Grek walked out of the ballroom. I followed him while Whily watched my back, or the leather flaps on my legs. I really couldn’t say. I wasn’t even bothered. They would get used to the new armor sooner or later. Right now, I was more interested in what Ilya had been up to since she had left. Was she safe? Had she found a way to avoid soul fire? More and more questions like that popped into my head. And the answer to them was, yes.

  “Captain.” Stone greeted Grek as soon as he exited the door and scanned our surroundings.

  The female punisher didn’t even bother to move from the wall she was reclining on. Grek took in a sharp inhale of breath and looked at a specter crawling towards the lower half of its body, and then turned his attention towards a specter that had been bisected vertically.

  “Where is Her Grace?” Grek asked.

  Stone raised a finger and pointed above.

  We all looked up. Out of the ballroom, the place opened up into a high arched ceiling lit up with ghost light, bathing everything in warm daylight. Ghost lights were not like the ethereal torches used everywhere else. Ethereal lights lit up a room in shades of blue or white flickering firelight and needed mana to work.

  Ghost light was usually cast by a group of master mages. They captured the sun’s rays and stored them. Then you could use that stored light to light up an area at a command. Even Father used it in his workplaces. Of course, Father did not need master mages to cast ghost light. He just snapped his fingers and his surroundings lit up whether light was stored or not.

  While I contemplated Father’s power, everyone else was looking at the cyclone that was pulling tens of specters inwards. So this was Ilya when she let loose. She was a whirlwind of destruction in the middle of a cyclone. The forty-foot high ceiling allowed Ilya to buzz from one enemy to another. She dodged and struck specters at the same time. And watching her, I realized why she wasn’t afraid of soul fire.

  As soon as a lick of soul fire left a specter's hand or mouth, it was snuffed out by her raging winds. In fact, the specters were trying to escape her grasp and retreat in droves. One even tried to use soul fire to propel itself out of the reach of Ilya’s winds.

  Ilya saw it. With a gust of wind, she appeared next to it. Her hand slashed downwards. A wind blade that screeched over the sound of the thrumming cyclone cut its arm off. Not done, Ilya grabbed it by its rags and began to punch it again and again, with screams that were lost to the wind. I didn’t want any part of that. I decided to use my time productively.

  “Right.” I nodded to myself and walked to the specter crawling towards its lower half.

  I took out my essence dagger. It wasn’t going to last, but it was good enough for two, maybe three more uses. I slammed it down into the specter's head and sat on the rags that were its body. Essence flowed into me and I took a moment to look inwards.

  Everything under my soul shield looked right where it was supposed to be, but where was Rustle? Then I spotted a hole to the side. And little paws digging and flinging mud everywhere. Now how was I supposed to handle this?

  “Hey, little soul,” I called to the ferret.

  The little creature jolted and spun to face me. It poked its head out and looked at me.

  I sighed and asked, “Want some essence?”

  The ferret opened its mouth and showed me its canines.

  I cupped some of the essence trickling into my soul and splashed it on the ferret. Rustle chittered and hissed. With its wet fur, it licked its lips. Its eyes widened and it began to wobble its head side to side. The ferret brought its little hands up and began to lick off the wispy essence. With a thought, I created a little hole next to the animal spirit and filled it up with essence.

  I wasn’t doing this just because it was fun. Okay, I had to be honest, it was fun having an animal spirit around. I was doing this because Rustle ate death mana. That wasn’t sustainable. I couldn’t have it sucking on my mana all the time. So I decided to give Rustle a taste of something more potent. It would change its nature and make him? Yes, him. It would make him more powerful.

  I opened my eyes atop the dissipating body of the specter and smiled down. “Come on, Rustle. We have more essence to eat.”

  I walked to the bisected specter. A thrust and its soul was swimming in the turbulent waters. Another specter dropped from up above and I proceeded with my goal. Then I formed a new dagger. With the constant stream of essence, I wasn’t worried about running out.

  I looked at Grek and the punishers standing and watching Ilya and me. I waved at them. “Do you want some essence?”

  Grek blinked and looked at his team.

  It was Stone who moved first. “Will it make us sick?” She asked while walking closer.

  “Have you been injured by a demon?” I asked in return.

  “Never faced one.”

  “Then, no. Unless something has injured your soul.” I raised my hand to touch her shoulder.

