like the man with two shields tried to do, all Itarr had to do was use [Telekinesis] to flip the man upside down and run a pair of daggers through the little gaps in his armor.    

“You just… But how?! I don't understand how you did this?!” Liealia’s voice was shaky. She stepped back, trembling on those long legs, and vomited the contents of last night’s supper all over the exquisite rug. Her cousin rubbed her back, but I knew it was fear deep in his eyes.    

“The enemy's neutralized, so let's get to it,” I said, absorbing the door. Very few people were left alive, and I finished those that still drew breath with a swift poke with a spear I picked up. The tip left behind little wind wisps wherever I moved it. It seemed interesting. Really, everything here was enough to intrigue the mind.    

So, it and everything else– the corpses, armor, weapons– all went into my ring. If nothing else, I had a nice nest egg once I found a merchant willing to buy this stuff. Looking back, I motioned for the elves to hurry up. They quietly whispered to each other about something and finally ran to catch up.    

We ascended the stairs to the second floor, peeked down the two hallways we saw, discovered nothing vital, and continued to the third floor.    

There was no fourth floor– at least not here. But I didn't know how tall this place was. Llamare was quiet when we slipped through the only available door and proceeded through another hallway. The four doors here led to fully furnished bedrooms, and it took no longer than five seconds to absorb the large, magnificent beds, the antique dressers, the bedside tables, and the jewel-encrusted full-body mirrors.    

Past this hallway stood more guards. Four of them, to be precise, protected a single door. There was another door at the end, which maybe led to another corridor, but this was probably our destination.    

Itarr killed them as she did the others, using their weapons to end their lives. Llamare reinforced the grip he held on his naginata as we approached the bloody corpses, them vanishing into my ring, along with their weapons and armor.    

He looked at his cousin, and she nodded towards me. I gripped the doorknob to find it locked, causing me to rely on my ring’s power to remove the obstacle preventing us from achieving our goal.    

“Three…two…one… Go!” I said, rushing into the room after the door vanished. Llamare and Liealia followed me with mystic energy wrapping around their outstretched palms.    

Llamare gripped his weapon and aimed it at a lone man standing in the center of the room. The man appeared elderly, dressed in a butler's attire. His long hair, a mix of gray and white, was pulled back into a neat ponytail. Wrinkles surrounded his dark brown eyes, hinting at a life filled with experiences. Despite this, he emanated an air of sophistication, evident in his well-maintained beard and mustache. 

“I didn't want my fears to be true,” I said, walking towards someone I considered a friend.    

“It does me good to see you in good spirits, Servi.” Albert Crystalerik bowed with an arm across his chest. “I feared the worst when you didn't show up the day after we spoke. Lady Srassa and Miss Momo will be relieved to find you well.”   

“You talked to them?”   

“I did. We ran into each other before the two visited the Crimson Grotto with Jony.”   

“They went that far, huh?” I sighed and looked at my hands. Llamare and Liealia cautiously approached from behind, not daring to sheath their weapons.    

“From our intel, you're the primary butler for the duke, aren't you?”   

“Albert Crystalerik, at your service,” bowed the butler.    

“Just let us pass, man. I don't want to kill you.” I figured it wasn't worth it to delay the inevitable.   

“You should know I can't do that,” Albert replied. I asked why not. “It is because… I am unable to. As much as I wish for nothing more than to take that unruly child’s head for myself, a greater power at work prevents me from doing so.”   

“Child?” I shifted my weight and tried to understand his words.    

“You are a product of [Necromancy], are you not?”    

“Something like that. If you know what the [Forbidden Skill System] is, then you know that I'll always win in the end. Your death is essentially assured. I'll always come back to life if you kill me.”   

“It may sound odd, but that brings me relief…”   

“Explain, old man!” demanded Llamare.    

Albert removed his right glove and exposed a complex magic circle on the back of his hand. I didn't understand it, but Llamare and Liealia grew increasingly concerned.    

I asked them why. “You don't know?! That's a mark from [Geas]!”   

“Explain it like I'm five–” 

“Disobeying an order once you're affected with [Geas] is impossible,” Albert said, putting his glove back on. “Should the mind refuse to cooperate, the [Geas] will become the mind, and the body will act with or without conscious thought. In short, my life is no longer my own. No, it hasn't been my own in decades.” I asked why he brought up [Necromancy]. “Because it means this nightmare will undoubtedly come to an end. Duke Parrel Biggins-- that awful disgrace will meet his end tonight.”   

“It sounds like there's a story there.”   

