playing dumb

        The royal guards must not have liked their own lives. If they had just left Cordelia alone and allowed her to enter the castle in peace, they wouldn't be lying in a heap beside the gate.

        Cordelia almost felt pity for them. But then again, they should have been the wiser when they saw their colleagues being brutally thrashed. That should have been warning enough to let her be.

        But no. They just had to fight in the name of dignity or honour or whatever term they address it by. Something about it made her mad. That the monarchs while enjoying all luxuries simply because of their relationship with the conqueror, or in many cases, ruler of a kingdom live at the expense of the lives of a few fools who would die in the name on their so called honour.

        If anything annoyed her even more, it was war. If a king had a problem with another king. They should go head to head in a one on one battle. Truly a terrible fate indeed it was that armies of innocent men, husbands of women and fathers of children have to be taken out to the battle field in order to kill fellow men, husbands and fathers all because your king got angry.

        The castle gates were forced to open when the force of the water pushing against it became excessive. The throng of guards that had pushed the door to keep it from opening were sent flying backwards to land on the ground, weak, overpowered by a woman.

        "Are you sure this will work, Cordelia?" Nherisa asked, watching the troops of soldiers that swarmed out of the castle and charged towards them. "We wouldn't want to be causing all this carnage for nothing."

        "No one is dying." Cordelia sent a squirt or rather a wave of water towards the ones blocking the main entrance. They were all she cared about. She could just ignore the rest. They committed, in reality, no act of interference with her mission.

        At least that was true until they gathered around her and in front of the door again. "Surrender." They pointed swords at them.

        Cordelia promised there would be no carnage. She kept to it, too. But didn't these people recognise a warning. Do they not take heed?

        Perhaps one more warning would do the trick.

       Cordelia stretched her hands towards a not so tall tower that served as part of the front wall of the tower. A wave of water almost graciously went flying into the air towards it. The wall cracked, bricks fell, and the ower itself leaned.

        The attention of the guards shifted to the deteriorated structure. After a few seconds of wonder and worry, when it shifted back to the position where cordelia had stood, they were gone. They turned towards the main doors to see Cordelia and Nherisa run past them and close the door behind them.

        "Now, where do we find Eric in this huge castle?"

        Cordelia walked a couple of steps to meet her sister into the grand reception room of the castle. Her sister was right. If there was an award for reception room of the century, this had a high chance of of coming at least third, Cordelia thought as she had just entered the human world and didn't know where the bar was set for luxury.

        The room was one storey. That was an understatement. The room was a towering one storey as it covered the ground floor and extended up to the first floor. Coloured in dark shades of brown, it looked quite modern for its century.

        The room had four hallways leading out of it. Two led forward on either side of the Y shaped staircase. Two others led left and right. Clearly, the castle was bigger than it looked from the slightly distant villages.

        It didn't seem rational to just choose a random path and start searching unless they wanted to be there a while or get so lost that they were frustrated enough to jump out the window into the hands of their newly made enemies.

        That was not an option.

        "Don't try to use your psychic abilities." Nherisa said. "Terrible consequences follow pushing it to the limit. It was not given to be used for such tasks."

       As if Nherisa had read her mind, the glow in Cordelia's eyes disappeared. "I am not as reckless as you think I am."

        "Says the person who just brought down a tower singlehandedly." A bang on the door sent a shiver down Nherisa's spine.

        "I didn't bring it down entirely." Cordelia, ignoring her sister, went on to feel the ground for Eric's presence. Surely, she would be able to recognise the aura of the person who used her sister.

       Another bang.

       "Cordelia! That door is going to fly open any second now."

        "I'm trying."

        The next bang on the door was the deal breaker for Cordelia. She had thought of it but never gave it a second's lingering. She felt there was no other choice.

        She sat on the marble floors, legs crossed. She closed her eyes. And when they opened again, they were glowing. Water crept in under the door. Not enough to flood but to be undesirable.

        The water surprisingly came in at a steady supply. It filled every part of the main floor and even, without reaching any higher volume per cubic centimetres, went up the stairs to the other floors until slowly, with great precision, it covered the entire castle without flooding a single room.

        Cordelia placed her hand on the water. For the first time, she combined her water powers with her psychic abilities. It was actually a nice asset she possessed. The water told her everything. She could see what the water could see. She could see what she needed to see.

