Chapter 202: 202
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"Emmeline!" Alexa exclaimed, intuiting that the undead girl had been there for some time. They just hadn't seen her before.
Emmeline looked at them with a sadistic expression that didn't match her delicate beauty. Alexa now understood that what she perceived wrong in the girl was, in fact, caused by her being a 'young' upir. Her bestial and violent nature had to be controlled, and the 'Master' apparently recently punished her, judging by the reddish stains on her clothing. Emmeline wore men's clothing, riding pants, shirt and boots.
"I question you the same, Emmeline? Where do you think you're going?" Iacintho questioned her even harder, and Emmeline's eyes widened.
"I saw e-everything!" the girl pointed to them, like a child who doesn't want to be deceived. "All! The bride with my clothes at my house… is a witch!"
Iacintho rolled his eyes,
"Just stop! You should be thanking me instead of wanting to blackmail me! You don't even have the capacity for it! And I saved your brother right now!" Iacintho put his arm around Alexa, who kept her gaze on the other girl, watching her mouth open in an O.
They heard the door to the garden open with a bang, and the 'Master' lich, which Alexa now knew his name was Volos, came in a long, fast stride to the gazebo. He stopped halfway when he saw the trio already there.
In the clear moonlight, and facing him, Alexa finally saw a lich for the first time.
Volos was so pale and his skin so dry that it looked like bleached parchment, and he was so thin that his neck seemed to have a hard time supporting his skull.
In addition to his head and neck, and the outline of his body that he could barely see through the overlapping, bulky and rich tunics, his hands were cadaverous.
Alexa had only seen people like that among the condemned who were tied to the side of the road to starve. Their crimes used to be placed on plaques around their necks. His eyes also had the fever of life in them, and in that moment, they reflected a myriad of feelings that Alexa didn't have time to understand, because he asked, in a voice modulated between suspicion and coldness,
"Well, well, what are you doing?"
"Something happened, sure?" Iacintho immediately countered the question. Alexa understood that she should follow through with the lie, if it were possible, and pretend that they came to this point at that moment. If it weren't for Emmeline, of course, she acted like a child who had been caught. It would be very difficult to lie to a being so malicious and much older than them, with Emmeline around.
"And you, why are you here?" The lich Volos turned to the young upir girl, who flinched, saying nothing. After watching her for a moment, the lich got angry and turned to Iacintho and Alexa in the gazebo,
"I felt something strange. Something interrupted my magic..."
Iacintho nodded,
"Something happened in the forest, I'm sure of it. There were wind and flashes… Maybe it would be better to call them back and find out what happened…"
"Take them away and return soon, Iacintho," Volos said, his face a mask of worry and anger.
"Yes, Master."
Iacintho led Alexa and Emmeline inside, and as soon as he closed the door, Emmeline took advantage of the fact he was busy with the door to lunge on Alexa. This time, however, the princess was alert and dodged, turning on her heels and running as far as she could down the spiral ramp, with the undead girl in pursuit!
'What the hell?! What does she have against me?!'
"STOP, EMMELINE!" Iacintho shouted, but not even his command voice prevented the upir from continuing to track Alexa down, like an angry dog.
Alexa looked back briefly, seeing that her brother was a little behind Emmeline, also furious!
She entered the first open door she saw, and locked herself there, using the key and dragging a smelly barrel to the door. Taking a deep breath, she looked around, waiting for Iacintho to control the madwoman out there.
Her heart was pounding, and she paused for a moment to sweep away the sweat on her forehead, feeling dizzy. Her health was no longer the same after so many accidents, and her injured wrist throbbed from blood pumping.
She was terrified to think of what she had seen a few minutes ago! That upir that practically burst into blood like a leech… Her brother was now an upir, she was surrounded by upirs!
'Calm down Alexa! Emmeline hates you because you were in her room using her things, apparently living the life she had! She doesn't want to drain all your blood from your body... It's just a misunderstanding...'
Unfortunately, repeating this to yourself wasn't working very well.
They hadn't had time to try to speak to Magnus again, and she didn't know how to escape. And on the other side of the door, Iacintho tried to control Emmeline, while cursing, threatening, and the girl howled back fiercely.
Alexa looked up, and her heart almost had a syncope, when she saw the creature hanging from the ceiling of the room where she had instinctively entered.
"AH!" she covered her mouth in horror.
A huge, completely hairless humanoid with bat wings, about two meters tall and more than twice the wingspan, was hanging by chains from the ceiling.
It took Alexa a while to understand that the creature was inert, dry, like the small mummies that some people sold as souvenirs between Tunis and Cairo.
