Kyon was escorted to his chambers on the top floor of the palace – a luxurious spacious room, which, however, looked like a prison cell: the door was locked, there were no windows, and powerful barriers for various purposes were imposed around.
Lovr was lying on a large and soft bed, realizing that Valeera was chained up somewhere in the bowels of the palace. He thought about it with pain in his heart. Every day, his wife is tortured and tormented in every possible way to get valuable information, but she stoically endures it. Hold on, girl, your husband will definitely save you! Any consequences of torture will be corrected by Synergy. The main thing is to hold on.
Just an hour later, a servant in a gray mask came in and escorted "The Dark Baron" to the throne room: a spacious room entirely decorated with white marble. The first thing that caught the eye were the cyclopean columns decorated with elaborate carvings. Magnificent statues decorated the walls of the hall. A long carpet stretched in a bright scarlet path from the entrance to a luxurious throne worthy of the monarch of an entire empire.
Lanatelle sat on the throne, elegantly crossed her legs. She was wearing an exquisite imperial outfit in red and white tones. Ten steps away from her, five people prostrated themselves, banging their foreheads on the floor: Feng, Julius, Vladimir, Monty and Horace. Recently, they were taken away from business by an urgent order. They did not dare to hesitate for a second and immediately, without notifying anyone, rushed to the palace.
Kyon was brought to the woman, but he did not kneel down.
«Raise your heads.» – Lanatelle ordered.
Each of the five most powerful people in Rosarrio obeyed the order. There was reverence, fear and submission in their eyes. They were in awe of the person who led the empire, consisting of 7 kingdoms and the capital - Dantes.
«Today you will witness my oath to "The Dark Baron".»
The five people looked at the man dumbfounded.
«I, Lanatelle Russell, give the imperial oath…» – rising and placing her hand on her heart, the empress loudly and clearly pronounced all that she had promised Zosimos during their negotiations. The woman could not get what she wanted by any other method. Spiritual attack, torture, subordinate formation and even threats will not work on Zosimos, which means she has no choice. Moreover, he said that if she insults him, he will not purify anything for her on principle. She didn't dare take that risk.
Two great masters, two patriarchs and the Minister of Finance froze like idols. Do they really see it all? Is the bloody empress really swearing an oath to Dantes' most wanted criminal?! Is it about purifying the keys?!
At the end of the oath, Lanatelle sat down on the throne and looked expressively at Zosimos.
«Thank you very much, your majesty.» – Kyon bowed. – «However, I must make sure that in the next hour they will not accept the medicine of oblivion, otherwise the oath voiced by you will remain only between us. You don't mind, do you?»
{He is crossing the line!} – the silver eyes of the empress shone dangerously, but she is not one of those people who commit unforgivable stupidities on emotions, so the woman waved her hand and gave the order. – «Servants, escort everyone to the guest hall. Bring Zosimos to me in an hour.»
«Thank you.» – Kyon bowed again and left the throne room.
A whole hour of unfriendly conversation with the 5th authorities of the empire was inevitable for Lovr. It's funny that under his other identities, he blackmailed two of them, and he trains the other two in the order as his students, and slowly and thoughtfully poisons the son of the remaining one.
When the allotted time came to an end, Kyon was taken to the chambers of the empress. There was no excessive luxury or decorative pieces of furniture inside. Only an oval full-length mirror and a huge bed with a red canopy. Had there ever been a man in these chambers who did not serve her?
Lanatelle, sitting on the bed, met the newcomer with a cold look and threw off her silver robe, exposing her elegant slender body. Only her underwear hid some parts of her body. A medallion hung around the woman's neck, which was a kind of box, in which something valuable was probably sealed.
«Come on.» – the empress said.
Kyon coughed dryly: «Your majesty, you didn't have to undress… I can purify the keys through your clothes…» – he was worried that he would have to regret what he saw.
«Don't make me repeat it.» – Lanatelle said more sternly.
Lovr cleared his throat: «First of all, tell me, what is your flow?»
«Five hundred and fifty.»
Kyon nodded, walked over to the woman and, reaching out his hand, touched her belly. His fingers were strangely numb and trembled from contact with the delicate pale skin of the empress.
Lanatelle couldn't remember the last time someone touched her. Two hours ago, she would never have believed that some pathetic criminal would touch her.
