Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

It was a relatively short walk, only taking ten minutes or so. They went past the area where he worked, past the main area where servants went about their duties of the day, and over to another corner of the castle where not a single soul could be seen. From the much more expensive decorations and the feeling of magical pressure pushing down on him, Elijah assumed few were even allowed here.

“Inside,” Harper requested, as they reached one of the many doors. It required a key to open, which she had, but then it opened and revealed itself to be nearly half a meter thick. It was built like a true bunker, with enough magical sigils etched into the stone that it made Elijah wonder what it was for normally. “Inside, please. The alarm will go off if we wait another second.”

Elijah did as requested by those words, feet carrying him into the relatively modest room when compared to everything outside it. A tall painting of some man looking at the ocean still sat on the wall, some golden lines were swirled around the corners, and the furniture was still more luxurious than anything he’d ever owned, yet it still didn’t hold a candle to the outside.

The largest difference, however, was that this room had the Princess in it, with her sitting at the table with some papers in hand. Documents, going by what he could see, with several mentions of his name.

“Vera,” he greeted, sitting while she nodded his way. “You wished to talk privately?”

“More privately than normal, yes,” Vera confirmed, putting the papers down on the table before looking up at the ceiling. “Do tell me, Elijah, what you think this room is for?”

He followed her eyes, seeing the massive glowing sigils hanging above them. The smaller creations on the door were nothing in comparison to this. The sigil was made of dozens of circles all connected in an elaborate scheme. Elijah could feel his eyes starting to hurt as he studied them, watching them move the slightest bit as time passed, something meant to be impossible as they were etched into the stone itself.

Yet magic rarely followed the logic everything else in this world did. It had its own, its own constraints, but applying the normal set would only bring a person to their ruin.

“A room where people can stay hidden if needed,” Elijah replied, testing his senses while looking at one of the walls. As he should’ve guessed, his magical sight allowed him to see as much as a person would’ve with the naked eye. Neither could he hear anything outside, the ambient noise of the world ceasing to be when the door had closed. “But it’s also more than that. Anything done inside here, anything said, won’t be known by the world outside unless revealed by the people inside later on.”

“Correct,” Vera said with a smile. It didn’t quite reach eyes face as much as a normal smile would, Elijah seeing it for it what really was. A mask, a thin one, covering excitement and an inkling of nervousness. “Do you want to guess why I wanted to talk to you in a place such as this?”

“I’d prefer it if you said it,” he bluntly stated, not feeling like playing this game of hers. “In short fashion as well. I have a job to get back to.”

“Ah, of course. Can’t let them wait, after all,” the Princess agreed, chuckling at her words as she shuffled through the papers on the desk. There seemed to be a bit of trouble finding the right one before the target, a stained and half-burnt poster, was revealed. “I want to talk to you about a few things, starting with the two people you’re hiding.”

She pushed the poster towards him, letting him pick it up freely. Elijah could feel his blood running cold, as he looked at the drawn faces of Jack and Sasha.

Was the Princess involved with this? He and Cleo had already considered the chance of royalty making the order, but they had discarded it rather quickly when figuring out possible motivations. Maybe that had been a mistake.

“You would’ve needed to spy on us again to find that out, which means you were able to figure out how to keep yourself hidden properly,” Elijah commented, glancing over at Harper who offered no reply. Now that he was thinking about it, he hadn’t noticed her in the same way as when she’d spied on them the first time. Only the indents in the grass had revealed her presence to him. “It was arrogant of us not to expect that.”

“Quite,” Vera said, matching his indifferent tone. The smile had vanished, the mask off as she looked at him with very little emotion. She undoubtedly did care, but none of it was showing anymore. There was only a wall, keeping everything away from sight. “As Harper has explained them to me, one able to control temperature and shoot out blasts of force and the other a beginning magical Artificer of some kind, I suppose they are both capable of murder, yet I can’t seem to understand why these posters with their faces would be so prevalent throughout the city. Murder happens quite often in Kulvik, sad as I am to admit it, but those rarely have this much attention. A strange occurrence, when I can’t hear of who was even murdered. Is there any chance you could explain this to me?”

