CHAPTER 156: MAGUS ALICE

Queen Marine and Lady Rose sat at a small round table inside what looked like a private library. Bookshelves surrounded them on every wall, stacked all the way to the ceiling. Sunlight streamed through the tall windows, falling across the wooden floor in warm streaks. Ceramic cups of tea sat steaming beside a small white kettle. Both women sipped their tea like they owned the place, completely relaxed, even though this room was very much not theirs.

A sharp female voice sliced through the peaceful silence.

"What are the two of you doing here?"

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Footsteps echoed as the owner of the voice walked into view. A young girl, no older than fifteen, stepped out from between the shelves, dressed in mage robes. Her black hair was tied into a tight bun and large round spectacles sat on her nose. Even tired, with clear shadows under her eyes, her beauty was impossible to hide. Her expression however was pure irritation.

In truth, she was not a little girl at all. She was a Magus, and the very person Lady Rose and Queen Marine had come to speak with about the abomination issue that Raze had pointed them toward, Magus Alice.

"We just let ourselves in," Lady Rose said calmly, lifting her tea for another sip.

The girl’s face twitched. She growled under her breath.

"Get out. I was in the middle of an experiment. I do not know what the two of you think you’re doing here."

"Oh, come on. Don’t be like that," Lady Rose said. "After all, you are my classmate."

The girl snapped so fast her voice nearly cracked. "Do not say that out loud."

Lady Rose raised a brow. "Why? You don’t want anyone finding out that you are not actually a fifteen year old girl, but an old woman walking around in the body of a fifteen year old girl?"

The Magus glared at her. "It is not like that and you know it. My soul was altered so my physical form no longer ages. That is my expertise, if you have not forgotten."

"It does not matter," Lady Rose said, smiling innocently while twisting the knife. "Under all that, you are still a woman nearing the end of her lifespan. You can change your soul. You can change your appearance. But you cannot change the limit of how long a human can live."

The girl’s eye twitched again. A low growl escaped her as her fingers balled into fists.

"Did you come here looking for trouble, or do you actually have a reason to be here?" Alice asked. Her voice was sharp with irritation, and she did not bother to hide how much Lady Rose was annoying her.

"Oh, calm your horses," Lady Rose said with a lazy wave of her hand.

Queen Marine placed her cup down gently. "I am sure you have heard about the abominations spreading across the kingdom."

"Yup. And that has nothing to do with me," Alice replied flatly.

"Actually, it does," Queen Marine said.

Alice raised a brow and folded her arms, now curious in spite of herself. "And how exactly does a kingdom-wide crisis have anything to do with me?"

"We met someone who linked abominations to souls and curses," Marine said. "Your expertise."

Alice’s eyes flickered at that. She immediately tried to hide her interest behind a scoff. "There is no way that makes sense. Abominations are constructs created when demonic energy takes over a human body and destroys everything. Mind and soul included."

"That is where you are wrong," Lady Rose cut in smoothly. "You are forgetting a fundamental rule. No being can possess characteristics without a soul in some shape or form."

She leaned forward, tapping her finger lightly on the table.

"And we have seen it. Every abomination, no matter how twisted, carries quirks, instincts, fragments of behavior. It means something is still inside. Something we have all overlooked because we assumed it was impossible."

Alice froze. For the first time, true shock crossed her face.

She walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat down immediately. "Tell me more," she said, no longer pretending to be annoyed.

"The person believes that instead of destroying the soul, the demonic energy overwrites it by giving it a new identity," Lady Rose explained.

"That is impossible," Alice said instantly. "The soul follows the law of equivalent exchange. It cannot surrender its identity to mere energy."

Queen Marine chimed in. "Exactly. Which is why if you observe the early stages of infection, the demonic energy does not target the soul first. It changes the body, the structure, the form. It turns the physical vessel into something that convinces the soul it has already changed."

Alice’s lips parted slightly as realization dawned.

Lady Rose continued. "The soul becomes trapped by what it believes is its true form. Everything else follows from there."

As they explained what Raze had told them, Alice’s eyes widened more and more. Her fingers slowly curled into the fabric of her robe. By the time they finished, she looked shaken.

She suddenly shot to her feet.

"I think I have something that relates to this," she said urgently.

"But you said you never heard of this theory," Queen Marine pointed out.

"I have not," Alice replied, already halfway into the shelves, "but there were speculations, ancient ones, fragments of soul theories recorded long before any of us were born. If what you are saying is true, then one of those information might be the key to solving the abomination crisis."

She rummaged through a row of dusty scrolls, muttering under her breath until she found a tightly rolled one near the bottom of an old shelf.

She rushed back to the table and slammed it down.

"This might be the solution we have been looking for," she said with certainty.

But before she unrolled it, she placed her palm firmly on top and looked at both women with sharp, demanding eyes.

"Before I explain what is written here," she said slowly, "I want to know the name of the person who gave you this information."