<~> Chapter 130The lingering miasma was faint on the sed floor now. There were a few more of the faceless shadow demons in the servis but most of them had been trated in the ballroom. It wasn't long before the miasma had thio ambient levels, what was left now was ing from the other floors of the castle. It did strike me as odd that there was so much miasma here. Despite the number of demons we killed there was still a lot, the only time I had felt this much miasma in one pce was ihe midnight castle dungeon.

  We also came across the castle's private library but after a quick sweep for monsters, we didn't spend any time in there. The guard captain was keen on reminding everyone, including the guards, that reading any of the books in the library wasn't allowed and taking any of the books would be sidered stealing. It seemed like he wao say it in a roundabout way without directly implying any of us would steal anything. It was a bit disappointing that I wouldn't be able to skim the books but it wasn't like we had the time to explore the library's colle anyway.

  Eventually, we came to the end of the castle's sed floor. Here there was a stair to the third floor as well as a passage that led all the way down to the basement, bypassing the first floor pletely. On our approach, Jasper immediately ordered his men to block off the door while we explored the st of the above-ground floors as we had discussed earlier.

  I was with the captain ihird group they sent up the stairs and it only took me a moment to realize that nearly all of the miasma oire floor was trated in one spot. There was nothing of note in our immediate area and the guards who had e up first had already started sweeping the area.

  "Jasper." I tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

  He quickly gnced over to me before bringing his attention back to the hallways in front of us. "Yes, do you sense something Lilith?" He tio s our surroundings, staying on guard.

  I nodded. "Most of the demonic miasma is trated in one spot up ahead. I 't see it from here but it's down that hallway and to the left."

  A grimace settled on the man's face. "That's the dire of the Baron's office. I was hoping we would be able to recover his remains but that may not be possible."

  I scratched the base of my horn, unsure of how to respond. "Well, the miasma is less trated here, we shouldn't have to deal with as many other enemies. At least not to the same extent as the other floors."

  "That's good to hear, thank you fing this to my attention."

  "Would it be alright if I participate in clearing that final room?"

  He turoward me and looked me up and down. "You seem like you handle yourself but the priest told me to keep you out of harm's way. You weren't inteo be included in bat at all."

  "Well, it's a little te for that. We already had to fight the shadow fme behemoth together and I did prove helpful there, didn't I?"

  The guard captain turned away from me, watg his men carefully enter ea. There were some sounds of fighting here and there but the well-anized guardsmen didn't have any trouble killing the stray faceless shadows that hid inside.

  He sighed. "Very well, you be near the front when we eh whatever is in the room. Your experience may prove helpful, just stay out of the fighting directly unless you are forced to. Whatever is in that room, I would prefer my guards take care of it. The behemoth was likely the biggest thing will fight here but that doesn't mean it is automatically the stro."

  "Uood. Thank you guard captain," I replied.

  He moved ahead of me to check more closely on the room. I turned and saw my party members gathered together waiting for me.

  Silva raised an eyebrow. "So?"

  "There's a lot of miasma he Baron's study, Jasper agreed to let me be he area when they fight whatever's inside," I said.

  She nodded. "So, where he died then. Sera and I were on the sed floor wheack started. I brought her to his office just as he was killed."

  My brow furrowed. "You were all the here during the attack? How did you escape?"

  "I fought a few of them on the way to his study. After we saw him die, we left through a hidden escape in the basement, past the dungeons. We didn't o gh the ballroom or the castle gate to get out. It's the only reason we were able to evade so many of them." Her face had gotten dark, putting herself ba the memory.

  "Silva, you and Torien should stay near me whe to the office. I want you to see if you find anyth-"

  There was suddenly a scream from one of the rooms that brought a bunch of the guards running over. It didn't share the same pitch as the banshees we fought and it was soon clear why.

  "Survivor!" one of the guards yelled out.

  From one of the rooms, a young deerfolk woman wearing a maid-like servant's outfit was carried over troup to receive healing. The woman looked fairly simir to Bel, though she had darker fur and fewer spots on her coat. She looked severely malnourished and looked very anxious being carried over. One of her legs looked broken based on how it was hanging and she had a bck bitemark on the same leg. She probably wouldn't have made it much longer if we hadn't found her now.

  "It's okay. I'm a healer, we're here to help you." Bel tried to soothe the woman as she was set down in front of us. But when she saw Silva she jerked and tried tle out of Bel's grasp.

  For her part, Silva just looked fused by the rea. "Matilda? Is that you? Are you alright?"

  The deer woman froze i the words before looking around again, rexing slightly. "I- I've been trapped here sihe attack. I ran out of food but there were monsters roaming the halls..."

  Bel gripped her scepter and pced a hand on the woman's leg. "Don't worry, we get you some food and escort you out but let me heal you first. I want to patch up that leg and make sure you don't carry any diseases."

  "Okay..." she replied in a weak voice.

