The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 593: Trionne Knows

Chapter 593: Trionne Knows

Advisor Trionne was thinking exactly the same thing that Dominic was, and she found him in the main room before he could even go out to the Witches’ Coven house.

“Ah, just the man I needed to see. We need to speak privately.”

Dominic nodded. “Indeed we do. This is not natural, and I can’t find the cause. I was going to go get our local witch coven leader to help.”

Advisor Trionne shook her head. “That won’t be necessary, I think that I know the cause, and we just need to work out how we’re going to fix it.”

Dominic led her back into the basement, and then stopped when he noticed something wrong.

“That picture is looking at me.”

Trionne stood behind him and waved, then moved him back and forth.

“You’re right, it is looking at you.” She agreed.

“Well, that seems anticlimactic. We found the issue.”

Trionne laughed. “Oh, young Dragon, you have much to learn. That painting is just a painting. I’m reasonably certain that the reason the eyes are tracking you is because the house is haunted.”

“It wasn’t an issue before.”

“Before, you didn’t have a whole group of Monarchs who were peripherally related to the King of Dagos staying on the premises.”

Dominic sighed. “Wait… you’re saying that the reason they’re all trying to kill each other…”

“Is because they’re all related to the old King. Some are two or three generations removed, but their lineage includes a Princess from Dagos within the old Dragon King’s lifetime.

I think that it is a lingering part of the curse, in a way.”

“What about the guard from Axbridge? I was informed that he was also going into a frenzy along with the Kings.”

Trionne shrugged. “I haven’t looked into it. He might be related somehow. Or he could just be an asshole. Some people don’t need much reason to start throwing hands.”

That last part was said with a meaningful look at him.

“Point taken. Alright. Now, what do we do about it? Relocating the Kings seems like a logical measure, but if we’re going to make Wistover a trade hub, we can’t just exclude every Royal.”

Trionne didn’t answer right away, as she was examining the painting, which was still tracking Dominic through the room.

“I think the issue was that someone got hostile, and that triggered the remnants of the spell. Something like a lingering alert that the Dagos invasion might have restarted.

However, I think that there is a solution for it.

I can make tokens of passage. We usually use them to lock certain areas of the Palace, either for security, or because someone left active zombies in them.

If you give one of them to every Royal you have invited, the revenant should realize that they’re friends.

Then, we just need to wait until the last of the curse fades.”

“And how long will that take?” Dominic asked.

“I don’t know? Not more than about fifty years?

We could try to excise the angry spirits from the Manor, but that seems unlikely. If someone started trying, they would likely just get killed.”

“Why does this sound like a problem that won’t ever really end?”

Trionne laughed. “Because it won’t. I’m not a young woman, and I know a thing or two about blood curses. They don’t end, they just go inactive.

There is a good chance that until the day that the magic is completely gone from Wistover, you will continue to have random flare-ups.

Even the Nobles who got married here risked setting the spell off. I know some of them have Royal lineage, even if it was generations ago.

The difference was that they were intending to either get married and leave, or get married and help rebuild Wistover. Neither of those things would be likely to set off the curse.

However, a group of Kings, each with their own agendas, arguing about trade policy and the recovery plans for Kinewen Province?

That is something that just might have done it.

Oh, look. The painting went back to normal.”

“That’s a good sign. Now, how long will it take you to make those tokens? We can’t have the nations going to war with each other over nothing. Wistover has enough issues without a regicide inside the Manor.”

Trionne laughed. “Live a little. Don’t you want to take back your family’s ancestral territories?”

Dominic rolled his eyes. “As great as that ambition sounds, look at the state everything is in after the last war for the territory.

Even before Kinewen flooded, half the country was destroyed.

Even if I had the manpower to push for an independent nation, would we even have anyone left to live in it by the time that we finished?”

The old woman frowned. “If that’s how you look at it. I still think that you might do well to gather the monster blooded and push for Wavemates to be its own nation again.

The Necromancer King would stand beside you, simply because you are your father’s son.”

She turned toward the image of the Dragon King and his Consort with a young child.

“The others might be in denial, but there is always someone who remembers, and the truth always comes out.

Hell, half the new arrivals have been calling you Prince Dominic anyhow. You can pretend that it’s because you’re married to a Princess, but we all know better. Every Troll and most of the monster blooded sorcerers know on first sight that you have the blood of the Dragon King running through your veins.

He might not be the father who raised you, but he was certainly the one that sired you.”

Dominic nodded. “You’re right. Just look at the painting. Even if he wasn’t my father, we’re nearly clones of each other. There is no way that it’s anything but a close family resemblance.

I don’t think that we should make a big fuss about it, though.

Let the ones with magic come to me, and I will build Wistover into a haven for all of us who were run out of our homes.”