Hector wondered what Garovel might know of Exoltha, but now wasn’t really the time to ask, he supposed. He hoped he would remember to bring it up again later.
As they neared the kitchen, a familiar smell caught Hector’s attention. Too familiar.
Blood. A lot of it.
He quickened his pace and reached the kitchen’s wide entryway just as Ibai’s four bodyguards did. And he was not prepared for what he saw.
Ibai was standing there with one foot stuck through the chest of someone on the ground. A corpse. It had been eviscerated.
When Ibai saw them, his eyes widened. “Aha! Um. This isn’t what it looks like?”
Chapter One Hundred Fifteen: ‘A devil’s paradox...’
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For a long moment, no one seemed to know what to do. They all just stared at Ibai, too shocked to say anything.
And then Hector watched Horatio take a slow step forward.
“...Tell us what happened here,” the man said very calmly. The second Blackburn bodyguard was right behind him.
Hector became keenly aware of the sudden division in the room. Those other two bodyguards belonged to the Delagunas. He recognized both their faces, but he only knew one of their names. Lorenzo. Lord Salvador’s son. And right about now, they were both looking rather twitchy.
“Well, uh, I just--um...” Ibai was still trying to get his foot unstuck. “I’m not sure, actually. When I teleported, he was already--but I didn’t--this wasn’t supposed to--aha... ah... I’m so confused!”
“It’s okay,” said Horatio. “Calm yourself and think. And first, why don’t you teleport yourself out of there?”
“I tried,” said Ibai. “The body just teleports with me.” He motioned behind. “We were originally over there.”
And Hector noticed the blood stains on the other side of the kitchen. When he looked to the Delagunas again, he saw that their reapers were missing. Gone to tell someone, no doubt.
The situation would soon get extremely complicated, Hector felt. He decided to keep his eyes on the Blackburns.
Horatio was trying to help Ibai free himself. “You know I have to ask,” Horatio said. “Did you kill this man?”
“No, I--” Ibai scratched his head. “No. He was already here. I just. I teleported and he was--I didn’t. I wouldn’t--” His foot came free, covered in a bloody brown shadow.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Here ends the Tenth Oath and begins the Eleventh.
ReplyDeleteSo there's a traitor within the Sandlord's area or it was to do with what Garovel's sister's servant was currently seen?
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your break, The Author Guy
That feel when a corpse becomes a part of you brrr.
ReplyDelete...whoooooooops. Man, talk about awkward, right?
ReplyDeleteWhen teleport spam based on living souls for triangulation gets awkward. :/
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update frost :) best of luck getting your ducks in a row irl. We appreciate you/your work, so take all the time ya need.(not that you need permission from internet anons)
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm wondering is, who is this? Is it a servant or a normal person? And assuming Ibai is still on the wagon, how did he fail to see the inanimate object in his way?
ReplyDeleteAnd if it's a normal person, where's his soul? If the blood's fresh, it should still be there.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that he was murdered earlier (not by Ibai), hence Ibai not seeing him when he was in the void. He just had the misfortune to teleport to a place he knew and land in the corpse. I think he can only see reapers, servants and living people, not dead drifting souls.
ReplyDeleteThink he might lose a foot?
ReplyDeleteI'm just surprised that Ibai is able to find his cheer that quickly after each new setback. He managed to teleport after finding himself stuck in the body, (meaning he was happy) quickly, despite knowing he was in a house full of people that wanted to find an excuse to kill him. Unless of course he was happy from the more concentrated boost from eating a human soul... nah, must have just been his natural ability to focus on the positive.
ReplyDeleteNo, his shadow won't let him get hurt by anything except a strengthened attack breaking through it. It certainly won't provide a means for him to hurt himself.
ReplyDelete