The Trio Odyssey

Part I: Soul to Soul

Chapter 18: The Princess of Insanity IV

As the Princess is moved by the rough chains of shackles pulled by the men, she passes the dark pavements across her way outside of the room where she woke up.

Then, she finds herself walking upward on a broad path of stairs, exiting from the profound, hidden, massive dungeon.

The scorching, blinding lights of the flames placed on the rocky, rough textured walls tickle her eyes.

Its sparking noise and the metallic footsteps of the men reach her ears as she mumbles.

‘The Court… of… Yotalis Palace…’

The rustling noises of the metal chains never ends.

No one talks and no one reacts, but the continual noises are made to their listening. 

The sweats fall from her forehead, wetting her face down to her jaw and neck.

The walk alone takes almost an hour to finish, but she doesn’t even grief and realizes almost anything at all because she’s all moody after the confusion she had experienced back in the room of shackles.

The sound of footsteps becomes absorbed like walking on carpets.

She keeps stepping on further and further, on and on, with her eyes closed in a silent agony.

Several minutes later, the footsteps sound like stepping on planks of wood. She steps on another staircase, but its made of wood instead of granites.

The light penetrates her eyelids after she stops walking, stepping on a rocky floor. She slowly separates her eyelids to see around.

She believes it’s the courtroom, the Court of Yotalis Palace. 

It’s grand and tall, like how the usual architecture of each building in the Ivada Federation would be. 

However, the circular courtroom has many heightened seats, while she’s positioned inside a densely obsidian black, cylindrical, metal cage in the lowest middle of the courtroom. 

Four of the men that escorted her step out of the cage after placing her inside, while two apply new chains of shackles on her.

After that, the two men unlock the heavy handcuffs from her back, take her arms forward and handcuffs her wrists again with it.

They also shackle her waist like how its done back in the room of shackles.

The Princess has one lingering thought as she blurts it out, ordering the men that’s holding her inside the cage while she’s looking downward, toward her forearms and the solid rock floor. 

“Unsheathe my sleeves.”

The men discuss with each other for a moment regarding the Princess’s order. 

Then, one of the men pulls the sleeves of her dress upward until the level of her elbows, her eyes instinctively and immediately widened, reacting to the thing she never sees before around her arms.

She notices dark blue, strange lines and hieroglyphs carved around the skins of her forearms.

Even so, she still feels the tingling sensations in her flesh and bones when she tries to move it around. 

“Huh—… What is this thing?”

Then, she remembers her father’s action back in the room of shackles she just exited. 

“Perhaps, it’s something that Dad has placed on me…”

Being distracted, she’s startled after hearing the deep voice of a man. 

“Your Majesty, let the Court of the Federation take over, if you please.”

She promptly looks up, glancing around the courtroom.

The presence of the Reigning King of Dumaja the West, Hotavar Nan Lief, caught her eyes.

Yet, she’s perplexed as to why the Sovereign, Souht Nan Mahjun, is placed lower inside the courtroom despite he outranks all of the Reigning Kings in the Ivada Federation. 

‘How come—… that Dad is sitting on lower lines than His Majesty, Hotavar.’

His Majesty, Hotavar, being the judge, orders and proceeds with the trial. 

“Begin.”

The same man with the deep voice continues, prosecuting inside the trial as the inquisitor sent by the Court of the Federation. 

“Her Highness, Raeké Issocelle Cazdae, is accused dead, while a phantom from the Spiritual Faction is presently controlling Her body.”

Out of all of the people inside the courtroom, Her Majesty, Raesha, is the first one to react extremely, gasping in supreme shock while covering her rounded mouth.

From the line of the prosecutors, who are also sent by the Court of the Federation, words of a man are released.

“That’s absurd. How could the Princess ever die?”

Then, the whispers come from the juries from the Court of the Federation.

“This must be a lie.”

“That can’t be true.”

Back to the line of the prosecutors.

“Does that mean the Federation has lost the opportunity to override for double ruling?”

His Majesty, Hotavar’s voice pierces the chatter as the courtroom is filled with louder chatters.

“Silence. Where’s the evidence?”

There are men in robes, stepping forward. 

“Your Majesty, we are the investigators of the Princess’s case, from the Investigation Laboratory Sector, Heto Palace, ready as witnesses.”

One of them brings a tiny colorless pearl on his leaning palm, similar to the one His Majesty, Jaw, showed back in the conclave. 

The Princess speaks silently. 

‘I think I’ve seen that pearl before…’

The man who brought the pearl steps forward to a gray, round plinth around the height of his waist, placing that colorless pearl on a slot atop of the middle of the plinth, while he summons his Chimeric.

Then, he brings the retrieved knife that was found back at the Sanaje Coast. 

