Charlie

Vetica slumped to the ground. Her father kneeled beside her and whispered something as she went still.

Charlie froze. He could scarcely process what he’d just seen. It still seemed impossible.

“No…she can’t be…” Merlin said, shaking his head.

A gray hand grabbed Merlin’s shoulder. It was Sister. He looked back at her, still in a state of shock. “They…she’s…”

When Charlie first met Vetica, she pressed a knife to Merlin’s throat. It had upset him so much that all he could do was cry. Right now, after watching one of his best friends fight for her life only to get stabbed by her father, he felt nothing but rage.

Orb floated out of Charlie’s onesie. He didn’t care if anyone saw him.

“Charlie?” he said.

Charlie glanced up at him.

“Tear it all to the ground. Wipe them out. Every last one of them,” Orb said. There was anger in his telepathic voice.

Charlie nodded. He’d already been planning to.

The entire room shook.

Merlin looked around. “What’s going on?” He realized it. “Charlie, wait!” he called out.

Charlie ignored him. “Transfer!” He shouted. The walls of the room turned into the material of his dungeon. The rock spread and overtook the furniture all around them. People shot out of their seats in confusion. The panicked faces of the Rawlins around him brought a smile to Charlie’s face. He wasn’t sending them to his dungeon. He was bringing it to them. His normally blue eyes darkened into a deep brown. He stared at Vedic with them. He thought of all the things he wanted to do to punish the man.

Vedic seemed taken aback by the room’s sudden shift in scenery and the floating dungeon core. He’d known Charlie wasn’t a normal baby, but there wasn’t any way he’d expected this.

“Charlie, this is not advisable. Vedic is far too strong to fight. Even if you somehow survive, it would be at the cost of your friends. You cannot protect Merlin and the others while fighting a foe like this. If you continue, be prepared to watch them die,” Parent said.

Charlie blinked. “I’ll hide them in my dungeon, then.”

“It will almost certainly crumble. Vedic is not a threat to take lightly. You should reconsider—”

“They killed Vetica!” Charlie screamed back. Several members of the Rawlin flinched as he let out a verbal shriek as well.

Vedic looked at the room shifting around him. He was trying to figure out what was going on.

Charlie lifted his hand and aimed it right toward Vedic. Inside his dungeon, a sharp pillar formed. In a moment, he would open a portal and send it spiraling directly toward Vedic’s heart. He’d kill him. He’d —

Vedic looked down and said something Charlie couldn’t make out.

Vetica’s body moved. She was slow at first but made it to her feet. She was still bleeding from the wound on her shoulder, but oddly enough, she wasn’t from where Vedic had stabbed her in the chest. In fact, there wasn’t a wound there at all.

Merlin shook his head. “What? What’s going on?” he demanded.

Vedic smirked. “Oh, you thought I killed her? No. She’s alive. Well, I should say, her body is alive. It wasn’t quite what I had in mind for her, but it will do. At least this way, I know she’ll be obedient.”

Vetica’s eyes were cloudy and unfocused. Even though she should be able to see the crowd gathered there, it almost looked like she was looking past them. Like they were invisible to her. Vedic turned to look at her. “Who are you?” he asked her.

“Vetica Rawlin.” Her voice was monotone and emotionless.

Vedic smiled. “That’s right. Now I know when I ask questions, she’ll be honest. For instance, I could ask her why she really broke her contract. She won’t…well, can’t lie now. So, tell me, Vetica. Tell me why you broke it. Tell us all.”

“I broke it to protect something precious,” she said.

Vedic turned his head. It seemed he hadn’t expected that answer. “What? What something was that?” he asked.

Vetica grimaced and looked up. For a moment, Charlie could swear her eyes locked on him. But it didn’t last long, and the cloudy appearance returned. “I can’t remember,” she said.

Her father nodded. “In this state, she can only perceive me. She can follow instructions. But only I actually exist to her. You don’t believe that I’m sure, so I’ll demonstrate. Vetica, kill that man in the purple cloak.” Vedic pointed directly towards Merlin.

Vedic had scarcely gotten the words out of his mouth when Vetica rushed forward. Charlie’s eyes widened, and he raised a hand to throw up a shield. Vetica was fast. Too fast for him to react. He hadn’t expected her to actually follow Vedic’s order.

“Stop.” Vedic said. Vetica froze just in front of Merlin. Her blade was less than an inch away from Merlin’s throat. She’d been ready to kill Merlin. Just like that.

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Merlin swallowed. “I believed you. The example wasn’t necessary.” He rubbed his throat.

“Turn her back!” Charlie projected the thought to Vedic.

The Rawlin leader stared at him. “I can’t do that. You broke the rules on her behalf. You’re responsible for this. There isn’t any going back to normal. Not for her. She’s gone.”

Charlie’s nostrils flared. The room trembled again. “Turn her back!” he screamed in the heads of everyone around them.

The rock over their heads crumbled. Several holes opened in the walls and ceiling. The sounds of hundreds of Scalers scurrying about filled the room. An army of them was ready to leap into the room at Charlie’s command. A massive roar filled the air. This one wasn’t in their heads. It was Charlie’s core guardian.

Koi Levi.

That surprised even Charlie. He’d only intended to fill the room. How much of his dungeon had he brought over? Charlie still didn’t fully understand how turning a normal room into part of his dungeon worked, but now wasn’t the time to think too hard about it. He was seconds away from starting something he’d have to see through once it began. He just wanted Vetica back. If she went back to normal, he’d let this all go. He just wanted her back.

