Chatterbox

A dense, needlelike pain pulsed through Renee's right wrist with the electric current.

Renee fought to suppress her anger and glared at her father, her one eye wide, as he talked on and on.

Her father wore a smile, his shoulders relaxed. He looked entirely at ease, as though victory was already his and he had no fear of her fighting back.

Renee wanted to summon holy light and subdue her deranged father, but the shackle on her wrist did more than restrain her. It devoured her Holy Flame like a pump draining water.

"Anything else you want to ask?" Her father sounded more delighted by the moment. "Go on. Ask."

Renee searched desperately for a chance to escape, but found nothing. The paintings on the walls, the hemp-colored carpet underfoot, and the chandelier hanging overhead all met her gaze with cold silence.

Her thoughts racing, she mumbled, "Rahn dah ah goo goo gah gah dah mm (What was the Tombdeep Crusaders' invasion of the Kingdom about)?"

Besides buying time, Renee genuinely wanted to know the answer.

If her father really was the Forgotten Saint, then the war decades ago—the war that had killed her mother and brought the Kingdom to the brink of ruin—had another explanation.

"You met those Holy Knights who were so eager to die on the road here, didn't you?" the King asked with a smile.

Renee nodded slowly and gently, doing her best to draw out the conversation.

If I can keep him talking long enough, maybe I'll find a way to turn this around... I still have to save Xia Lun!

"To understand why that war began, we have to go back to the outcome of the Flint Dragon expedition. The other three Saints who seized Authority and I defeated the Flint Dragon, but