8th of Zund, 322 A.D., Kingdom of Arabist

Ash, wandering around the castle, finally found the rest of his crew. They were discussing something rather noisily in a spacious room.

“Crazy,” Mary muttered. “It’s crazy.”

Judging by the fact that she was talking to the trio that they had met in the foyer; they were still under the effect of the curse.

“Greetings!” Ash smiled and waved to his companions as he walked into the room.

“Well, well, look at who the cat dragged in... You missed quite a lot.” Mary sneered.

Even the quiet Tul seemed gloomier than usual. Alice clung to Lari as if her life depended on it. Blackbeard was the only one who seemed relatively calm and unshaken. Perhaps it was all the sour wine that he had drunk. Rarely who liked its rancid taste.

“What’s wrong?” Ash asked and sat down next to them.

“You were right,” Mary whispered wearily, cracking her numb fingers. “The castle is cursed... To make things worse... There’s a werewolf roaming about and some sort of a spell... I mean temporary spells.”

“Temporary Spell?” the young mage asked in surprise.

“Check it out for yourself,” Blackbeard said and threw a scroll. “We’re... in deep sh— Manure.”

Ash, grabbing the scroll on the fly, immediately unfolded it and started reading. His expression remained the same as his eyes glided over the lines written on parchment with a shaky hand, but there were sparks of interest burning in the eye uncovered by a lens.

According to the writer of the scroll, the castle had been cursed by a powerful and skilled mage. What sort of a curse had been used was beyond the understanding of even the Fourth Master of the Order. And he, as everyone knew, was the strongest mage on the continent.

The invitation to the wedding, as it turned out, was a piece of cheese dangling above a very big mousetrap.

“There were twelve of us. Gods, I’ve never felt more joy in keeping a diary. If it wasn’t for it, we wouldn’t have a chance. Urvi was the first to disappear, dragged away by the beast. Where to? I got no idea...

We found two corpses. The baron and the lady in waiting... I saw their mauled corpses with my own eyes, so imagine my horror when I saw them at the feast! Sitting and chatting at their table! Nobody remembered what happened the night before, not even me. It seemed to us that all we had done was come to a wedding... Had I not lost Urvi... I never would have opened this diary...

There are seven of us now. The cycle is only one day long. The castle renews itself at the stroke of midnight. The participants of the feast are revived and their memory wiped clean. We still have no way out... The monster is still on the loose...

There’s five of us now... The monster is dragging away bodies somewhere. We still don’t know where its lair is. I think the duchess is the bearer of the curse. She doesn’t approve of her son’s choice, saying that his wife is of ‘pig’s blood.’

There’s four of us now... There are new corpses every morning. By the evening, they either disappear or are revived with the rest. Nobody saw the beast, but there’s no doubt that it’s something terrible. I’m more and more convicted that the duchess is to blame... There’s something in the way she looks at her son...

I forget many things when the clock strikes midnight... I can’t concentrate... Fear holds us in its grip. We’ve been to this castle for almost a month now, but it feels like we arrived only yesterday...

We’ve lost connection with the Guild... The signal doesn’t leave the walls... We’re doomed.”

“That’s all it says,” Ash drawled thoughtfully.

“Zach’s been missing for two days now,” the blonde sniffled. “They dragged him off, too.”

The young mage remained silent, reading the note once more.

“Werewolves, curses, resurrection...” Mary mumbled, face pale and hair a mess. “What kind of a place is this?”

“No ordinary mage could’ve done this,” Blackbeard muttered. “Only the Master.”

“Screw it!” Lari intervened. “Why are we still sitting here? We should go and kill the duchess! If she’s the bearer of the curse, it should all go back to normal once we kill her, right?”

“Calm down,” Tul scolded him. “We’ve been here for only one day and we’re already on the edge. These poor people have been sitting here for a month, and they still have no solid proof that the duchess is to blame. If we rush into this without thinking, the guards will kill us before the monster does.”

“Tul’s right.” Mary nodded. “We need evidence.”

