Disclaimer: these stories are a work of fiction.
Back: Chapter Ten
Alyssa looked around her.
Nothing was left of the villa. Only smoking rubble remained.
Servants and retainers were picking themselves up. Despite the destruction of the villa around them, no one had been harmed.
It was an effective demonstration of both the power and the precision of the Illusti.
“Um, wow, sorry about the villa,” Alyssa said to Telleron.
The Counselor coughed. “Well, it was worth it for the information we gained.
“It would appear that the Illusti can sense you and your surroundings through your armor?”
“Yes,” Alyssa said, “and recently when I visited the crypt where we found him, he knew I was there.”
“Still, he didn’t know what we had talked about.”
Alyssa realized he was right. “He must not be able to hear through the armor!”
“And so you’re able to have private conversations.
“Earlier, you had mentioned wanting to see a priest. Why don’t I take you to see one now?”
The Counselor took her to see the head priest, the archpriest of all the five kingdoms.
“Might as well go to the top,” he said.
The archpriest was a cheerful, wizened old woman, and met with Alyssa in a pleasant office in a tower overlooking the city.
Once again Alyssa told her tale, and explained how she was worried about if she was doing the right thing.
“Let me ask you a hypothetical,” said the archpriest. “Suppose you were in a situation where you had only two options: you could do nothing, and three children would die; or you could kill one child, and two children would be saved. What would you do?”
“Um, if that really was my only two options, kill the child to save the others, I guess, and then feel terrible about it.”
“And so you feel bad about serving the Illusti, even though all other options would be worse?”
“Yeah.”
“Know that you have my blessing.”
“But what if he does turn out to be evil? What then?”
“Could we stop him if he did?”
“No, I don’t think so. I mean, I tried, but I don’t know of anything we could do.”
“Death comes to us all, whether to individuals or kingdoms in our time. If there is truly nothing we can do, then let us remember the lives we have lived.”
“Or, if instead it turns out that there is something we can do, let us have the courage to act when needed.”
Alyssa went to see her friend Marwell.
“Well, well, well,” he said, “look at you! All shiny in your armor! I’m glad you remembered me.” He mock-glared at her, but also looked a little hurt.
“I just learned that the Illusti isn’t able to hear conversations through the armor,” she said.
“Oh,” said Marwell, his face turning to a thoughtful look.
“If the Illusti turned against me, I thought it best if he didn’t know who my friends were.
“So tell me about the ancient battle where the Illusti had been defeated.”
Marwell, of course, had been doing research.
From the fragments that remained, it was clear that no weapon brought towards the Illusti could strike faster than the armor could form over his body.
Not the swing of a sword, the strike of a dagger, the thrust of a spear, or the flight of an arrow.
Nor poison or fire or drowning or magic.
Yet Illusti had been killed. If a weapon was already touching his skin, then it could be used before the armor formed.
Marwell read from a translation. Stabbed by a trusted friend, the fiery essence of the Illusti consumed him. The Desire Armor of his Queen-Consorts shattered and disappeared.
“Ah,” said Alyssa.
She recalled that the Illusti never let anyone close to him, aside from his own Queen-Consorts.
In all the world, they were the only ones who could stop him.
And Cawyn and Nali would not.
There was only Alyssa, and no one else.
Coming soon: chapter twelve
Copy & share: islehaven.me/curse
Send me a private email: [email protected]
Message me on: Reddit, WhatsApp
These stories are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Which means you can share or republish these stories in any medium or format. (You could, for example, make a audio recording of a story if you wanted to).
And you can adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
All you need to do is give attribution.
Which is easy to do! Simply include the link: islehaven.me/curse