The Princess extends her head upward and on her tiptoes, attempting to take a peek at what he’s doing but she’s pulled back by the shackles around her waist.

‘That knife!’

She can’t see almost anything on the higher floors and she can’t see the Chimeric of that man.

“Ugh—…”

The armored men that hold her inside the cage approach her, thinking that she’s escaping. 

Then, she sees curved, long, visible holographic panels on display revolving around the top of the cage she’s locked in, rotating highly and forcing her to set her head aloft.

The displaying panels reveal everything that the people of the Heto Palace have to settle with the trial within the Court of Yotalis Palace.

The image of the Princess lifting the knife and pointing its tip on top of her forearm. 

Horribly, she began slicing her own forearm, making her parents flinch in extreme worry and others reacting badly to her own doings. 

However, looking back at the Princess’s sliced forearm, there is no scar due to Physician Hite’s Occult Ability.

The talks from the prosecutor’s line come.

“A suicide?”

“This couldn’t be real.”

Then, from the line of the juries, comes another talk.

“But even so, Her Highness is still alive.”

“How could such a wound become lethal?”

The jury line inside the courtroom, with whispers at each other, one steps up and states.

“Her Highness, Raeké Issocelle Cazdae, has yet to die. But highly likely brainwashed under the influence of the Spiritual Faction.”

The other jury steps up.

“We believe that the knife has a certain Occult Ability engraved inside it.”

Her Majesty, Raesha, being the witness, reacts.

“She’s not brainwashed! This is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Raesha looks at the men with the robes and continues.

“More evidence must be stated here.”

While His Majesty, Hotavar, remains silent, the men that brought the knife states more live, audible evidence into the panels, floating the knife highly on top of the cage.

“Ever since the knife was found at Sanaje Coast, it’s already emitting a certain number of Occult Synthesis. While there’s no clear discovery that the Occult Synthesis specifically originated from the Spiritual Faction.”

“Based on the research of the Cosmical Faction, the Past Recreation Timelapse has proven that Her Highness began to experience a slight behavioral distortion.”

“Besides, the knife itself is no mystery. It was a regular, Occult Synthesis imbued knife, discovered to be stolen by Her Highness from the Blacksmith Sector of the Heto Palace.”

And then, the Sovereign, who’s standing in the line of the witnesses, adds:

“Her Highness was found to be zoning out quite often right after the event. At some point, she spoke strangely about herself.”

The jury comments.

“If not the manipulating threads from the Spiritual Faction, there must be a dummy spirit placed inside the knife and entered via the wounds of Her Highness.”

The man of the inquisitor of the Court of the Federation, states a question.

“Who could have plotted, such that, the knife to be manifested in that way?”

Professor Tacha, who was brought into the courtroom as a witness, presents her answer. 

“The Blacksmith Sector of the Heto Palace has zero record regarding the implant of the dummy spirit into the knife. Thus, it’s practically impossible to assume the availing existence of the spirit.”

The Princess shouts lightly as she looks up to the Professor with a slightly hopeful eyes.

‘Wait—, huh—… It’s Professor!’

Nonetheless, the Professor faces down, staring into the Princess with a grieving look.

The Princess’s hoping face fades afterward, staring back down onto her strangely hieroglyphic carved forearms.

The trial resumes with Raesha, a dual incumbent in the courtroom, standing in between the lines of the witnesses and the defendants. 

“There is the other soul residing within Her Highness’s body, merged with Her Highness’s soul as an uninvited stranger and called herself Maia.”

Again, everyone inside the room lets out their chatters, discussing the statements of the strange incidents.

From the jury’s line, appears the confusion. 

“Maia?”

“Who’s that?”

“That name isn’t native to the Federation.”

“Perhaps, that soul might come from the Cazdae Empire.

“How could the Cazdae Empire ever have their hands laid into our nation?”

Afterward, the men from the prosecutor's line, discuss.

“It’s true, in fact, that they are our rivaling nation, but it’s unbelievable that they have made their first move for an infiltration.”

“Infiltration?”

“No, isn’t the only infiltrator the Queen Consort, Raesha Issocelle Cazdae?”

And then, the other prosecutors standing beside the inquisitor of the Court of the Federation, speak up, letting go of his temper. 

“Her Majesty, Raesha, might be the one who secretly planted the foreign soul!”

The other men from the prosecutor’s line start yelling.

“Yeah—!”

“She’s the first Cazdaean to set her foot on the Federation’s Royals after all!”

Abruptly, a louder shout erupts from the cage.

“You’re wrong!”

The chatters are quietened in an instant, noticing the Princess’s voice coming from the cage.

“She would never do such a thing! It is my doing! I am the one who stole the knife from the Blacksmith Sector!” 

Then, His Majesty, Hotavar, stands up, stating his word.

“Well, it’s great you confessed, Your Highness. Then, elucidate.”