A little relieved 'Eh! What a fright, 'Alexa looked around better and realized she was in an alchemical laboratory, huge and full of niches. The place was tidy and clean, although it was impossible to get rid of the strange smell of various 'exotic' ingredients, to say the least. She was sure she was in the lich lab.
Her curiosity got the better out of her, even more knowing that she would have little time to be there.
This was probably a forbidden place.
And Alexa imagined that she only found the door open because the Lich had left in a hurry to foresee the death of some of her slaves.
Or children, as he called them.
Alexa looked quickly, trying to find something that seemed useful or important on the tables, but all she saw were things that she had no idea what they were for.
A tapestry on the wall caught Alexa's eye.
It was very frayed and the moths had already done some damage in some parts, but bringing the lamp closer, she saw something that she recognized immediately. Holstein hill, where there was a temple, connected by the aqueduct to an ancient agora with a building. Today there was neither the temple nor the agora, but a castle and the cathedral.
At the edges of the tapestry, there were symbols ... Was it ancient Greek? She thought so. She came closer, trying to read what was written, despite the dirt and holes in the tapestry ...
'Oak tree ... to the west ...' She had the impression of having read it before, it seemed familiar in some way, but there the text was incomplete and impossible to read. Anyway, Alexa walked away as soon as she heard a firm knock on the door,
"OPEN THE DOOR!" Iacintho demanded, but she heard several other steps coming to the door, too, then the chilly and imperious voice silencing everything else,
"GET AWAY!" that she knew was Volos returning. She put the lamp in place and crouched in a corner, not trying to hide too much. She shouldn't have seemed too smart not to arouse suspicion.
"The little girl ran away from Emmeline and found the door open. Now she's inside! But I can solve this master, forgive my clumsiness!"
"No! You caused this by wanting to change your bride! You know nobody enters my sanctum!"
The door opened violently, and the barrel that Alexa had placed against the door flew and rolled out. She didn't know how it had been done, but she figured it had not been done with natural means.
Alexa peeked under the table and saw that Iacintho tried to follow him, but the door was closed behind Volos with the same supernatural force used to open it, leaving Alexa's brother outside.
Volos walked slowly in the direction where Alexa had been hiding,
"Little one?"
Alexa remembered to take the wedding ring off her finger, but she didn't have the strength with her bad hand to take it off, so she just turned it around so that the coat was on her palm. It was the best she could do for now.
He stopped in front of her, and Alexa looked at the boots that yesterday crushed her neck with a tremor.
"Look at me."
At the very least, it would be stupid to disobey. A lich was the most powerful of all the undead, for its arcane knowledge of magic.
Alexa looked up. But no one could blame her for trying to make this seem the most innocent and sweet and frightened creature in the world, right? She would soon know if it had the same effect on undead.
The lich's dark, piercing eyes, on its cadaverous and disgusting face, studied her for a moment, and then he held out his bony hands to her.
"Come, child."
Alexa could only extend one hand to him, the one that was not hurt, however, this would invariably make him notice the ring facing the palm. She was sure he was connected to Holstein now. Was he Orcaius?
She tried to get up without help, but Volos suddenly took her by the waist and placed her on the table. Approaching, he commented,
"Let's see what we have here ..."
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"Emmeline!" Alexa exclaimed, intuiting that the undead girl had been there for some time. They just hadn't seen her before.
Emmeline looked at them with a sadistic expression that didn't match her delicate beauty. Alexa now understood that what she perceived wrong in the girl was, in fact, caused by her being a 'young' upir. Her bestial and violent nature had to be controlled, and the 'Master' apparently recently punished her, judging by the reddish stains on her clothing. Emmeline wore men's clothing, riding pants, shirt and boots.
"I question you the same, Emmeline? Where do you think you're going?" Iacintho questioned her even harder, and Emmeline's eyes widened.
"I saw e-everything!" the girl pointed to them, like a child who doesn't want to be deceived. "All! The bride with my clothes at my house… is a witch!"
Iacintho rolled his eyes,
"Just stop! You should be thanking me instead of wanting to blackmail me! You don't even have the capacity for it! And I saved your brother right now!" Iacintho put his arm around Alexa, who kept her gaze on the other girl, watching her mouth open in an O.
They heard the door to the garden open with a bang, and the 'Master' lich, which Alexa now knew his name was Volos, came in a long, fast stride to the gazebo. He stopped halfway when he saw the trio already there.
In the clear moonlight, and facing him, Alexa finally saw a lich for the first time.
Volos was so pale and his skin so dry that it looked like bleached parchment, and he was so thin that his neck seemed to have a hard time supporting his skull.
In addition to his head and neck, and the outline of his body that he could barely see through the overlapping, bulky and rich tunics, his hands were cadaverous.
