Chapter 15 - The Maiden's Hands

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The door opened after Alexa's touch, and in the current situation where not entering could mean facing a huge man with a spiked mace, the maiden chose to risk and enter the mansion.

Groping her way along the wall, she found the handle of a broom, which she gripped quickly. That would definitely be helpful. Alexa realized she was in a service part of the mansion. If she was not mistaken, the front door was on the north side of the house, where she should go if she wanted to help them.

"Help me!"

A low voice was heard, almost near her feet. Her vision had not yet become accustomed to the almost complete darkness of this part of the house, and she bent slowly, groping as she could, until she touched something soft and wet, uncomfortably cold. The Greek Maiden withdrew her hand quickly, sensing a crescendo of malice in the atmosphere. Even without seeing, her other senses were keen and fully alert, and Alexa was once again fast enough to roll aside as the huge wooden cup-holder collapsed onto the corpse on the floor, exactly where she had crouched seconds before.

She stood, gasping for breath, and even in her fright, shouted, "Reveal yourself!"

Little by little the Shade, a shadow in the shadows, had her dark silhouette revealed in the Light Bearer's eyes. Wickedly, bright-eyed, she, because it was a she, stared in surprise at the maiden. But there was something different about this Shade. A half moon symbol with a glowing halo over its forehead.

Alexa just understood that it was the same symbol, the obolus split in half. 'An allusion to the infernal fee to the Boatman of Souls? Proof that one was really dead?' she conjectured as she simply raised her hands in spectral flames to exorcise that soul from the realm of the living.

Gasping and aching, after getting rid of the ghost that tried to kill her, Alexa used the purifying flames of her hands and lit the tail twigs of the broomstick, creating a makeshift torch. At least that way, she'd see the way ahead and see whatever spirits without disguises. Anyway, the Light Bearer didn't want people to see bluish flames coming out of her hands either.

Advancing down a corridor, she heard moans and screams, heavy thuds and grieving whispers, but could not identify whose where the work of the living or the dead in this cacophony of unsettling sounds.

The smell of fresh blood reached her nostrils before she could see the source of this ferruginous smell. Using the torch, the maiden scanned the path ahead, looking like a bloody trail that ended at the end of the corridor.

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"I found dead people and heard terrifying voices, tortured screams, bullying whispers, and realized that the spirits were restless into the manor. It was as if ... How can I say? The darkness of the hells had descended over this house, torturing innocent souls. What the purpose of it, I could not imagine, because I did not understand the context. Fear drove me on, but I also knew that I couldn't turn my back on people left to fend for themselves in that horror. Even if they were just strangers to me, if I could only help one person out of here ... " she turned her eyes to Father Agnello, who touched her shoulder in consolation, "I asked the Heavenly Hosts to protect me in this moment of danger while my friend outside was trying to intercept a wagon that sneaked from the property!"

"So that's how you parted ways?" Magnus asked.

"Unfortunately, but we'd meet again, even briefly."

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A loud boom came from the door direction, which left Alexa in a frenzy. Realizing the screams that followed, the maiden made sure it was the right direction where people were in a group. Rushing over and ignoring everything else, she came to the door, which she immediately realized was locked by the artifice of unnatural forces.

"Ah, Guardians ..." the maiden understood the least to know that heretics used Orphic knowledge for evil purposes. Enslaving souls and sealing doors. She couldn't get through that door, not during the dark hours, and suspected that many other doors in that mansion were sealed the same way. But she could at least try to make herself heard by people on the other side. So she proceeded to do it.

But their answers were too chaotic to make any sense.

They had as much trouble understanding her as she did them, in that moment of terror. Finally she realized that someone, in the midst of the hubbub, was trying to say something important:

"Listen, girl! A guard captured a witch, the witch who poisoned our water! The damned bitch revealed before she died, she said something about the well! He said he was going there!"

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"Through the door I had no strength to open, someone told me that the source of the spell was in the well. I had seen a dead guard near a well, so I assumed it could be the same place," the maiden revealed. "Sure the poor man tried to break the infernal spell, but died before that, that's what I thought at the time. I asked them what the loud noise had been like, and this person, who seemed to be one of the few who still could reason, told me that a body had been hurled upstairs to the hall. And that 'Lady Cordelia' was still up there without any help."

Alexa looked at her interlocutors meaningfully,

"I couldn't judge anyone at that time, I didn't know how long or everything they lived. I just thought that if I had to go to the well to get it over with, it was what I should do."

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'Uh damn, the well is out there, exactly where that masked giant is waiting me with a mace to crush my head,' Alexa thought. Though she imagined that with the dawn, the disturbing influence of darkness upon this house would diminish, it would take time, for by her calculations it was not even time for the first Matin. It was the pinnacle of darkness and the pinnacle of acting power of these troubled souls attached to this place. The Greek maiden thought she couldn't wait until then. More people would die before the fury of those who were dismissed.

"Glad you're there, Lex," she heard behind her, her familiar voice a little breathless and turned in anticipation, wishing she wasn't hearing another ghostly voice this time.