Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 641: Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Argrave walked out of the makeshift interrogation room a great deal later, his gray eyes looking somewhat darker after what he’d learned. Others, who’d not participated in the interrogation so as not to make it overbearing and overcrowded, walked up to him.

“Have we learned any useful information?” Bhaltair questioned.

Argrave stood, searching in his own head for how he might answer that question. After a long while of many waiting expectantly, he finally said, “I think we may have a new ally.”

“What?” People looked between each other. “You got that one to turn against his kind?”

“No,” Argrave shook his head. “But they’re fighting against someone they call the Manumitter at the same time as us. This person is apparently capable of liberating Shadowlanders from their hierarchy. Anneliese and I… after reviewing all the information, and making some admittedly big leaps in logic…”

She nodded to back up his point. “We think that it’s Traugott they’re fighting against.”

Argrave looked between everyone. “Guessing that, I proposed a collaboration. This Manumitter has amassed a sizable force of Shadowlanders, freed of the hierarchy. He’s apparently attempting to break the chains that bind them once and for all, bringing free will to everyone in the Shadowlands.” Argrave rubbed his chin.

“And?” Ghislain pressed.

“Our little dark knight friend with a flesh wound wanted me to meet his boss.” Argrave crossed his arms. “The big boss. The Hopeful, he called it. He’s physically incapable of breaking protocol and working with me independently. Only the big boss has free will. And the way he told it, it sounds like the Hopeful’s responsible for holding this whole realm together. If the Manumitter takes him down—and that’s not out of the realm of possibility—we might have bigger problems than a few stragglers coming to our world. The whole damned Shadowlands could leak out to our world.”

“If he can’t break protocol, why’s he talking to you?” Aurore asked prudently.

after I

such a thing would entail,”

“It would entail me letting the man go so he could deliver word, and then waiting for him

looked at Anneliese. “Do you have any insight

eyes seemed truthful of his intent, but eyes can only say so much, and this realm is nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced before. Besides, if he is slave to a larger system, then it doesn’t particularly matter what he

us, about fate and death and all of that. He’s not someone that we can rely upon. He wants us dead, pure and simple.” The Archchief shook his head.

a small part of a larger picture; one part of a grand hierarchy. We’ve shown that we’re capable of subduing him. If he cooperates, we gain an in with their leader. If he doesn’t, then all we’ve done is let loose an enemy that may have a bit of knowledge about

been fighting him in the sky. But others seemed to appreciate Balzat’s words much more than Argrave himself—they were persuasive. At the end of the day, it was only one enemy of many. Roland still had

You might think it’s foolish, all of you, but I’m the one that bled to

Head

the Archchief who’d been most adamant. Argrave didn’t know much about this black knight. But from all he’d heard, the Shadowlanders never came to their

their very presence was a craving for existence that could never be fulfilled. Their entire life was that of hunger, of consumption, and of desire. They possessed an insatiable desire to exist, but were denied that sensation. Their body constantly

all of the Shadowlanders shrouded in the abyss. He deliberately cultivated an atmosphere where no sensations could be felt, and where all was different from the mortal world, to keep them from their suffering. He did all of this under the hope that one day, a cure for these sensations might one day present itself, allowing them to exist as they so desperately craved.

existence could come to be… their captive knew as little as the average human knew about how the world was created. If the Hopeful was capable of sustaining

the possibility existed for it to be overwritten, the Hopeful would never allow that to lie for after the Manumitter was slain. They could collaborate with them to deal with the larger problem that was Traugott, but at the end of the road, there was a reckoning in store. Of

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child, he secretly hoped the pet would come wandering back. Ultimately, it was a calculated risk. If nothing came of it, so be it. If something did, they’d gain. Either way, torture

out of the Shadowlands, doing nothing. Argrave coped by suggesting that he was having someone