       The fact that it worked and she now knew the exact location of Eric made her feel more capable. Like nothing could stop her.

        Another bang in the door. This time, the latch shifted a bit.

        "I found him." Cordelia said, pushing herself to her feet. without waiting for her sister, walked up the stairs and turned right.

        All Nherisa could do was trust her, and I hope she knew what she was doing.

        A bang came again. The door had suffered multiple dents, and the latch was only bolted by one centimetre. Another bang, and it would open.

         ++++××××××××××××××××××××++++

                James didn't bother looking back at 'the regal II'. He didn't bother looking back at his newfound enemy.

        He lost everything because of her. S

He just tried to help the one who needed him. Whether he had any selfish motives, it didn't matter.

        Somehow, he hated the king, too. It was his fault he messed up with the spell. And he was blaming him. The blame should have gone to the king.

        For some reason, he wanted revenge. He tried to get the thought out of his mind. It didn't work. He tried again. But the thought was stuck. There wasn't anything he could do anymore as he wasn't in control. He felt like he heard a small laugh come from inside him. And before he knew, it was laughing too.

        His eyes, in his obscure scene, met the guards. Oh, he's still here.

       James grabbed a wand from under his cloak. "He didn't think I'd leave without it, did he?" He said. He spoke a few spells and pointed the wand at the guard.

       Miraculously, the guard floated in the air. He looked like he was in pain. James didn't care. Wings grew out of the guard's back; his neck grew bigger, longer; his fingers disappeared.

        All of these changes took place as they did more until the guard was completely transformed into a flying horse.

        James boarded the horse and directed it towards Encrea. It took a lot of struggle, but he finally got the horse to behave.

         ++++××××××××××××××××××××++++

        "Cordelia, look out!" Nherisa pulled her out of the way as an arrow passed through the position where her chest used to be. By the looks of it, the soldiers had resulted in cross bows.

        "Eric's room is somewhere leading from the hallway to the right." Cordelia said as they turned left at the railing.

       Nherisa sent water to the guards that were making their way up the stairs. They fell back, causing those behind them to fall, too. Like a set of dominoes.

        "Hurry, Cordelia." Nherisa said, turning into the hallway. Cordelia obeyed.

        Eric's room was three doors to the left. The door leading into it was wooden like any other door in the castle, but it had a thick look to it. It was built for secrecy.

        Cordelia pushed the door open, applying much more effort than would take to open the castle gates. Considering its weight, the door opened to a disappointing scene: Eric standing at the centre of a well-kept, well arranged bedroom.

        "It's you." He said, sounding more surprised than shocked or even angry.

        "I see your memory isn't completely dipped in cow urine." Cordelia didn't know why she said that. It was just the first thing that came to her mind.

        "Excuse me?" Eric said.

        "You remember waking up with her on your bed, but not what you did to her before that?" Cordelia asked.

        "Not this time." Nherisa said, walking towards Eric. She placed her index and middle finger on his forehead. Her eyes adopted a bright shade of blue, as did Eric's.

        Cordelia couldn't see what they saw. She didn't want to. It was bad enough having to hear it from someone else. Experiencing it herself would hurt terribly.

        Soon, nherisa and Eric's eyes were normal again. They breathed heavily as if they had just done some heavy lifting.

       Silence lingered between them for a few seconds until a loud noise came from outside the castle. Cordelia waen to the window to look.

        "Looks like the tower just came crashing down." She said. But to who? No one listened, but no one cared.

        "I did that to you?" Eric wasn't asking. He saw what he did, and he knew it was true.

        "We did that with each other." Nherisa said.

       Eric smiled. In fact, he laughed.

        "Is this funny to you?" Cordelia shot at him.

        "It's really funny." Eric said. "You really thought I didn't know?"

        "You didn't forget?" Nherisa said that I had a rather calm, broken tone.

        "You sea dwellers could be so gullible sometimes."

        Cordelia's spine shivered.

       "What? You didn't think I'd notice. It was pretty clear." Eric smiled.

       "So you exploited me because I was a sea dweller?" Nherisa asked.

        "No, not at all." Eric said. "I needed you because you were a sea dweller. I exploited you because you were weak."

        "What are you talking about?" Cordelia asked.

       "You just walked into my trap."