The next morning we again headed towards the castle, later because I slept in longer. Grabbing food on the way from the hotel breakfast. The last information about the first loved kenna. I sighed my hands coated in my flames and pricking my skin slightly.
Ezree and I had been texting this morning. She was surprised the queen helped along with Delusion dragging us to fix all the loved. I kept my hands burning and texted her my plans as of now. Her bills were due, along with something she was tipped off about. She was planning to make a lot of money quickly.
Herika was finally able to leave wherever she was. She was in the same group chat as me and Ezree. Herika's eagerness dripped through her messages.
"Alright, so we are regrouping with the Queen over this nightmare." I said.
"Yeah, she can answer the last remaining questions we have. We might be able to fill a better picture here." Stella said.
"She has an ability like Āpala. She could be keeping things away from us, maybe on purpose." Delusion's voice only came out distorted.
I could still see it. Paukena tricked us, she is taking people. Her purposeful act of compliance and the release of Delusion. Delusion on a leash. I've seen Āpala's life, he's known for being crude but he was far from it. Kenna died early and Āpala doesn't react badly? Insane. He's obsessed, that is where all his Fayhian personality went.
We arrived at the castle. Paukena met us at the front. She took us in to talk about what we accomplished. None of them dropped dead, so we couldn't get them over it. Her silence was deafening. Instead of asking for Kenna I asked my question.
"What can we do from here? Paukena, does your ability relate at all to forcing a feeling onto something?" Delusion body glitch and she grabbed at her throat.
My hands hurt so much. "It doesn't, short answer." The giant doors closed and she fully turned around to face us. "The family of Festive Kings have a shared ability, two actually."
"Do they relate in any way to the story?" Stella asked, another distorting fit being brought onto Delusion.
"In a way." Paukena's normally happy demeanor fell a little. "First is the creation of life. The pumpkins I made, and from what you said, my dad's Delusion." She pointed at Erika. Delusion shifted slightly, her glitches stopping,
"Whats the other?"
"The partial control of an entity. The castle." the bricks of the wall caved in and formed an outstretched hand. Me and Stella took it.
"So it doesn't have anything to do with forcing feelings onto someone." Stella said.
"Can you communicate with.. Castle?" I asked.
"Of course, you can't get a great full conversation with them, but they can help answer some questions."
"Castle, have you seen Āpala's ability?"
A X formed in the bricks.
"So he never used it. Has he talked about it?"
Another X formed.
"Has Limerence ever mentioned the pink magic from him. Or have you seen pink magic."
An X followed by an O.
"What happened after the pink magic? Did it ever affect a person?"
A X formed. I clicked my tongue. I side eyed both Delusion and Paukena. Kenosee exists. There have been affected people. In the damn nightmare his emotions poured out of him. Well… I shivered. It is just a dream, doesn't mean it really happened.
Then I remember what the loved talked about to us. It did happen. Kenosee has existed for how long, I don't know, if it's still going faintly and less obvious, I can't tell. If the spell is still going then… Baydí's lesson taught me the requirement of a spell, the input magic and the input brain control…
"Is Āpala still alive?"
My words echoed throughout the large hall. Delusion stood straighter. Stella turned to me. Paukena's eyes lowered and looked away.
"I thought that must be the case. That he was keeping it activated. He's a good fighter, I'd be surprised if he didn't realize the drain on his magic, unless he purposefully kept it with kenosee. I haven't had the strength to confront him."
The room collapsed on us. Unbelievable. I can't believe this monster is still alive actively forcing this curse on. My suspicions of Delusion were wrong. A crude King he really was then.
"That crude bastard." Delusion's voice glitched and screeched.
"He's keeping them alive with the ability to create life?" Stella asked.
"And kenosee." I responded.
"I guess." Paukena said slowly. "Go confront him. He's… I think he's good enough to not outright attack you. He's a hundred after all, he won't be much of a fight if push comes to shove."
Paukena gave us his location and we went off. We had to get back on the train getting off in the middle of West Fayha. This area was mainly farmland fenced in by a few cities on the sides before the terrain gets mountainous. We needed to travel through more towns than we did with Enna. The town is named Spirit Box. and it was one of the last towns before it got mountainous. It was six pm by the time we got there.
He lives on the other side facing away from where we drove in from. As we drove through the city, ghost themes protested the city. The buildings were all a dark shade of purple. Orange graffiti murals decorated the blank sides of walls. The wood used around the city was all dark purple as well. The cars in this area were all white, with a handful of cars matching the dark purple.
The city looks amazing with purple and bright white street lamps lining the road. We drove through in a car we called. It drove us to the end of the city and dropped us off. The city slowly decayed with amount of buildings till it was tall hayfields with corn on opposing sides. No houses stood out to us as we looked around. We walked further out, until we could see a roof sticking out on the other side of the hay.
It was the middle of summer yet a chimney produced smoke from the inside. Delusion's hands bawled up. I let my horns fall from my hands and returned them to normal. Underneath were chard hands, I looked like a full dragon almost.
Stella's eyes saw my new hands and her face grew pale. "What the hell Heo!"
