Looking at a mirror in the bathroom, Master Ben fixed his hair and smiled at himself. For over three months, Mordret observed Master Alrec while watching through Master Ben's eyes, a spineless master who was a knight of Valor, along with Master Alrec, whom Mordret had planned to kill first, then take over his friend's body.
But it was only two months after Mordret infiltrated Bastion that he had strung events together with the vessels he had already taken beforehand and made it so that his soon-to-be vessels Ben and Alrec would be escorting his father from the true Bastion to the false Bastion.
With that information at his disposal and the dominoes in place, he decided to wait. Mordret was vengeful but also patient.
Mordret originally was here on orders from Ki Song to gather information on his former clan, and Mordret knew he would face the queen's wrath once she eventually learned of this, but he couldn't pass this opportunity up; it was too perfect, and frankly, he didn't care what the queen thought at the moment.
Of course, the main reason he didn't destroy the two masters' souls was because his sister would be able to detect a vessel he was inhabiting should he draw any suspicion, so he held back and watched them both leave their shared quarters and depart to where his father was waiting to be escorted by them.
Once they arrived at their destination, Mordret felt rage wash over him like a tidal wave, while Master Alrec grew even more anxious as they approached his father, who looked at them with a calm expression.
"Greetings to you both, come, let us walk."
"Yes, your majesty." They both said, bowed, and began walking to the castle.
Sometime later, after they escorted Mordret's father to the throne room and left him to find Morgan.
As they walked down the hall. Master Ben and Master Alrec greeted their fellow knights with smug smiles that were met with scoffs and jeers, though the jeers of their comrades held no malice behind them.
Mordret had learned that it was a strange routine for them to bicker to make their posts less boring.
"Greetings! Yes, yes, we've got to escort the king! Don't sulk and look so jealous!" Master Ben smiled widely.
"Wipe that silly grin off your face or I'll do it for you!"
"Quit looking so smug just because you escorted the king once. You're nothing special.
"Whatever, you idiot, quit bragging and carry out your duties." Another random knight rolled his eyes. If it had been possible, Mordret would have rolled his eyes as well at the boasting.
Once they turned a corner where there were fewer guards stationed, he spotted two knights whose names he couldn't bother to remember, only that he had also kept an eye on them during his time in Bastion.
As soon as they walked past the two worms who would soon be his following vessels and made their way down the relatively empty hall, he intentionally let them walk into the more populated hall before he destroyed their souls with ease; it was like taking candy from a baby. What they failed to realize was that Mordret had long tampered with the charms they wore as a forgemaster he had taken as a vessel a few weeks ago.
The two knights were presumably going to the throne room, where his father was currently, but it didn't matter now, as they were weak and barely put up a fight.
Once he had successfully taken their bodies, Mordret glanced at their memories with interest that immediately died out as he saw nothing noteworthy.
After doing that, he noticed that his new vessel had momentarily stopped due to the invasion and eventual destruction of his soul, and Mordret took this opportunity to pretend to stumble into the second vessel he inhabited and snapped at himself.
"Watch where you plant your foot, you fool! I could have tripped!" He whirled his head around and complained to himself.
"Then don't just stop out of nowhere!" Mordret shoved his second vessel's right shoulder and huffed.
The onlookers shook their heads at the argument and directed their attention elsewhere.
I understand why Sunless talks to himself so much now,Mordret mused and smiled while continuing to walk. It really was entertaining.
Mordret still had no idea why that young man hated him so much.
Did he put honey in his coffee at some point?
That might explain why.
Dismissing his thoughts, Mordret snuffed the souls of Master Ben and Master Alrec, then walked to where his sister was training in a dojo, and then split his focus to watch his sister through the reflection of a longsword on the wall as she dueled with an echo of a corrupted terror and became annoyed at being interrupted.
"Princess Morgan, if you could spare us a moment?" Mordret held his hands behind his back and suppressed a smile as well as the urge to grab one of the swords off the wall and hack off her limbs one by one.
"What do you want?" Morgan frowned, dropped her sword to her side, and commanded the echo to halt in place, then walked up to him with a subtly irritated expression. Mordret bowed with both vessels in unison and straightened back up, addressing her as Master Ben.
"King Anvil calls for you," He said, staring at her with his first vessel, making sure to keep his stance and gaze as confident as the weakling would have if he were still alive and watched as she frowned more, waiting for him to say something else.
"Well? Tell me, did he say what it is about?"
His sister narrowed her eyes at him.
Mordret was glad he didn't have the flaw of Sunless at this moment. He couldn't fathom having to answer every question directed at him, let alone having to tell the truth.
Then again, now that he thought about it, Mordert would rather not be able to lie than be split into seven pieces and never be able to become whole again like he was currently.