Alexa had only seen people like that among the condemned who were tied to the side of the road to starve. Their crimes used to be placed on plaques around their necks. His eyes also had the fever of life in them, and in that moment, they reflected a myriad of feelings that Alexa didn't have time to understand, because he asked, in a voice modulated between suspicion and coldness,
"Well, well, what are you doing?"
"Something happened, sure?" Iacintho immediately countered the question. Alexa understood that she should follow through with the lie, if it were possible, and pretend that they came to this point at that moment. If it weren't for Emmeline, of course, she acted like a child who had been caught. It would be very difficult to lie to a being so malicious and much older than them, with Emmeline around.
"And you, why are you here?" The lich Volos turned to the young upir girl, who flinched, saying nothing. After watching her for a moment, the lich got angry and turned to Iacintho and Alexa in the gazebo,
"I felt something strange. Something interrupted my magic..."
Iacintho nodded,
"Something happened in the forest, I'm sure of it. There were wind and flashes… Maybe it would be better to call them back and find out what happened…"
"Take them away and return soon, Iacintho," Volos said, his face a mask of worry and anger.
"Yes, Master."
Iacintho led Alexa and Emmeline inside, and as soon as he closed the door, Emmeline took advantage of the fact he was busy with the door to lunge on Alexa. This time, however, the princess was alert and dodged, turning on her heels and running as far as she could down the spiral ramp, with the undead girl in pursuit!
'What the hell?! What does she have against me?!'
"STOP, EMMELINE!" Iacintho shouted, but not even his command voice prevented the upir from continuing to track Alexa down, like an angry dog.
Alexa looked back briefly, seeing that her brother was a little behind Emmeline, also furious!
She entered the first open door she saw, and locked herself there, using the key and dragging a smelly barrel to the door. Taking a deep breath, she looked around, waiting for Iacintho to control the madwoman out there.
Her heart was pounding, and she paused for a moment to sweep away the sweat on her forehead, feeling dizzy. Her health was no longer the same after so many accidents, and her injured wrist throbbed from blood pumping.
She was terrified to think of what she had seen a few minutes ago! That upir that practically burst into blood like a leech… Her brother was now an upir, she was surrounded by upirs!
'Calm down Alexa! Emmeline hates you because you were in her room using her things, apparently living the life she had! She doesn't want to drain all your blood from your body... It's just a misunderstanding...'
Unfortunately, repeating this to yourself wasn't working very well.
They hadn't had time to try to speak to Magnus again, and she didn't know how to escape. And on the other side of the door, Iacintho tried to control Emmeline, while cursing, threatening, and the girl howled back fiercely.
Alexa looked up, and her heart almost had a syncope, when she saw the creature hanging from the ceiling of the room where she had instinctively entered.
"AH!" she covered her mouth in horror.
A huge, completely hairless humanoid with bat wings, about two meters tall and more than twice the wingspan, was hanging by chains from the ceiling.
It took Alexa a while to understand that the creature was inert, dry, like the small mummies that some people sold as souvenirs between Tunis and Cairo.
A little relieved 'Eh! What a fright, 'Alexa looked around better and realized she was in an alchemical laboratory, huge and full of niches. The place was tidy and clean, although it was impossible to get rid of the strange smell of various 'exotic' ingredients, to say the least. She was sure she was in the lich lab.
Her curiosity got the better out of her, even more knowing that she would have little time to be there.
This was probably a forbidden place.
And Alexa imagined that she only found the door open because the Lich had left in a hurry to foresee the death of some of her slaves.
Or children, as he called them.
Alexa looked quickly, trying to find something that seemed useful or important on the tables, but all she saw were things that she had no idea what they were for.
A tapestry on the wall caught Alexa's eye.
It was very frayed and the moths had already done some damage in some parts, but bringing the lamp closer, she saw something that she recognized immediately. Holstein hill, where there was a temple, connected by the aqueduct to an ancient agora with a building. Today there was neither the temple nor the agora, but a castle and the cathedral.
At the edges of the tapestry, there were symbols ... Was it ancient Greek? She thought so. She came closer, trying to read what was written, despite the dirt and holes in the tapestry ...
'Oak tree ... to the west ...' She had the impression of having read it before, it seemed familiar in some way, but there the text was incomplete and impossible to read. Anyway, Alexa walked away as soon as she heard a firm knock on the door,
"OPEN THE DOOR!" Iacintho demanded, but she heard several other steps coming to the door, too, then the chilly and imperious voice silencing everything else,
"GET AWAY!" that she knew was Volos returning. She put the lamp in place and crouched in a corner, not trying to hide too much. She shouldn't have seemed too smart not to arouse suspicion.