  Stone hesitated a few meters away. “What about if I had a bad relationship once?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I had a soul-sucking harlot who broke my heart.” Stone smiled and leaned closer.

  I trickled some mana into her body. While we both looked up, Ilya threw the specter in her hand at a bunch closing in from the left. She shot to the right. Grabbed a specter by its rags and started to spin, using the poor thing as a battering ram.

  Stone’s eyes widened. “By the stars, she is scary.”

  I nodded and trickled mana into the punisher. Her shoulders relaxed. “Oh... That didn’t feel bad at all. It felt warm.”

  That was strange. Essence was essence. It didn’t feel anything like that to me.

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  Stone looked behind her. “Captain, you need to try this.”

  Grek looked from the fight above and hesitated. “Your Highness. Maybe you need the wisps more?”

  A specter dropped next to me. I looked at it and back at Grek wordlessly. I stabbed the specter and looked above just in time to see Ilya knee a specter in the face. The fire it was gathering shot into the ceiling and Ilya began to hammer its skull in.

  Grek shook his head and snorted. “As you wish, Your Highness,” and walked to me. A trickle. A shiver. And he was done.

  “It didn’t feel warm to me.” Grek looked at Stone, puzzled.

  “Really?” Stone asked, rubbing the spot where my hand had touched her. “What did it feel like?”

  “Orange. It tasted like oranges.” Grek moved his tongue in his mouth. “But not in my mouth.”

  I nodded in realization. It had been so long since I had first consumed essence that I had forgotten what it felt like when you were not used to it.

  I explained, “Every soul is different. You all will experience essence differently. To me, essence doesn’t taste or feel like anything. It is much like air for me.”

  Whily was the last one who walked to me. As soon as he was close, Rustle’s flaps rustled. It was like the little ferret's tail stood on its end to attack. With a look downwards, I realized the ferret didn’t like the punisher.

  “Rustle, calm down,” I said. The flaps did not calm. I took in a breath. “How about this? If he tries to harm you or me, you can bite him.”

  “What!?” Whily took a step back.

  The flaps stopped and considered my words. Rustle settled and I reached out to put my hand on Whily’s shoulder. Whily didn’t move from his spot, warily looking at the flaps on my waist. They swayed like a snake’s head.

  “Whily, do as the lord says,” Stone ordered. “The armor won’t harm you. It is an armor after all. Not a weapon.”

  “Oh? And how long before our lord finds a death bonded weapon?”

  Grek and Stone glared at Whily.

  “Are there such weapons?” I asked curiously and touched the hilt of my new sword. “Is this such a weapon?”

  Grek and Stone glared even harder at Whily.

  “No, Your Highness. That is a normal mana channeling sword,” Stone answered while looking at Whily with a death glare.

  Whily backed to my palm. “Yes, Your Highness. I will take some essence. Thank you.” He closed his eyes and hissed as essence trickled into him. He muttered, “Curses, that was cold.”

  The punisher had his eyes closed and did not see Ilya land a rapid series of blows on a specter and use a wind blade. The blade bit deep into the specter's back and pushed it down. The specter tumbled down, only catching itself at the last moment before it made impact with the floor just a step from me and Whily.

  I took my hand off Whily’s back and plunged my dagger into its eye socket, eliciting a shriek from the punisher. The punisher jumped away and ran to stand with his captain.

  Grek took his eye off the battle above to give Whily a murderous look.

  “I got startled.” Whily raised his hands. “That's all.”

  Stone blew air out of her nose. “Punisher Whily. You are making us look bad. I will put a blade in your throat if you do that again.”

  Whily stepped away from the two punishers and stood to a side while muttering, “Death bonded armor. Bloody ghost. And now flying enemies. Why couldn’t there be normal people to fight?”

  “Whily, shut your mouth,” Grek growled at the punisher.

  I tuned them out and looked up. Ilya was now catching her breath while shooting wind blades left and right. She was getting tired. Even her cyclone was losing its strength. The specters that had been retreating all this time had stopped backing away. They were now gathering together in bunches, preparing to strike together.

  I looked from Ilya to the long empty corridor spread out to my left and right. I say empty, but it wasn’t really empty. I could see the remnants of pools and fountains in the middle of the walkway on both sides.

  “Mouth, what is this place?” I asked Grek while walking to look inside the dry bed of the fountain.

  “Uh… This is the reception corridor in the Voss Palace, Your Highness.”