After he gained his flaw, and he was split into seven fragments, he took matters into his own hands. He absorbed the other five pieces of himself, and once he found out that he couldn't kill the last fragment, as he contained their death.
Which meant that killing him would mean the fragments he absorbed, as well as Mordret himself, would die too. So, with that dire information, he decided to put the sword in the remaining fragment's hand and told him to kill Mordret in order to become whole again.
But the other couldn't, as he was too weak and pitiful and held back by sadness and guilt, something Mordret was incapable of feeling now. The other refused to take a life, let alone kill someone who was a part of him. It was the main reason he hated the other so much to this day, more than anything else in existence.
He took his moment of thought about his flaw and masked it as hesitation under her gaze, then answered with his second vessel.
"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?" She began tapping her foot on the floor.
"No, my Lady," Mordret shook his head
.
"Very well, you are dismissed," She waved him off, and he bowed deeply with both of his vessels then left the room and walked down the hall with a smile, as he made his way to the throne room, he spotted Saint Jest walking down the hall as well and the older man smiled humorously at him as his vessels bowed to the older man.
"No need for all that! Do you kids know where Princess Morgan is?" Jest waved his bow away dismissively.
"Yes, in fact I do, Sir Jest. Lady Morgan has just finished sparring in the dojo and is now preparing to head to the throne room to meet his majesty, as he has summoned her for reasons unknown to us." Mordret straightened back up and smiled at him while his other vessel pointed down the hall.
"Thanks, kids," Jest said, giving him a firm pat on the shoulder, and began walking towards the dojo.
He didn't expect Jest to accompany Morgan, but the more the merrier. Mordret kept most of his focus on the reflection of the longsword as he walked down to the throne room and observed Jest interacting with Morgan, then watched through the reflection of her armor as they began walking down the hall to the throne.
The only thing he gained out of their conversation was that the abomination he faced a few weeks ago was now a great demon.
How grand,
As Morgan and Jest walked down the hall and passed the knights of valor, Mordret split himself, destroyed all their souls simultaneously, and went over their aspects and memories while he kept them in the hall at their posts.
Ever since his recent encounter with the skinwalker a few weeks ago, he had been steadily increasing the maximum number of times he was capable of splitting himself into different vessels without putting a strain on his mind.
And as of right now, he was in the hundreds and slowly climbing as he wanted to be prepared in case he ever had to face that creature again.
He was also subtly collecting more vessels over the months, and most of them usually came from while the knights were on the field, so that way Mordert didn't want to risk raising suspicion with his sister and father or anyone else.
Mordret suppressed his anger as he walked into the throne room and saw his father sitting on the throne, watching them with a calm expression. He said nothing and moved his two vessels to stand beside his two other vessels that were pretending to guard the door and wait for Morgan.
He allowed a small smile to grace his lips when he saw the back entrance open.
***
Morgan's mind raced a million kilometers a minute when she heard those words.
How long had he been here?
How did she not notice?
How many vessels did he have now?
Morgan summoned her sword and gritted her teeth in anger, then ran at Mordret, creating a shockwave behind her from the speed she took off at. Her brother calmly turned his attention to her with a smile.
At the same time, Jest used his transformation and leaped at the thing pretending to be her brother, shouting with rage, his previously humorous eyes now shone with malice.
"You dare show your face here after everything you've done?! You will learn your place, boy!" He snarled, causing Mordret to laugh, and the other three masters moved on him in unison with pleasant smiles on their faces and tackled him out of the air, sending them crashing into a wall with a resounding boom.
"I've missed you, too, Uncle Jest! Ah, goodness gracious, what a family reunion! I'm happy to see you've been keeping in good health. I'm also pleased to know that you haven't aged a day! And neither have you, father, not since you sold me off to that thing over two decades ago. I still have yet to hear an apology from you, by the way, but no matter, I understand that no one is perfect."
The vessel that he was using disappeared into a whirlwind of sparks as it had taken too much damage, and Mordret appeared in his original body, wearing a simple black suit with his hands clasped behind his back.
He wore his usual false pleasant smile and stared at Jest, who was currently battling his vessels, then turned his attention to Morgan again and smiled wider.
As Morgan rapidly approached him and was about to decapitate the bastard, an invisible force lifted her. It slammed her hard into the ceiling seventy meters above, knocking the wind out of her. She growled in pain, looked around in anger, and spotted a reflection of her father standing beside Mordret with an emotionless expression.
"And Morgan, my dear sister, I've missed you too! As you can see, though, I am still alive and well despite our fathers and your best efforts as well." His words were sweet, but his tone was full of barely concealed hatred and malice.
His eyes were cold, and beneath them lay an ocean of rage; his smile grew more dangerous with each word as he used the reflection of her father to begin bending her armor inward, rapidly crushing her ribs with each passing moment.
