Chapter 478: The Curse Laid Bare
"Hauke is cursed," the dark-feathered sorcerer said, addressing not only Odette but all of the gathered people in the Great Hall, speaking as though he was giving a lecture to a gathering of researchers and scholars. "He was cursed sometime during the battle, perhaps from the very beginning of the battle."
"He is trapped within his own mind," Aspakos continued, raising his voice to speak louder over the sudden whispers and exclamations from the crowd. "He can see and he can hear, but he cannot control his own body and until this moment, he could not speak. He has been this way ever since Lady Ashlynn used her Severing Knife to free him from the control of the Ancestors."
"She did this to him?" an outraged voice from the crowd of Frost Walkers shouted. It should have come as no surprise that it came from Darfrir, the young man who had spoken out initially against Talauia before his right to avenge his father’s death was denied to him. Now, it seemed as though he’d turned his ire on the next witch to give him an excuse to vent his bottled-up grief as he once again attempted to gather the support of the crowd to denounce Ashlynn for what she’d done to their young lord. "She crippled him like this!"
"This is the outcome, young man," Aspakos said, glaring at the youth with dark eyes that radiated a hint of barely suppressed bloodlust. "Do not misunderstand and do not interrupt again. You do not wish to anger me and you should wish to anger Her Eternity even less," he said, giving the young man a not-so-subtle reminder of the person he would ultimately offend if he tried to decry Ashlynn over this affair.
Instantly, the few young men who had begun to move forward to support Darfrir took several steps back, putting distance and as many other people as they could between themselves and the young troublemaker. It was one thing to join in as the hands pushing a spear forward, but none of them wanted to be cut down when the Harbinger of Death decided that the spear should fall into the abyss, never to be seen or heard from again!
"Please understand," Ashlynn said quickly, before the young man could build momentum among the crowd again. Aspakos thinly veiled threat had intimidated a few among the youths, but what one person said, ten other men thought and Ashlynn wanted to dispel any lingering feelings among those who hadn’t spoken before they could cause problems.
"The alternative was either killing him, or allowing the ancestors to continue using him as their puppet," she said, omitting the other outcomes where continued attempts to spare him resulted in her own death or worse. "Severing the ancestors was the best I could do in the time that I had."
"A warrior understands that decisions made in the heat of battle may not be judged by the same standards as those made while planning for war," Commander Jannik said, adding his voice to support Ashlynn and glaring at the youths who seemed eager to stir up trouble.
"But I want to be clear about what has just been said," the dark-furred commander said, looking between Ashlynn and the sorcerers. "You’re saying that the ancestors whose horns Hauke wore are the ones who placed this curse on him? That he was unable to control his own body for the entirety of the battle?"