Chapter 14: The Banshee (7)
In fact, the differences weren’t limited to intelligence; in appearance, the sea banshee was also far removed from the depiction on the mural.
The queen on the mural, even after becoming a banshee, remained beautiful, and her form—so different from that of a human—added an extra layer of allure. The banshee in front of Everly, however, looked as if she had been pieced together from rotting, dismembered body parts, giving off a deeply unsettling sense of wrongness… The history museum had mentioned that the banshee had once been dismembered and suppressed by the townspeople, only to inexplicably return to life later. Could that be why?
Everly couldn’t make sense of it.
Lacking key pieces of information, many mysteries about Pukati’s past were beyond her understanding, and the banshee’s strange appearance was only a minor part of it.
What intrigued her most was why, during the second mayor Achilles’s tenure, there had been such a sharp increase in missing children—including the mayor’s own daughter—and why, despite the fact that his family had gained high status thanks to the banshee’s prophetic abilities, Achilles had personally led the townspeople to hunt her down. It couldn’t simply be that he had a conscience and couldn’t bear to see more children lost, could it?
Fortunately, compared to these questions, her research on the murals was clearly more fruitful.
For example, she had already guessed the trigger for the banshee’s previous outburst in front of her: it had to be blood.
The sea banshee had once witnessed her own child being brutally murdered, and perhaps because of that, she was easily provoked by the sight of blood on children. Looking back, it was likely when she saw the blood seeping from the cut at the corner of Everly’s mouth that the banshee had suddenly gone into a frenzy that day.
This reminded Everly that, if she wanted to survive longer in the banshee’s presence, she had better avoid getting injured herself.