Magical Soul Parade - Chapter 335: Rumblings

Chapter 335: Rumblings

While it was somewhat logical for the council to have doubts about the identity and loyalty of Isis because her brother was a member of the Harvester Cult, Micah knew that line of thinking was utter nonsense.

Everyone seated on those high podiums had access to records about them already. They had dug up enough information to know exactly how much Isis detested the man who shared her blood. They knew the history of the Perosperone family and the vicious massacre that had been carried out by the very brother they were now trying to link her to.

Micah felt a surge of sympathy for his student. He knew the memories of that night still haunted her, and being grilled about it in this cold and dark tribunal was like reopening a wound.

His thoughts started to spiral into a darker place as he considered the unfairness of it all but he was pulled back to the present when the young woman on the council spoke.

“That is too harsh, Sanguis,” she said. Her voice was surprisingly melodic but it carried a sharp edge that cut through the silence of the room. “You slight the girl without cause. Her history is well documented and her actions since joining the school have been beyond reproach.”

Preceptor Sanguis, the old man with the braided hair, grunted in response. He did not look pleased to be corrected by someone so much younger than himself, but he retreated into his seat and folded his arms, saying nothing more.

The woman then turned her attention to Micah. Her eyes were sharp and seemed to see through his calm facade.

“And you. You are not her mouthpiece,” she said. “Be warned, Micah Fugger. You shall speak only when you are spoken to. Your student can answer for herself when the time comes.”

She said the words calmly and did not use any trace of soul pressure to intimidate him. However, Micah still felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he met her eyes. There was a hidden depth in her gaze that suggested she was much more powerful than her appearance suggested.

He nodded curtly in response, swallowing stiffly as he reined in whatever was left of his usual over-exuberance.

“Micah Fugger. Recount everything that took place three months ago, specifically between the fifteenth and the twenty-seventh,” the woman ordered.

Three months ago on the fifteenth?

Micah’s face was plain, but internally he was slightly confused.

Wasn’t that the day I met the Slade family heir? Finn? Is he their goal?

Micah began his narration. He started with the initial meeting and described the circumstances of their encounter in great detail. He made sure not to leave out a single scrap of information because he knew these people would catch any inconsistency. The woman was especially thorough and she stopped him frequently to ask questions in the middle of his story.

She asked him about his thoughts. His motives for acting in a certain way based on what he described. What he thought about Finn in those moments. She even employed lie detection tactics that he recognized immediately — stopping him midway through a sentence and asking about something he had said ten minutes ago, trying to make him trip on his own words or reveal a contradiction.

It all struck Micah as incredibly odd. Finn was a talented boy, certainly, but the council was treating him as if he were a threat to the stability of the entire continent. The woman was being far too thorough for an investigation into someone who was supposed to be a mere Grade 3 Initiate.

Or is it Grade 2 now? He was taking the Grade 2 test before the Unraveling Incident occurred, Micah thought.

He continued to narrate all he knew, describing everything up to the point of the Unraveling Incident itself. And by the time he was done, his throat was dry and he was parched for water.

Thankfully, that was provided quickly. But once he finished his narration, the council started with Isis immediately.

They’re questioning her too? What’s the use of that?

Micah was flabbergasted. He had just spent hours narrating a chronological series of events. If he had lied about any point at all, Isis had been sitting right there to hear it. She would know exactly which lies to maintain. Putting her through the same round of questioning seemed like a massive waste of time unless they were looking for something very specific that only she could provide.

While Micah was stumped, he remained silent. He knew better than to interrupt again. He sat in his chair and watched as Isis was put through the same ringer. She answered the questions in a low and steady voice, her head still hung low as she navigated the minefield of the council’s inquiries.

Another hour passed, and then another, until finally, the questioning was finished. Micah, Isis, and Yvonne were left alone in the center of the step-down room while the council members leaned toward each other and discussed their findings in hushed whispers.

The wait was agonizing. Micah felt his leg twitching with a nervous energy that he couldn’t quite suppress. He looked at Yvonne, who remained as stoic as ever, her face showing nothing of the fatigue she must have been feeling. Isis looked like she was on the verge of collapsing from the mental strain.

Finally, after an hour of silence, the young woman stood up from her seat. She did not spare any of them a glance as she smoothed out her robes.

“Thank you,” she said. “You may leave now.”

“What?” Micah muttered in surprise. “We should just leave? That is it?”

There was no explanation provided. No reason was given for the summons and no one on the council deemed it necessary to give them any clarification as to why Finn had been the focus of the interrogation.

Micah was no stranger to the hierarchy of the Ossuary or the way information was compartmentalized, but experiencing it like this left a sour taste in his mouth. They had been grilled like criminals for half a day only to be tossed out like trash.

“Let’s just go, Micah,” Isis said quietly. She touched his arm to get his attention. “I want to be out of this hole.”

Micah breathed out deeply and then nodded. He followed after Yvonne and Isis, who were both very eager to leave the chamber. They walked back across the metal bridge and climbed the ridge staircase. In minutes, they were back outside the chasm, standing in the open air of the land above, with the deep blackness of the Soul Sanctum behind them.

Micah watched the Grade 1 Caretaker who had escorted them retreat back down the stairs. The man had been tasked with ensuring they left the Sanctum grounds fully, and he didn’t look back once.

“Well, that just makes me feel like absolute shit,” Micah said as he kicked a loose stone over the edge of the hole. “They bring us all the way here, grill us for hours, and then send us on our way without a single word of thanks or a hint of an explanation. We don’t even know which direction we’re supposed to be heading in this place.”

“East,” Isis responded immediately. “I remember the way clearly. I was brought through the tear from the east.”

“I was brought from the same direction,” Yvonne added. They both looked at Micah with flat, unimpressed expressions.

“Tch! You guys won’t even let me have a proper rant,” Micah grumbled.

He didn’t waste any more time. He summoned his Great Hawk soul mass — Freddy, and the massive bird materialized in an instant. Micah climbed onto the hawk’s back and Isis followed. Even Yvonne, who usually preferred to use her own mount, climbed on behind her.

“To conserve soul energy,” Yvonne said quickly before Micah could make a comment. “The journey ahead is long. Your soul strength may not suffice to carry us all the way back to the mainland.”

Micah hissed and continued to grumble under his breath. He muttered something along the lines of “The Ossuary” and “how they could’ve just assigned a Grade 1 to help us.”

He took off into the sky regardless, settling into comfortable silence along with the two ladies. The rush of the wind was the only sound as they flew over the broken landscape of the world tear. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts. Micah had tried to lighten the mood with a few jokes earlier, but the reality of their situation was too heavy to ignore.

Something had happened with Finn. Something big enough that the highest levels of the Ossuary were monitoring his every move and questioning everyone who had ever stood near him.