Her entire body was a blade due to her flaw.
So taking a risk, Morgan dismissed her armor along with her sword, leaving her in a vermilion tunic that covered every part of her skin, excluding her neck, and pushed off the ceiling with her arms just as Jest destroyed his remaining vessels and ran at him with a menacing snarl.
Suddenly, the side entrance of the throne room burst open, revealing dozens of ascended and awakened knights with their weapons in hand, and then one of them looked at her with urgency.
"Princess Morgan, behind you!" The knight pointed behind her as he raised his weapon and threw it past her with surprising might for an ascended.
As his words rang in her ears, Morgan whipped her head around to see Mordret still smiling at her, having caught the weapon and not moved a muscle from his spot. It was then that she realized her mistake, almost too late. Morgan whirled around again and snatched an arrow out of the air that was just centimeters away from her eye.
She sent a death glare at the assailant. She saw the knights of valor begin charging past Mordret, starting to attack Morgan with a variety of weapons and aspects that would have been a fantastic spectacle in any other circumstance.
Meanwhile, Jest, who was still running at Mordret, used his momentum to run, changed directions, and leaped off a wall and sent a devastating kick to several of her brother's vessels, creating a cloud of blood mist. This entire start of the fight had only been three seconds.
Morgan's eyes slowly widened, and as she dodged and parried various weapons and aspects, she couldn't help but ask herself a question.
Just how many people had he taken under their noses?!
Dozens more?
Hundreds more?
Thousands?
As Morgan rapidly descended on her brother with killing intent coursing through her body, she also felt something she hadn't felt in a long time, and that was fear. Her mind raced as she wondered about how many more of their knights were Mordret in disguise? Was he one of the civilians as well?
She quickly dampened those thoughts as she realized this was precisely what Mordret wanted to do, and that was to spread fear and hysteria among the residents of Bastion.
It was also meant to make Morgan and everyone else wary of each other, wondering whether they were who they claimed to be.
She twisted her body so that she was now falling feet first and brought her heel down on his head, and hit thin air as he had gone into a reflection. Morgan looked around before she felt her hand flash in white hot pain and a strong kick to her back that sent her flying across the room.
Morgan landed right below the throne, where her father hadn't moved a muscle from where he was, and observed the fight with an unreadable expression.
Morgan scowled at her hand that was hanging on by a shred of skin and got back up while holding it and looking at Jest, who was still battling her brother's vessels and looked to be locked in a stalemate, though he looked to be slowly winning, but not without taking damage himself.
Mordret's vessels were mostly Masters and awakened. However, they still seemed to possess the strength of a saint, at least some of them did.
It was that, or Mordret was intentionally holding back for whatever reason; she didn't know which, and, as much as she hated to admit it, that lack of information worried her.
It was as if he was saying, 'Hey, I can kill this old man anytime I want to, but I'm going to do it as slowly and painfully as possible.'
But then again, Jest had long proven why he was still alive at his age in a world where many died young.
And this was shown as Jest's arm was mangled, his fur torn off, revealing pink flesh beneath, and his horns cracked, yet despite that, the older saint still let out a deep, dark laugh.
"Sister, my sister! Such fury in your eyes, if looks could kill, then I would have been dead several times over!" The original Mordret walked past Jest and towards Morgan, his ever-present smile in place, and laughed again.
"Go to hell," Morgan growled out.
Mordret sighed and stopped walking, standing a few meters away from Morgan and where her father still sat on the throne.
"I've already been there and it wasn't fun, but I must ask, though, do you want to kill me because it is your will, or do you want to kill me because it is our father's will?"
Morgan was confused by his question but hid it with her scowl, and before she could answer, Mordret had already begun speaking again, this time addressing their father.
"Speaking of you, Father. You've been quiet this entire time I've been here, don't you know that's rude? Or do you not have anything to say after all these years? No, 'I'm sorry, Mordret?' Go on, say something to your son!" Her brother's eyes darken, and she watched as his smile grew more forced by the second at their father's lack of response.
"You are no son of mine," Her father eventually said after a long silence with a calm tone, but his stare was cold and sharp enough to cut down a great tyrant in one slash.
For the first time since her brother had arrived in the throne room, his mask cracked. Mordret's pleasant smile faltered, and his face contorted into an expression of unfathomable hatred and loathing for only a moment before he effortlessly slipped his smile back on and let out a humorless laugh.
"Really? I will show you why I should be rightfully called the prince of war after I am done with this place-." He didn't get to finish his sentence as his head fell off his shoulders, and his body fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Jest's cane sword hovered behind Mordret's body covered in blood before it dropped to the ground with a clang.
His vessels disappeared in the blink of an eye, and so did the reflection of her father. Morgan let out a breath she had no idea she was holding. She knew he would be back because that fiend couldn't die for whatever reason. As she moved to check his body, she froze.
