The next few days were a tornado of activity. Viscount Sion Eurides was a master at laying traps. And he made sure to frustrate them by placing them everywhere.
You want to open a drawer? A knife will shoot out and bury itself in your lungs. Just walking through the hallways? A trapdoor will leave you falling to your death. Then parts of the fortress were laced with invisible poisons in the most random places.
Thanks to Hecate's Wishing Stone, no one died. But Percy could see this becoming a cheesy ghost story without the spell.
You would just be walking through the hallway, and decide to touch one of the decorative armor sets. Well, now you're dead and no one would know why.
But Hecate's spell lit up the poison spots with a blue glow so that the servants could carefully clean them. But it took a long time to get rid of all the poisons. So long that Thalos and Percy just started exploring the castle.
The fortress was built like an iceberg rising out of water. The bottom of the castle was a perfect circle, and it rose unevenly to the top. About five floors, with maybe a hundred rooms.
One day, while Thalos was strolling through the castle with Percy, they found an old toilet forgotten in the corners of the lower halls.
The entire toilet seat was glowing blue. Thalos and Percy looked at each other, faces in utter disbelief.
"He put poison on the entire toilet seat?" Thalos muttered.
Percy almost laughed. This was a diabolical way to assassinate someone. They run into the toilet for a secret shit only to die there, and not get found for weeks.
They continued their walk through the halls, snickering. Percy had finally revealed that he could walk to his parents, but he was still holding back on speaking too soon.
That didn't stop Thalos from talking to him though.
"All this for that pig. Isn't it crazy, Perseus? Even the Counts don't have castles this big."
Percy nodded, tottering beside his father who was slowing down for him. He kept wondering how they set the foundation for this place.
"And the people and towns under his jurisdiction… when Dunn was explaining it, I could barely control my face. Ten thousand people call Dema their home, and we still have another twenty thousand scattered through the territory."
Percy made a humming sound to agree. That was quite the number of people in this world, he guessed. But he lived in cities where millions of people roamed the streets.
"Twenty thousand people…" Thalos repeated. "I can't even help Hecate much. Back in the north, we were one foot shy from every man for themselves. Here there are so many rules and customs and…"
Percy tapped Thalos' leg in an effort to comfort him. He then showed the man a thumbs-up and his cutest baby smile.
"You're right, I shouldn't worry too much about the things I can do. You're such a smart boy, aren't you, little Perseus."
I didn't say anything, but, yeah, sounds good. You da man, Thalos.
Thalos nodded.
"What I can do is protect you." He knelt down and whispered the last part to Percy. "And find any assassins hidden among the servants."
Percy nodded seriously in agreement. He long suspected that Viscount Sion was dumb enough to just leave the staff unchanged. And he had no doubt in his heart that some people in the castle were still loyal to the Eurides family.
The Count's plans to scare them away from Dema were so far failing. Thalos and Hecate easily foiled his assassination attempt, and Hecate's Wishing Stone made all the effort of setting traps pointless.
Through the events of the last few days, and his constant listening to his parents' words, Percy managed to learn more about the family's situation.
Crona was a kingdom ruled by Spiritmancy and was a fragment of the old empire that used to rule these lands.
Hecate was the noble daughter of a Duke, someone who was closely related to royalty. The Duke of House Amphene. She was trained as a Spiritmancer according to tradition, and was originally meant to marry Viscount Sion.
But she fell in love with a lone swordsman from northern Crona. Thalos was the son of no one important, and he came to Tria, House Amphene's territory, with no real intentions.
He met Hecate by pure chance and, after years of hiding it, they decided to run away together and have their child.
But escaping House Amphene proved too difficult for them, and after a year of running and watching their friends die, they hatched a plan to rid themselves of Hecate's father.
Percy wasn't too sure of the details of this plan, but he knew it involved bringing the king evidence of the murders House Amphene and House Eurides had committed.
Apparently, Hecate and Thalos had also served the king by exterminating a deadly monster. The king used Sion's crimes and Hecate's achievements as justification to give her the region of Demetria.
Thalos and Hecate didn't believe for a second that this was an act of kindness. The king simply set the table for a war that would rid Crona of both parties.
Ignoring the dark implications of their future, Percy and Thalos continued their exploration of the fortress, climbing up the stairs to a large ballroom.
The room had a blue and gold theme and was decorated with gold ornaments and an actual fountain in the center of the spacious floor.
"They really know how to spend money here," Thalos muttered to himself, walking out to a terrace that overlooked the entire city. Thalos whistled. "That looks amazing."
They both sat on the stone floor, appreciating the dazzling view.
Thalos turned to him.
"Do you want to learn how to speak to spirits?"
Percy wasn't sure how to respond to that since he shouldn't understand any of those words at this age.
But thankfully Thalos took his silence as acceptance.
"Spirits are everywhere, they're the essence of the world trying to connect. Humans can talk to these spirits and ask for favors. But the spirits have to want to listen, so you can't always expect them to answer."
So this was Spiritmancy? Percy was somewhat glad that Thalos didn't want him to train Arete yet. He didn't personally mind cutting himself, but he doubted Hecate would be happy with that.
"Since you can't speak yet, I won't teach you the first incantation. Your mom can do that, and I have no affinity for Spiritmancy either way. But I can sense spirits."
Thalos stretched over and gently touched Percy's eyes.
"Close your eyes and imagine the world is completely empty. Then scream! Into the void."
Thalos' sudden scream was supposed to startle Percy for a laugh, but he just opened his eyes and blankly stared at his smiling father.
Thalos smirked and closed his eyes.
"Okay, seriously now."
Percy closed his eyes and imagined the Hollows, the endless dark dimension of the goddess, Nyx.
Thalos let out a calming breath.
"Shut out all the noises of the world. Imagine yourself completely cut off from everything and shout into that void. Let the spirits answer you."
Thalos cracked open an eye.
"You can shout out loud if you want to, Perseus. You don't have to get it right the first time."
Thalos knew most noble kids started training their Spiritmancy at ten years old. Perseus was still barely a year old. No matter how serious he always seemed, he was just a kid. This was just for fun.
At least, that was what he thought until red spirits began to appear around Percy.