An echo of a corrupted terror stood in the center of a dojo with a docile stance, awaiting a command from its master. That person was standing in front of the wall full of memories, searching for a suitable one for training. Well, in truth, as the daughter of a sovereign, Morgan was trained in every weapon imaginable.
Hence, it really was a matter of picking a favorite. Scanning over the memories, Morgan chose a katana and nodded in satisfaction, then walked over to the echo and stood a few meters away from it.
Since her sister was busy as usual and had no time to spar with her, Morgan chose a corrupted echo as no other Saint could match her swordsmanship or keep up with her, aside from her sister, though perhaps if the mysterious Lord of Shadows had joined Clan Valor instead of Clan Song, then maybe she could have sparred with him.
Then again, maybe Morgan would be disappointed as usual; she didn't know for certain because the spies Clan Valor had at Raven Heart had never seen the enigmatic man fight only that he had a bone to pick with an enchanter they hired as their personal purveyor known as Master Sunless and that the young man was close with the song sisters, more specifically Beastmaster, in fact many residents in Raven Heart assumed the two had become lovers.
Morgan highly doubted it, though. Even when they were children, Beastmaster was very picky when it came to anything, so Morgan didn't believe she would settle for a master, let alone one who had no background of any kind.
Dismissing her thought with the brandish of her katana, she commanded the echo to attack, and Morgan swiftly dodged to the right as the echo moved on her in the blink of an eye and shattered the spot where she had been standing a moment ago.
Using her remaining momentum, Morgan dashed at it, creating a small crater in her wake, and slashed at the creature, creating a dark line across its hand.
As Echos felt no pain, it did not acknowledge the wound and instead blocked her next strike, sending Morgan slightly stumbling and dull pain shooting through her arms from the force.
Taking advantage of her stunned state, the echo smacked her into a wall, making the room shake. Just as she was about to attack, a couple of guards announced themselves, much to her dismay.
"Princess Morgan, if you could spare a moment for us?"
"What do you want?" She asked with a frown, dropped her sword to her side, commanded the echo to stop, and walked over to them, where they stood with their hands clasped behind their backs, which they moved to their sides as they both bowed to her and straightened up.
The one on the left wore modest armor with runes shaped like an anvil, engraved by a forgemaster to defend against his soul being invaded by Mordret.
The master on the right wore a light leather tunic with a necklace wrapped around his wrist in the form of an anvil as another form of defense against her brother, and another around his neck.
"King Anvil calls for you," one of them said with confidence, staring her straight in the eyes.
Morgan stood there watching him, waiting for him to say something else, and when he didn't, she frowned at him.
"Well? Tell me, did he say what it is about?" Morgan asked, her eyes narrowed, and her voice held a tone of barely concealed annoyance at the lack of an answer. Morgan's patience was already rapidly dwindling.
The second, less confident master hesitated for a second under her piercing gaze before answering. "No, my lady, he did not; we were only told by two guards that came searching for us to find you, and they only told us to find you before the meeting began. His majesty has already been escorted here to the castle by Master Ben and me, Master Alrec. King Anvil is awaiting you in the throne room."
"Anything else?" Morgan asked, tapping her foot on the ground.
"No, my lady," The insecure master Alrec lowered his gaze to the floor. Morgan suppressed a scoff. To be a master and still have a weak spine was an insult to every awakened being in existence.
Then again, she was the daughter of a sovereign, so perhaps that was the reason for his nervousness. Either way, it was annoying.
"Very well, you are dismissed," She waved them off and watched as they both bowed and walked away. Once they were out of the dojo, Morgan quietly sighed and walked over to the wall, placing the sword back where it belonged, then stared at it for a moment.
All of these weapons she saw before her were ones that her father had crafted; in fact, every single weapon that the knights of valor had was made by him.
From maces to long swords, but none of them seemed to satisfy him, as her father was a perfectionist.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an annoyingly joyous voice that assaulted her ears.
"Hey there, kiddo!" Morgan rolled her eyes and turned around to see Jest leaning against the door frame with a big smile.
"Saint Jest," Morgan nodded curtly, causing the older man to frown.
"Saint Jest? Bah! What happened to Uncle Jest? Who gave you permission to grow up, huh, brat?!" Jest said in outrage as Morgan dismissed her echo and left the room to go to her father.
Luckily, he had already been escorted to the castle of the false Bastion by those masters, so it made the trip much shorter as they were now in the same vicinity.
Morgan was confused as to why her father would summon her on such short notice before the meeting, but then again, nothing her father did made much sense to begin with. It had to have been something important; otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered.
"I grew up, I'm not a child anymore, Jest." Morgan eventually answered with a frown, causing the older Saint to scoff at her words and walk in step beside her while putting his cane over his shoulders as she started walking down the hall.
The hall of the false castle was filled with vermilion banners and guards standing at their posts while bowing to the presence of Jest and Morgan.
As they passed the various masters and awakened, Jest looked at her and scoffed at her statement.
"Kid, when you get my age, everyone is a child to me, but never mind that! You wanna hear a joke?" He asked with a grin.
"No," She answered curtly.
