Chapter 84
Chapter 84: Her mother.
This is the lair of the “crows”.
Perhaps it was a mysterious spell interfering here, or it was just a coincidence. When Alice stopped here, the full moon was also covered by dark clouds, and there was no moonlight in sight.
Alice looked towards the mansion. The whole house was shrouded in darkness. The outline of the building merged with the sky, making it impossible to see what shape it was, but it seemed to be a huge and strange thing. .
Even the windows of the mansion did not show much light. Only a few windows showed a little apricot light, swaying in a shadowy manner. The dry branches in the courtyard were reflected on the windows, which really made people feel creepy.
Alice got off the horse.
The two “crows” at the door held torches in their hands, bringing in a little light. However, the little light brought by the torch is really not enough to fight the endless darkness, at best it can make people see the beaks on their masks clearly.
They came forward, one came over to open the car door for Archmage Tales, and the other came to take Alice’s horse. Circelian hissed and disappeared into the air, the “crow” took two steps back, and then remained silent and motionless, like a statue.
The crow who opened the door for Archmage Talus bowed deeply to them. The archmage did not return the courtesy, but just said:
“Take me to meet your leader.”
The crow nodded, opened the iron fence behind him, and led them into the courtyard.
The courtyard is very deserted and it seems that no one has ever taken care of it. The door suddenly opened in the distance was like a huge mouth in the abyss, as if to swallow people in an instant.
The Archmage Talus took Alice’s hand.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said.
Alice is not afraid, but this experience is a bit new. The last time someone walked away with a hand held like this, it seemed that when she was fourteen years old, Master Roma took her by the hand and brought her out of the tavern, changed her into a boy’s clothes, and took her as a servant. Soldiers.
Master Roma’s hands were warm, but the hands of Archmage Tales were cold, but he held it very strongly, as if to protect her from the boundless darkness.
He is her father.
It has been a week since I knew this fact, but up to this moment, Alice seemed to have real feelings about it for the first time.
They passed through the gate like a huge mouth of the abyss, and the “crow” led them into the empty hall. In the middle of the hall, someone was waiting for them.
The man wore a black hooded cloak like the “crows”, but did not wear a mask. The leading “crow” walked up to him, bowed and saluted him, and then stood silently aside.
Alice guessed that that person was probably the leader of the “crows”.
The Archmage Talus held Alice’s hand and walked to the man with her. The man opened his arms to them in a welcoming posture.
“Welcome, my brother.” The chief said, “It’s nice to see you here. I specifically ordered them to clean up the whole house. I hope there are no unpleasant smells left behind.”
It would be nice if he didn’t say this. After hearing him say that, Alice realized that there really seemed to be a faint special smell in the air. It was hard to call it a stench, but it would definitely not make people feel happy. .
“We are not brothers, Damian.” Archmage Talus said lightly, “This is the enchanting chain and twelve kinds of magic circle diagrams you asked me for.”
“Thanks, brother.” The leader deliberately ignored the words of Archmage Talus. He took what was in the hands of Archmage and handed it over to a “crow” standing behind him. Then he turned around, facing Alice head-on, as if looking closely at her:
“This girl is…”
“my daughter.”
Alice was surprised.
She didn’t expect that Archmage Tales would admit her relationship with outsiders so quickly.
“Your daughter?” The leader named Damian raised his torch and looked at Alice’s face with interest. “This girl looks very much like you.”
The Archmage Talus did not comment.
When the leader Damian raised the torch, a lock of hair fell from his sideburns, shining in the firelight. Alice found out that it was a lock of blonde hair.
He naturally pushed the falling locks of hair behind his ears:
“So, you are here today to find the girl’s mother.” His lips curled up and he snickered as if he had discovered some secret. “It’s hard to imagine that someone will be fascinated by your sex||indifference, willingly Give you a baby.”
This guy seems to like to deliberately make people angry. The Archmage Talus ignored him with a stern face, only picking up important things and saying:
“You said you found it, we just came.”
Chief Damian shrugged:
“Okay, let’s talk about business now. You have caused us a big trouble. Potzta is a big city, and there are thousands of young women named Jenna in it. Our records and management of complete corpses are not actually As detailed as you think…All in all, I have found five for you in total.”
“Five?”
“Five.” He repeated, “They all died within those few years. The age at the time of death was roughly between twenty-five and thirty-five… When we are doing recycling, we usually don’t It will be divided so carefully…Although the Hordis believers in the east are headed by me, not everyone is willing to donate their carefully crafted puppets, but I have spent a lot of money…In short, a puppet that meets your needs They are all here, you can identify which one you are looking for.”
