Chương 355: Book Eight, Chapter 22: Side Story: The Astralist Part III

Alarmed but without any explicit justification for worry, Logan walked swiftly down the hallway toward the area he knew the maids' quarters to be. Andrew and Michael were right behind him.

"We asked the help," Logan said.

"She would know where the happy couple sleeps. I bet every dollar in my pocket that's where Avery is, probably helping out in some way or another." It did not take them long to get there. Most of the rooms currently in operation were in one section of the castle. They approached the small wooden door, and Michael gently knocked on it.

"Lila, it's Michael," he said after a few attempts. There was silence on the other side, though Logan could swear he heard the rattling of a chain or a bolt. Still, there was no answer.

"Lila, I can see light coming from under the door. If you're in there, we need your help," Michael added. Almost immediately, the light under the door disappeared. Michael continued to knock and call out to her.

"Go away, sir, please," a voice from behind the door called out. The gentleness and manners the young woman had displayed before were gone. Logan thought she sounded afraid, but that could be explained by the muscular man banging on her door.

"We just want to know if you've seen Avery or Doctor Halle, or my sister," Michael said.

"I haven't seen anyone. I never do. I am bound to my quarters after my dismissal every night. Please leave me alone. Doctor Halle insists." She never did? What did that mean? Still, Simon Halle came from a wealthy family that set strict rules for the help.

"Lila," Andrew said after it looked like Michael was getting nowhere, "people are missing. Do you know where they might be?" More silence, and every second that passed, Logan's stomach dropped further. Somewhere deep within his psyche, instincts screamed at him, telling him that something was wrong. Every moment, he grew more worried, and his imagination began to take off.

"Look, lady," he said.

"We saw that the master bedroom hasn't been used in years. Where can we find the Halles? Avery must be with them. Tell us. It will only be a moment." Still, the door remained shut. But Lila, it appeared, had finally relented.

"Guests come and go," she said softly.

"I don't… I don't see them leave. That isn't my business. I am to stay in my quarters after being dismissed at night." Her voice was trembling, and Logan's worst fears began to bubble up in his mind. Surely he could trust the love of his life with his oldest friend. What exactly did he fear?

"The housekeeper who trained me went wandering at night once. Doctor Halle dismissed her before morning. I never saw her again. I need this job, and I have no other options. I… I can't help you."

"Lila, this is serious," Michael said.

"Please don't talk to me," she implored.

"I have to stay put. I must mind my own business." As Logan's fears grew, his desperation did too.

"We will not tell him you talked to us," he said.

"Please. The love of my life is missing, and I have a terrible feeling. Maybe it's only paranoia, but I don't think so. Lila, is Avery in trouble?"

"I swear I don't know anything," Lila said.

"But some nights the lights flicker, like they are tonight. What am I saying? Please leave me be." Logan looked back at Andrew and Michael. They were all concerned by the maid's behavior.

"The poor girl is terrified," Andrew said. Logan nodded.

"We'll have to find our own path," he said.

"I assume we're looking somewhere on the ground floor, with the upstairs being too much of a burden on Anastasia. The castle is huge. Where could we look?" Andrew furrowed his brow and began to think.

"She says the lights flicker on nights like this, where she huddles in her room and ignores Halle's comings and goings. You know, Halle's experiments with astral science were very expensive when it came to electricity. That's how his more controversial experiments were discovered. Power usage." Logan was taken aback. He did not know what logical path Andrew had taken to get to that topic, and he did not want to think about it, but at that point, he had to.

"What controversial experiments?" he asked.

"I thought he was exiled from academia for his theories." Andrew looked at him sternly, as if considering whether to reveal secret information entrusted to him.

"My understanding, from some of my friends with knowledge of such things, is that his research was in using the astral plane to see over great distances. Remote viewing of the enemy. But he was attempting something more grotesque. He wished to seek out astral energy from the planes beyond and transmute it for its scientific properties." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"What the hell does that mean?" Michael asked.

"What is astral energy?"

"Souls," Logan said under his breath.

"You're saying that he was trying to manipulate human souls."

"He hadn't had much success. In fact, most merely laughed at his attempts," Andrew said.

"But still, we need to find Avery now." Logan was in shock. Were they considering that his oldest friend might be doing human experimentation? Lila had said she had not seen certain guests leave. To Logan's knowledge, Simon had not entertained any guests at all until them.

"Not to mention Anastasia," Michael said.

"You don't think he's been experimenting on her, do you? Trapped all the way in the middle of nowhere in this big castle?"

"On his wife?" Logan asked.

"Of course not. Let's focus on finding them. If he needs lots of power, could that tell us where he is?" Andrew cautiously nodded his head.

"The most logical place for the electrical breaker to be should be near the kitchen. But then, I'm no mad scientist," Andrew said.

"Still time to change careers," Logan said nervously as they ran around a corner toward the kitchens. They moved from room to room, closet to closet, looking for an electrical breaker or any sign that might lead them to it. Their search led them to the wine cellar adjacent to the kitchen.