Ash looked at the trembling trio. He used to deal with people in this state. They seemed to be on a verge of a breakdown so it was doubtful that they’d manage to get anything useful from them. All they had was the scroll and the knowledge that they’d forget all of this the moment the clock sounded midnight.

“We must make notes,” Alice suddenly whispered, drawing attention to herself. “If we’re going to forget everything, we ought to write it all down... Write it with ink or charcoal on your hand if you have to, just write it down somewhere.”

“Great idea!” Mary exclaimed. “Ash, make us some coal.”

Yawning, Ash touched a nearby stool with his staff and turned it into coal in a matter of seconds. Having waited for the chunks to cool down, everyone reached for a piece and started writing notes on their hands. Ash followed their example, hiding his hand so that no one could see what he was writing.

“No!” someone yelled, voice full of horror and despair.

The Stumps jerked in surprise, and the trio just huddled closer together. If Ash could feel, he’d be feeling pity for them now, knowing that they’d never again have the courage or will to set off on another adventure.

Getting up, the group approached the door and peered into the hallway. Lari immediately covered Alice’s eyes and pushed her back into the room. He didn’t want to leave the girl alone or let her see things she was not yet ready for.

Two corpses were lying on the floor. The only thing that could be said about them was that they were that of a male and a female. Their clothes were torn, guts spilled, and faces mauled beyond recognition. A crowd had begun to gather around; some summoned the guards while the others called for the duke.

Tul, displaying the Stump’s coat of arms, approached the crime scene. Crouching down, he examined the bodies carefully. His sharp, experienced eyes didn’t miss the brown hairs that were scattered here and there in the pool of blood, nor the gashes left by claws, nor the shape of the wounds themselves. Without a hint of disgust on his face, he leaned closer to the corpses, wishing to take an even better look.

“What do you think, Tul?” Mary asked, squatting down next to him. “A wolf?”

“No.” The archer shook his head. “The wounds are too deep and too long. Wolves don’t have such claws. They gnaw at the throat or sinews... These aren’t corpses someone had fed on; this is minced meat.”

“A wolverine then?” Blackbeard suggested.

“I don’t think so. A bear, I’d say. But do you know how rare they are in these parts of the country?”

“How big was this beast?”

“Huge,” Tul muttered, running his fingers along the broken ribs of one of the victims. “See how the wound goes from the bottom up? A bear usually puts its weight on the victim, presses it down, and attacks. The wounds would look different if it was a bear... This beast intended to kill quickly.”

The clanking of armor and duke’s shouts could be heard from the stairs. Ash hurried to ask some questions of his own before they were interrupted.

“Mary, do corpses always come in pairs?”

“According to the notes that those three had written... Yes. Always in pairs.”

“Oh? They have their own notes?” Ash asked thoughtfully and then smiled carelessly. “I’ll go take a look.”

Walking into the room, he patted Alice, who was still shaking from fear, on the head. Lari had done his best to calm the little girl. She was accustomed to going through dark caves and forests and fighting with monsters. She was afraid of no beast, but people, dead or alive, made her heart tremble with terror.

Ash sat down and hit the floor with his staff. Scrolls, books, and pieces of parchment from all over the room immediately flew to him. Having gathered them all on his lap, he started reading. He needed but a few more pieces in order to solve this riddle and figure out how to get rid of the curse.

More precisely, who he needed to kill in order to return everything to normal.

To say that he was happy about the fact that they’d have to kill someone would be a lie. However, if they didn’t break the curse and get to the Fiery Mountains, the princess would die from the fever. What was more important? The life of a child or that of a werewolf? He was no God to judge, but Ash was given an order and he had decided to fulfill it.

Back in the hallway, the duke and the duchess were having a heated argument and trying to calm the people down. The guards carried away the corpses, while the marquis tried to shield his beloved from the horrible sight. Mary was trying to convince them that she and her group would find and take care of the culprit and urged everyone to get somewhere safe and keep a low profile. The crowd shouted, arguing and discussing what to do, unaware that they had been reliving this for almost a month now and that they’d forget everything by evening and return to their endless feast.

The moment the clock hit midnight and the feast began once again, the castle would take a step back in time, putting these canaries back into their gilded cage.