The leader said as he led them along.
Five human bodies in “crow” costumes stood in the empty room, each of them wearing a mask to completely cover their faces. Alice needs to step forward, unmask their masks one by one, illuminate their faces with the torch in her hand, and find her mother from them.
“Sorry, we don’t have any lights here.” The leader said, “Too strong light will cause the material to wear out too quickly. The puppets are very fragile and need good maintenance.”
The leader didn’t treat these corpses as human beings, his tone was very cold, and this attitude made Alice feel a little sick.
But she tried her best not to use ordinary people’s thinking to evaluate the thoughts of the followers of Hordis. As Cecilian said, they are standing between the line of life and death, and it is difficult to be called human anymore.
“Go,” Archmage Tales said to her, “Don’t be afraid.”
Alice didn’t know why the Archmage Talles felt that she was afraid. She wanted to refute it, but she didn’t think it was necessary. She walked over and uncovered the mask on the face of the first “crow”.
Alice was mentally prepared, but she still didn’t expect to see such a face. In fact, she was a bit like a living person, but was more drier and haggard. She opened her eyes, but her eyes were not eyeballs, but two glass **** similar to eyeballs, which gave this face a special weirdness.
The flickering light of the torch gave her dead face a certain vitality, and Alice couldn’t help taking a step back.
“Are you scared?” The leader Damian was still smiling, “Don’t be nervous, they won’t eat you, they are dead.”
This person is really annoying, and Alice really wonders how he became the leader.
She lifted the second mask.
The face under the second mask resembles Alice’s mother,
Alice knew that the faces of the dead would not be exactly the same as they were before. But the face under the second mask was so similar to Alice’s mother that Alice was confused.
Is it her?
This face was really similar, but Alice looked at her with a sense of strangeness.
Did death make her mother strange in her eyes? Or… this is actually another person at all?
Alice began to doubt herself.
If she admits wrong here, does it mean that her deep love for her mother is actually not as deep as she thought?
“The dead will look a little thinner than they were when they were alive.” The leader standing at the door reminded her, “When we dispose of the corpse, we will slightly remove some fat. After so many years, we will also lose a lot of water. Therefore, you cannot rely solely on your impressions.”
Alice did not answer him.
With doubts about herself, she lifted the third mask.
The face behind the third mask had a mandible that was too wide, which was too different from her mother. Alice quickly gave up and lifted the fourth mask.
When she first saw the fourth woman, Alice felt that she was totally unlike her mother. But after a closer look, she felt that the shape of her facial bones seemed exactly the same as her mother, except that her cheeks had collapsed and her eyes had been replaced, making her look completely changed. Alice looked at her, then went back to see the second person, completely undecided for a while.
She struggled for a while, and simply went to uncover the last mask.
Fortunately, the fifth person, like the third person, had a completely different appearance from Alice’s mother, and could basically be ruled out.
She stepped back a little bit, then went to see these five people. When they died, they were of the same age and had exactly the same hair color. At this time, their eyes had been lost and replaced with glass beads of different colors, which made it much more difficult to identify. And looking further away, Alice felt that the number three and number five that were originally excluded did not seem to be completely different.
Seeing her embarrassed appearance, the Archmage Tales walked towards her and asked quietly in her ear:
“What? Is there no one like your mother in there?”
“Worse.” Alice’s voice was a little hoarse. “Two or three people look alike.”
“Don’t worry,” Archmage Tales said softly, “…Do you think Number Five looks like?”
Alice glanced at Number Five again, and speaking of it, Number Five was the best one of them.
“It’s not like.” She didn’t show mercy to the Archmage Tales, “No. 5 was the first to be ruled out.”
“Oh.” He didn’t look particularly embarrassed, but he turned his head back to the door, “You look for it slowly.”
Alice gave an “um” and she heard Damian snickering.
Alice always believed that there should be some kind of extraordinary connection between her daughter and her mother, and she would definitely find her own mother.
She walked up to the first person again and held out her hand to support her face.
I don’t know what kind of medicine the believers of the **** of death have used to soak their bodies, her skin almost feels like a living person, but it lacks some temperature. Alice stared at her eye sockets for about a minute, then changed to the second person.
She held their faces like this, staring at the past one by one. When Alice came to the fourth person again, she let go and turned around.
“I found her,” she said softly, “this one is my mother.”