------------- The Shadow Conspiracy – 4 of 7 – Lady Ormallein Cardimonis

Nova sat watching the lights in the life tree of Foxmoor. She could imagine it to be a normal tree, and the thousands of lights moving around within it no more than faeries. A sudden sadness struck her.

“What of the Shadowmaster, the one other than the Shade?”

The Queen nodded her head and took another swig, “Ah yes, Lady Ormallein Cardimonis. I’m surprised the Duke didn’t say more before he left. Then again, he’s in a bad enough situation without trying to defend his only sister.”

Emma narrowed her brow, “You mean she’s,…?”

“Yes, the Duke’s own sister. First cousin to the Lady Cardimonis that died in Dient a month or so back. But, I fear you lot know more about that than I do. Why else would she be so hell bent on seeing you dead. All that ‘debt of blood’ nonsense.”

“How or why she initially went bad, no one knows. She was always a bit dark. Somewhere along the time of the liberation it was learned by a few that she was actually a practicing Shadowmaster. By then, though, it was too late for anyone to care. A few people tried to warn her father of her evil, but he had begun to see conspiracies everywhere. Too bad he couldn’t see the one happening in his own house. Her poison words led her brother to claim the throne and the rank of General in the army of liberation. While her brother was away fighting against the Carellonians, her father died under suspicious circumstances. No one could find the slightest clue implicating her, however, and since the nation was at war, the whole affair was swept under the rug.”

“Ask me, I’d suspect she was really the first, perhaps even the one who brought many of the others into the conspiracy. She and I have danced around each other for years. As you should remember, Doctor, my brother died in a duel with Duke Cardimonis when he accused Ormallein in public of assassinating her own father to gain the throne for him. But, I fear, the bad blood between our families goes back farther than that. I only hope that now that she is dead, there might be peace between us.”

------------- Credits

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