"Just as I predicted," Andrew said.

"And it's a monster. He must be drawing a lot of current." On the far end of the cellar was a large electrical breaker with many different conduits and wires running from it, the bulk of which ran along the cellar wall away from the kitchens and the rest of the castle, down until they disappeared underneath a back wall.

"There's something back there," Logan said. The three of them set about finding out what it might be. - Avery awoke to find that she was no longer constrained to the metal table, but she was too emotionally and physically drained to sit up. She feared what she might learn once she did. The pain she had gone through was like nothing else she had ever experienced. Her whole body felt raw and worn, and she feared the worst.

Was her soul trapped inside the decrepit corpse of Anastasia, or was she floating in the astral plane, unable to interact with the physical realm? She knew very little of how astral science worked, but that was enough to fuel all kinds of fears as she worked up the bravery to open her eyes. And when she did, she found herself… as well, herself. She looked down and saw her dress and her body. She lifted her hands and recognized them as her own. Up above, the mirror of stars had gone dim and was no longer moving.

Somehow fearing that this was some kind of trap, she sat up on the table and looked around. Across from her, on the other side of the machine she had been strapped to, was Anastasia's body, still frail, still thin, but now completely unmoving.

"There you are," Simon said. His voice had been cold and clinical when he had turned the machine on, but now it was something even worse. It was loving and tender. Was he talking to her? He must have been.

"Simon?" she asked slowly, her throat sore from screaming.

"Yes, dear," he said with a smile, as if her words brought some great relief to him.

"Was the transfer traumatic? My machinery showed backflow, which I cannot explain. I have much more research to do. Please tell me the attachment is sufficient. Do you have complete control of your faculties?" Avery's head swirled. He was talking to her, but she had a frightful suspicion he thought he was talking to someone else. All she managed to get out was the word "transfer" in response.

"It's okay," Simon said as he walked up to her and began checking her pulse with his fingers.

"There was some resistance," he said, "but your readings are strong now. Pulse, temperature, astral resonance. This body is accepting you. I cannot explain certain feedback because I didn't have the tools to measure it properly." He shook his head, dismissing all the science as he looked at her. Tears ran down his face, and all he could think about was her. Avery knew it. He looked at her the same way Logan did, the same way many men had over the years, whether she wanted them to or not.

"You look radiant," Simon said.

"Just as I promised you." Avery didn't know how to respond. All she could do was look back at the body of Anastasia as she came to the full and complete realization that Simon's experiment must have failed, but he did not know it.

"Don't look at that body," he said.

"That is not you anymore. Do you understand? The transfer was successful." She looked back at him with all her willpower, staring into his loving eyes and quelling the fear rising up in her stomach.

"I don't feel well. I'm a bit woozy," she said. He put his hands on her face and rubbed a tear off her cheek that she didn't even realize was there.

"That is to be expected, remember," he said.

"Your old vessel was nearly spent. But you, you're back where you belong, among the living." He gently brushed hair out of Avery's face.

"I am so sorry about the discomfort," he said.

"The transition is never seamless, but we've never had such a success as this. My modifications have had promising results." As he wiped her face, she looked at his hand and realized something very strange was going on. It wasn't really a hand at all, but a ghostly impression of one. What was more, his real hand hung down below as if dead. The rest of him was fine.

"Oh, don't mind that," he said.

"There was interference when I activated the machine. Nothing we haven't seen before. My soul will reattach with time." He lowered his ghostly arm back down into his corporeal one and, with a bit of effort, managed to take control of it, though the glow of his astral form never completely left.

"What about the others?" Avery asked. He nodded.

"You're right," he said.

"We have work to do if our plans are to succeed. Your brother, our friends, should be drunk and docile by now. Keep your energy. The next part will be the most strenuous. And remember, you are not Anastasia. You are Avery Lawson. Can you remember that, Avery Lawson? Logan and the others, the world, must never learn the truth."

"I think I can keep track of that," she said. In the distance, there was a metallic thud and reverberation through the pipes. Simon stiffened, and his gaze became distant, like he was somewhere else altogether. Even his glowing arm had disappeared for a moment. But then he was back.

"They found the way into the lab."

"Logan," Avery said.

"Don't worry, my love," Simon said with a smile.

"The lower wards are occupied. Perhaps I will arrange a greeting party. They'll have their hands full. It is regrettable that they will see my work, but only a minor roadblock in the scheme of things." He squeezed her shoulder affectionately, and then he turned back to his machinery, making small adjustments.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked. Simon stared at her, and then an idea burst into his mind.

"How could I have forgotten?" he asked.

"My family is so strict on formalities." He walked over to Anastasia's corpse, lifted up her hand, and gently took a ring from her finger. He walked back to Avery, got down on one knee, and said, "Now, Avery, I must ask you… Will you marry me?" With a toothy smile, he held out the ring, seemingly unable to see through the facade Avery had constructed, to see the fear building in her eyes as she smiled down at the ring, doing her best to play her part. Or else.