"Please help me!"
With these words, Princess Sierra clung to her last hope to save her Kingdom. She had no doubt Brody had poisoned the King and if it were the magical venom she thought it was, his death was certain. With Brody dead and both her and Brian away, the succession would be a bloody business that could fracture Heath. Even her life would be in danger because of her claim to the throne. So she sought help in her brother's killer.
They were on a side driveway used for carriages with less esteemed guests. Or cargo. The Knight and maid from Heath were already inside the carriage and Aidan, Claire and Countess Rose with her knights were escorting the Prince and Princess from Heath out.
"I'm very inclined to shove your Highness in that carriage and be done with it, Princess Sierra. My involvement would shift the balance of power, make me and mine a target for these factions and delay in no small amount several very important projects I have here in Yutis."
He paused to watch with a small amount of schadenfreude the despair of Princess Sierra. Heath breaking down into several smaller countries ruled by one of their power hungry scions was a bad outcome for Yutis as the splinter nations wouldn't be bound by their treaties, but it would be so much easier to negotiate with them individually. If Aidan were to be involved in the succession it would be almost a guarantee that Sierra would become Queen. He was not too keen in their succession line but he was sure there was at least one Prince that had a claim stronger than Brody.
But if Sierra returned home with the King alive, the man could declare her the heir and be done with it. It all depended on how fast she could cross the countryside north and return home. If only a certain mage capable of long-distance flight magic would be inclined to do so, but he wasn't.
Before Aidan could reach a conclusion in his musings, First Princess Claire took the floor to issue an official declaration.
"King Helios declared that you are to remove yourselves from our lands in the most expedite way possible. You sent assassin maids against my sister, conspired with your brother for murder. Leave Yutis now or forfeit your lives."
Prince Brian of all people spoke. "Would you grant us a painless death? Because between the succession war that surely will ensue and this binding treaty, we are not going to live longer. I studied the contract, it does not bind the Realm. It binds only sister and I. Heath can break the trade treaty and Sancus' wrath will fall only on our heads."
'Maybe Brian's talent is not in being with the ruling class, with a sword, or even a spell but as a legal scholar and a bureaucrat,' Aidan mused.
Touched, Sierra hugged her sibling. "You are right, brother. There is only one path for us to avoid death. Be it Yutis' wrath, this treaty or the succession, we are dead. There is only one way for us to keep on living." She started to sob.
Brian patted his sister's back. "I understand, sister. Only one way for us to live. Let's do it!" Brian looked at Claire, "Your Highness, the King's orders are to remove Princess Sierra and Prince Brian of Heath from the Realm or execute them, right?"
Claire nodded. Aidan saw tears forming when she realized what they were about to do. He ground his mental gears and found the same solution as they. Neither the succession or the contract or Yutis' wrath would touch Sierra and Brian, two orphan commoners.
Both of them pricked their wrists with whatever sharp objects they had. "We renounce our blood and our birthright. May the Regalia of our forefathers be stripped from us." The blood flowed upwards instead of falling down and vanished a meter above their heads.
Aidan felt a surge of magic and shifted into magic sight. What he saw was something that made his jaw clatter to the ground. Threads of mana were being sucked from their very beings through the wrists into a void that opened above them, following the same path as the blood. He cast the Soul Sight spell and saw their mana and Earth affinities being drained dry. Sierra was left with her Water affinity and a faint Mana one, while Brian only retained his Fire affinity, without any mana.
They fell to the ground, their wrists sizzling and the flesh boiling into a hideous scar.
"They really did it," Claire whispered.
Aidan knew it but he had to hear her say it, "Claire, what just happened?"
"Brian and Sierra renounced their Royal blood and Regalia. They were stripped of their lineage magic and any claim to the throne. They are nothing but commoners now. They will forever bear the shame of their failure."
Claire shared that obscure piece of Royal lore with Aidan and he was sure he wasn't even meant to know that. He looked at the scars and noticed a small pattern that resembled Heath's coat of arms. And that scarring overlapped their soul's shape perfectly. With Soul Sight, it was even more evident as the pattern irradiated faint energy, enough to make it glow brighter than the rest of the soul.
He also felt a mental tug and knew that his copy of the contract with Heath under Sancus, probably all copies, burned.
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Aidan dove deep into his own memory palace to wonder...
One huge discovery hit Aidan. Souls are extremely difficult to modify as they are the base pattern to the lifeform. He could cut and maim a soul with magic but he couldn't reshape them. That was the whole reason they were going to force Lumina to undergo a gruesome ordeal to knead her soul back into the shape of her body. But right now he was witnessing Souls being changed for the second time.
This time it was due to divine magic. The Royal Regalia and those blood-sucking rings were all of divine origin. What happened right now was that divine power being removed from the prince and princess. It leads to the conclusion that divine magic can reshape souls. And to a hypothesis that only divine magic could reshape souls that way.