“Oh, there is. Care to humor an old man and listen?” I nodded. “I did not always have the last name Crystalerik. I was born as Albert, the child of a woman who sold herself to a different man every night,” said the aged butler.    

Although society shunned his mother for her profession, she loved her son more than the world. She desired to give him a better life. She wanted him to have what she didn’t. Unfortunately, her body couldn't keep up with her dreams, and Albert’s mother suffered a heart attack at the early age of 16– when Albert was just five.  

Yes, his mother was that young– a product of a girl who inherited her father's debt after he took his life. She was still a child when the world uprooted her life, and it was all but flipped upside down and set aflame when her belly showed proof her womb harbored life.    

“She never told me what went through her mind. But my first memory is of her holding me against her chest, smiling down at me with tears watering her beautiful eyes. She promised me a better life. She promised me that I wouldn't want for anything. But her body… She couldn't take that kind of work. I'll never forget that day... When that man walked out of the room and left…”   

I couldn't imagine the horror of walking in and finding your mother dead. My heart ached for Albert.  

“I've always had a good memory. Without my mother… I loved her so much that I wanted to follow her into death. But more than anything, I was irrationally angry.” Albert vividly recanted his efforts to sneak across the city into that man’s house. He'd once left behind a business card with his address, and Albert waited, and waited, and waited in the bushes near the estate with a butcher's knife. He recalled feeling a frozen numbness in his heart when that man walked outside.    

“But I ended his life. Right then and there, amid his personal guards. Even now, I feel the moment in my memory. My mother could've lived had he called for help. Or had he used his immense wealth to prolong her life. But the bastard was married. I later learned he didn't want his family to know his secrets.”   

The man died instantly. When a knife that big cleaved a heart into two parts, you had maybe thirty seconds at most before going past the point of no return.    

I knew from experience. 

And Albert paid for it. Those guards beat the ever-living shit out of him, breaking his hands and knees and outright throwing him into a dirty prison cell. He clung to life for a week before being dragged by his hair to a guillotine. The man he had killed was influential. He was powerful and famous, and the city wanted to make an example out of Albert.    

“But I was saved that day. Virin Keywater– Keywater’s current emperor, although he was a hair over ten years old, at that point, spared my life. He held a scroll that contained proof of the man’s traitorous nature. He intended to sell state secrets to the highest bidder between Lando and Westera. Upon his decree, I was pardoned. I still remember the royal guard taking an elixir and pouring it down my parched throat. From then on, my life wasn't mine. Later that day, I was granted the last name of Crystalerik, given an emblem from Warden to cement my family name in the record books, and became the personal butler to the young prince of Keywater.” Albert’s eyes were slick with emotion. He took a handkerchief and wiped them, then continued.    

“For the next ten years, I was given the same education as a member of the imperial family. I was fed the same food, given the same clothing, attended the same class, and over the decade, I was transformed into a world-class butler. I later discovered I was only saved to accompany Virin Keywater on his imperial duty. Ah, the culture of Keywater states that a prince may become worthy of the throne once they fulfill a certain task. Virin’s father did it before him, his father before him, and it could be traced to the empire’s founder.”   

"The founder discovered a key in water and devoted fifty years to searching for what it opened. I imagine he rose through the guild's ranks during that time? Is that what you're referring to?" 

Albert nodded. "You're well informed. Yes, that is the task I'm talking about. It took twenty years, and I was with Virin every step of the way. I was thirty-five by then, and he was forty. He took the throne and found a wife via an arranged marriage to the late Vanessa Keywater, a distant cousin. One year later, Viridian Keywater was born, but you know him as Duke Parrel Biggins, caretaker of the Canary Duchy." 

"What?!?! The first prince is– But that can't be true?! What would compel King Lando to give the prince of a rival nation control over a quarter of Lando?!" exclaimed Llamare. His hands were shaking at the sudden bombshell. 

"I am not sure of the full details," replied Albert. "Ten years ago, Virin gathered his advisors and said war was nearly inevitable. A group of Landonian soldiers had chased a bandit group in the north and crossed into Keywater territory. They were told to leave, but tempers ran hot, leading to a skirmish that ended in twenty deaths. The… fault of the matter was said to lie with Lando, but I can safely tell you it was a false flag attack. Keywater orchestrated the entire thing to carve a favorable position when negotiating." 

"Why? Keywater has the strongest military, right?" I asked. "He could've won a war with Lando."  

