“We can’t leave the body,” Sasha said calmly.
“Body?” I asked.
“I will send the servants to investigate and identify the corpse,” Selene replied.
Was this truly real? Was it possible for a maze of stone to be living, moving, and swallowing those foolish enough to enter, only to take their life and throw them back out?
“This can’t be possible,” I said quietly.
“There is a reason such magic has been outlawed for centuries, pet. The impossible is made possible in the most monstrous of ways,” Selene told me, as a gust of warm air washed over us as we re-entered the mansion.
Selene carried me back to the dining room. Adamantia dragged two chairs from the table to in front of the large fireplace, and Selene placed me in one, removing her blue blazer and placing it over my shoulders.
“I should have instructed you to grab a coat,” Adamantia chastised Sasha.
“We were outside for no more than ten minutes. Calm down,” Sasha replied, but reached her hands out in front of her towards the fire to heat them up.
“Elies!” Selene called loudly, and even Adamantia turned a look of irritation towards her.
“Is there a need to shout so loudly? You could have just as easily instructed a closer servant to fetch her,” Adamantia said, rubbing her ear.
“Calling her directly is quicker,” Selene replied.
“My Marchioness,” Elies greeted as she entered the dining room.
“Before first light tomorrow, every door leading outside must be equipped with a coat stand or hook and suitable outerwear to fit my pet,” Selene instructed.
“I’ll remember in the future,” I told her.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Elies replied. “I believe the maze was active,” she continued.
“Yes, there is a body. I want to know who they are and how they entered the maze.”
“Certainly,” Elies answered. “Dinner will be served shortly, the councillors that are spending the night have opted to dine in their rooms, except for one—Fotis of Cliffwind—who has requested to join you.”
“He is welcome to dine with us tonight. Please bring me the report on the body from the maze as soon as you have it,” Selene replied.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Elies answered and bowed her head.
“I know you’ll remember because there won’t be the opportunity to forget,” Selene said in answer to me as Elies left.
“The maze really killed someone?” I asked. I couldn’t wrap my head around such a thing. “How does something that does not live have a mind to do such a thing?”
“The maze lives,” Adamantia responded. “Ardens Estate has sat at the heart of Ardens since before the land was known by such a name. The maze is older than any of us truly know—older than when we began to write our histories. But history is spread through the oral tradition, perhaps more so than the written. All children of Ardens hear tails of the magical maze, of stone carved by witches with the aim of capturing any foolish enough to enter—to drain their life and sustain its own.
It may look and feel, and for the most part act, as nothing more than stone, but its enchantments are living, and each death provides fuel. It will be more active now that it has had a meal.”
Adamantia’s words scared me, but also helped to make sense of what I had witnessed.
Enchantments required life to sustain them. For small things, like my scent bracelet that I gifted Selene, just a drop of blood was needed, but for other more powerful enchantments, more was required.
Syngeneia’s history was perhaps the bloodiest of them all; their blood was used to seal the blood oath.
“Dark magic,” I whispered.
“Yes,” Sasha replied. “For life is the price to sustain it.”
“Why would anyone make such a thing?” I asked. “It should be destroyed.”