"What did the-no wait, I got it! What did the ocean say to the beach?" Jest ignored her answer and asked with a grin that grew wider by the second.
"I'm not answering that," Morgan sighed tiredly.
"Come on, girlie, guess!" The older man insisted.
"What did it say? Hello?" She asked dryly.
"Nothing, it just waved! You get it?" Jest barked with laughter that resounded through the hall. Morgan let out a quiet groan at the older man's terrible joke, which made him laugh harder.
"You are not funny," Morgan hissed as she walked further down the hall.
"And that's exactly the problem with you kids nowadays, none of you have any sense of humor! Laugh a little and quit taking life so damn seriously!" Jest chided her.
Morgan silently rolled her eyes at his words, and Jest looked around the halls with a serene expression before smiling at her again.
"What is it now?" Morgan asked, catching his humorous smile.
"You need a hobby and no, not practicing, I don't consider that a hobby and never will!"
"Then what do you suggest? Also, it is a hobby, you're just refusing to acknowledge it as one." Morgan raised an eyebrow at him, becoming slightly offended at his statement.
"You're damn right I'm not! Read a book or go on a walk! Anything except being cooped up in this castle like a damn hermit."
I read plenty of books. Morgan frowned at the older man and moved to make a right turn down the hall when Jest grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back slightly.
"We'll take the long way, kiddo, we have something else to talk about." Jest's smile dimmed as he removed his hand from her shoulder, took the other hall down the left, then began walking.
Morgan used her memory to determine whether Mordret had reached the older man and was using him as a vessel. When Morgan found nothing, she began following him, and upon reaching him, Jest side-eyed her and rolled his eyes, noticing her momentary suspicion.
"Do you really think your brother can get the jump on me that easily? I've been in this game for far too long to get taken out by a brat with a grudge against his father and former clan."
"What did you want to talk about?" Morgan asked, ignoring his comment.
"As of today, at this very moment, based on our recent information from the field, the skinwalker is now a great demon, and it's growing stronger by the day. I'm sure you know this already, but the report the song sisters told our spies a couple of weeks ago was that it killed one of the members of a cohort of saints and masters, then slaughtered the rest and waited for a search party to come and rescue it. So, Ki Song sent Lord Shadow and her daughters alongside him, but for whatever reason, the Lord of Shadows had a way of detecting it and helped kill the vessels."
That was… unsettling information. If that was only a couple of weeks ago, there was no telling which class it was now, and if neither father nor Ki Song could kill it, then who could?
Before Morgan could respond, she realized they had reached an entrance to the throne room. The old saint opened the back entrance, holding it open for her with a more reserved smile, then walked in after her.
As they walked across to the middle of the room, they were greeted by her father, silently sitting on the throne, watching them approach with a calm expression.
The two escorts, Master Alred and Ben, who greeted her in the dojo, were standing twenty meters away from Morgan, along with two guards holding swords who stood by the door.
They stood awkwardly before moving to leave, giving them privacy, but a simple, impassive glance from her father to them made the four masters freeze in place and return to their original positions.
"Your majesty," they said in unison once they reached the center of the throne room. Morgan kneeled while Jest bowed and stood upright again.
"What do you know about the Lord of Shadows so far?" Her father suddenly asked, causing her to meet his stern gaze.
"I know that our sources say Lord Shadow is still standoffish with the Song sisters and that he also has an unknown method of detecting the vessels of the skinwalker, but I don't know what he is capable of as of yet, only that his transformation is turning into a four-armed demon," Morgan explained with a neutral expression.
"It is likely a shadowspawn," Her father concluded.
Morgan didn't know what a shadowspawn was, but she nodded nonetheless, and her father continued to speak.
"Before we go any further, Master Alrec, come here. I would like to tell you something." He calmly stared at the nervous master who approached him with shaky steps.
"Yes, my king?" The master slowly knelt while keeping his gaze to the floor, when suddenly the swords that the guards were holding were yanked out of their hands by an invisible force and pierced Master Alrec's chest and sent him flying into a wall, creating a crater, and held him there, making the remaining three masters flinch. Despite their visible fear, they stayed in place.
"Did you think I wouldn't know?" Father narrowed his eyes, his gaze being sharp enough to cut through a mountain.
Despite blood flowing from the swords pierced through his chest, the master looked down at his chest and touched them with an all too pleasant smile, then shattered them with a slight squeeze and dropped down to the ground. If he felt any pain at all, then he was a master at hiding it.
Looking down at his neck, Morgan saw that the anvil necklace and bracelet were still on, but now that she got a good look, the charms had a thin line across them; it was almost impossible to notice.
It signified that they had been broken and repaired very recently, which was impossible because her father had just made those only a month ago, meaning that he had been taken by something that kept his memories and dismissed them, so they could repair them and then summoned them recently as the charms still had a line across them.
She outstretched her hand and opened her palm with narrowed eyes that narrowed further now with hatred and disbelief blazing in them when Master Alrec opened his mouth to speak with a pleasant tone.
"Oh, of course not! What kind of father wouldn't recognize his own son?"
And just like that, all hell broke loose.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter :)