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.

peons actually being able to speak. It seems like only the higher-ranking ones are, and only within the domain Anneliese establishes after I burn away the shadow.” Argrave shook his head. “But I’d only be guessing. Question is, I suppose…

what such a

entail me letting the man go so he could deliver word, and then waiting for him to make

looked at Anneliese. “Do you have any insight

whatsoever,” she answered. “His 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

cryptic talk he gave when first encountering 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. “Only a fool lets an

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

he’d been on the backfoot the entire time that black knight had 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

see what more I can get out of the man. But once he’s all talked out, I’m going to let him go. You might think it’s foolish, all of you, but I’m the one that bled to get him in that dank little cave. I think I have the most

stolen content. Head to Royal Road for

black knight. But from all he’d heard, the Shadowlanders never came to their realm out of malice. Rather, it was similar to a concept that Argrave had read

their surroundings. They seemed to eat light, color, sensation, sounds, and smells. Why? It was because their very presence was a craving for existence that could never be fulfilled. Their entire life

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

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

Anneliese had disturbed their territory, and now that they knew 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

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child, he secretly hoped the pet would come wandering back. Ultimately,

the first few hours, Argrave’s company thought that nothing had come of it. Roland noted that the horseman was staying on the edge of the realm they’d carved out of the Shadowlands, doing nothing. Argrave coped by suggesting that he was having someone else send the message, but he secretly thought that he might’ve been played by the black knight after