Kyon became nervous under the cruel, icy gaze of the tyrant, who seemed to be looking straight into the soul. He hadn't felt such emotional pressure in a long time.
He tried to infuse Synergy, but it didn't work, so he asked: «Your majesty, please ease your resistance, otherwise I won't be able to do anything.»
Lanatelle fulfilled the request.
Lovr started purifying and soon found out that he would be able to purify the key at best by 3% at a time, after which he would have to wait for the full restoration of Synergy. Considering the amount of purity of all her keys, it will take almost a week to completely purify them!
{Damn…} – Kyon swore to himself, worrying that if he didn't pour Synergy into his daughters for a whole week to delay the return of memory, they would remember everything.
After finishing his work, Lovr pretended that he suddenly became weak and even turned slightly pale: «Done… I will be able to continue only in an hour, and I will rest between sessions…»
Lanatelle checked the purity of her key, and the result pleasantly surprised her. She said the following in an unusually soft tone for her: «Have a rest. We'll do it again in an hour.» – she was planning to check if she really got stronger, but suddenly remembered something and added. – «Wait. Come to me.»
As the man approached, the empress removed the submission formation from his forehead.
«Thank you.» – Kyon bowed slightly and left, accompanied by the servants, to his chambers.
An hour later it happened again… Then again and again… Even late at night, the servants woke him up and took him to her chambers every hour to purify the keys for the half-naked empress. The severity and wariness in the woman's gaze were replaced by a thoughtful detachment.
Half an hour after the next purifying session, Kyon secretly took out a strange device from the ring and pressed the button. An unintelligible hiss was heard. He walked around the room, but, again, nothing changed.
{It doesn't work…} – Lovr summed up dejectedly. He just tried to contact Eve and Leila via radio. Earlier, having visited the department, he found out that it was stupid to rely only on the spatial attribute, so with the help of dwarfs, he made a primitive walkie-talkie in order to contact his daughters in case of anything. However, the palace barriers turned out to be so powerful that even a radio signal does not pass through them. It turns out that he can only rely on the honesty of Lanatelle.
…
14 hours earlier.
«A-a-a-aa-a-aa!» – after a piercing squeal, Leila ran out of the restroom. There was panic on her face.
«What happened?» – Eve asked with a yawn, rubbing her eyes sleepily, getting out of bed.
«I can't enter the game! It isn't working!»
Usually, after activating the nephrite, a screen appears, with the help of which the girls choose what to do: play, watch movies, listen to music, complete some tasks or do homework. All this is possible thanks to the Synergy coming from Kyon to the nephrite.
«Isn't it working?» – frowning, Eve took out the nephrite, but the screen didn't light up.
«You see, it isn't working?! What the heck?! Stupid dad, I'm going to complain!» – she took out the sound transmitter and called Zosimos, but the connection was not established.
«How strange… He always answers…» – Eve suspected something was wrong, she took out the walkie-talkie that her father had taught her to use, and tried to establish a connection, but to no avail.
«What the hell?! How dare he treat us like that?! It's outrageous!»
«Come to your senses, you fool! Dad may be in trouble, and you're outraged!»
Leila instantly became serious. If the sister is so worried, then something extraordinary has happened: «We need to look into the situation. Where do we start, sis?»
«First, let's find out when he left…»
The investigation dragged on for several hours, but yielded nothing. The servants do not know anything, the sound transmitter does not work, he is not in the training place… The girls could only look for their father at work – at the headquarters.
«I don't remember dad giving the address of the headquarters… Sis, you have a good memory, maybe you remembered the way?» – Leila asked hopefully.
«I'm not sure, but it's worth a try…»
Wearing veils, the girls left the mansion despite the prohibition of their father. First, they found the Garden of Eden hotel, and from there, remembering the route together, they moved in the right direction. They even managed to get to the right area, but all the buildings in it were the same, and it was not possible to find out in which basement the secret entrance to the headquarters was located. The search for the entrance continued until late at night.
Leila grimly clutched her head: «It's useless… All the houses look the same! We don't even know how to open the secret passage! Sis, what are we going to do?»
«It's already late… Now we will return home, and at dawn we will continue the search.»
The next day, the girls continued to look for the man. The mood was terrible, the anxiety only intensified. If some kind of misfortune happened to the father, then how can they live then? Just thinking about it made the sisters' hearts break. They didn't stop searching.
