Southwest Truths (Semiautomatic Sorceress Book 3) by Kal Aaron (the red fox clan .txt) 📗

Samuel stood and nodded. “I’ll be waiting outside. We are curious if your spirit survived, given the oddness of the day.”

Lyssa waited until he stepped out of the room to take a deep breath. In the desperation of battle, the Night Goddess or whoever it was had claimed she would fuse Jofi, then reseal him.

“Jofi, are you there?” she asked.

“Yes, I am,” he replied, his voice calm and even like before. “It’s unclear to me what happened, but I’ve not been around other people enough to hear their conversations. I do know there’s been a change in me.”

“What change?” Lyssa's heart sped up.

“I believe our link is stronger,” Jofi replied. “And my power is stronger. I suspect this will mean more damage from the guns and more power.”

“Huh.” Lyssa scratched her eyelid. “But you don’t remember what happened?”

“I don’t remember much after entering the ritual chamber,” he replied. “I was also not fully aware for some time. You could say I awoke only a day before you. My understanding is there was a battle, and you used me in an unusual way to destroy Elder Nektarios.”

He could be lying, but the snarling, inhuman grand emptiness spirit she’d heard when his seal broke didn’t seem like the type of entity who would rely on cheap lies. He would have swallowed her soul and been done with her.

“Yeah, that’s accurate. He was something.” Lyssa looked sad. “Maybe Samuel could explain that.” She looked at the window, but it’d been tinted black to block out light. “Jofi, do you sense anything special or weird about my regalia?”

“Other than our normal link, no. Should I?”

“I’m fairly sure the Night Goddess somehow helped us fight Nektarios. She powered us up.” Lyssa swept her legs off the bed, amused that they’d left her boots on. They must have wanted to maximize her healing potential.

“That doesn’t sound like regalia,” Jofi replied. “You might have been confused by another spirit taking the opportunity to interfere with things.”

“Maybe.” Lyssa furrowed her brow.

Her recollection of the fight after the fusing was hazy, but she remembered the mental conversation well enough. Enough strange things had happened lately that she wouldn’t dismiss anything.

Night Goddess, she thought. Are you there?

There was no response.

“Samuel,” she yelled. “Come back in.”

The door opened and he stepped back, glancing at Jofi. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. He’s still here.” Lyssa stood and stretched. She ached all over. “I was telling Jofi how I think the Night Goddess powered us up. I don’t know how to explain it, but I had some sort of mental conversation with her.”

“What?” Samuel asked. “While regalia have a unique compatibility with individuals and their essences, they aren’t spirits, Miss Corti. They have neither will nor intelligence.”

“I know what I heard. Or heard in my mind. And dreamed.” Lyssa shrugged. “I know that doesn’t sound compelling, but you were there. I’m not a spirit Sorceress. I couldn’t have pulled it off without help.”

“Are you sure?” Samuel peered at her.

“No, but I figured you should know.”

“Is the Night Goddess still speaking to you?” he asked.

Lyssa shook her head. “Nope. No dreams, and you said I’d been here several days. I thought at her and got no response.”

Samuel stroked his beard. “Seeing a valued Elder turn into a monster makes me more inclined not to dismiss your story out of hand, but it’s been a difficult and confusing time. We can arrange a time to talk to the Elders and vault tenders to explore what you’re claiming.”

“What kind of casualties did we take?” Lyssa asked. “I know he killed a few guys, but it wasn’t clear how many people died that day.”

“Not as many as you’d expect,” Samuel replied. “I went out of my way not to kill any of the guards during my raid. I was only forced to attack so fiercely because they seemed determined to kill me.”

“You were kind of breaking into the Heart of Remnant at the time.”

“True, but it’s clear Nektarios had given extreme orders. Unfortunately, the other Sorcerers involved in the ritual were killed, as you might have witnessed. Tristan survived. You obliterated Elder Nektarios.” He let out a too-mirthful chuckle. “His regalia, if you’re curious, hasn’t returned to the Vault of Dreams, but we believe he’s dead.”

“Really?” Lyssa asked. “Are you sure this time?”

“The identifying script above the alcove for his Traveling Sage disappeared,” Samuel explained. “Any attack powerful enough to annihilate a regalia would be enough to kill the owner. It’s been a long time since a regalia’s been destroyed, not since 1945. You should apply caution when using your most powerful attacks. There would be more concern if you hadn’t stopped something far more dangerous.”

Lyssa shrugged. “Sorry, but I had a weird thing to kill and not a lot of options.”

“Mysteries upon mysteries, Miss Corti, especially if your claim about the Night Goddess is true.”

“Well, damn.” Lyssa sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m sure you have a long, boring explanation about all the last-minute investigation you did, but I’m less interested in that than knowing what and who Nektarios was.”

“Mr. St. James, along with others, including the other two members of the Tribunal who weren’t involved in the ritual, have been investigating that since the incident. It appears Elder Nektarios didn’t want the other members of the Tribunal involved in the ritual, perhaps because he feared their power or that they’d realize what he was attempting.” Samuel shrugged. “Our tentative hypothesis is that a powerful entity possessed the Elder, along with several Shadows on the island, and a miniscule number of other Illuminated.”

“Wait, what?” Lyssa protested, “I don’t get how it possessed everyone. You’re saying there was more than one?”

“It’s complicated,” Samuel replied. “Nektarios was under direct control as the primary host, along with a handful of other Illuminated who are not on Last Remnant and numerous Shadows. Once he was killed, his control vanished. A specialist will be talking to you about this soon. He can explain it