Something moved in her peripheral vision. Waving Dylan back, she sidled toward the doors. Though the sensation of foreboding increased with each step, so did her confidence. Hollow laughter echoed from the depths, the perennial gloom in the house augmented by a heavily tinted windows and chaotic architectural design. Aislinn paused, sensing a strong and sudden presence.
"So you brought me the prize, as I knew you would," Shakan said.
Aislinn turned and stared balefully at him. "I've brought you nothing but the justice you deserve."
Standing amidst the shadows he laughed, the sound an unpleasant echo that only augmented the demonic cast to his face. His eyes, fixed on the skull, blazed with a peculiar intensity reminiscent of a rabid dog. Aislinn studied her adversary. Dressed in ceremonial garb, the archaic style was one she recalled seeing at the overlap. The glint of gemstones drew her attention to the hilt of the dagger. Shakan's fingers absently caressed the weapon.
"You reek of blood," she said.
"Better it should be yours," he said, his hand a blur as he tossed the dagger at her.
Aislinn felt herself violently pushed out of the way, her feet gliding above the floor. The dagger whistled by harmlessly and embedded itself into the somber wood-paneled wall behind her. Whirling around, she confronted a charging Shakan, but the face did not belong to the man she had seen a moment ago. Contorted into a hate-filled mask, the features ran like melted wax merging those of Shakan and Jhanvar until a diabolical mutation ensued. Around him, a foul miasma formed and undulated toward her. Soupy tendrils oozed and contracted, the phantom images of hands forming into misshapen claws. From it bellowed an unearthly voice sounding more like the cry of an enraged animal. The air around her grew heavy, tainted by the reek of ozone and rotting flesh. Glass shattered from an unseen location. Infernal eyes bore into her, willing her into obeisance.
Shutting her eyes, she focused on a mental point of light that flared like a torch. At that moment, a solar brilliance erupted from the skull and flooded the room. The miasma recoiled with a terrible groan and funneled through the walls. Shakan gasped and shielded his eyes. Unaffected, Aislinn calmly regarded him. An unspeakable darkness whispered from his mind before it vanished behind an impenetrable wall. Though she sensed its taunt, somehow, she could not pursue it.
Mindflux...
The word materialized from another place. When she focused once more on Shakan, the wall relinquished slightly, allowing her glimpses of terrible, fleeting images moving through a dense fog. At once, she understood the nature of Shakan's successful insinuation into the royal household, the mindflux undoubtedly a gift from Jhanvar. Against the royals there could not have been a more effective and simple defense.
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