Skulduggery began to shrug, then thought better of it when the shadows-plates over his shoulders eagerly sharpened in anticipation of an attack. "I don't know. I recognised the sigils before, but..."
... But he had no idea if he recognised them now, let alone from where. Something about the planes, he thought. He'd been worried the portal would lead to the Death plane, hadn't he?
The second question, however, he did know. "Yes. They succeeded a while ago. This..." This ritual sacrifice of kedan, of tainting them and corrupting them and collecting their blood, didn't make much sense in the grand scheme of things. Eshai hadn't sounded like a woman who would be oblivious to rituals like this occurring right underneath her Palace's floors, and if Asti had already been compromised when the Palace was taken, then what was the point of this?
Power. That was the point of anything, really. Malicant's agents took the Palace because they needed this room, this proximity to the shell, and this much free access to God knows how many kedan. And then they spent the last few months pouring more and more of Malicant's power, Malicant's influence, into the turtle's shell.
No wonder Malicant was confident enough to let the Foreigners have the Palace.
"This was his endgame from the beginning," Skulduggery finished his earlier thought. "And we let him do it. How many kedan are over there?"
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... But he had no idea if he recognised them now, let alone from where. Something about the planes, he thought. He'd been worried the portal would lead to the Death plane, hadn't he?
The second question, however, he did know. "Yes. They succeeded a while ago. This..." This ritual sacrifice of kedan, of tainting them and corrupting them and collecting their blood, didn't make much sense in the grand scheme of things. Eshai hadn't sounded like a woman who would be oblivious to rituals like this occurring right underneath her Palace's floors, and if Asti had already been compromised when the Palace was taken, then what was the point of this?
Power. That was the point of anything, really. Malicant's agents took the Palace because they needed this room, this proximity to the shell, and this much free access to God knows how many kedan. And then they spent the last few months pouring more and more of Malicant's power, Malicant's influence, into the turtle's shell.
No wonder Malicant was confident enough to let the Foreigners have the Palace.
"This was his endgame from the beginning," Skulduggery finished his earlier thought. "And we let him do it. How many kedan are over there?"