The Wandering Fairy Chapter 287: A Banquet of Masks

The pair glided across the bright ornate tiles, shifting from left to right, then left again as they maneuvered between each pair of nobles. Each movent was as deliberate as the flapping of a butterfly’s wing, as if their dance had rged with the rhythmic waves filling the hall.

“How…” Ynixia gripped his hand tighter, their fingers interlocking even further. “How are you able to touch ?”

Soren smiled, lifting their joined hands to spin her beneath his arm. “Who knows?”

“Who knows?” She repeated in annoyance mid-twirl, “What kind of answer is that!”

“I’m being honest,” he pulled her closer again and chuckled. “Why would I know how your curse operates? You only told about it a few monts ago.”

“.....” She opened her lips montarily then closed them. She wasn’t sure what to say.

The dance continued for a while in silence as the two followed the orchestra’s tunes. All around them, masked nobles did the sa, smiling ear-to-ear as if this were the happiest mont of their lives.

He couldn’t help but feel slightly unnerved.

“Are you sure you don’t know?” She asked again, this ti with her signature inquisitive look. The tension and worry masking her expression had disappeared—replaced by curiosity and a longing for knowledge.

He grinned subtly. “I do have a theory.”

“Oh?” She spun once more then returned to his embrace, letting the chandelier light flicker off her silver mask with each graceful motion.

“Rember that this world is kind of like a purgatory,” he said rather casually. “A place where things that have vanished end up. The remnants of the Death Empire is one such example, but we’ve run into nurous other living shadows with unknown backgrounds all across the Outer Boundary. So of them seed as if they had arrived from entirely different worlds too, completely foreign to Yar—Avalon’s history.

“So then, one must therefore ask: Can sothing be erased, if that thing has already been erased to begin with?”

His words sparked a realization in her. “Are you saying that my curse doesn’t really work in Carcosa because… everything here is already forgotten?”

Soren chuckled as they crossed by another pair of dancers who seed passionately entwined with one another. “It's hard to say. After all, the Naless Mist isn’t sothing that can easily be categorized.

“So far, I’ve experienced its effects in several distinct ways. It can be used to corrupt the souls of people using Conceptual Override, turning them into Malevolent Hexes or erasing them entirely. It can also erase individual mories, emotions, sensations, and even the environnt itself. It can create strange creatures called Soul Skinners that turn others they bite into themselves… And from that fight against a certain bastard, I’ve seen it be used to conceal literal concepts as well. Not to ntion your ability to manifest Albert, a Living Shadow that isn’t directly connected to you, but follows your every command. Oh, and I guess we should ntion the Living Shadows themselves—what the hell are those things anyway?”

Soren shook his head. “My point is, the Naless Mist as it's called seems highly versatile. There’s no telling what else it can do—I am sure there are many use-cases we are still completely unaware of. Who knows, maybe in the future, you might even find a way to control that curse entirely, turning it into a useful weapon.”

Ynixia shook her head. “Controlling it is impossible. I’ve tried everything. Pendragon has tried everything. Everyone around … they all wanted to figure out a way to control it.

“All of them failed…

“No,” she sighed, “every attempt we tried only made things worse.”

In that mont, Ynixia recalled a few of her mories—her ti growing up at the temple and her visits to that castle… She smiled wistfully.

“Did you know, Soren… I used to have a maid who took care of . She treated like I was her daughter. I used to call her Marci—short for Marceline.”

She chuckled, “Marci would bathe , dress , defend , teach … She was my one and only support in that dented temple. Even as the world grew darker around , Marci continued being my guiding light. And yet… do you know how I repaid her sacrifices?”

The smile on her face began to twist. Soren couldn’t help but frown.

“I erased her!” She said with bitter laughter. “Nothing, not even the people she adored were allowed to rember her!” She shook her head as they twirled to a rhythm they could no longer even comprehend.

Ynixia looked down at her own hands, “Now, only I rember she existed. The mory of my sins linger for eternity within my mind.”

The dance continued on in silence. Not even the music seed to matter anymore. As they twirled around the ballroom, Soren sighed deeply.

“But did any of that make you give up?”

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Her lips twitched slightly.

“It didn’t, right? You are still here, demanding answers. Trying your best to uncover the past you lost.”

She paused montarily, then shook her head and smiled. “No. None of this would have happened without you lifting that lid from my coffin. If it werent for that, I may have likely remained in that coffin for eternity.”

“Then we are the sa in that aspect,” the Traveler chuckled. “I too, would have remained where I was if not for your arrival. My curiosity compelled to see what lay within that coffin—to know my connection to it, despite my desire to end it all at that mont.

“So in a way, we are both wandering ghosts, roaming the world aimlessly.”

The ballroom echoed in the steps of countless noble dancers, smiling profusely behind their ornately crafted masks. But there were now hints of worry and fear lingering in their eyes as well. The longer the twisted music continued to play, the more anxious of what awaited them in the end.

Soren watched them all from the periphery, waltzing in between their passionate grasps and twirls. “Choosing you as my dance partner might have been an extrely suicidal gamble, but it was definitely the correct choice.”

