In the days that followed Anastasia barely left her room. Her mother had come by but was turned away. The only visitor allowed to see her was Tashanna. Anastasia would not talk about what happened even with Charlotte and her sister. All they knew was Finn had left and it seemed like he would not be coming back. Anastasia had sent Charlotte to Rinne to try and connect with Sam hoping they could catch Finn when he came to recover his companion. By the time Charlotte got to Rinne Sam had already left Jaina’s care.
Tashanna attempted to help Anastasia through the pain she was going through. As smart as she was, emotions and empathy are areas she was lacking. So Tashanna just kept her sister informed of the aftermath of the incident with Victor.
The nobles surprisingly did little in response. To have the queen so directly challenged and to have a close advisor jailed should have caused an uproar but no one spoke up, for now. Tashanna surmised that the display of Nydia full power and the fact that Anastasia seemed to have three retainers that also shared that level of power, scared the nobles into silence. This was all it was, silence, it would not prevent their backroom scheming.
Tashanna confirmed that no one died as a result of Victor’s collars. Anastasia had successfully saved all of them. This also likely played into the fact that the nobles had not said much, it is hard to argue with results like that.
At Tashanna’s suggestion they wait to question Victor. Tashanna’s exact words were
“Let the little shit wallow in his filth like the pig he is.”
She of course was scolded by her mother for her language.
With Victor’s brother dead and father bedridden the Armon’s assets had all been seized and their records searched for any info that could help.
Charlotte and Nydia walked down one of the deeper halls of the dungeon. It led to the oldest section, the magic dampening cells. These were the only ones in the whole kingdom. The spells to enchant the bricks had been lost, so no more could be made. Once inside a cell even the most powerful magic user could not complete a cast. The spells would all dissipate before completion.
Nydia and Charlotte approached the door, and both took a deep breath of foul dungeon air, before opening the cell and stepping in. It was dark inside the cell except for the faint purple light from the runes in the bricks. It was not enough to see so Charlotte had brought a torch.
“Oh, Gods it smells like shit in here.”
“FUCK YOU! What do you expect? I was left in here with nothing for three days! Someone of my standing should be treated better.” Victor was huddled naked in the corner of the cell.
“Your standing? You have been stripped of your titles, you are just a commoner now.” Nydia said mockingly in a very pleased tone.
“The crown had no right to do that without a trial.” Victor attempted to straighten himself to act as if he was above the two women now towering over him.
It was Charlotte's turn to get her jab in. “But the crown did not strip you of your titles your father did.”
Victor has no response for this. Nydia chimed back in to keep the hits rolling
“Because you are a commoner now. No one would care if we skipped the trail and went straight to sentencing.”
“No. no. no you cannot do that. Not to me. I am the son of a Duke.”
Charlotte could not help but smile. “Not any more….” She waited for a second to let him simmer in the comment. “…But if you help us, we can help you.”
Victor clung onto the bait that was thrown out to him. The time he spent alone is the dark cell had made him desperate
“I will do anything.”
“Just answer a few questions for us. If you tell the truth, we’ll see what can be done about your accommodations.”
“Please ask you questions. I will answer anything.”
Nydia started with the obvious questions first “Where did you get the collars?”
“A dream.” Victor responded as if that was an acceptable answer
“See, that is not helping us. I guess you don’t want our help.”
“No really it was a dream. Someone came to me one night. They told me about the collars and showed me how to adjust a normal slave collar spell to be linked together.”
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The two women looked at each other as if trying to decide if they believed what he was saying. They looked back at Victor, and it was obvious from his tone and body language that he at least believed what he was saying.
“Did they also teach the adjustment to have the collars break the person's will?”
“No, that was just a happy side effect.” Victor could not help but smile, his true nature leaking out.
Nydia lashed out but was held back by Charlotte. Victor recoiled at the possibility of violence. With a huff Nydia shook Charlotte’s grasp loose. Charlotte took over the questions.
“What can you tell us about the person that came to you in your dream? Did they have a name?”
Victor hesitated at first still eyeing Nydia but finally turned to Charlotte to answer.
“No, they did not have a name. I am not even sure it was a person to be honest. It was more like a presence…. it was just there. I knew they stood before me, but I could not see them even though I could. Do you know what I mean?”
