The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 177: The Great Esmeray

Chapter 177: The Great Esmeray

"Master, what’s going on?" Ascher couldn’t hold himself back anymore and finally dared to speak after all the weird and unexplainable things that had been happening ever since that one carriage caught his master’s attention, or more like that one woman.

Though he couldn’t deny that the woman was really beautiful, to the level where one could be left completely mesmerized by her mere presence, and held a powerful and noble presence, his master was not someone who could be distracted by beauty.

If following the woman to the Royal Palace wasn’t already weird enough, then the two of them hiding in the shadows right outside the Cursed Castle while they tried to see exactly what was going on inside the castle, definitely was. Looking at his master’s glowing green orbs he could tell that the latter had already found the woman.

Magical wards, ancient spells, long distances, or concrete walls could never stop his master from looking at what he desired to see. He was strong enough to be physically present in the Deep Valleys while still being able to see everything that would be going on in the Capital City or the Cursed Castle.

"Master..." He tried to call his master again when the masked man didn’t respond to his question even after certain long moments had already passed.

"Ascher, just stay silent." The masked man was really not happy with his underling’s constant questioning that was distracting him from the woman who was currently the center of his entire world.

"But master..." Ascher was nowhere near giving up, yet. The world probably knew his master as someone with a heart of stone, heartless, cruel, and the very reincarnation of destruction and doom, however, he had seen that side of his master that the world was never able to see, one that was the actual true personality of the Great Esmeray who once walked on the four lands, a man who had been long forgotten as everyone believed he’s dead.

"What?" The masked man, or the man once known by the name Esmeray, asked his only disciple while not even trying to hide how irritated he was at the moment.

"Master, can you please tell me why you are so interested in that woman? She doesn’t look like anything special." Ascher pressed further and waited for his master to finally tell him something about what had gotten him so excited all of a sudden.

"She is special," Esmeray spoke suddenly, his voice coming out so low but full of calmness and a confidence that made Ascher realize that his master believed what he was saying and if it was his master who believed that the lady of the Cursed Castle was someone special, then she was indeed special. It wasn’t every day that someone got recognized as ’special’ by the Great Esmeray himself.

"So, are you planning to keep stalking her like this and find out what’s so special about her?" Ascher still hadn’t given up since he barely got any answers to his questions.

"My soul has already given me the answer, it has recognized its other half. What I want to seek now is the answer to how all this is even possible. How come she is here and why is there a slight change in her soul? And most importantly, how come she is married to three dark fae Princes?"

The light shone brightly in Esmeray’s deep green eyes as he spoke but somehow, instead of brightening up his dark aura, it only seemed to be corrupted by the darkness that lived inside him and kept surrounding him all the time.

And that darkness inside him, it was beautiful in its own weird and twisted manner because... the dark did not destroy the light, it defined it and made it stand out even more than ever.

A small smile appeared on Ascher’s lips as he finally felt somewhat contended with his master’s answer. He didn’t need his master to spell out every word clearly for him to know what his master was talking about. He too now had a mere guess about who that woman could be.

What he was looking forward to now was to see how his master would enter the lives of those people living inside the Cursed Castle and would create the havoc and destruction that had always followed him from the very day he was born.

*****

"What’s going on?" Kenric asked Aunt Claire and Sera as he made his way to Annalise’s bedroom along with his brothers who were following right behind him. He could feel anxiety radiating from them that matched perfectly with his own emotions.

The three of them had been locked up in the library throughout the noon as they searched through ancient scrolls and historical collections to look for a particular spell. They came downstairs right after their wife finally returned to the castle, only to find that she had locked herself in her bed-chamber.

"She has been like this ever since she ended her meeting with the King. She didn’t talk, didn’t smile, and didn’t respond to anything that I was saying to her and as soon as we reached home, she just ran upstairs and locked herself in the room. She has also forbidden us all from entering." Sera was almost on the verge of freaking out as she had never seen this side of her lady, not even when she was devasted when she received the imperial edict for her marriage with the dark lords two months ago.

The brothers shared a quick look among themselves before Valerius spoke, "Let us handle this. We will make sure that she is alright. How about you both return to your work and wait for us to bring your lady downstairs?"

While Sera seemed not so happy about the idea of leaving her lady behind, Aunt Claire was quick to stop her from responding before she bowed and accepted the command, "Then we will be waiting in the kitchen and will be expecting to see my lords and the lady for the evening tea with our guests."