Chapter 39: Incident?

The party continue to walk through the deserted streets that feel both familiar yet alien at the same time, until eventually they made it to the center of the city where they were greeted with what must have been a crowd containing every resident of the city standing around. Unable to see anything more from their current location the party attempted to get closer to the square from the other roads that lead towards it, each time the same thing happened they were unable to see what had made everyone gather in such a large crowd around the central square. After exhausting all of the ground routes the party finally relented and found their way onto a nearby rooftop to observe the commotion from above, once they found their sightline all they saw was a collection of seemingly unrelated people standing around in the middle of the square. None of the people moving or doing much of anything for that matter, they were just standing there. Just as the party were going to leave Ami noticed that the coachman’s daughter was among those in the center of the square with the coachman nowhere to be seen nearby, as they noticed that fact one of the males in the central group started to speak.

“People the Dark King is not your enemy; in fact they are your friend against the rule of tyranny that the three city ruling families have fallen into. Join the cause against the tyrannical rulers that oppress you all, join the Dark Kings freedom march today.”

The gathered crowd started talking to themselves creating a low mumbling sound across the square, before most of the gathered crowd decided to return to their homes or their work, as the mysterious mans words fell on ears that did not agree in any way with what was being told to them. The thinner remaining audience were most likely made up of a mixture of people that knew those now acting strangely, a small proportion of people that believe the words that they are hearing and want to hear more, the rest are there because they find the situation entertaining and want to see what happens next but they do not care about what is being said one bit. Seeing the thinner crowd the mystery man continued.

“Rejoice those who have stayed to listen to the word of the Dark King, you will soon see the path to salvation. Hear me now, your ruler has pushed you down long enough now is the time to rise and take back control of your life and remove tyranny from the equation. All you must do is not fear the arrival of the forces of the Dark King when they arrive to liberate this city from its unjust ruler.”

This second declaration from the man thins the crowd further as most of those listening to the words of the man intently before have now left to return to their normal lives.

“Those people in the middle they’re under a curse I think. I can feel their words calling to me for some reason.”
“Suieol?”
“I think it’s a curse that’s put upon people that are unwillingly taken into the voids, as I can feel something faint calling to me. And that girl is the one we rescued from the void.”
“Lexa, see if you can dispel this curse, like you did with the curse on the crown back in Ehccihster.”
“Let me test it on Suieol first then.”

Lexa then spends a significant amount of time layering different healing spells on top of each other trying to break the much weaker curse found in Suieol than what they expect to be in control of those in the crowd. Eventually Lexa stops casting.

“I was unable to break the curse because its only part way formed so I can’t access all the layers to the curse. However with the layers I could access, I think I’ve been able to alter it so that Suieol’s version is able to break the fully formed curse.”
“And how do I do that?”
“You talk. Just like them, they’re trying to activate a curse so if you say that what they’re saying is a lie and actually you’ve got it fairly good here then it should stop their curse and break the hold it has over them. I’m starting to see the plan that Alyssa had come up with to capture Isla. Which makes me think that we definitely made the wrong move coming back here. This was definitely a harmless distraction so they could turn Isla against us.”
“Well we can’t change the past Lexa, just get ready to break the curse.”
“Yeah, yeah.”

With the plan set even with Lexa still not too happy about the decisions that have been made up until this point, the party got to work getting Suieol into position to counter the curse that Alyssa had planted and set as a delay tactic for the party. Entering the town square Suieol had in her hand a scruffy sheet of paper containing a short script for her to read to counter the cursed words those under the curse are spouting. At first nothing seemed to be changing as Suieol spoke after the man under the curse, but eventually the man stopped speaking as coherently as he had before, this prompted Suieol to speak with even more vigour and for longer periods of time. With the curse lifting Lexa stepped in, still annoyed at the situation, and began work on layering healing spells on the entire group to fully dispel the curse from the group at the center of the square. Now in the dead of night and Lexa spent of mana, the curse fully lifted the party received message by way of carrier pigeon. The message contained a summons to the Imperial Palace to be complied with the upmost haste, with such on order the party returned with the driver that was accompanying them to the motor vehicle and set off on the eight-hour journey back towards Empire city and a meeting with the current Emperor.