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“She’s emulating two people?” Tammy whistles.
“Doubtful.” Demetria shakes her head. “She would only have assumed the identity of one.”
“Clarification please.” Tammy shifts to look at Demetria. “Did Nesanth invade the mind of the character like how dark masters get into the heads of someone who’s been turned into a vampire or did she legit kill them and make a body for herself?”
“She has taken a physical form,” says Demetria. “The person she is pretending to be would have been destroyed first. I suppose she might also have imprisoned them somewhere. It’s unlikely, though. Someone finding or freeing them would be a complication she wouldn’t risk.”
We keep discussing our thoughts on who it might be.
I have two and a half top suspects. It’s either that creepy as heck servant woman at the Teredwyn manor or Meritha. My half suspect is Sansha Galahir. Less that I think it’s her and more a case of if it turns out to be her, I wouldn’t be too surprised. Having had a dark master in my head for some time, my gut tells me Nesanth would prefer to remain female. Sure, it might just be my personal cringe at the thought of being trapped in a male body… but there’s more than that.
More than simply being female, too.
Malin Normund is too obvious. Everyone immediately suspects him of anything bad due to the rumors (which are true) that his family dabbles in ancient magic. If Nesanth is trying to be subtle, she wouldn’t choose the first guy everyone’s going to blame for something going wrong. She’s going to use his reputation as a tool to protect herself, hoping people go after him.
I voice this theory of why I don’t think Malin is Nesanth.
“I’d say she might’ve chosen him because he’d be the first suspect and no one would expect it.” Allison sighs. “Then again, when she chose her form here, she wouldn’t have been planning on anyone from our world chasing her.”
Anthony hurries to finish chewing a mouthful of food. “Allie brings up a good point. Nesanth would not have been aware she needed to conceal herself from us when she started. Our being here is one of those things outside her plan. She chose her form purely to remain hidden from the people who are from here, until she becomes powerful enough to do whatever she wants.”
Tammy rubs her chin. “This means her physical form might still be vulnerable.”
Lindsey glances at Demetria. “Say, you have the power to make the whole city not see us walking down the street. How likely is it some random bad guy could hurt or kill you?”
“Quite unlikely.” Demetria laughs. “I have all my power with me. Nesanth is stuck trying to drag Quentin Arnbury’s soul inside a place it should not go. For now, she is vulnerable.”
“What would happen if someone kills her?” Kingsley stabs his fork into another hunk of meat off the serving platter and moves it to his plate.
Demetria grins. “Her essence would be spat out of this realm back to ours. The hold she managed to gain on Quentin would break. Unless the poor man ends up once again being abducted by someone like Elizabeth, she would not be able to burrow into his mind again.”
“What does that have to do with it?” asks Lindsey.
For a moment, Demetria appears ready to sigh in exasperation. She doesn’t, though. Guess she knows Lindsey has no idea who Elizabeth was. “Dark masters cannot simply invade the minds of ordinary, healthy mortals. They must be at the brink of death or a similar state. Having one’s soul temporarily displaced from one’s body—as Elizabeth did to Quentin when she abducted him—gave Nesanth just enough of an opening to slip inside.”
“She was part of Elizabeth’s, umm… team?” I ask.
“No. We merely happened to be there. Curiosity, you see.” Demetria winks at me. “I saw the way the wind blew when you arrived, so took my leave. Nesanth decided to remain. Elizabeth gave her the idea, you see. It’s much easier to take control of a reality where one has an easy path to the powers of a goddess than the world we are from.”
“Right.” I frown.
We continue hashing this out. Unlikely suspects include House Mur who has no real reason to want the crown, House Teredwyn who is seen as cowardly and also claims not to want the crown, and Anvar Londuin. The man freely admitted to wanting to see the other houses destroyed. Unfortunately, when he told us about his plans and said he hadn’t gotten the chance to do anything yet before Nesanth got started… he seemed believable. For whatever my skills are worth after a few decades at this, I don’t think he lied. If we exclude Anvar from the suspect list, that leaves Mur or Teredwyn as the ‘least likely’ to stir up trouble as far as the people in this world would think.
As Anthony said, Nesanth would have been entirely focused on hiding from the people in this world.
“Thae?” asks Tammy. “What if Allison is right? Could Nesanth have replaced the kid?”
Allison pouts. “I really hope not.”
“Not likely.” Demetria waves dismissively. “Too prominent a figure. Too much attention on her. She’d waste too much time trying to keep up with all the work of running a kingdom, so she wouldn’t have the time to see about taking over the world. Also, a child lacks the autonomy necessary for her purposes. Appearing so small would complicate going anywhere alone or staying up past dark.”
Anthony chuckles.
Demetria leans forward, eyes flaring wider like a young girl eager to scare her friends with a ghost story. “There may be an opportunity soon to do what you suggest, my good wolf.”
Kingsley pauses chewing to shift his gaze to her. “Oh?”
“To create a situation or catch her in a conversation she is not expecting or one where she will be forced to make an error.” Demetria laces her fingers together in her lap. “I’m not entirely sure what sort of situation to come up with, alas. However, the opportunity to do it will present itself in two days. Sansha and Elden Galahir are throwing a grand gala. Everyone of importance will be there, creating the perfect opportunity for assassins—as well as yourselves.”
