A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
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Lord Christopher chuckled even though there was a sword tip underneath his chin. A little line of red appeared above the tip as the sword dug in further. All the water in the room had turned into icicles and were pointing at his body. The furious king of Eldoris was holding his wife in his other arm.
"Calm down, Your Majesty. It is simply a trance spell for me to be able to do what you asked me to do. Probing into one's soul is not easy to do if one is conscious. She will wake up in a few hours."
The king of Eldoris clearly didn't want to believe in his words, his green eyes full of mistrust.
"I swear this upon me that I will not harm the queen. I accepted your deal, haven't I, Your Majesty? I am merely fulfilling the second and far more interesting portion of the deal," Christopher said. "Besides, I gather that you would much rather the queen not know of what you have asked me to do, no?"
"If you hurt her, I will not rest until your body is in pieces," the king growled. His green eyes were ferocious like a beast's. "Don't you ever do that again."
"You have my word," Christopher promised.
Truth to be told, Princess Alana from Kiran had already sent word through the prince of Barinia that she would like to form a partnership with him. But King Perseus' offer had intrigued Christopher more. Both had offered crystal mines, but Christopher's scientific curiosity was piqued at the mention of a soul perhaps inhabiting another. This was the first time that something had changed from his previous lives.
King Perseus lowered his sword, but he maintained his vigilance. The icicles in the air didn't dissipate.
The wizard lord took out his handkerchief and wiped his throat. Tch, Christopher thought. How testy this king was.
Under the king's watchful eyes, Christopher carefully touched the queen's forehead and inserted a bit of his magic and furrowed his brow at what he had found.
If the elder princess of Kiran had another soul switched into her body, then whoever had done this was a great magic wielder. Every soul had different auras. When souls were switched, the imbalance of the souls in the bodies would produce side effects such as nausea and blood vomiting. Eventually, both bodies would decay after a few decades at the longest.
Yet, in this body, every bit of the soul fitted perfectly. The queen was healthy when he probed her soul, albeit a little weak because of the years of abuse the elder Kiran princess had faced.
How strange. The soul fit this body, yet there was an indelible trace of magic. How very interesting.
King Perseus frowned slightly as Christopher told him his findings, leaving out the part about the magic. "So there isn't another soul in there? She's Annabeth for sure?"
"Well, I can assure you that the queen is no puppet, Your Majesty. Either this is truly the former princess Annabeth of Kiran, or whoever placed another soul in her body was able to find a soul so carefully matching to this body. The chances of that are next to nil."
But not impossible.
A myriad of emotions flickered in the king's face, but the one that stood out the most was relief.
Christopher smiled. His answer to the king was not a 100% confirmation or rejection, but just enough words of truth to let the king believe whatever he wanted. Besides, judging by how the king put the queen under his protection meant the king wouldn't have done anything even if the soul in the queen's body was not the real Kiran princess.
An interesting play was at hand. There was only one person whom Christopher felt could have done a soul switching this powerful. But for that person to do so... Then, it was best to let the natural course of things flow than interrupt fate. It wasn't his place to interfere.
The king carefully lifted the queen up and carried her out the door as Christopher bowed them out, watching them leave the tavern from the window.
How many time loops had it been, Christopher thought. For the last twenty years, it felt like he was trapped in this loop over and over. He could be thinking of one thing, but his body would move in the direction that it did not. Words would come out of his mouth even if Christopher didn't want them to. It was as if he was a puppet orchestrated and manipulated by some unknown deity.
Over and over again, he was forced to fight and profess words he did not want to. When Alana died, he would find himself in the past again, reliving the same days without his will. Until one day, the loop appeared to have been broken.
All because of one small variable.
The older princess of Kiran, initially killed on route to Eldoris to her wedding, was alive this time around.
Finally, Christopher felt like he could breathe again, like his life was back in his control. He had carefully done his research in secrecy, hiding from the Kiran royals. In order not to get lost in the time loop again, he had to make sure that Queen Annabeth stayed alive and the one truly responsible behind this mess died.