  I looked from the battle above. Ilya had begun to move again. But her movements seemed labored and her blades felt less deadly. I turned back to Grek. “Palace? I thought we were in the Underkeep.”

  Grek held the bridge of his nose. “Your Highness, did you not read the dossier that was given to you?”

  I had read the dossier. I had read about Shazed Voss until…

  Until Saha had distracted me. And then… Yes, I had not read the dossier.

  Grek looked at me with a growing smile on his face. “I see.”

  “Next time have someone put everything in a knowledge stone.”

  “You know, those are expensive, my lord?” Grek asked while looking at Ilya with concern on his face. His fingers tapped the hilt of the sword sheathed on his waist. He looked back down and saw the blank look on my face. The punisher captain sighed. “I will just bill it to the imperial treasury.”

  “So, the palace?” I prompted Grek while looking at Ilya take on three specters at once. She dodged a fireball. Swayed right to avoid a blast of fire and slashed at a specter with her scimitar sword.

  “Shazed Voss was king before the Emperor Starbright brought his continent to these lands. He had a palace. But he made it so that it was unreachable for his enemies. To reach his palace you needed to be invited and vetted by his officers. And that was done at the keep,” Grek explained.

  I looked at the punisher captain and noticed that his punishers had started to take their positions behind the man.

  “So, how did we end up here?” I tapped my foot. I was getting nervous too.

  “Displacement magic.” Grek shrugged while looking up.

  Ilya had begun to parry and block. She had no time to attack with enemies hounding her every step.

  “I don’t get it. Who is powering all these magics? There is ghost light and now there is displacement magic? Meanwhile, we at the fortress have to settle with ether torches?”

  “Shazed Voss was a paragon mage, Your Highness.” Grek looked at me and asked, “How far did you get in that dossier?”

  I winced and answered, “Three.”

  “Three pages?”

  I turned away and changed the topic. “Punishers, here is what we are going to do. We are going to assist my sister.”

  I heard Stone release a long breath of relief. I looked at her. “What? Did you think I would not help her?”

  “Well, my lord. She did tell you not to interfere.” Stone shrugged.

  I rolled my eyes and cracked my neck. “Okay, I can kill them in one blow. So, I will stand in the front.”

  Grek shook his head. “Blight and curses, no. We will stick together.” Before I could object Grek asked, “Please tell me you read more than three lines.”

  “I did.”

  Ilya was now spinning like a top. A wind blade shrieked in her palm while her sword lashed out at the specters flying towards her. The specters fell back and Ilya stopped, wiping sweat from her eyes.

  “How many of you have projectile weapons?” I asked while looking up.

  “We are punishers, Your Highness. We are trained in the use of all weapons,” Stone answered while pulling out a bow three-quarters of her size and a dozen arrows. She walked to a statue of a horseman and loaded an arrow.

  Soul fire flew at Ilya. She shot up to dodge the fire. Over a dozen specters followed her, harassing her with raised limbs and fireballs. More began to move to cut her off in the air.

  Whily took out a crossbow with bolts that flared with fire mana and took his spot. Hiding behind a wall of the empty pool in front of us.

  Grek stepped in close to me, tossing stones into a sling, and looked up. “So, it was three paragraphs?”

  I looked at the punisher captain and his people preparing to attack. “Uh... Yes. Your cousin is very persuasive when she wants something.”

  Grek ran ahead and hid behind a statue of an armored knight. He grinned. “Oh yes, blame my cousin.”

  I created two spikes of ice. One in each hand. I looked at the punishers. “Alright, here is what I am thinking. We need to create an opening for my sister. So, I attack with my spikes and then rush in and finish as many as I can with my dagger. Then you all can come in with my sister to assist me.”

  Grek looked at me as if I was stupid. The others didn’t look impressed either.

  “No. Your Highness, with all due respect. Let us make the plans.” Grek began to spin his sling. “Punishers, call out your targets and the type of mana bolts and arrows you are using,” Grek ordered.

  “Shock arrows. I will take the ones on the left,” Stone called out.

  “Incendiary bolts. I will take the ones underneath Her Grace,” Whily followed suit.

  “I will use explosive stones to stagger the enemy when Her Grace retreats. Your Highness, hit the one on the right with your ice, and for the stars don’t hit your sister,” Grek pleaded.

  I shut my mouth with a clack and nodded.

  “In three... two... one... Begin!” Grek shouted.