Vedic eyed him. “If you wish to fight, so be it. But it will be your death.”

Someone tugged at Charlie’s onesie sleeve. He turned to look at Sister. She shook her head, and then, to his surprise, he heard her voice inside his head. “Don’t do this, Charlie. This isn’t the way. If you want to help her, you have to hold yourself back now. Let’s leave and talk it through. Don’t do anything rash. It will only make things worse for her,” she said.

Charlie frowned. “But…”

Apparently Merlin had heard her, too. “She’s right, Charlie,” Merlin whispered to him. “Remember what we talked about? We don’t know anything about what’s wrong with Vetica. Let’s get information first and come up with a plan. If we fight now, Vetica will be on his side. We don’t want that. Besides, look at her, she needs medical attention, badly. If we draw this out, she’ll be the one to suffer the most,” he said.

Merlin made sense. Charlie hated it, but he made sense. “I don’t want her to get hurt. I don’t want her to stay like this,” Charlie said.

Sister lifted him off of Merlin’s neck and took him into her own arms. “If that’s true, you have to listen to me. Trust me. We need to talk in private about this.” Her thoughts filled his mind again. Charlie didn’t have time to think about how it was possible for her to do that. To wonder how she could speak in the minds of others like he could. Right now, he could only accept the fact that they were both right. Vetica needed help, and he didn’t know how to help her. Not yet at least. But he would find out.

He released his hold over the room around them. His dungeon faded, and the space returned to normal.

Vedic scanned the walls and then nodded to the guards along the walls. They relaxed. Vedic turned to look at them. “I promised Vetica before the fight that in the event you lost, you would be free to leave. Since it is nighttime now, I will allow you to stay a single night longer. But my protection expires at noon. If you haven’t left by then, you probably never will.” His eyes focused on Sister. “See them to their room.”

With Charlie secured in one arm, Sister grabbed Merlin’s sleeve and pulled them from the room as quick as she could. She seemed worried that they might change their minds about a strategic retreat. But Sister and Brother had been living with the Rawlins for a long time. If they knew something, anything, about what Vedic had done to Vetica, they needed to hear it.

It didn’t take them long to reach the room. Merlin practically slammed the door shut behind him when he entered. “Okay, what happened back there? He stabbed her! I thought she was dead and then she just…got back up.”

Sister frowned. She sat Charlie on the bed and then turned back to Merlin. “I don’t know specifics. But I have seen him do something similar before. I also know that at least one of the people he used that technique on went back to normal. Well, mostly normal.”

Merlin’s head fell. “I see. So, it’s possible, at least. That’s good. Now, we just need to figure out what we need to do to save her.”

There was a knock at the door. Everyone turned to look at it. Merlin slightly turned his head toward Sister without removing his eyes from the door. “Could it be your brother?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. We have a special knock we use to identify each other. It’s not him.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.” Merlin slowly moved toward the door. “Who is it?” he called out.

Whoever it was knocked on the door again. Slightly harder this time.

Merlin swallowed. He wrapped one hand around the doorknob and created a fake hex with the other.

Orb sighed. “You realize you could just not open the door, right?” he said.

Merlin twisted it and peered outside. He froze for a moment. The door swung open wider. He stepped out into the hallway slowly and looked around. “Uh, that’s strange. No one is out—” He paused when he turned to look back into the room.

Charlie tilted his head. Merlin was looking past them. Charlie and Sister both turned to see a hooded figure standing in the back of their room.

Sister recoiled, jumping back. Merlin took a step toward Charlie, ready to grab him if the man attacked. Charlie stared at the hooded man. He was already in a terrible mood, and he would gladly take it out on the hooded figure if they tried to hurt his friends.

“Who are you?” Merlin asked.

“I’ll answer that shortly. First, you should close the door. I’m not supposed to be here,” the hooded man said.

Sister had a realization. She gasped. “Is it really you?” she asked.

Merlin looked at her. “Sister, you know him? Who is it?”

The mysterious man sighed. “I suppose you won’t close the door until you know who I am. Some call me ‘The Serpent who Poisons Kingdoms’. Others call me the whisperer. All of you may call me Hosuyo. I’m the head advisor to Master Vedic and second in command of the Rawlins. If you want to help your friend, we’re going to need to work together.”

“That’s odd because we saw the real Hosuyo hanging from his neck. So, I have a hard time believing he’s come back from the dead,” Merlin said.

Sister shook her head. “No. This is him. I’m certain,” she said.

Merlin looked at her. He sighed and closed the door. It creaked shut, and he turned the lock. “Fine. We can talk. What do you know about what Vedic did to her? What did he do to Vetica?”

Hosuyo stared at his hand. His fingertips were covered in black paint. “The technique is an ancient one, and only one person can undo it. The person who used it. If you want your friend back, you’re going to have to convince Vedic to return her.”

Charlie frowned. It had been a long day, and it kept getting longer. Watching Vetica fight her own sister, thinking she’d been killed, seeing her altered state, and now this. Face to face with Vedic’s top advisor, a man who was supposed to be dead. But all that mattered right now was that there was a way to save Vetica.

And he was going to get his friend back.

“What exactly is this technique?” Merlin asked.

Hosuyo looked up and stared Merlin in the eye. “It’s a technique known as soul assassination.”