Proof point number one. Aidan was arguably one of the most powerful Soul mages alive. Barring some undead necromancer lurking in a dungeon but it was not alive either way. Aidan couldn't do zit to reshape souls. His research and his gut instinct born of his affinities screamed that. Barring some bizarre breakthrough regarding the manipulation of souls in higher spheres of Elemental complexity, it was impossible. Maybe a Chaos spell to force a mutation or a Law spell to enforce some rule. Creation and Destruction maybe? Hardly possible. In any circumstance, it would leave some kind of magical sign.
They bleached Brody of their magic signature enough that Sierra couldn't detect it but Ether didn't erase the traces of magic in Brody's memory void or his soul.
Proof point number two. There were no such lingering effects in these two. He examined them with all his senses and information magic and nothing came out. It was not mortal magic.
By elimination, their souls have been shaped by divine magic.Q.E.D. As some otherworlder scholars taught.
Now comes the really juicy and important part. It was the second time he was seeing such a change. The first one? Cythrel. Therefore, another hypothesis begged for proof: those otherworlder skills that defy logic were divine in nature.
Proof point one: Only divine magic can alter souls without a trace.
Proof point two: Cythrel's soul alterations were without a trace.
Proof point three: It was a weak one, but otherworlder magic and skills were completely against the laws of the world and magic as they understood.
Proof point four: Aidan and Dawn learned the otherworlder summoning ritual when they got Lumina's memories by making her possess his body. Several of those diagrams and interlocking complexity resembled the divine tools he analyzed. And they didn't have any spatial or soul components. The Elemental glyphs were 'all wrong' if the conventional magic theory would be applied.
Secondary hypothesis: Otherworlder summoning was also beyond the realm of mortal magic.
He would need more evidence, but what he had so far all pointed out to two things: Otherworlder summoning involved some kind of divine intervention and he should file his projects to try to restore her arms by healing the soul and focus on the most promising one that was also the one with the most progress.
It also meant he had to sit down with the only person he knew that successfully enacted the ritual to discuss somethings about her experience.
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He broke off from his mental exercise and spoke to Claire, "What will be of them now?" Aidan asked.
"They are no longer under danger of death from either contract or succession conflicts, but their crimes against Yutis stand. We will not forgive them." The Princess replied.
"Please don't banish or kill us. We mere commoners are harmless! We don't even have our magic anymore!" Sierra begged on her knees.
Claire was obviously disturbed by what she was being forced to do because of her station. Aidan thought and reached a conclusion.
"Sierra, were you trained in the otherworlder summoning ritual?" He asked with almost certainty that she was.
"Yes. I know the ritual but without the Regalia I cannot enact it. Only princesses can."
'And it might also lifted the geass that banned them from talking about it as I can't see it in her soul,' Aidan mentally remarked.
"Princess Claire. Let me offer you one alternative. I will take these two away from Yutis on my own under my House. Is that acceptable for you?"
Claire nodded. She seemed relieved even. "Yes. So long they are not in our Realm, it is acceptable."
Next Aidan turned to the two former Royals. "You two. I will take you somewhere safe where you will be able to live without fear of being murdered, tortured or otherwise. What I ask is that you serve me and help me attain my goals to the best of your abilities and knowledge. Do you accept?"
The two siblings looked at each other to silently gauge their opinions but they both nodded at each other right away. "We accept if it does not involve night services, milord."
"You still think too much of yourself, Sierra. Nothing of the sort will be required or accepted. I will provide shelter, food and a comfortable place for you to live in. However, your service to my House will be for life. You will not need to fear death, torture, starvation or violence, be it physical, sexual or otherwise. Those are my terms."
Sierra was weighing her choices, but Brian took the lead and bent to one knee, "We humbly accept, milord. We shall serve your House faithfully."
She sighed and also knelt, "Thank you for your kindness, milord."
"Your oaths have been heard and accepted," Aidan solemnly declared. "Let it be known by both men and gods that these two are under my wing. A slight against my servants is a slight against me. Serve me well and you shall eat at my table."
Both of them answered, "So we swear, milord."
Aidan had no sword on him so she borrowed Countess Rose's blade. He lowered it and one by one Brian and Sierra kissed the blade's tip.
"Your Highness, I will keep my two servants under house arrest until I can assemble an expedition to take them away from the Realm of Yutis in two days. Is that acceptable?"
"Yutis has absolute confidence in you, Lord Aidan. So long your servants are confined in your quarters and behave, we shall overlook them."
"If they do not, I will cull them with my own blade, your Highness."
It felt strange being so stiff and formal with Claire, resembling when they fled during that winter two years ago but it was necessary as it was official business.
"Good. I will have Skippy watch over them all the time. They won't step outside my quarters alive. Sierra and Brian, come with me."
The former prince and princess followed Aidan owning only what they had on them. The carriage that would take their possessions and the now unemployed Knight and maid back to Heath with the news departed. Aidan knew he did something unexpected but he had just the place to keep these two out of trouble. If Sierra could be of any use to unravel the mystery of the otherworlder summoning and even contribute in any form to his other goals, it would be enough.
That mystery was the key to healing Cythrel and for his companions, he'd even kill a god.