“What if we portal the message directly to him?” I asked, excitement written all over my face.
Everyone turned to stare at me.
“To the Prince?” Mal asked, but I could see him considering it.
“Yes, it’s instantaneous. Like a text message.” I paused. “Lytopia really needs technology.”
“Agreed,” Mal said with feeling. “But how do we locate him?”
Tyreen’s eyes lit up. “You told me you had an assassination attempt recently, correct? From Igryside?”
I nodded. “Yes. But what does that have anything to do with-”
“Their bodies. You kept them?” She asked, interrupting me with a shake of her head.
Casimya understood faster than I did. “You want to use their energy signature? Track it back to its source?”
“Exactly.”
Oh.That made sense.
We moved quickly after that. Tyreen, Casimya, Mal and I went straight to the ritual room, the body already there, brought by guards and waiting for us. It was preserved in cold storage, but I tried not to look at it too closely.
Tyreen set up the ritual to extract his energy quickly, her movements practiced.
“Focus on the energy,” she instructed, guiding my hands to hover over the corpse. “Absorb it. Let it guide you.”
I touched the cold flesh and grimaced. “This is disgusting.”
“Focus. Think: prince. Royalty. Power. Igryside. Let the energy show you where it came from.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated. “Prince. Prince. Prince.”
The energy was dark, tainted. It made my skin crawl. But I could feel it now, a thread leading back to its source. Back to Igryside.Yes.
A small portal began to form in front of me. Unstable and flickering, but there.
“It is working,” Mal said.
“I think so? I hope so,” I managed through gritted teeth.
“Slip it through. Quickly,” Tyreen urged.
I grabbed the letter and shoved it through the portal before I could second-guess myself. The portal snapped shut.
“Did it work?” I gasped, the effort hitting me all at once.
“We will find out,” Mal said.
“What if it was the wrong room? What if guards saw it?”
“Then we deal with the consequences.”
“What if the King got it?”
“Then war it is,” Tyreen said. “But you did well. The energy signature was strong. It should have led to someone of royal blood.”
“I really don’t want war,” I said quietly.