So she doesn’t know.

That she knew of their abilities likely meant Harper had followed them into the Dungeon. That meant she must’ve known of his true history, of Aleksi’s abilities, and perhaps even more than that if she had also been present during his first meeting with the King.

What were his options, with this knowledge? She had already reached the level of blackmail over him, where she could have him killed on the spot. Wouldn’t even need to do it herself, just starting the whispers until people figured it out for themselves, and the princess would be without blame of any kind.

If she wished, his death would be a certainty. Aleksi’s as well, since bringing out proof of the elixir would be trivial. Truly, this situation wasn’t easy for him.

Refusal would mean a higher chance of all this happening. Agreeing had fewer consequences, for now.

“The person who was killed was a Royal Mage,” Elijah explained. “Cut in half horizontally at the stomach. Those two here weren’t behind it, however. When I first found them, lying half-dead next to the Royal Mage, they hadn’t Awakened properly yet. No abilities and nothing on them that would give them a chance of murdering anybody like that.”

“Oh? Would you mind explaining that in more detail?” Vera requested. “I don’t think you and your friend would’ve been able to kill a Royal Mage, even with your… mildly violent history.”

So she knows.

That simplified things. With the ability to explain the past days, while providing some details from further back, Elijah went through the last week of his life. How he found them, where they were from, how their abilities had been revealed, how’d he been forced to unseal his Core to help them and thereafter had been discovered, and how he truly had no love for the Royal Family and only accepted the position for the immunity of not having any documentation for his Affinity.

Perhaps the last part was unneeded, but Elijah had been hoping to give that piece of information to the princess in very clear terms since yesterday.

“Well… This is certainly more interesting than I was expecting it to be,” Vera commented, silent as she thought it all through. She’d already asked all the probing questions through his recounting, making him fill any hole there might’ve been. By now, she knew much more than he was comfortable with, but he felt proud of avoiding some subjects like Cleo. He knew that the Madame would have him killed if he ever revealed something so secretive to a Royal. “You’re not the reason for my recent troubles, at least.”

“What do you mean?” Elijah asked, hearing her muttering but not clearly enough to make out all the words.

“Nothing,” she replied absentmindedly. “It’s becoming more clear to me that you, whatever your true name is, are not as dangerous as I initially feared. Able to kill if needed, sure, but not somebody I need to have put away.”

“Truly the best compliment to receive.”

She was surprisingly casual about the prospect of having him killed. He also noted that it implied being fully prepared to have him disappear while inside this room, away from anybody who could help.

Not a bad strategy.

Especially not when a person capable of Illusions was by the Princess’ side. Or, well, acted like they were.

“I like to be prepared for all possibilities, including the ones where the servants of the castle accept bribes and try to ruin this country from within,” Vera said. “Do you want to know how Reynold, the man you replaced, died?”

“The official documents say it was a heart attack while he slept, but I’m starting to find that hard to believe.”

“Whether he was asleep or not, I can’t say, but it was indeed a heart attack that caused his demise,” the Princess confirmed. “Albeit, the heart attack was induced by a poison that I made him take since it was intended for my father.”

Casual and having done it before. Multiple times before even, with the full intention to do it all again and again because of the threat others posed to the stability of the country. A worthy cause, though it was one that still ended with plenty of blood on her hands.

One thing still sounded strange to him.

“He was found lying peacefully in bed, no struggle, tucked in as if he was prepared to go to sleep normally, and yet you say you forced him to knowingly consume a poison that would kill him?” Elijah questioned, not a fan of that smile on the Princess’ face. “Very few things could make a person do such a thing in normal circumstances, so I’d take a wager and say that your aide isn’t the only one able to hide in plain sight.”

Only Vera Newell, First Princess of Serenova, was hiding in a different way. She could be seen by all without issue, but her true self, the truth next to her heart, went unnoticed. And it had been unnoticed for a very long time.