attention was difficult for her. But the love she held for her stepmother seemed to push her through as she told the warriors about Faina’s attack on her, and—despite their openly calling Queen Faina mad—insisted it was not her stepmother’s fault.
Unfortunately, it seemed Snow White’s arguments were not convincing enough for the Seven Warriors. They were too jaded from their time spent hunting monsters in the wilds—something Angelique could empathize with.
But in this case, they’re wrong.
As such, Angelique wasn’t surprised when Snow White grabbed her hand, her eyes shining with desperation, and asked her if magic could be the cause of Faina’s rage.
“Please,” Snow White said.
Angelique scratched her head. “It’s hard to say. She’s not cursed—those don’t come and go on a person like that—and curses are what I have the most experience in. But I’ve encountered enough dark magic over the years to say it’s possible it might be affecting Queen Faina. There’s certainly a lot of it swirling around the continent these days, making it far more likely. It’s impossible to know for sure, though, unless you are in her presence.”
It's almost certainly the Chosen, but I can’t really tell them I’ve been spying. If my identity gets out, whoever is doing this to Faina will run. I will not let that happen!
Snow White drooped. “There have been mages with healing magic in the palace over the past few years. Would they have noticed?”
“I imagine so,” Marzell said.
Angelique barely resisted shaking a finger at him. “Not necessarily.”
Marzell raised an eyebrow. “You think a Veneno Conclave mage would miss such a thing?”
“Call me a cynic, but with the way the continent has been plagued the last few years, they seem rather incompetent, or at the very least cowardly.” Angelique swallowed the hour of complaints she’d like to air about the Conclave and made herself smile instead. Though the smile was so tight, it was probably closer to a grimace.
“What is it about Queen Faina’s actions that make it hard to say if someone—or something—is using magic on her?” Rupert, the pale and almost fragile-looking warrior, asked.
“From the way Snow White tells it, these moods or fits, you could say, have come and gone for a year,” Angel said. “It would take an extraordinary amount of self-control and courage to fight off such magic for so long.”
It’s the one thing that bothers me about this. Black magic is relentless. If a Chosen mage is casting a spell on her, there’s no way she’d be able to fight it off for so long.
Snow White clasped her hands together. “P-perhaps whoever is doing this to her has done that on purpose to make it more gradual, so we wouldn’t notice until it was too late?”
Angelique thought for a moment, then nodded. “That’s a distinct possibility. Given what dark magic users are running around, I can say they’re certainly capable of doing such a thing—though it’s awfully gutsy to do so when the Veneno Conclave has taken up residence in the front courtyard, so to speak—even if the Conclave has lost its teeth in recent years. Still, I’m not saying it couldn’t be done. Particularly given that such a crafty spell would be much harder to find—which would explain why the healers never noticed it. There are a couple other possibilities, of course. Ancient cursed—or magical—artifacts can be responsible for such things. They can hold people under sway, provide extra power, or possess rare magic. Although, they are rarer than unicorns these days.”
Or they could be using Evariste’s power on the queen if he truly is in Juwel.
“So it’s even less likely that an object could be responsible for this than a dark mage,” Marzell said.
“Mmmm, yeah,” Angelique said.
The group continued to talk, but she only half paid attention as she mulled over the possibility of Evariste being used.
Somewhere behind her the wolverine and the frail-but-not-really-frail warrior started arguing, which—naturally—erupted into an actual fight. The two scuffled behind Angelique as she thoughtfully tapped her chin.
I need more information. Right now, I’m just guessing. I’m not even absolutely certain Evariste is in Juwel. But how could I learn more?
Rupert attempted to punch Oswald but nearly fell over from the force of a bad sneeze.
Oswald pulled a dagger from his belt, which made Angelique’s ever-eager core magic perk up again.
Angelique mentally patted it as she would a dog as Oswald and Rupert barreled past her, Rupert unsheathing his sword to block the dagger and then kicking his companion.
I can, however, say with great certainty that