Chapter 82 - Seventy-Eight (1/2)

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and sit sideways, more comfortably on Leo's lap, and start to ponder.

This creature, whoever it was, had a lot of information on his hands; very few knew where we had gone, and even less the exact location, furthermore to know that the Terror was here and was responsible for the stolen items … maybe he already knew that I was the one responsible for it right from the start? But how so, it should take them longer than a few days to figure things out, at least from my side since nobody saw us go in nor out of the castle.

That's when it hit me; my brother, his Cerberus form, it should not be difficult to narrow down to us from there if you had enough information about us, which this creature seemly did.

But why us? Such specific attack towards me in particular, all planned so he would conquer… nothing? What could his objective be, kidnapping my brother like this? Not asking for money, not asking for a meeting, simply leaving a vague reply…

It could be just as Leo said; he was playing with us, trying to manipulate us in playing his weird game for even more obscure reasons.

Uhm… There should be more to that… but what?

One thing for sure, few creatures had the power; level and information-wise; to come up with such a feat, so that could work in our favor to eliminate possibilities, until we find the guilty one.

Most humans were out of the list, that black magic was considerate a taboo for them and punished very harshly; which reminds me of the necromancer we fought a long time ago, he had similar control over his puppets, but with some strange differences such as the level of power and the level of consciousness that the creatures had.

Plus his puppets rotted and decayed, not lasting long…

Could this be an advanced type of necromancy?

Then that narrows the search down even more; what kind could have such control over the dead? One that did not penalize its practice most likely…

But that was as far as I went with that kind of thought, so I tried to change my view of the subject by looking the black envelope over, the only interesting thing being the wings symbol… Though I have never seen it before, it was a start, we could inquire about it.

The only problem is… the others.

I finally calmed down enough now to inquire about the health of the others as Leo's calmly answered me, but I could see he was worried.

”Ragnur is fine, he bumped his head right at the start and passed out, but Aeglos and Eyope are still unconscious. Eyope lost one of his arms for good, and will take some time until he recovers from the blood loss, thankfully Isaac closed the wound quickly.”

”Isaac?”

”Oh, yeah, is Isa's real name, or full name.”

”And went the hell did you learn that?”

”Jealous?” I roll my eyes. ”When you were rampaging about.”

Of course, should have known.

”Anyway, Seiroe is doing fine… physically, but doesn't leave his brother's side. Isaac is resting now and the Templar is helping out with the food for the sick.”

Well, now I feel like a d.i.c.k for not staying and helping out, so much had been done and still even more need to that I could not have afforded the three days lost.

But what is done is done, no point in dwelling with the past now, is there? I click my tongue over my palate before asking:

”And Aeglos? And Shu?”

”…”

His hesitation makes me once more get farther from him so I could look him in the eyes as he takes a deep breath and says:

”Aeglos body took the worse of them all, it seems like he had his lungs pierced and the blood started to overflow and drown him so Isa had to mend him all night long to at least close the surface of the wounds and clean the lungs. But that's not the worst, he… he doesn't respond to anything, something must have affected his mind, or at least Isa says.”

”Can't he do something about it?” He nods no.

”Apparently there is some sort of magic interfering with it, is not just a physical condition.”

Magic? That's different, did the puppeteer do it?