The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 172: The Helpful Witches

Chapter 172: The Helpful Witches

Annalise stared at the two magical trees and the portal located between them. Her mind was running like crazy with so much information and many questions that she could almost feel a headache following soon enough.

There was a limit for her to consume so much information in a single day let alone a couple of minutes. She not only found out about her husbands being on a serious mission given by none other than the Midnight Queen but also the fact that the Cursed Castle was anything but just a castle.

"Is it too much to take in? Should I stop for today?" Valerius asked in worry as his keen gaze noticed her uncomfortable and tired expressions. Besides, he could feel through their bond that she wasn’t being able to digest all the information as quickly as she was receiving it.

A deep sigh escaped Annalise’s lips as she shook her head in denial of his offer. "If we stopped here, it will only make me overthink about the rest of the story and I won’t be able to rest at all. That’s why it’s better to get over it once and for all."

Valerius nodded his head in understanding before he suddenly stood up and moved to sit behind her with each of his legs on either side of her while he pulled her to rest her back against his chest. "Then let me hold you." He whispered in her ear before placing his chin on the crown of her head.

Annalise felt the soulmate bond performing its wonderful magic as she started relaxing in her husband’s arms and relaxed against him while waiting for him to continue.

"We found this place four centuries ago and back then, we only took shelter here because someone recommended this place while we were on our way to search through the capital city for the second core and the woman we were searching for, you."

Annalise decided to focus her attention on the obvious part and ignore tge latter one as she asked, "Someone recommended this place to you?" It didn’t seem like just a mere coincidence to her for some weird reason and when Valerius spoke, she realized why.

"Yeah, we were near the outskirts of a town in the south of the capital city as we were heading here when we stumbled across a family of witches who were heading to the new witch tower located in the neutral zone of Midnight Realm. We stayed at the same inn but barely exchanged a single word. It was right before we were departing when their youngest daughter came to tell us that her mother was suggesting we drop by this castle if we wanted a safe place to stay a couple of nights."

"And you just decided to do it?" Annalise asked, her surprise clearly evident both in her words and her voice which made Valerius chuckle before he replied, "Kind of, but it was not because we didn’t consider all this being a trap or something. Instead, we came here to check just what kind of place this was..."

"And?" Annalise asked as she felt that something more was there that he had left unsaid.

"And I recognized the energy of the wards’ core as soon as we stepped inside the gates of this castle. It was barely noticeable but it was still here. To this date, we have no clue how those witches knew about the wards’ core or that we were looking for it, but because of them we finally ended up finding this place." Valerius answered and one could hear clearly that he was indeed grateful to those witches.

"Then did you strengthen the cores?" Annalise asked even though she somehow knew the answer. What she really wanted to know was the reason it took them four centuries to heal the wards.

This time, it was tge first dark lord who let out a deep sigh before he answered, "Healing the cracks of such ancient and powerful wards was never an easy job, to begin with. Finding the cores of the wards was just the beginning of the big mission that we embarked upon."

"Back then, the castle was also in as much bad shape as it was the day you first came here. The only place in good enough condition to be saved was the basement, probably because it was the closest to the core and with the combined elemental powers of the three of us, we somehow succeeded in preserving the basement area of the basement area."

Annalise nodded her head as she took in all the details and the history that she was being told about. She was not only finally getting some answers about the castle but also getting to know the past of her husbands. She was being given the chance to take a sneak peek of their story too.

"It took us a while to understand exactly what was going on with the castle and exactly what was its history. The library helped a lot as there were journals written by the previous owners and the Queen also helped us to find as much as possible from her sources. At the same time, while we were trying to sort out the mystery of the castle, we also tried to search for ways to mend the cracks in the wards." Valerius continued to tell her more about the past.

"Didn’t the Midnight Queen know the way to fix the wards?" Annalise asked as the thought suddenly popped up in her brain. The Queen sounded not only really powerful, which she undoubtedly actually was, but also really resourceful and knowledgeable.

Valerius let out another small sigh as he shook his head before replying, "The original people involved in creating the wards didn’t leave too much information about it because they worried someone would misuse it to create trouble. It’s rumored that they only created a single book with all the secrets of the spells and charms used in creating the wards but no one knows where that book is."