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When Annabeth woke up, she was back in the king's bedroom. Hold on. It was just last night that she was at the tavern, meeting the third male lead of Clarisse's novel. Then she suddenly grew sleepy and felt her eyes start to close...
Annabeth suddenly sat straight up. What the hell, she thought. Did she faint?
"Are you awake?"
For once, the king was still at her side when she woke up. He looked worriedly over at her.
"Here, have this drink of water. Are you feeling okay?"
Annabeth was still slightly stunned that she obediently drank. "I'm feeling fine. What happened last night?"
There was a flash of anger in the king's face. "A miscalculation," he muttered under his breath. "You exerted yourself a little too much last night. It was my fault. I should not have taken you out to the capital until you were healthier."
Before the king could respond any more, a servant called for him saying that there was urgent business.
The king sighed. "Rest a little more if you feel sleepy. I'm glad that you're feeling better."
After the king left, Annabeth pondered for a moment. How had she gotten back here? Every thing last night was a blur. Don't tell her...did the king carry her all the way back to the palace?
"Lucy, come here please!" Annabeth summoned.
She quickly had Lucy delineate what happened last night, but Lucy didn't appear to know. The king had concealed their escapade from the palaces apparently.
"Your Majesty, we have an important guest who has requested a meeting with you." Lucy continued.
"Guest?" Annabeth frowned.
To her knowledge, there were no such important guests who had arrived at Eldoris palace.
"He arrived late last night when you were asleep, Your Majesty. His Majesty had the guest installed at one of the auxiliary palaces. He apparently has been given his own palace to conduct research for the benefit of Eldoris."
Annabeth had a strange feeling about the guest. Though her memories were blurred, she recalled meeting the third male lead last night, only she couldn't remember what happened afterwards.
"Is the guest named Lord Christopher?"
Lucy clapped her hands. "Oh, you do know the guest, Your Majesty! We were quite worried because of the audacity of the guest to request a meeting with the queen."
This was just as well, Annabeth pondered. Annabeth had some questions to ask the wizard lord anyways.
From her understanding of the novel, dark magic users had the ability to manipulate puppets by controlling their souls. Could the wizard lord have any information regarding souls coming from another world?
Annabeth quickly dressed and rushed through her morning schedule of swordsmanship (with Sir Nico this time as the king had urgent business) and documents to be overlooked. Finally, afternoon came.
Annabeth organized the meeting out in one of her favorite gardens. It was difficult to have all her maids leave her in the room alone with a strange man, so the gazebo made it better to have a conversation fit for only two sets of ears.
Lord Christopher apparently was coming to Eldoris under the pretense of scholarly research. His identity was concealed so he was not a mage from Barinia, but a third son from a poor baron's family.
At last, the third and final male lead approached. Annabeth had studied this man prior last night. Just like the other two male leads, the wizard lord was certainly handsome but in a dark and brooding way with dark hair and dark eyes. The only one to break out of that blonde and blue mold, she thought wryly.
"I greet Your Majesty, Queen Annabeth." The wizard lord bowed.
"Greetings, Lord Christopher," Annabeth said.
"Thank you for making the time to meet with me. I am sure that you have many questions." The wizard lord had a knowing look on his face.
Annabeth glanced at the staff around them. Catching her look, the wizard lord drew a circle in the air with his ring finger. For a brief moment, Annabeth thought she saw the air glimmer with sparkles. Lady Piper looked up, frowning. Annabeth waved her down to reassure her lady-in-waiting. The wizard lord must have used some magic spell.
"It's all right," Lord Christopher said. "I put a simple spell to block out the hearing of others so we may have a more comfortable conversation."
Annabeth sipped on her tea. There were so many questions to ask.
"I heard that dark magic users are able to manipulate the souls of people," Annabeth ventured. "Is this true?"
"Yes, that is true. The more powerful a dark magic user is, the more people one can manipulate as puppets." The lord answered. "But this particular puppetry magic has been forbidden since it is very easy to destroy the ones who are being commandeered as puppets. Fortunately, there are not many dark magic users like me around."
