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The man’s features collapsed with emotion, his body twisting again, until before them was an older man, the crown still on his head but his body and face ravaged by grief. “You say her name. Do you know my wife? Is she here?” His eyes—filled with desolation—bounced around.
A king?
Lexa looked at them, then back at Zollah. “Was your wife a goddess?” she asked.
His eyes jumped to Lexa’s. “Where is she?”
“Not in the Netherrealm,” Lexa said. “She’s in Elysian Fields, Zollah.”
“Her parents disowned her. Because of me.” The king cried out, and the disjointed body shifted again, his body and head twisting until the creature stood before them once more. “I will find her,” it chanted over and over. “She will come back to me. The witch said. Transformed!”
“Why is he like this?” Luc asked.
“Necromancy,” she said with disgust.
Both Luc and Nix sucked in a breath.
“He tried to raise her from the dead?” Luc asked.
Lexa nodded. “But that isn’t all. Zollah, I want to talk to the father.”
The creature shifted, its head swirling around and around out of sync with its torso, the pillar rocking with the movement so Luc feared it might topple.
When it stopped, it was on the fourth and final face, a man older than the first, but younger than the king’s face weighted with grief.
“Tell us what you did to your child,” Lexa ordered.
“Azleah?” the man asked.
“That’s the name,” Nix said, his eyes alight with hope.
“I didn’t do anything to her. She is my light. Is she here?” The man looked hopeful, his gray eyes searching. “My pride and joy.”
“What did you do, Zollah?” Lexa asked.
His body and face shifted again to the grief-stricken king. “Where is my wife?”
“Where is your daughter?” Lexa pushed.
“Daughter?” he asked. “I don’t have a daughter. We couldn’t have children.” His face shifted back to the father once more. “She is the spitting image of her mother.” He beamed. “Is she here? Can I see her?”
“What did you do to her, Zollah?”
His body and face shifted again until it was the maniacal creature. “Where is she? She’s mine. You can’t have her. That witch stole her! Alea!” The creature screamed the words, which echoed around them in a horrible pitch that made Luc want to cover his ears, though he refrained, to keep his mouth and nose covered.
Luc watched the creature shift between beings, the man in love, the father, the grieving king, and the creature, and tried to put together Cumbria’s story in the bits and pieces the soul revealed. Though confusing, it was clear that somewhere between being a husband and father, the loss of his wife had pushed Cumbria to mania, and Azleah had suffered.
“He hurt her?” Luc asked quietly to Lexa.
She hummed an affirmation.
“The witch helped you with necromancy?” Nix asked.
“Bitch. Bitch! Liar! Liar!” the creature screamed. “She stole my Alea!”
“What happened to Azleah?”
“There is no Azleah!” the creature screamed.