"The little girl ran away from Emmeline and found the door open. Now she's inside! But I can solve this master, forgive my clumsiness!"
"No! You caused this by wanting to change your bride! You know nobody enters my sanctum!"
The door opened violently, and the barrel that Alexa had placed against the door flew and rolled out. She didn't know how it had been done, but she figured it had not been done with natural means.
Alexa peeked under the table and saw that Iacintho tried to follow him, but the door was closed behind Volos with the same supernatural force used to open it, leaving Alexa's brother outside.
Volos walked slowly in the direction where Alexa had been hiding,
"Little one?"
Alexa remembered to take the wedding ring off her finger, but she didn't have the strength with her bad hand to take it off, so she just turned it around so that the coat was on her palm. It was the best she could do for now.
He stopped in front of her, and Alexa looked at the boots that yesterday crushed her neck with a tremor.
"Look at me."
At the very least, it would be stupid to disobey. A lich was the most powerful of all the undead, for its arcane knowledge of magic.
Alexa looked up. But no one could blame her for trying to make this seem the most innocent and sweet and frightened creature in the world, right? She would soon know if it had the same effect on undead.
The lich's dark, piercing eyes, on its cadaverous and disgusting face, studied her for a moment, and then he held out his bony hands to her.
"Come, child."
Alexa could only extend one hand to him, the one that was not hurt, however, this would invariably make him notice the ring facing the palm. She was sure he was connected to Holstein now. Was he Orcaius?
She tried to get up without help, but Volos suddenly took her by the waist and placed her on the table. Approaching, he commented,
"Let's see what we have here ..."
"Emmeline!" Alexa exclaimed, intuiting that the undead girl had been there for some time. They just hadn't seen her before. Emmeline looked at them with a sadistic expression that didn't match her delicate beauty. Alexa now understood that what she perceived wrong in the girl was, in fact, caused by her being a 'young' upir. Her bestial and violent nature had to be controlled, and the 'Master' apparently recently punished her, judging by the reddish stains on her clothing. Emmeline wore men's clothing, riding pants, shirt and boots. "I question you the same, Emmeline? Where do you think you're going?" Iacintho questioned her even harder, and Emmeline's eyes widened. "I saw e-everything!" the girl pointed to them, like a child who doesn't want to be deceived. "All! The bride with my clothes at my house is a witch!" Iacintho rolled his eyes, "Just stop! You should be thanking me instead of wanting to blackmail me! You don't even have the capacity for it! And I saved your brother right now!" Iacintho put his arm around Alexa, who kept her gaze on the other girl, watching her mouth open in an O. They heard the door to the garden open with a bang, and the 'Master' lich, which Alexa now knew his name was Volos, came in a long, fast stride to the gazebo. He stopped halfway when he saw the trio already there. In the clear moonlight, and facing him, Alexa finally saw a lich for the first time. Volos was so pale and his skin so dry that it looked like bleached parchment, and he was so thin that his neck seemed to have a hard time supporting his skull. In addition to his head and neck, and the outline of his body that he could barely see through the overlapping, bulky and rich tunics, his hands were cadaverous. Alexa had only seen people like that among the condemned who were tied to the side of the road to starve. Their crimes used to be placed on plaques around their necks. His eyes also had the fever of life in them, and in that moment, they reflected a myriad of feelings that Alexa didn't have time to understand, because he asked, in a voice modulated between suspicion and coldness, "Well, well, what are you doing?" "Something happened, sure?" Iacintho immediately countered the question. Alexa understood that she should follow through with the lie, if it were possible, and pretend that they came to this point at that moment. If it weren't for Emmeline, of course, she acted like a child who had been caught. It would be very difficult to lie to a being so malicious and much older than them, with Emmeline around. "And you, why are you here?" The lich Volos turned to the young upir girl, who flinched, saying nothing. After watching her for a moment, the lich got angry and turned to Iacintho and Alexa in the gazebo, "I felt something strange. Something interrupted my magic..." Iacintho nodded, "Something happened in the forest, I'm sure of it. There were wind and flashes Maybe it would be better to call them back and find out what happened" "Take them away and return soon, Iacintho," Volos said, his face a mask of worry and anger. "Yes, Master." Iacintho led Alexa and Emmeline inside, and as soon as he closed the door, Emmeline took advantage of the fact he was busy with the door to lunge on Alexa. This time, however, the princess was alert and dodged, turning on her heels and running as far as she could down the spiral ramp, with the undead girl in pursuit! 