The wraith stared down Willem as if it was meeting a mortal enemy for a final duel. It's horribly misshapen body lent incredible pressure to it's terrifying presence, and the Queen trapped within her own mind looked to be on the verge of insanity.
Willem circulated the magical force within his body and created a barrier around himself to protect from the wraith. For the amount of times he has had to clear a path to the void, this has been a proven effective method in dealing with wandering wraiths.
The steps to dealing with a wraith were quite simple, but the wraiths he normally had to fight had not fed on a mortal body like this one did. To assume the wraith inside the Queen was on the same level as those dilapidated wraiths from the void would be foolish.
Willem was unsure just how strong the wraith had become, so he decided to use some extra defensive measures to guarantee his safety. He casted an earthen shield to slowly float around his body, and then casted a molten shield on top of the earthen shield. Willem was in a much better position than he would be in the void. If one was to haphazardly cast magic while within the void, it was like inviting predators to your location.
The wraith did not move in to attack, but warily watched Willem, unsure of what he intended to do. Though the wraith understood the impending danger that Willem posed, it had missed the opportunity to strike and now was preparing itself to flee and find a new host.
Finally, after casting his defensive spells, he was fully prepared for the battle. Normally in order to defeat a wraith, he would fill the wraith with magical energy and have other denizens of the void rip it apart. However this was not possible here, so it required the other method.
Willem needed to bait in the soul devouring attack that wraiths perform, and overwhelm him with pure mental strength.
With a solid plan in mind, Willem charged before the wraith and grappled him away from the Queen. The claws of the wraith could not break through the molten shield without injuring itself, but just being in contact with the magical force seemed to embolden it. Therefore the damage it was taking from the molten shield was negated by the strengthening of it's ethereal body.
Willem pushed through the boundaries of the Queen's mind and started forcing his way through her memories with the wraith bound tightly within his grasp. Though the Queen was still trapped, she was at least out of harms way while Willem dealt with the wraith.
The wraith fed off the magical force of the molten shield but was being burned, therefore it was not becoming stronger. The grip the young boy had on it made it feel powerless to resist.
"Hunger..." The wraith called to the young boy.
"I give you reprieve from life." Willem threw the wraith away from his molten shield and created a thousand black spears from his magical force.
The black spears skewered the ethereal body of the wraith, covering it head to toe in rending spears.
The ethereal body of the wraith absorbed the magical force of Willem and began to approach the young boy once more.
Willem now had an understanding on how strong the wraith was, and feigned fear as the ethereal body absorbed the spears.
"Devour..." The wraith grabbed onto Willem's molten shield and began the soul devouring attack.
Willem's face became distorted as a vortex of thin magic began to pull at his soul. As the vortex grew stronger, Willem appeared to be growing weaker.
Though Willem was growing weaker, he held onto his memories of Kinsey, his friends Eli and Mark, and his family. These memories kept him strong while his soul was being forcefully taken from his body.
When the vortex was near it's peak strength, it became tangible and Willem could finally grab it with his magic.
Willem worked his magical force and created four black tendrils to grip the vortex of the soul devouring attack. Willem had the black tendrils pull his soul back into his body as well as the vortex with it, consuming the vortex and the wraith at the same time.
Thus, the wraith was defeated and Willem's soul had become stronger for it, as if it was a muscle that had just been overused. After his soul recovers, it will be much stronger than it was previously.
The strength the wraith showed was incomparable to the weakened states in the void, but was still within Willem's calculations.
Willem stayed for a moment in the Queen's memories, looking over her childhood and ascension to the throne before returning to the main part of her mind.
The Queen recognized the young boy invading her mind and sighed in relief, the wraith that had previously been torturing her was nowhere to be seen. The black cloth binding her mouth shut disappeared, and the torture rack she was stuck to melted away.
"You are safe now, my Queen." Willem smiled.
"I am still trapped within my own body, you have defeated the monster but I am still poisoned." The Queen solemnly looked down at her shoes.
"What do you mean poisoned? Is this about your illness?" Willem was curious.
"Yes, I will divulge to you, my savior, but please do not reveal what I am about to say to my King." The Queen waited for confirmation before continuing.
Willem nodded his head in agreement.
"Well, long before I met my King, I was a child of the Bastion of Hope, and I was hopelessly in love with my best friend. We went everywhere together, grew up together, and even planned to grow old together. I never knew what sadness was until he was forced to join the military and I could not see him again for a long time." The Queen sat down as Willem conjured a beautiful wooden chair and some warm tea for her to drink.
The warm tea soothed her, and the shaking she previously could not control had been quelled for a moment.
"Before he left for the military, we pledged to stay unwed until we could be reunited once more. However, five years had passed and it was on the verge of my eighteenth birthday that the King found me. Like a prize at the fair, he picked me out of the crowd and proclaimed me his Queen. I dared not disobey my King for fear of being killed, but my heart never truly belonged to him." The Queen took another sip of the tea.
Though it was in her mind, even she could not control things as well as Willem could. A peculiar feeling came over her, like she could no longer control herself and she felt compelled to spill her darkest secret.
