The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 118: Dragon Souls

Chapter 118: Dragon Souls

Mineah felt her head would burst open soon at what she just witnessed. They were currently back in her residence in the Amaranth Palace, and in front of her, Dani was still crying at everything that happened due to her actions.

"I really don’t remember what happened last night," Dani sniffled. "I was so drunk back then... I mean, I remember I said something along the lines of what the Chancellor mentioned, but everything else is blurry to me. I’m not getting the whole picture of anything at all."

Mineah let out a resigned hum. She supposed that there was nothing else to be done for now. What’s done was done. All they could do now was to try and spin things to their favor once more.

"Get changed and grab something to eat. Let’s talk about all this after you’ve composed yourself," Mineah smiled at Dani with a soft hum. She turned to Krisha and said, "Go and accompany Dani. I’m sure she’ll appreciate the help."

"You should start getting ready yourself, milady," Zaila pointed out with a smile of her own. "It’s almost time for you to meet His Majesty for breakfast then have the usual court meeting in the main palace throne hall."

Mineah nodded. Right. She had her own duties to attend to, and she shouldn’t let this setback delay her schedule. Watching Dani and Krisha leave, she let Zaila do the usual preparations needed for her day. But before Mineah could move on her own, a familiar pigeon perched itself on her window.

"Skyler..."

She gasped as soon as she spotted the royal pigeon. Immediately, she approached the courier that was currently under a protective spell to prevent tampering and eavesdropping.

’A note from Wizard Lurio,’ she inwardly noted as she grabbed the missive.

Looking at what she had, the parchment used for the message was the kind specifically and exclusively used by Wizard Lurio for his purposes. If she recalled, the white wizard was currently with her brother Ezekiel at the Ebodian Camp in the battlegrounds. She could only wonder what it could be that he wanted to relay. She just hoped it wasn’t a piece of bad news. She really didn’t want to have her day further ruined by more setbacks.

Letting out a breath, she opened the parchment to read what her mentor had to say. Slowly, her eyes scanned through the words, her hands trembling the more she parsed through the letter.

"This... This can’t be..."

She tried to stay upright, only for the weight of the information she had just read to take hold of her finally. She slumped onto the nearest chair, her eyes still glued to the letter as if rereading it would make the news slightly easier to digest.

"What’s the matter?" Zaila worriedly asked. "What’s in the letter? Is there something wrong?"

Mineah didn’t know how to respond. The letter stated that Ezekiel was currently battling with the Dragon King Vulcan over the control of his own body. Specifically, the Dragon King’s soul was trying to take her brother over.

She didn’t know how or why it happened, but the wizard stated that the symptoms were getting worse to the point that they now had to make sure that her brother wouldn’t disappear on them in the middle of the night.

Instead of answering, Mineah dismissed Zaila to see Dani instead.

"Ezekiel’s... condition has worsened," Mineah carefully hummed alone when Zaila left. She must not share this kind of information with her shadow maidens. "I don’t know how, but... No, I’m sure things will still improve given a bit of time."

She nodded to herself as she gave herself the affirmation she needed. There was still a chance that a cure could be developed before things further degraded, after all. She trusted that the brightest mind of their Kingdom along with their mother would surely be able to cut things off before this Dragon King managed to fully take control of Ezekiel’s body.

Mineah eyed another parchment underneath Wizard Lurio’s message. "Mother had sent her own separate message," she weakly murmured.

Still, she knew that she shouldn’t be too optimistic about things. As such, with her hopes relatively tempered, Mineah went ahead and opened the second letter. Slowly, she digested her mother’s words, letting out a deep breath every time a piece of disturbing news almost made her want to sink further into her seat. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as Wizard Lurio’s words, but it was still concerning, to say the least.

Like what the wizard had said in his own missive, her mother informed her of Ezekiel’s current state and what was being done to try and slow the Dragon King’s soul from further taking control of him.

While most of her message was the same, the key information that a dragon had been seen flying over the battlefield was the one thing that she was concerned about. That, along with her mother’s hypothesis that Ezekiel was already partway capable of turning into a dragon himself was making her think that things might be much worse than she anticipated.

She immediately fetch a quill and a paper and coolly stated, "I need to write a reply."

Setting down the letters, Mineah calmed herself before she grabbed the quill and penned her letter to Mother.

’I need more information. Perhaps they’ve missed something that I can provide a second opinion to,’ Mineah mentally noted as she wrote out her thoughts. How did even that dragon manage to bind itself to her brother when their mother managed to seal all the dragon souls in the Forbidden Forest? Mineah had so many questions...

’I should also ask Mother if it’s alright for me to reveal the existence of our kind... I don’t want any more secrets between myself and those I cherish, and it would also mean Lai can finally stop worrying about me.’

With those thoughts in mind, Mineah penned her letter. All the while, her worries began piling up as the day just somehow kept giving her more and more problems to deal with.