'What the hell?! What does she have against me?!' "STOP, EMMELINE!" Iacintho shouted, but not even his command voice prevented the upir from continuing to track Alexa down, like an angry dog. Alexa looked back briefly, seeing that her brother was a little behind Emmeline, also furious! She entered the first open door she saw, and locked herself there, using the key and dragging a smelly barrel to the door. Taking a deep breath, she looked around, waiting for Iacintho to control the madwoman out there. Her heart was pounding, and she paused for a moment to sweep away the sweat on her forehead, feeling dizzy. Her health was no longer the same after so many accidents, and her injured wrist throbbed from blood pumping. She was terrified to think of what she had seen a few minutes ago! That upir that practically burst into blood like a leech Her brother was now an upir, she was surrounded by upirs! 'Calm down Alexa! Emmeline hates you because you were in her room using her things, apparently living the life she had! She doesn't want to drain all your blood from your body... It's just a misunderstanding...' Unfortunately, repeating this to yourself wasn't working very well. They hadn't had time to try to speak to Magnus again, and she didn't know how to escape. And on the other side of the door, Iacintho tried to control Emmeline, while cursing, threatening, and the girl howled back fiercely. Alexa looked up, and her heart almost had a syncope, when she saw the creature hanging from the ceiling of the room where she had instinctively entered. "AH!" she covered her mouth in horror. A huge, completely hairless humanoid with bat wings, about two meters tall and more than twice the wingspan, was hanging by chains from the ceiling. It took Alexa a while to understand that the creature was inert, dry, like the small mummies that some people sold as souvenirs between Tunis and Cairo. A little relieved 'Eh! What a fright, 'Alexa looked around better and realized she was in an alchemical laboratory, huge and full of niches. The place was tidy and clean, although it was impossible to get rid of the strange smell of various 'exotic' ingredients, to say the least. She was sure she was in the lich lab. Her curiosity got the better out of her, even more knowing that she would have little time to be there. This was probably a forbidden place. And Alexa imagined that she only found the door open because the Lich had left in a hurry to foresee the death of some of her slaves. Or children, as he called them. Alexa looked quickly, trying to find something that seemed useful or important on the tables, but all she saw were things that she had no idea what they were for. A tapestry on the wall caught Alexa's eye. It was very frayed and the moths had already done some damage in some parts, but bringing the lamp closer, she saw something that she recognized immediately. Holstein hill, where there was a temple, connected by the aqueduct to an ancient agora with a building. Today there was neither the temple nor the agora, but a castle and the cathedral. At the edges of the tapestry, there were symbols ... Was it ancient Greek? She thought so. She came closer, trying to read what was written, despite the dirt and holes in the tapestry ... 'Oak tree ... to the west ...' She had the impression of having read it before, it seemed familiar in some way, but there the text was incomplete and impossible to read. Anyway, Alexa walked away as soon as she heard a firm knock on the door, "OPEN THE DOOR!" Iacintho demanded, but she heard several other steps coming to the door, too, then the chilly and imperious voice silencing everything else, "GET AWAY!" that she knew was Volos returning. She put the lamp in place and crouched in a corner, not trying to hide too much. She shouldn't have seemed too smart not to arouse suspicion. "The little girl ran away from Emmeline and found the door open. Now she's inside! But I can solve this master, forgive my clumsiness!" "No! You caused this by wanting to change your bride! You know nobody enters my sanctum!" The door opened violently, and the barrel that Alexa had placed against the door flew and rolled out. She didn't know how it had been done, but she figured it had not been done with natural means. Alexa peeked under the table and saw that Iacintho tried to follow him, but the door was closed behind Volos with the same supernatural force used to open it, leaving Alexa's brother outside. Volos walked slowly in the direction where Alexa had been hiding, "Little one?" Alexa remembered to take the wedding ring off her finger, but she didn't have the strength with her bad hand to take it off, so she just turned it around so that the coat was on her palm. It was the best she could do for now. He stopped in front of her, and Alexa looked at the boots that yesterday crushed her neck with a tremor. "Look at me." At the very least, it would be stupid to disobey. A lich was the most powerful of all the undead, for its arcane knowledge of magic. Alexa looked up. But no one could blame her for trying to make this seem the most innocent and sweet and frightened creature in the world, right? She would soon know if it had the same effect on undead. The lich's dark, piercing eyes, on its cadaverous and disgusting face, studied her for a moment, and then he held out his bony hands to her. "Come, child." Alexa could only extend one hand to him, the one that was not hurt, however, this would invariably make him notice the ring facing the palm. She was sure he was connected to Holstein now. Was he Orcaius? She tried to get up without help, but Volos suddenly took her by the waist and placed her on the table. Approaching, he commented, "Let's see what we have here ..."
