I turned around after winking at him. "Don't you think that was a little too harsh?" Brigitte said in an empathetic tone like she felt bad for him.
"That might have been harsh but he had it coming." I noticed others were rushing to him as I started walking towards the bar again. Lucien went and grabbed him on one if his shoulders and Eugene immediately started healing his wound whereas Irene was just looking at me with an unreadable expression. I just looked her for a few seconds before finally breaking the silence "listen I'm grateful for what you guys did for me but I'm not going to apologize for that" I said and saw Irene's expression change. "You don't have to, he'll be fine once Eugene heals him" said Irene and motioned me to walk inside the bar. I followed but for some reason I was feeling guilty now. Did I really overdo it? "Now you're realising that?" Brigitte's annoying voice rang in my ears again.
Irene didn't say a word until we sat down at the bar counter. Kael was laid down at the couch. While Lucien and others were surrounding him. Seeing them all like that kind of made me feel bad knowing that I was the reason for it. "So your ability is spiderman?" Irene asked while taking a sip of her drink. "Hey it's not spiderman it's... something a little different that that. I can create whatever I want with my threads and it would function exactly the same as the real thing so you can say my ability is kind of creation" I explained to her and she nodded. Somehow she felt a little distant to me this time. Was it because of what I did to Kael? "Yeah she definitely hates you now" Brigitte's comments did not help. I looked over to see how Kael was doing but he was still just lying down. "So you also feel guilty huh?" Irene said with a hint of smile on her lips which was very faintly noticable. "That..... Wait what do you mean 'also'?" I asked and she chuckled. "Nevermind that, is that your only ability? Or are there more you can summon?" Irene asked on a serious note. "Well I have a few more that could be useful but I have exhausted my soul's spiritual energy for a while so I don't think I can summon another ability for a few days" I said and she nodded again.
"Hey by the way what is your ability? Eugene's ability is healing and one of Kael's abilities is teleportation that's all I know about you guys so far but what about Lucien, Iris, Dylan and you?" I asked Irene and she smiled warmly this time. I could feel that she was coming back to her usual self from the cold and distant self she had been from past few minutes. "Curious are we? You'll find out soon enough,have some patience" She said took another sip of her drink.
Before I could finish my drink I felt like I was sucked in to a different dimension or someplace else. I felt dizzy and didn't understand what was going on. I started hearing an echo with a hint of demonic tone. Suddenly I was at someplace else. Everywhere I turned was a mess with sentences and images..... Wait these weren't just images or sentences these were.... My memories.... Not Brigitte's but my own memories which even I didn't remember properly. "Dear lord your consciousness is a huge mess" I heard that demonic like echoing voice again and turned around to see who it was. I was ready to attack until I saw the person. It was.... Irene.
"Irene what is this place what's going on?" I asked in a bewildered manner because I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. "This is your consciousness and these images and sentences that you see are everything your consciousness has been through. So they are your memories" She explained in that demonic echoing voice again. She looked different too. Not too different from the current body she was possesing but just a bit more fierce and she has some sort of sinister expression on her face. Her hair and body were all the same but she somehow seemed more powerful. If I didn't know any better I would've thought I was encountering a villian right now. "So this is your ability? Entering people's minds?" I asked in a normal tone just to confirm my doubts. "Yes I can enter people's minds and can either improve their mental health completely by erasing their trauma or make them go absolutely mad and make them do whatever I want" She explained it all slowly and in that tone she sounded like a true villian of an anime but thankfully she was on our side.
"I get it but can we get out of here now. I'm feeling suffocated" I said feeling a little dizzy because I could not handle seeing so many of my forgotten memories everywhere. She smirked and said "sure". As soon as she snapped her fingers we were out of that place and I was back in my body... Well Brigitte's body. I was breathing heavily for some reason I looked up to see Irene and she was looking at me while smiling. "You weren't ready yet, I should've waited more before showing you my ability. Sorry about that" She said in a sorry tone and it sounded genuine. Now she seemed like a completely different person from the one I was just talking to a few moments ago. "So your power is mind control" I stated and drank a glass of water. "You could say that" She said nonchalantly. I turned around to see that Kael had finally woken up. I raised my hand to say hi but got rejected coldly. Wait..... Right I just stabbed him of course he would be petty about it too.
I was about to ask for a drink for myself again but then remembered something "hey I haven't been to the palace in two days, I would be doomed if they find out. Hell they must have found out already" I said in panick. "Oh dont worry about that I made a clone of you the night he brought you here and sent that clone to the palace. It would act exactly like you" Lucien said reassuring me and I must have had a confused expression on my face because he started explaining further. "Yeah I can make clones of people and have them act exactly as the real thing" Lucien said proudly while explaining his ability. "That sounds amazing" I said in awe and relief that I don't have to continue living in the palace. "But the teeny-tiny setback of my power is that the clones disappear after a certain period of time" He said awkwardly rubbing his head. Well I guess that makes sense.
"How long?" I asked
"48 hours" Lucien responded
"I still have day" I thought to myself but accidentally said it out loud
"Yes" Lucien and Irene responded at the same time
"I have to figure out who is trying to kill me and leaking information about our kingdom to the enemy" I said to myself but Irene must have heard it too. "But how? We don't have any leads" Irene asked
"Well then we will have to get one" I said as an idea popped up in my head and I started smiling wickedly. "What do you mean?" Lucien asked. "You'll see tomorrow"
Author's POV
As Nora was roaming around the market the next day. She finally got time to admire the city after being in this timeline for so many days. Irene next to her was having just as amazing time as her. They were shopping and having fun until Nora noticed some people following her. Irene noticed them too and they both gave each other an understanding look. "Can't even have a day off peacefully now" Irene scoffed in annoyance. Theh both started to move towards an empty alley to lure the people following them.
As soon as they reached the alley, the people following them revealed themselves. There were 5 of them. They were dressed like normal people but they were enemy soldiers. Irene and Nora could tell by the weapons and their build that these were no ordinary people.
"You can sit this one out, I'll handle them" Irene said to Nora while getting in front of Nora and making a protective gesture towards her.
"We will say this once, hand the princess over to us and we will let you live" One of them said while looking at Irene. Irene smirked and took out her sword. "How about you run away now and I'll let you go with your limbs intact?" Her words caused them laugh like she said something absolutely ridiculous. "Stop messing around and hand her over to us" One of them stepped forward with his sword pointed at Irene and before anyone could notice Irene already chopped off that man's hand which was holding a sword. "I told you to leave if you wanted to go back with your limbs intact" She said with a sinister look on her face. She chopped off his left leg without even anyone noticing and his body fell down as he screamed in immense pain "the offer is not available anymore. None of you will be going back with your limbs intact now. " She said as she turned towards all of them with a sinister look. But before she could do anything else. One of them had already reached Nora and had grabbed her from behind while putting a sword on her throat.
"If you move I'll slit her throat" The person said in a victorious tone. Irene looked at him with a tense expression "you're bluffing" Irene said with a smirk "you think?" He said with a madness in his tone. "Well then let's see"
Irene's expression changed to panic as he slit Nora's throat within a few seconds and
She fell to the ground.