"Thank you," Drigo couldn’t help but feel emotional when they arrived at his study. Though he knew that Ava and the rest didn’t come here to help him but to find Matthew, he was still grateful for their help.
"They are not done yet," Ava said, her expression morose. "Your mother seemed different." For some reason, she couldn’t tell what was different about her. It was her instinct. Ava felt that Margery had become more dangerous. Which cannot be good.
Margery must be hiding something.
"I know," Drigo said. "It started when father died."
Ava nodded. They had to leave to give them time to decide if they wanted the Shaman to find out the truth. Obviously, it was a very tempting offer. Saying no to the Shaman’s offer would definitely make the others ask more questions about the previous Queen’s intention.
The Shaman is clearly powerful enough to find out the truth! If the Queen really wanted to find out the truth then she would agree or the others who didn’t know about her blackmailing Drigo would suspect that something is wrong.
However, Ava was now more curious about this.
She had no interest in this throne. But the fact that Margery wanted it was very interesting. Moreover, she had this feeling that Margery was hiding something else. She met the Shaman’s gaze who had kept his silence since earlier. The only reason why the Shaman agreed to come here is that he was curious about everything.
After Ava told him that there is currently a problem inside this plane and that Ulva had been captured, he immediately showed his interest in it.
The Shaman explained that he know who Ulva is. In fact, they have met each other once. The woman might be stronger than Baba and was pretty arrogant too. So... why would she just allow some nonsense accusation to affect her? Why would she allow other people to capture her?
"I am wondering why Ulva would let them detain her when she was innocent?" Ava asked the question that the Shaman wanted to ask.
"They used something on her..."
Ava immediately lifted an eyebrow. Something? What something? She couldn’t help but wonder if this had something to do with that bomb that they used on her. Does it have something to do with the de Cene family?
As far as she knew, the de Cene family had been very low-key since Matthew came here. They didn’t do anything to retaliate. However, that itself was already a red flag. Still, Ava was so focused on the King that she didn’t look into the de Cene family.
"What about Matthew?" Ava asked. She’s acting as if she didn’t know what happened.
"I don’t know."
"I thought he was here?" Baba chimed in.
"Well... He was. But he left. He just vanished into thin air."
Once again, Ava lifted an eyebrow. "He’s telling the truth," she said. "When did this happen?"
"A couple of hours ago... just when we were talking."
"So it happened while you were in the middle of a conversation?"
"Yes," he nodded.
"While you were talking?’ Ava continued asking.
"Yes. He just vanished."
Ava nodded this time. For some reason, a part of her knew that Matthew isn’t in any danger. This was because she would usually feel it if he was. Because of this, he was completely calm about the whole thing.
If Matthew was indeed a god, then he should be more powerful than anyone. He should be able to protect himself. Despite this, she couldn’t stop herself from worrying about him.
What could have happened?
And why did it happen?
"Your majesty..."
The three of them looked at the knight who opened the door after three knocks. Seeing this, the knight bowed then he said," I just received news that the previous Queen along with the current Queen left the meeting hall after a loud argument ensued inside."
"So... they just left," Drigo said. "What about Ulva?"
"They didn’t mention anything about the priestess."
"They took her to a secret facility and used some special methods to stop her from using her magick. I haven’t heard of those methods before. Aside from this, they confined her in a pretty secured room made of iron and bronze."
"New methods?" Baba asked. "Are you saying that the Lycans have a way to confine a strong witch aside from iron and bronze?"
"Yes. However, I have no knowledge of this method. I have already talked to— "
"Your majesty— "
The conversation was interrupted when a man with long brown hair walked in. He was wearing a long black and gold tunic, and a worried expression on his face.
"Please forgive me for interrupting you."
"You may leave now..." the King instructed the knight to leave then he looked at the man who just walked in."It’s alright, Polin. Everyone, this is Polin, he had been acting as my assistant. He knew about Ulva and I have given him permission to study the methods that they have used to capture Ulva, leaving her powerless."
The three witches inside the room, including Ava, looked at Polin as they started to wonder what method are they talking about.
"It seems that the Lycans have been trying to develop something like this for a long time. I refuse to believe that they just created it in a year. How about the previous King?" the Shaman asked. "Did he say something about it?"
"Unfortunately, my father didn’t want to involve himself with the business of the outside world. All he wanted was to stay inside this plane..." Drigo said. "I have been spending my time inside his study looking for anything that would tell me about the things that he had been doing. Research, his findings, what his plans were, anything... just anything that would show me that he cared about the outside world. But I didn’t see anything."
"So.... It was the Queen..." Ava said. She was talking about Margery.
"Yes. That is my guess as well. However, my mother trusted me in the past and she never once mentioned anything about it. So... I am assuming that it was one of the noble families. They approached her after I announced the change that I wanted to make."
"Tsk..." the Shaman frowned. Then he looked at Ava. "This is troublesome," he said.
"Polin, please tell us whatever it is that you found from your research."
"Your majesty... I believe I found out about the experiments on the witches. This started before Priestess Ulva arrived here a couple of Kings ago. There were documents of the Lycans telling the then King that witches needed to serve them and that witches are less... than them."
Polin continued as he started putting some of the parchment in his hand on the King’s table.
"These are some historical records of the past record talking about... using the witches as sacrifices to be able to remove the curse that was cast upon us a long time ago. These are things that were suggested in a meeting and these are some of the families who participated and agreed to sacrifice the witches."
Polin put the rest of the parchments on the table.
"These are the names of the families who suggested doing something to permanently make witches obey them to the King after Priestess Ulva came. And these are the list of the suggested experiments that they should do to try and keep them safe from the witches living outside of this plane."
"And this... this is the suggestion that mentioned a new element that could stop any witches. It is said to be a witch’s weakness." He said. "They mentioned that this is something from another realm. The element is called Afliusium, According to the file, Afliusium is a light blue luminescent chemical that could weaken any witch."
"A witch’s weakness." Shaman Gaas frowned. "That is an interesting name."
"Have you heard of it before?" Ava asked, she thought of the bluish liquid on that building when she saved Baby Gabi. At that time, she couldn’t move too. It felt like the liquid had sucked her magick, rendering her powerless.
But in the end, she still managed to survive that explosion.
"I believe so... " the Shaman said. "And I agree... that is not from this realm."
"Then where did it come from?’
"From the nightmare realm."The Shaman said. "The Nightmare realm is pretty well known for having everyone’s weakness. It contains everyone’s nightmares and weaknesses. It is only logical that somewhere in that realm has the weakness of the witches too."
Ava immediately thought of Matthew talking about realms. The nightmare realm. What kind of realm would have everyone’s weaknesses?
"So... someone was able to get this liquid from the nightmare realm?" Ava asked.
"Perhaps..." the Shaman answered. He looked straight into Ava’s eyes. "Or someone was forced to get the liquid from the nightmare realm."
"What?"
"If it was indeed a witches’ weakness then no dream walker would be crazy enough to carry it around as dream walkers are witches too. Of course... that would be different if... they were forced to do so."
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