The Voice of Irene

Chapter Four: The Old Lord's House

Aphmau's POV

I hadn't had anything new to do lately, so I took it upon myself to remodel some of the house and make them nicer. A couple villagers referred to me as Lord Aphmau as well, which made Irene tell me to keep aware of anything.

I decided to do as Zenix asked me a short while ago, and go to the old Lord's house and check it out.

As I walked, Irene was quiet, which I was somewhat glad for. She had told me this was a bad idea, and I shouldn't do this because if something happened she wouldn't be able to help. The question I asked her, about being knocked out, the answer was Irene could only use my senses, except for sight.

We both were of the opinion that if I had magicks, she'd be able to use them if I was unconscious as well.

Anyways, I made it to the old Lord's house and began looking around. 'Looks like he had a kid.' I commented.

'Wonder what happened to it. Didn't the old Lord die in a fire or something?' Irene asked.

I gave her the equivalent of a mental nod. 'Yeah. I suppose the kid, and its mother, died as well. That's horrible.'

'Whoever started that fire is a terrible person, then.' Irene muttered.

'Started the fire?' I asked incredulously. 'Are you sure? You think someone killed them?'

'It makes sense.' Irene defended herself. 'Besides, look. All the coal everywhere, that's not normal. Had it been a mine, or if this was a miner's home, it wouldn't be strange. But this is the home of a Lord. That's suspicious. Coal fuels fires, and most of those coal piles look singed.'

I froze as the realization washed over me. 'The old Lord's death wasn't an accident.' I was shocked to my core. 'Murder. I don't think I really want to be Lord anymore.'

I involuntarily took a step back from the crib, noticing the burns on its sides for the first time.

'This is what I was telling you.' Irene told me. 'Some people don't like Lords. If you want to be a Lord, you must be careful. Who knows what people would do?'

I took a deep breath. 'We'll discuss it later.'

'Agreed.'

I turned away from the crib and looked around. I saw nothing else of note besides a desk with a journal on it. Inspecting it closer, I noticed there were hardly any burn marks on it, even if the desk looked about to collapse from the damage.

'That's suspicious in so many ways.' Irene spoke up.

'I'm almost afraid to ask,' I began, 'but why?'

'It means that the journal wasn't in the building when it was on fire. Why would you keep your journal outside of the safety that you believe your home provides? That's right. You wouldn't. Which means it was taken, the torn pages you can see in the bindings lend credence to that as well.' Irene explained.

'And means whoever stole it must've done so knowing about the fire...' I realized. 'And must've came back to put it back in here afterwards.'

'Exactly. They must've been the one to cause the fire. Or at least working with the one who did.' Irene nodded.

'But why would they put the journal back?' I asked. 'It makes no sense.'

'True. That's very suspicious, unless... APHMAU TURN AROUND!' Irene screamed.

I turned around, 'What? Oh...' I pulled out my sword just as the blunt end of a blade came towards my head. I dodged it and knocked the rather shocked person, a girl I noticed, back.

'Aphmau get the journal and get out of here! Now!' Irene exclaimed.

I turned, smacked the hand reaching towards the journal (Irene cursed when I saw the second person), grabbed it, and ran. The girl blocked the door, and the guy who tried to grab the journal advanced on me, sword out.

I backed up, and noticed a part of the wall that was pretty low. I turned and ran, jumping over the part of the wall and sprinted though the forest.

I made my way to my house and slammed the door behind me, before sitting on my bed shakily.

'What on earth just happened?' I asked.

'It was a trap.' Irene explained. 'They would've knocked you out. That's why she swung the blunt end of the sword at you instead of the actual sharpened part of the blade. It wasn't to kill you, just knock you out and see how much of a threat you'd be, most likely.'

I nodded, slowing my breathing down. 'The look in their eyes, before I ran.... They were going to kill me there.'

'Of course they were.' Irene agreed. 'You caught them in the act, you, as far as they are aware, discovered their plot. They wouldn't have let loose ends like that be.'

I sat in silence for a while. 'You swore. Once you saw the second guy, you cursed. Why? Did you recognize them?'

Irene seemed to be debating about how much to say. 'No. I have no doubt that they've only existed recently, that they're around your age most likely. But I recognized part of their auras. Everyone has an aura. They had the tainted aura of a Shadow Knight. Both of them did.'

I paled a bit. 'Oh.' Then the realization fully hit me. Being a Lord was dangerous. It was deadly, even, to some people. The revelations at the old Lord's house proved that. Now I had a decision- did I still want to be Lord of this village (or any, for that matter), knowing what I did now? I didn't have an answer to that yet.

'Read the journal. That's why I had you grab it.' Irene said after a short silence during which I processed what could easily happen to me if I actually became Lord.

'Right... Yeah, the journal.' I snapped out of the small daze I was in and opened the journal.