Hearing this, Ynixia couldn’t help but want to trip him purposefully in the dance. “How many tis do I have to remind you—”

“Yes, yes, yes” he rolled his eyes and smiled. “I am your knight. My life and death can only be decided by you~”

“Shut up…”

He smiled wistfully. Despite his teasing, Soren knew deep down that her words truly did have an effect. Perhaps, he might have even been using them as an excuse all along. After all, there still remained a portion of him that refused wanting to die—a human trait that was completely hard to oppose.

Human, huh… He chuckled, What the hell even am I anymore? Alien? Spirit? Human? Sothing in between? The world seed just as absurd as it was nihilistic.

He shook his head slightly, turning to face his dance partner once more. “Regardless, you understand why, don’t you? This entire farce seems completely stacked against us.”

Her eyes sharpened. “Indeed… It's not hard to realize Cassilda has a hidden agenda. She may have even hidden so of the rules to throw us off.

“For example, the two of us were fully aware of our identities from the start, so surely there must be a rule that prohibits teaming with the sa person each ti?

“There is also sothing else confusing about all of this—the nobles who originally arrived here could have easily chosen to leave rather than swapping identities. Why didn’t they? What caused them all to start this twisted ga from which escape beca impossible?”

He glanced around, watching as the so called “nobles” obliviously completed their twirls and steps, like sheep marching toward greeny grass. All of them seed far too up their own asses to realize how dood they all were… And yet, the desperation in their eyes had grown significantly, there was no mistaking that.

How creepy… He thought inwardly.

Turning to his dance partner, the unease on Ynixia’s face also said the sa. She shook her head and sighed. “Either way, it’s good we were able to select each other. At first, I had thought I was dood due to my curse. There was no telling what would have occurred if I couldn't select a dance partner.

“As long as we say the truth, the both of us can leave the banquet safely for now to explore the rest of the castle. Then, if the banquet resets and drags us back here, we’ll be far more prepared to handle it.”

Soren nodded with a smile. Coincidentally, only monts later, the orchestra completely paused their instrunts. Each pair of dancers froze in response, finalizing the final steps of their movents gracefully before bowing toward each other. They all looked like puppets commanded by strings rather than actual real people…

Soren and Ynixia did the sa, trying their best not to stand out. She glanced at him confidently and smiled.

“I believe you are Soren Andersen, the one known as the Traveler.”

Soren felt an invisible wind sweep past his ears, as if an unseen veil had been lifted. He glanced toward the white haired girl standing before him, picturing her face behind the silver mask:

“You are the Shepherd of the Naless Fold. The one called Aelyne, right?”

The girl froze, her expression twisting in shock. “N-no… Why did you—”

But before she could object, a mysterious force began compelling her to answer his question truthfully:

“I… I am not Aelyne. I am Ynixia.”

Soren’s smile wavered before breaking into a deep sigh. He let go of her hand and backed away, dusting his robes casually. “Seems I guessed wrong. How annoying~”

“Hold it, you damned fool.” Ynixia furrowed her brows in anger. “I’ve already told you nurous tis that I am not this Aelyne person you keep ntioning… Why did you purposefully sabotage yourself?!”

Soren looked at her briefly and shook his head. “Who said it was sabotage? I asked a legitimate question. Your identity has always been a mystery to , so I decided to try and verify it. Although…”

Soren crossed his arms. “It isn’t really guaranteed that the mysterious powers in control of this subspace are omniscient enough to know the full truth. Perhaps our answers can only be reflected as truthful if the person they are subjected to identifies with that na subconsciously. We have no way of fully knowing how this castle operates—at least not yet.”

Crossing her arms, Ynixia’s frown deepened. “Are you saying you were using our dance as an experint? Do you take for a lab rat or sothing?”

“Hardly,” Soren grinned. “More of a lab kitten or puppy.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“It would be my pleasure to die for you, princess~”

Calming her nerves, Ynixia stomped her way to the banquet’s exit. “I guess I’ll stick to exploring the rest of Hyades Castle. I’ll leave investigating the inner workings of this banquet hall to you.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He watched her go alone—no one else seed to have guessed correctly, leaving them once again stranded and forced to dance.

Just as Ynixia was about to leave, she paused near the doorway and turned to face him. Her expression carried more emotions than he could count.

“Be extra careful… Like I said before, you do not have permission to die.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He chuckled, watching the gate close behind her.

Now then, Soren stretched while glancing at his Soul Weapon which was strapped to his waist. It seems I have much to uncover and [Record]...

He then scanned the ballroom, counting every noble stuck within it. All of them seed to have returned to their previously jubilant state, as if they were machines that had their programming reset.

However, within the crowd, Soren noticed an anomaly. A woman that seed the sa age as him—donning a brown mask that accentuated the leather patchwork patterns scattered across her dress.

She was different from the other nobles. Her expression… it was full of terror, as if she was aware of the eternal damnation she had been trapped in.

Observing her for a bit longer, Soren couldn’t help but smile. “To think I would find my next dance partner this quickly…”