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"When I left for the Royal Palace, it turned out one of the guards who protected the King was none other than my best friend and lover. He was forced to watch helplessly as I was betrothed to the King, and soon the marriage had taken place in front of the whole Bastion of Hope. I wept when I said my vows, not happily but for the loss of my love. Distraught, I sought out my lover and we decided to do the unthinkable, poison the King and elope as far away from the Bastion of Hope as we could get. Our plan however was not perfect, as I did not know which drink contained the poisoned wine. I offered to my King the first glass, and then took the other and toasted together. I reasoned in my mind that if he was poisoned, it would all be well. If I was poisoned, at least I would not have to suffer a love that was not meant to be." The Queen cried softly.
Willem could already see the end of the story, but chose to listen instead of interrupt. Something like curing a deeply rooted poison was not impossible given enough time.
"However it was my drink that had been poisoned, and my plan had failed miserably. For attempting regicide, my divine punishment was no less than the complete loss of my body. My body was kept alive by the healing of water mages until the poison had diluted itself into my blood. I thought it could not get any worse, but I was wrong. They found the guard that poisoned the drink, my love, and had him hanged in the Royal Palace gardens. I was forced to watch, while my King proclaimed justice to be done. In his last moments he looked into my dead eyes and all I could do was stare." The Queen began to cry excessively, thinking about the loss of her love.
Willem listened quietly but soon came to his own conclusion. If the Queen or her lover had more strength, enough to stand against the King, they would not have suffered so. In this world as any other, strength is everything. The strength to protect yourself and the ones you love.
"Your heart must hurt very deeply my Queen. Trapped within your own mind, reliving those events over and over. I can ease your burden. I can lock away those memories so that you no longer feel that pain." Willem looked into the eyes of the Queen.
The Queen continued to stare at her feet but said nothing. Though she was in pain everyday, it was still her reminder that she was alive.
"No, I do not wish to be relieved of these memories." The Queen resolutely spoke.
Willem continued to stare at the Queen, pondering to himself.
"For my plan to work, you must love your King unconditionally. So much so that you will give your life. Pardon my intrusion." Willem began to work his magical force once more, erasing the memories of the Queen's lover.
The Queen screamed in agony as her memories of her lover disappeared from her mind. The modifications to her memory left significant gaps, and her mind did its best not to break under the extreme pressure of remolding her blank memories. The Queen was already mentally weak from the torture, she could not resist Willem's removal of the specific memories.
"Please, no..." The Queen whispered in between screams.
Outside, the One True King saw his Queen's face twist and contort in pain, however he could do nothing but continue to pray that Willem was almost done helping her.
After thirty minutes had passed, her mind had finally recovered. Though her heart hurt, she did not know the reason why. Willem spoke to the Queen once more.
"I will develop for you a potion that dispels the poison, but it will take some time to completely remove it. You must be careful not to overexert yourself too much." Willem checked to see if her mind was still intact.
"I understand, and I thank you for everything you have done for myself and my King." The Queen nodded her head and prepared to finally have her body back.
The Queen could not help but feel a little excited as she would finally be able to be with the love of her life, The One True King, once more.
Willem removed himself from her mind, back into his own body. He removed his forehead from hers, and his hands from the sides of her face.
"It is done, I will now craft for you a specialized potion to remove the poison from her body." Willem stood and bowed to the King. "i will be using your alchemy facilities."
"Please, by all means." The One True King was unsure what Willem did, but there was a noticeable change with his Queen. He was unsure what had occurred or what magic Willem had used, but if it relieved the Queen of her pain it would be fine.
Willem took the pendant from around the Queen's neck and put it back into his spatial spell. The 'freeze' magic was dispelled from the Queen's body and Willem caught her before she fell over. He laid her body on her bed and then removed himself from the room.
"Make sure nothing comes in or out of the room until I return." Willem said as he was leaving.
The King nodded his head and closed the door behind Willem.
Willem compounded a cure based on the poison in the Queen's old memories and wrote down the recipe for the King. When it was completed, he returned to the King's chambers and handed him the antidote.
"She must take this one hour before her meals, at a dose of two spoons full. After a single dose you should begin to see an immediate effect and in one to two months she should be cured. Absolutely do not let her roam around as she did before, she must recover completely from the poison before she attempts to strengthen her body. I have written down the ingredients and process for you on this." Willem handed the King the recipe and awaited confirmation.
The King was unsure whether or not to accept the antidote, as the previous potion had gotten her into this whole hysterical mess. The antidote recipe was plainly written out, and from the King's knowledge of treatments it seemed completely viable. The King hesitantly accepted it, and placed the recipe within his own spatial spell for safe keeping.
"What was she afflicted by? What did you see when you entered her body?" The One True King finally asked.
"A malevolent spirit. I consumed it, so there is nothing more to fear. Her mind and body as well as her soul will recover in time." Willem nodded his head and slipped into the darkness of the bed without waiting for leave from the King.
The One True King bit his lips in frustration as he coddled his Queen.