  Green motes of light flowed from Bel's scepter and into her hand before flowing into the young deerfolk. Bel's expression suddenly ged from one of passion to fusion before settling into a professional mask that was very unlike her. The magic took a while to work but the bones in the woman's leg eventually snapped bato pce.

  Bel tapped on the woman's shoulder to get her attention again. "I'm sorry but the part is going to hurt. I'm going to o burn away the diseased flesh near your wound before I heal it properly. Please bear with it."

  The womaantly nodded befripping the remains of her dress. The wound started to make a sizzling sound and the woman cried out in pain. Slowly the bed skin burned away leaving angry red flesh underh. Once all of the bed skin was go slowly started to knit together once again but it left a nasty scar where the bite had been.

  With a gasp Bel pulled away, she looked worn out and exhausted. That... kind of fused me though. I've seen her heal worse wounds before much more quickly and with less exertion. Something was wrong, Bel was ag strange.

  Bel took a deep breath before pulling away. "That's all I do for now, perhaps you get more healing once we take you from the castle."

  The deer girl nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. Bel quickly stepped away befiving me a look and stepping away from the rest of the group. I gnced over at them. Other than Mimi, they hadn't noticed Bel's weird behavior, they started to ask the deer womaions about what happened while we slipped away. The woman visibly shrunk away from Silva every time she spoke. She was deathly afraid of Silva for some reason.

  Mimi and I took some distand walked over to Bel. I expected Mimi to suddenly hug her as soon as we got close, like she usually did, but instead, she stood protectively between us and the rest of roup.

  "Bel, what's wrong?" I whispered.

  She looked over before turning bad speaking through our bond. -- "Lilith, did you check her karma?" --

  I hadn't. There didn't seem to be a o but since she brought it up... ive 2680... What?

  Bel looked at me knowingly. -- "She has the lowest karma out of anyone I've ever tried to heal. Because of the trait I received when I became a succubus, I heal people better and more effitly the stroheir karma. She has ive 2680. It was like my magic was actively resisting me. I don't know what she's do something is really wrong. I didn't stop healing her but we o be careful." --

  I looked back over to the deer woman who was still being questioned by my friends. -- "She seems to be afraid of Silva and they seem to know each other. Silva doesn't look hostile though, it looks one-sided." --

  -- "You don't remember?" --

  I turned back to her. -- "Remember what?" --

  -- "Matilda is the name of the deer beastfolk Fae told me to keep a for. This woman is why Fae was so attached to me." --

  My eyes widened. Right! -- "I totally fot about that to be ho. With everything going on the name slipped my mind. I was so surprised we found a survivor at all, I didn't sider who she may be." --

  Bel nodded. -- "Right, but now what do we do? Her karma is so low that surely she has to have had some part ia the castle right?" --

  I scratched the base of my horn as I sidered the question. -- "...Teically that isn't true but it seems very likely. I'm not sure how her karma could be so low otherwise. I don't see a servant having many opportuo lower it so much, unless she's some kind of prolific serial killer. And based on the feeling I get from her level, she's much lower than us, making that sario basically impossible." --

  -- "Is it possible she let them in somehow? Letting her get partial 'credit' from every person the demons killed?" -- Bel asked.

  -- "Maybe." --

  Torien noticed the three of us standing away from the rest of them and came over. "Is something wrong?" she spoke quietly.

  I looked at Bel before deg to tell Torien. "We think Matilda was involved with the attack."

  Torien's eyes widened and she turned back to look at the deer girl. "What? Why would you think that?"

  "Don't look at her while we talk, she might cat. A lot of the abilities succubi share are reted to something called karma. You think of karma as a pseudo-stat that is determined by all of yood deeds subtracted by your bad deeds. Her stat is ive and by a substantial amount, meaning she's done something or multiple things that are very bad. Bel first noticed because her healing is improved by positive karma and the magic was fighting her when she was trying to heal the woman."

  Torien's face turned grim. "How reliable is this stat? How much you trust it?"

  "I think it's reliable enough to say that she's done some very bad things. I 't be sure that it's reted to this event but I find it likely based on how strong she is. She also has to have done something without getting any direct experience from it. I 't think of many things that would lower her karma so drastically without killing other people but I suppose it's possible. She's also seems to really afraid of Silva."

  "I noticed that too. Silva asked her about it but she didn't say anything. I had assumed it was for a simir reason as Fae but I'm not as sure about that now." Torien scratched her .

  The woman had passed out and was now sleeping with Silva and Man watg over her. The guards were finishing up in the area and it looked like Jasper reparing to move on soon.

  "We'll keep it in mind. For now I don't think she's a threat. We'll have to question her about it ter. We should keep this from the guards though, I don't knoe would expin our suspis to them... Maybe I wouldn't mind talking to Nathaniel about it. Do you mind filling ihers when it's safe?"

  Torien nodded. "Of course."

  "I'll see if I get one of the guards to take her somewhere safer than the floor in the middle of the hallway." We walked back over to the rest of roup. I could see the questioning look in Silva's eyes but she didn't express it.

  I took one more look at the sleeping doe on the floor. -2680

  Saine

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