"What?"
"Don't what this! How the hell did you melt your hands, why would you?"
"I was practicing. Kinda training my fire resistance."
"I didn't know your horns were that hot." She grabbed my new hands, turning them over in hers.
"They'll heal."
"Don't ever practice this again. Especially on your beautiful hands."
"Aaah, alright."
I pulled them away. There was nothing to do after I burned them, but I needed the constant pain and one I could feel. Since I'm a dragon I'm both immune to an extent to what I'm good at, but my horns I can increase the heat of easier. If I un-hardened them, they would have filled the hotel room with fire. I should also be able to heal most of this though.
"Hey. We don't know how strong he is. Attacking him is kinda a bad idea right now." I said.
She seemed to relax, or try but a scowl lined her cracked face.
"Heo. He won't attack us right?"
"Well. When in doubt..." I waved my photo at her and pointed at a pink trashcan icon on my phone.
"Rex.."
…
We made it to the house. It sat quietly on the edge. Dark purple bricks laid the walls and dark purple wood roofed the house. Pink lights hung from the ceiling of the front porch with fans running. A nice smell came from the house, smelling similar to Keikei's restaurant. Yellow and pink lights came from the inside.
Delusion's hands once again swelled. Stella, the nicest looking of us, walked up to the front door and knocked. She turned back a little sweat on her face. I shot her a thumbs up. The door opened slowly with a squeak. When the door opened fully, the lights went out and no one was there.
"Umm, hello. Mr. Āpala… M-me, my cousin and Erika are here to discuss kenosee." Stella shivered.
"BOO!"
An older looking KeiKei jumped out and scared Stella onto her back. He stood up fully revealing an average height old man. He had a tad darker skin than Paukena's with matching white hair that was there his entire life. Black beads wrapped around his white hair. It was cut short on the bottom side, at the top it was collected and braided backwards into a poney tail of braids. Little dark loops hung inside some of the braids. A long scar above his left eye littered his handsome face, even if he was one hundred years of age. His eyes were bright orange like his kids.
"W-we here…"
"I heard you guys." He looked at Delusion with a frown. "Come in if we are talking about I guess my nightmare." He welcomed us in with a hop defying his age. "I just finished dinner so you all are lucky."
He handed us food and we sat down at a small table.
"So, my name is Heo Estellé and this is my cousin Stella Estellé. We are new to Fayha and found out about the banshee and the nightmare…" I explained quickly how we managed to track him down. "And you see, all the loved haven't died and can't die because of what we think is your ability."
He took a bite of perfect mash potatoes and looked over at delusion.
"I knew of kenosee, as you call it. I knew it since I saw my emotions manifest in front of my love. I figured it out really quickly after that."
"So you are using it currently on the loved?"
"No. Kenosee shouldn't include a K either, or it should be at the end of it." He laughed. "If anything she put the spell on me. If that dream showed me, you missed her obsession. 'Kenosee' never affected Kenna till she let it affect her. You saw it, she took it into herself, in the same moment I took hers. The others I had immediately stopped once I figured it out. Though a bit is still there in their memories that I can't erase." He smiled brightly at us, putting more food on our plates. "I don't see that as bad that I can't alter their memories."
"Then why are they alive?" Stella asked, a slight lag coming from Delusion.
"Why? I have no idea other than they kept living and that's great. If they want to die, anyone really has the power to do that."
"You're saying they want to die?"
"No, I know I do."
"..."
"Things hold you down though. Like curses of having people depend on you. If I were to willingly go out, Kenna wouldn't be waiting for that Āpala. Especially if I killed myself. I have to suffer for my actions as king, and you know what?" He slammed the table. "I'd give that a hundred times over for her. She got to live the life she wanted with me, while I took all the sin." He leaned back. "I didn't inherit any festiveness, I didn't build this house. I don't celebrate holidays, except for my wife's death, birthday, and our marriage, but even then I don't go all out."
"..." Me and Stella shifted nervously at each other.
"It's a terrible way to go out. Though deserving of a crude King."
"Would you have changed anything?" Stella's voice wobbled out, Delusion distorting.
"Hah! Absolutely fucking not! That's something to live by. No matter your wrongs or goods, own it. That might be a divine law of Kalmic. I have to deal with my part in ruining this country and suffer out a festive King's life." He got excited again, and let his mind rip, eventually calming down. "You two Estellé's adven- turers?"
"Yes. recently." we spoke.
"May I ask what your goals are?"
"To protect Heo."
"To surpass any and every person in the world. Melt that damn ice, and be as cool as I can,"
Āpala's face brightened. "Well good luck! Now you must, on the life of the crude King, finish off our ancestor's killer." He slammed the table encouragingly.
Āpala sat across from me. I had felt his entire life's pain a few days ago. In a weird way, I want Āpala to protect and care for Kenna, because I care for her. Now for all the loved. Would I ever feel the way he does, probably not, but Stella will. He's actually a great person, what wrongs really happened from his absence? He didn't willingly hurt anyone even though he was surrounded by hurt.
A bright green beam went through his chest, slamming Āpala on his back on the floor.