The sound of glass breaking reached her ears, and she saw white mist flow from his neck into the air. Then, suddenly, his body shattered into thousands of pieces of glass, and she heard his laughter ring out from nowhere and everywhere at once.
She stared in silent shock as it dawned on her that this entire time they had been talking to a reflection he had made of himself.
Of course, she shouldn't have been that surprised, as her brother wouldn't be foolish enough to bring his real body here after their encounter in Antarctica. So he made a reflection of himself, and the false Mordret made a reflection of their father.
Morgan was dumbfounded because she had no idea he could talk through his reflections, only that he could control them if he wanted to. She didn't even know what class the reflection was or what rank it was.
Finally, she saw her father rise from his throne, gaze at the pile of glass shards with an unreadable expression, then walk away.
As he did this, Cassia and Nephis walked into the throne room, the former with a confused expression and the latter staring at Morgan, asking a silent question.
Morgan sighed and gestured to them with her good hand to follow her, then walked to Jest, who was looking at his blood-covered suit with a deep frown.
"Are you alright?" Morgan asked,
"Am I alright?! Look at me, of course I'm not alright! Goddamnit! I just got this dry cleaned, too! That boy wears a suit too; he should have some respect for them!" Jest complained and sighed as white flames washed over him, healing him of his ghastly wounds and Morgan as well.
"Thanks, girlie! If only those flames could clean clothes as well, you'd make a killing in the laundry business! You get it? Killing?" Jest pointed to the vessels on the ground that he had destroyed and croaked out a laugh, causing all three women to sigh and walk away to discuss among themselves.
Finding an unused room, Morgan sat down with Cassia and Nephis, who stared at her, waiting for an explanation of what had happened.
"Mordret posed as the knights of valor for who knows how long and attacked us," Morgan kept it short as she was already done with the day after the encounter with her brother, and slightly due to the humiliation she felt at being fooled yet again by him.
"That is unsettling information, but it is good that you are alright, sister." Nephis nodded.
"Yes, it is a good thing, sister, but that is not all I have to say," Morgan said, causing Nephis and Cassia to raise an eyebrow.
"What is it?" Nephis asked with her usual emotionless tone.
"It is about Clan Song, as you should know by now, Lord Shadow is with them, and from my sources, it is said to be extremely powerful. He is standoffish with the song sisters, his transformation seems to be a four-armed demon or a 'shadowspawn' as father called it, and has a bone to pick with an enchanter called Master Sunless."
"Yes, Effie has told me about him several times, but one day she went to his Emporium and it was gone. Now we know where she scared him off, too, and that was Ravenheart. A place where he is likely to run into the song sisters at some point, that is, if he hasn't already." Cassia concluded while looking at Nephis.
Maybe Morgan's eyes were playing tricks on her, but she could have sworn her sister's eye twitched slightly.
Taking note of this, she nodded at Cassia and continued speaking.
"Yeah, he already has, in fact, I am told that he and Beastmaster have gotten close with each other so much that many assume that they are lovers. I am also told they were seen walking together in the waking world yesterday, went to a cafe, and spent the rest of the day there, not leaving until it closed. " Morgan said, eyeing her sister closely.
Nephis' finger twitched, and suddenly the room temperature rose a few degrees higher as she stared at Cassia, who, despite being blind, had her attention directed at the paintings on the wall. Sensing her gaze, she looked at her sister innocently.
"Is something the matter, Neph?"
"Yes, sister, you do seem troubled. Please tell me what's on your mind." Morgan decided to play along in Cassia's game.
"Nothing, I am fine," Her sister shook her head at them, and the temperature of the room rose even higher.
Morgan wanted to put her sister's words to the test, so she quickly came up with a lie about Master Sunless and Beastmaster. "Well, I am also told that Beastmaster gave him a hug as they were talking at the tables in the cafe and even kissed him on the cheek." She said, with a neutral expression, though unusual for her, Morgan found herself wanting to laugh at her sister's hidden expression of disbelief.
"I see, well, it is good to hear that Master Sunless has found a partner. I am happy for them both." Nephis said in a deadpan tone.
Though strangely enough, as she said those words, a painting melted off the wall, then exploded into fragments, causing everyone to look at the painting slowly, then at the culprit, who was suddenly interested in the ceiling.
***
Sunny sneezed as he roamed around the kitchen and looked around in confusion.
Must be all of the flour in the air from making that cake.
He walked out of the kitchen and into the cafe, then began cleaning up to close for the night, when the bell rang melodiously and the door slowly opened.
"I'm sorry, but we are closed. Please come back tomorrow." Sunny said in a polite tone as he turned around, but then stopped dead in his tracks once he heard them speak.