«What if we try to find the headquarters by scanning?» – suggested Leila.
«We can't… Dad forbade it, because the bloody empress will feel us.»
«So we can scan in the opposite direction from the palace!»
«Leila… You are a genius!» – Eve enthusiastically kissed her sister on the cheek.
The sisters began to search, carefully choosing the angle of scanning. By late at night they found the basement, behind the wall of which there was a secret tunnel. They broke the wall and headed forward. The joy passed quickly. The girls' hearts were pounding excitedly. Finally, they got to the headquarters… But there was no one there. No one.
The girls looked at each other and began to look for at least some evidence, but to no avail…
After many hours of unsuccessful searches, Leila slid down the wall, hugged her knees and, with tears welling up in her eyes, stammered in a trembling voice: «Dad, where did you go? Please, just give me a hint… We've been looking for headquarters for so long, but you're not here… I'm worried… I want to see you at least once more, dad!»
Being emotionally exhausted, the sisters fell asleep right on the chairs in the dark cold headquarters.
A few hours later, in the early morning, they woke up from a throbbing headache and continued their desperate search. The headquarters is the only place where they can find at least some clue. They clung to this hope with all their might.
Due to the lack of any results, something pressed on the hearts of the girls more and more. Eve felt physically and mentally broken. The mere thought that her father could have been killed brought tears to her eyes, and all her strength left her body. Leila even whined softly and began to cry, but soon wiped her tears and continued her search. With her strong-willed disposition, she motivated her sister not to succumb to weakness. They need to find dad!
By nightfall, the headache had tormented the girls so much that they could not do anything.
«My head… I can't stand it anymore!» – pressing her fingers to her temples, Leila poured pure energy through them. The ruthless flow of energy instantly swept away all the formations imposed on her, but the pain was abruptly dulled. And suddenly everything began to seem somehow different. Her attitude towards the situation changed for no apparent reason.
Exactly the same thing happened to Eve. Now her sister did not seem to be a dear and close person to her, her appearance inspired vague wariness and anxiety.
«Let's continue.» – Leila suggested dryly.
«I agree.» – Eve nodded and went to examine one of the secret passages.
But after two hours of searching, the girls did not even notice that they were distracted again.
The next day, the fourth since their father's disappearance, the headache was replaced by a disgusting itch, as if something was swarming deep inside the brain, trying to gnaw its way out. Or, rather, it would be more accurate to say, it was scratching the wall holding something back.
At first, the itching did not prevent the girls from searching, but gradually it intensified, and by the evening it became unbearable. The sensations were only intensified by the infusion of pure energy. When trying to focus on the source of the pain, in order to understand what was its cause, strange images from the past appeared, and the itching only intensified.
«I think the memories are coming back to us…» – Eve said, holding her head.
«Apparently…» – Leila agreed with a groan.
The next day the symptoms changed: it was as if someone was inflating balloons inside their heads, which pressed on their brains. This sensation did not seem painful, but it provoked nausea and dizziness, and also greatly affected the mood.
The girls could not look at the world with the same eyes. Something irrevocably changed. Their former infantilism disappeared, and anxiety about their father partially faded for no reason. Now, when looking at each other, it seemed to each of them that this was not a well-known sister, but a stranger, from whom something elusively dangerous emanated.
«Leila, I think we should part ways… I do not know how to explain it, but it seems to me that it is better for us not to see each other when the memories begin to return.»
«A good idea.» – the girl agreed. – «When we remember everything, let's keep the promise we made to our father and not fight, no matter how much we hated each other in the past. He wouldn't want us to fight.»
«Let's do that.» – Eve smiled weakly.
Leila bumped fists with her sister at parting, after which they parted.
The sisters spent the night in private houses, slightly threatening the residents there with pressure.
The evening of the next day. The inevitable was coming. Something was cracking loudly in the minds of the sisters more and more often, shaking everything and causing an inhuman headache. The dam holding back over 320 years of memories is about to burst…
Everything swam and swirled in the eyes of the girls after another crack. Being in different places of Dantes, they simultaneously fell to their knees, clutched their aching heads and screamed shrilly. Their souls seemed about to turn inside out, and at that moment a stormy stream of memories flooded into their minds.. An invisible energy flash marked the awakening of the heads of the Dance and Virgo sects from a long oblivion.
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