"Virin demanded to be given Lando’s poorest region. He wanted his eldest son to be sent as a ‘show of goodwill’ to act as its duke. Virin said he would have Viridian turn it into something sustainable within a decade. Should Lando refuse, Keywater threatened to bring the full might of their military and exact revenge for the ‘invasion’ orchestrated against it. Lando is not as strong as it used to be. The past four decades have seen them rely on their control over Lando's Nail and their fertile farming land to reach favorable agreements with their neighboring countries. With no choice, they accepted without fail. The entire incident was swept under the rug. The history books of tomorrow will not contain a shred of what I've just told you." 

"... And you just let this happen? You didn't question it?" 

“I did. More than once. After Virin took the throne, the man who saved my life began to change. He grew violent over the years. Running an empire took a toll on him. But I could not let this go without reason. My insistent behavior to discover the truth caused me to feel his displeasure for the first time in my life.” Albert weakly touched his right hand. “He used the power of [Geas] obtained from an artifact within the vault to bind my soul to his will. The man I respected more than anyone else– the one I looked at with hopeful eyes– the man I loved as the brother I never had…took my free will.”  

From that day onward, Albert was…forced to serve Viridian Keywater as his personal butler and bodyguard. He was forced to go along with…everything… From Viridian's sick fetishes of abusing those lower than him, which I saw with the incident with Lucy, to making deals with the criminal underworld to spread monotonia across the Canary Duchy, Albert was forced to be seen--not heard--and to never raise or ask any concerns or questions.   

But Viridian wasn't dumb. He was intelligent and cynical. He masterminded Canary's explosive growth and even orchestrated the slums! And the overabundance of underground caverns and passageways? Yes, that was solely on purpose to construct the underground slave market. He knew just what to do to make it seem more elusive and appealing– similar to a member’s only area, which made it seem more inaccessible. Albert said it cost over 400,000 dupla to become eligible to even purchase a chance of attending!  

He catered to the darkest desires of the world to fulfill the task his father gave him.   

And for what reason? That was the biggest question. I forced my brain to think over time, yet I was no closer to the truth. It was some abstract goal I couldn't possibly imagine.  

Why the fuck would you want to enrich a separate kingdom's poorest region? Why go through the effort of organizing a false flag attack to get your way? What the hell was I missing?! 

Not knowing pissed me off! 

“Everything Viridian has become is what his father would not have stood for when we were younger. I despise…everything about him. I want him dead. I want the underground slave market to burn. I want all those who attend to feel the pressure of being six feet under the cold, dark soil. I have been forced to idly stand by and allow this injustice to continue! This is not what I stand for!” Albert raised his voice. An ominous crimson light appeared from the back of his hand, burning away his glove.   

“It's the [Geas].” I looked at Liealia. “It detected him going against the command he's been given, so it's punishing him. The more he fights against it, the more his body will refuse to obey him until he's just a body with an empty mind. Almost like the perfect puppet.”  

“The body’s limits will be broken,” Llamare added. “That's why he brought up [Necromancy]. If he's truly the one who adventured with Keywater’s emperor during his trial, then he is most certainly powerful. But all the power in the world cannot hold a candle against someone who cannot die. I dare say you're the perfect opponent.”  

“Then leave him to me!” I pointed to the door at the far end of the room.   

“Got it!”  

“You have my thanks!” said the elves simultaneously. They whispered something and became enveloped in a green wind. The two rushed around Albert, who screamed and fell to his knees. The hand with the glowing symbol reached into his coat pockets and pulled out four marbles. He tossed them to the floor, and they became similar to the living armor, or golems, I saw when I first encountered the necromancer. The wormy bastard had used them to restrain me. This was the Puppet Master.   

A fitting name, I suppose.   

“I don't think so! Your fight’s with me!” Itarr retrieved a glowing sword from the ring. I snatched it out of the air and slashed four times, causing four waves of flames to launch like a beam, crashing into seven-foot-tall puppets of inorganic, shining armor.   

It was enough to make them lose balance, and Llamare and Liealia quickly sped through the door. I used [Air Dance] to rush between Albert and the door, then took a combat stance as a dozen shadowy bolts surrounded me.   

“You… You have to kill me… AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!” The red light from the [Geas] started to travel up Albert’s shoulder at incredible speed. It spread to his neck and cheeks, finally finding his eyes and blanketing them red. It was like the circuit lines from a computer. And the more it infested his body, the quieter the screaming became– because it was literally sapping away his free will.   

“Don't worry, friend.” I gripped my sword harder and prepared to send more beams of fire. The four golems were already standing, and I didn't see more than a passing scorch mark affecting their crystalized bodies. “I won't let you suffer any longer!”