They were lucky that the wizard lord didn't seem to be evil, Annabeth thought. Even in the novel, Lord Christopher rarely used his puppetry magic and only used spells in fighting off the king of Eldoris. It was only after Princess Alana had given herself to the wizard lord and used sultry pillow talk to convince the wizard lord to use puppetry magic combined with her light magic to turn some of King Perseus' knights against the Eldoris kin. Otherwise, the wizard lord had a weird set of principles and morals.
"What about transplanting a soul into another body? Like...a soul from another world?" Annabeth asked.
She knew her words sounded absolutely batshit insane. If Lord Christopher hadn't put up the magical boundary, her words would have passed into the king's ears and she would have been deposed as the queen immediately. Luckily, the wizard lord took her questions seriously as his expression was sober.
"For your first question, that sort of magic is possible. But that magic is of ancient origin. The practice is lost now to us present day mages. Perhaps there are a few people who know how to do so, but I do not know how." Lord Christopher mulled over the queen's next question. "As for another world, are you perhaps speaking of yourself? I have heard of the idea of parallel universes, so perhaps there are indeed worlds that we do not know of out there. Nothing is impossible outside the realm of ancient magic."
Annabeth's grip on her teacup tightened. "How did you know?"
The wizard lord studied her. "There are a few traces of magic on you that I can detect, suggesting that perhaps that there was a soul switch. But the thing is, no matter who you switch souls with, there is always a sense of incompatibility. After all, how can one soul unique to a singular body with different temperaments and personalities fit into another body? Your soul, however, fits perfectly with this body."
She frowned. It was as if the dark magic user was speaking in riddles or Parseltongue for all she could know. "I don't understand."
"Neither do I. I can only tell you what I know."
Annabeth bit her bottom lip. "But how can I go back to my world?"
"Go back? That's an interesting question. I am not sure if you can go back."
Annabeth bit her lips in worry. Did that mean she was trapped in here forever?
"But perhaps the answers you seek can be found in what called you here in the first place." Lord Christopher said gently.
But how the hell could she know that?
"A possibility of why your soul was called out to this body...well, perhaps this current body of yours has been longing for something, and you perfectly fit that call for help. If you fulfill this wish, you might be able to find the answers you seek and go back to your world." Lord Christopher finished.
Annabeth pondered on the wizard lord's words long after the meeting finished, after first making sure the wizard lord would not tell what they had discussed to the Eldoris king.
Fulfill the original body's wish? What did the original Princess Annabeth want?
Annabeth flipped through the original body's memories, starting from the earliest one that she could find. There were the basic memories of being abused and starved. The original princess had wished for the physical abuse and neglect to stop. For the physical and mental pain to go away. To have food in her belly and water to wet her thirst.
All those were filled in Annabeth's current role as queen. So that must not be it. There must be a deeper wish that went beyond the basic needs of fulfillment.
She closed her eyes and browsed through the memories once more, slower this time. As Annabeth viewed them from the original princess' perspective, she noted that there seemed to be a feeling of longing directed towards...
There the original princess was hiding in the shadows as she watched a brunette lady watch over a small blonde girl who looked like the younger version of Princess Alana. A tall man, perhaps the Kiran King, laughed and pulled the girl and the woman into his arms. Then the original princess was secretly looking at Dame Lune who was cooing over her new grandson.
The head cook scolding his son, a sous chef in the kitchen where Princess Annabeth had come down to steal some scraps from the trash bin. The head maid sneaking some extra fruit to her brother, a steward working in the stables.
Family, Annabeth realized. What the original princess wanted was probably something akin to family and love. She wanted to live a long and happy life surrounded by her family.
But how could that work out? Princess Alana and her father wanted to kill her. They could never be the family she wanted.
Sorrow came over her. This poor girl who had never felt affection and love. Who else could be there for her?
"My queen?"
Annabeth's eyes opened from her thoughts to meet the king's gentle smile.
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A/N: If anything is not clear here, let me know, though there are certain things I cannot explain because it would be a spoiler! TLDR: soul switching is possible, we've seen that with Alana and Circe. However the bodies and souls aren't compatible, and if you remember the past chapters, it's been hinted that both Alana and Circe are not physically healthy... Everything else will be clear in the future...
As always, see you all next week!