Charlotte did not know what he meant but that hardly mattered, if he had no info on them. Trying to understand the dreams of a psycho was not a great plan.
“Now I want to ask about your brother trying to abduct Anastasia. Also the three men that attacked her in Rinne.”
“My brother tried to abduct the princess?”
Charlotte became annoyed at Victor’s response. “Yes, you brother’s men attacked Anastasia’s carriage on the road, he followed her to Waldron where he was killed trying to lure Anastasia out of hiding.”
Victor was unable to hide his surprise. “Robert is dead?”
Nydia and Charlotte again locked eyes. Could it be that Victor did not know of his brother’s death? It almost seemed impossible. True no official word had ever made it to the capital. If not for the shadow’s investigations, it may be that no one would have known.
“So, you are claiming to have no knowledge of your brother's plans to abduct the princess, we are supposed to believe that his and your criminal actions happened in parallel by chance.
“I really do not know what you are talking about. My brother is too stupid to plot an abduction that no one would hear about.”
Charlotte could not disagree with Victor’s point. Robert was always very straight forward and lacked any form of subtly.
“I also suppose you know nothing of the men that attacked the princess in Rinne. They were trying to cast some kind of spell on her. They were using strange new magic just like you.”
Victor was waving his hand around as he stammered his response “I…I don’t… know of any other men I have always worked alone. Everyone else is to incompetent to understand my plans.”
Charlotte and Nydia were not ready to give up. They questioned Victor for just over an hour more. They asked how he found out about the prime minister title not being tied directly to the king. He swore he just so happened to come across the records when doing his normal work in the archives. They had him go over his other schemes as well to see what info could be useful. It was mostly a waste of time. He really was just run by whatever random impulse popped into his little mind each day.
As they prepared to leave Victor spoke up
“I helped you, correct? What will you be doing about my accommodations?”
Nydia leaned over and grabbed something outside of the door and then threw it at Victor.
“Here you can have a bucket now.” She then slammed the cell door shut and locked it.
On the way out of the dungeon the two went over their findings.
“Do you believe him? I have seen him when he is playing his games and trying to manipulate others, that is not what it looks like. That man seemed desperate and frayed.” Nydia shared her observations
“I guess Tashanna was right, letting him sit in that cell would mess with his pride and make him easier to work with. You know she scares me sometimes.”
“She has that effect on people. When I first assigned Lilly to be her personal shadow, she would not stop complaining about it. Now I am starting to see some of the princess’ cunning in Lilly and that… unsettles me.”
Charlotte was not aware that Lilly now reported directly to Tashanna.
“So, if Tashanna has a shadow, why does Anastasia not have one.”
“She refused. Said she already had you.”
Charlotte blushed. “I am not a substitute for a shadow.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You held your own against some of my best the other day. I did not think you had that kind of ability in you.”
Blushing a little more, Charlotte tried to redirect the conversation from her.
“Speaking of power there is something I need to share with you, but you should not share it with anyone.”
“Who are you talking to girl. The secrets I know could fill a graveyard.”
Charlotte visibly shudders at the implications of Nydia’s comment given her position.
“It had to do with those three men that attacked Anastasia in Rinne… The thing is they had power like what you can do, but maybe not as much. But still way more than your average man.”
Nydia stopped cold. “So, people as powerful as Finn and his group.”
“I am not entirely sure. The whole idea is new to me. Their leader was faster and stronger than me but only by a little. I have not had a chance to go full on with anyone else. It makes it hard to have perspective.”
Nydia was lost in thought for a second. She was going over what this revelation must mean. She stops and grabs Charlotte’s shoulder.
“You were right to keep this quiet. Given what we know I am almost positive that those men did not work for Victor.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Think about it. If Victor had men like that at his disposal, where were they? No one helped him out at the ceremony. No one has made any attempts to break him out. People that strong could get in here easily. This means that we must assume there is another player. They have powerful people at their disposal, and they have plans for the princess.”
Charlotte went pale thinking of the danger Anastasia was in. Nydia could see she freaked Charlotte out so tried to spur that fear into resolve.
“Charlotte the princess will need you now more than ever. You need to get stronger; you are going to train with me directly every day going forward. Understood?”
Charlotte smiled and nodded in response.