Bound To; The Wish of the Witch

XXIII

The gate's rumbling ceased once it abruptly closed in front of Tori, allowing the scorched room to fall silent aside from the slight shifting of loosened bricks settling into place. Tori let out a breath mixed with relief and regret before turning back to the burnt remains of his former spymaster. As he looked over the old man's corpse, Scinthia's words swam through his mind along with a frustratingly familiar lack of fulfillment.

"I still don't feel any better... At least, about my revenge..." He thought before the prince spoke up.

"You sure that's how you wanted to end that?" Cogneil asked.

Tori remained silent, the memory of Scinthia telling him he didn't kill her parents replaying in his mind. He almost couldn't believe it; the last two years of his life, and especially this past month, Tori had been plagued by his guilt that he almost couldn't sleep some nights. But now, after what she'd said, he felt like he could breathe again. Like someone had been holding their boot on his throat and then finally lifted it.

What he lacked in satisfaction from his revenge on Gray was made up for in a new sense of relief as well as one other emotion he was unfamiliar with. It was a warm, pleasant feeling, but also seemed to make his throat slightly tighten and hung a sense of guilt over him when he thought of revenge being his motivation. At first, it seemed like it was enough, but now it was just beginning to feel fleeting and pointless.

"Why am I even doing this anymore?" He wondered before a gate suddenly opened next to them.

"Let's just go. I'm tired." Tori said, turning and walking through the gate with the prince.

They both promptly passed through the gate and found themselves standing in the dark castle's throne room at the foot of the dais. In the mangled throne, sat Ilia looking down at them with one leg crossed over the other and Emiru standing to her left side, wearing the uniform the rest of Ilia's maids wore for some reason. Taking their placement and the unusual air he was getting from Ilia into account, Tori could tell the witch was up to something.

"Rusted ranger; my loyal servant, what meager offerings have you brought me now? No matter how many sacrifices you bring, I will not marry you." Ilia said loudly and in a tone that made it obvious she was playing around.

"I'm too tired for this..." Tori thought before replying.

"The former prince of Korandale. And damn, I'll just be seeing myself to my room then. Night." The ranger said dryly, turning and walking toward the door waving one hand up to her.

Before he could take more than three steps away, a gate opened in front of him and Ilia suddenly strutted through to him.

"Oh don't be such a grump. You hardly ever play along with me, the least you could do is loosen up now that we've got the prince on board." She pouted.

"We can't afford to loosen up now. Crippling the Ranger Corps and getting the kids was the easy part. Getting the king will be much harder now that they have an idea of what's going on." Tori explained.

"How are we supposed to get at the king now anyway? I'm sure he's locked up tight now that we've got a way to open a gate directly into the castle." Ilia asked.

"We'll have to call him out with a threat of raiding the capital city and laying siege on his castle." Cogneil said, inserting himself into the discussion. "My father may be a poor parent, but he's a decent enough king that he'd rather engage in open battle than hide in his castle while his subjects are being attacked."

"Hold on, we're not raiding the city and involving the citizens. We can find another way that doesn't include innocent collateral." Tori interjected.

"You and I are in complete agreement that no harm will come to the innocent citizens, Tori, but Drewell doesn't know that. To him, witches are evil beings with zero empathy and a threat to attack innocents would easily be taken at face." The prince explained.