The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 61

Octavia was the first to exclaim, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SUGGESTING?! THAT THE EMPRESS ABDUCTED HER OWN PEOPLE?!" Lucianne asked a little more calmly, "Yes, Duica. What are you suggesting? Was this only detected at the window?"

Duica gulped and tried his best not to shake when he said, "No, in fact. It was..." he looked to his comrades for support, who all gave him an ominous nod for him to disclose the whole truth, so he did, "We realized that it was the empress's scent at the window, but when we sniffed the rest of the castle, we found that the scent was...in every room and corridor." Before anyone could say anything, Lucianne commented in a pondering manner, "Odd." She turned to a still-shocked Pellethia and asked, "You've never been there, have you, Pelly?"

Some relief entered Pellethia's confused eyes when she said, "No, I've never even seen it."

"Very odd," Lucianne muttered.

Everyone heard the contemplation in her voice. Almost every wolf and lycan, and even some of the vampires, were starting to suspect that the empress and her consort were the real culprits all along. The only ones who were sure of their innocence were Lucianne, Xandar, Rafael and Amber. Greg was on the fence on this one. He didn't have enough information to decide.

Lucianne turned to Greg and asked aloud, "Greg, can scent sprays be...custom-made to match a very specific creature, like the empress, for example?"

Greg thought about this before he said, "Not to my knowledge, My Queen. But I must admit that it is not impossible, with an empress's close associate and with a very high fee due to the risks and dangers of getting caught using the scent of a ruler to cover their tracks." Toby voiced out his view, "Lucy, it couldn't be scent sprays. By the time the vigils got to the castle, any of it would've vanished, wouldn't it?"

Greg pointed at Toby and said, "That would be right, unless the empress's scent was sprayed there a lot later, after they received word that a search party had been sent down that trail."

Xandar offered an alternative suggestion, "Perhaps it wasn't synthetic scent sprays to begin with, but the natural one?"

Pellethia's eyes widened in disbelief when she thought Xandar was suggesting that she was there in person when she wasn't. Octavia was about to defend her wife again before Xandar proceeded to say, "Perhaps the scent was naturally produced by the Forest of Oderem, then diffused into the castle through the window."

Upon hearing this, Greg thought aloud, "So, what you're saying is that the empress had never been to the abandoned castle, but she's been to the forest for it to replicate her scent?"

The vampires glowered at Greg like he just said something offensive. Lucianne quickly explained, "Greg, I doubt Her Imperial Majesty had been there. No ruler has. The only member of the imperial family who did was Count Dracula, who is...not the most celebrated vampire in history so following in his footsteps to enter the Forest of Oderem is considered...a sin in most regions of the empire. Plus, due to the...incomprehensible mystery of the forest, there's an unspoken rule that any emperor, empress, consort and heir to the throne never visit that place." "Oh," Greg noted simply, and looked at Pellethia again before casually saying, "Pardon me. I'm not well-versed in forest voodoos."

Lucianne hissed softly, "Greg!"

Octavia then said, "It's alright, Lucy. Off the record, we call it a voodoo here, too." Greg looked at Lucianne with feigned innocence and his hand motioned in Octavia's way, his way of saying that he didn't say wrong.

A few vampires were impressed with Lucianne's knowledge, and were touched by the respect she had for their culture and taboos, even the undecipherable ones. Some of them were even beginning to grow fond of her despite what she did to Maddock. But they were unanimously getting very annoyed with Greg's insensitivity.

Lucianne only calmed down with Xandar stroking her hand as he continued speaking, "The prime mystery of the forest is that its curses can reach to the far corners of the empire, even those who've never stepped foot there, and it's still a mystery of how it can replicate EVERY scent. It may even include scents that have never touched its soil. But why would it do so remains the question."

Amber's brows furrowed in frustration when she said, "If only we knew, Your Highness. Our guess is as good as yours, that it's doing it to confuse us - the authorities."

Toby asked, "If that's true, why did it specifically copy the empress's scent? Why didn't it spray something that matched, excuse me for suggesting, yours, Duica's or even Maddock's?"

Amber exchanged a nervous look with Rafael. She and everyone else were made fully aware about Xandar's threat to declare war if they gave vague or incomplete answers. After swallowing a lump in her throat, she sheepishly admitted, "I want to give you the answers, minister. I really do. But the forest is not something that any of us can understand."

"Except for those who used it to escape," Greg suddenly mentioned.

Amber agreed, "That's true, Your Grace. But those who used it to escape have escaped. We don't have anyone to ask."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that. Someone in prison might know something."

"I doubt it. Those were put there for petty crimes that were nowhere near the forest."

Greg scoffed and said, "This is where those of us in the rogue world have an upper-hand. For some reason, you authoritative figures often believe that we operate solo when the fact is most of us don't. But, of course, I speak for lycans. I don't know if proditors are accustomed to doing things as a team but the events in Blue Crescent today show us that, accustomed or not, rogue vampires who can work in a team do exist. And rogue teams that can work together are dangerous at best and lethal at worst."

Rafael then mentioned, "We do catch burglars working in teams of three from time to time, and crimes similar to those. But there are still some who work alone. In essence, whether proditors are indeed...communicating with one another and cooperating seems...varied from the records."

"Records show you nothing." Greg gave up trying to explain the obvious, so he turned to Lucianne, and firmly declared, "We need someone on the inside who knows something, if not everything, My Queen."

Lucianne looked at Xandar like she was asking for permission, which he gave with a small smile and a subtle nod before Lucianne turned back to Greg and said, "I don't disagree, Greg. But, knowing how rogues operate, I have a feeling that we aren't going to play fair. So, I must ask: how are we going to get them to tell the whole truth?"

Greg spoke casually, "Well, if the Empress's Authority is out of the question, then t*****e should work. It has been effective on lycans."

Lucianne's eyes widened, but not for the noble reason of not wanting to t*****e another being. She shook her head as she said, "We are NOT doing that. The books say that the forest offers its followers some sort of protection. Whoever tortures its followers receives the same form o ******e in return. They have this protection mark on their nape that only becomes visible when it's too late. It's not a legend. It's hist―"

Greg slumped back into his seat and finished for her, "History. Damn that subject. Stupid forest." Xandar used to be fascinated with the forest, but now, even he shared Greg's frustration. Lucianne continued cracking her head, and when an idea came, she asked Xandar, "Just to clarify, dearest, the books said nothing about non-vampires getting cursed?"

"Not from our archives," His sights then went to Pellethia who confirmed, "Not from our archives either."

Lucianne nodded, then looked back-and-forth between Xandar and Greg when she speedily muttered, "For the record, I'm only changing my mind now because I can't see another way." Before Greg or Xandar could process what she meant, she told Pellethia and Octavia, "Let us enter the Forest of Oderem."