Chapter 73. Loser.

"Okay, no need to panic," Bev said in a quavering voice as she slowly felt the urge to panic rise within her. "Apparently one of us has gone off the deep end and is now murdering us! Luckily, since we know it isn't me, and we know it isn't Everly, we can go ahead and blame Nev for this! I never liked that cow anyway! You could always tell she was plotting something. Between me and you guys, she always gave off a slight hint of barely restrained madness."

"She's your best friend," Everly said to her in a neutral tone of voice.

"And now I'm throwing her under the train!" Bev said proudly without an ounce of remorse.

"And how exactly do we know that you weren't the responsible this?" asked Everly. "Couldn't you have just killed Cleverly before rescuing my mother? It's not like we have a time of death to go by."

"Of course, I could have!" Bev said boastfully. "I'm a very capable person."

"You're supposed to deny wanting her dead, dummy," Everly said with exasperation.

"I mean, I kind of did, though? Cleverly was such a little brat! Always taking my stuff without asking and hiding behind your skirt whenever I wanted to stomp on her a little. I think it's great that she's gone."

"Bev, you're supposed to be coming up with reasons for us not to further suspect you. I really feel like you're just messing with me right now," Everly said without humor.

"What? NO! Everly, come on, we both know I'm not smart enough to try and get away with this. I'm more instinctual than calculating. I'm telling you, Nev's the culprit!"

"Or," said Marcis, "You could be weaponizing your stupidity to fly under the radar by being so utterly obvious about things, that no one would bother suspecting you. After all, people are conditioned by popular entertainment to believe that murderers have clever and complex minds. Being a genuine simpleton would catch almost anyone off guard."

"See!" Bev said happily. "Dad gets it!"

"He just said he finds you highly suspicious, genius," Everly sighed.

"What? DAAAAD!" Beverly whined.

"Now, now, I was just making an observation," Marcis said soothingly as he offered Bev a comforting hug, which she quickly accepted.

Not for the first time, Everly wondered how Bev had turned out this way. When she'd originally had the idea of duplicating herself to decrease her workload while more easily implementing her master plan for the conquest of the kingdom, she'd assumed that her creations would all be like herself. Perfect. Their annoyingly quirky personalities were a completely unforeseen development, and one that she was quickly growing frustrated with. The only one of them she'd been able to consistently rely on had been Nev, but even she had been making too many unilateral decisions, lately. Making her own little criminal empire and giving herself a boyfriend. Who'd given her permission to do any of that?

And now, one of them had well and truly lost the plot and was making a bid for true independence. Honestly, Everly didn't doubt for a moment that it was Nev. Treachery took brains, and Bev was light in that department. But why? Everly hadn't been unjustifiably cruel to any of them! Didn't they all have fun together? Why were things getting so aggravatingly complicated?

Why wouldn't everyone just shut up and do what she wanted them to?

"Neverly?!" said the uncertain voice of a young man dressed in a bathrobe as he entered the room. Ah. Speaking of the boyfriend, here he was in the flesh; Tyler, Nev's pet project, looking confused and fearful, dressed only in a short white bathrobe, as he stumbled towards the group and saw them all gathered around Cleverly's dead body.

"By the gods! Oh no, oh no, did she find out?" he asked in a quaking voice.

"Tyler?" asked Bev in confusion. "Uh, what are you doing here?"

"Everly, despite being your secret base of operations, I'd be neglectful in my duty as your father if I didn't inform you that your palace doesn't seem to be very secure," Marcis said to her chidingly.

Everly gritted her teeth at his words. "Dad, would it kill you to stop being a gadfly for five minutes while we try to get this sorted?"

"It wouldn't," Marcis admitted. "But I really don't want to."

"That's great. Good to know," Everly said before turning to face Tyler. "Well? Answer the question, Loverboy! Why are you here when Nev isn't? And why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

"Um, that is to say, uh that I was invited, I mean ordered to, but not like uhhh," Tyler said desperately while his head kept turning towards Cleverly's body before pulling away, only to turn back towards it, as though he were trying to confess to something while denying it at the same time.

That was when Everly noticed that Cleverly was also wearing a white robe that perfectly matched Tyler's.

"Oh, come on," she said in disgust.

"I didn't want to, she made me!" Tyler cried.

"Oh, Tyler," Marcis said with a hint of genuine empathy. "Trust me, my lad. That excuse almost never works!"

"I'm serious! She and Nev hated each other!" Tyler said to Everly. "Nev was always going on about what a useless brat Cleverly was, and how the group didn't need her! Cleverly wanted to pay her back so she snatched me away into the tower! I swear, I didn't want to go, but you know how…you can be! I didn't have a choice."

"Well, that is true," Everly and Beverly said thoughtfully.

"It is! It really is!" Tyler said. "I didn't want anything to do with her."

"I can't say I approve of you going along with the whims of my daughter, overbearing or not," Marcis said with a frown. "She wasn't even of age."

"She didn't want me to bed her!" Tyler said, speaking even quicker than before. "She just wanted me to lay with her in bed! Neverly's bed to be specific. Cleverly was going to call her and show me with her in Nev's room, that was all."

Everly had to give her deceased duplicate some credit. That was a pretty evil move right there.

"Damn, I've got to give Cleverly some credit. That was a pretty evil move right there," said Bev with grudging respect.

"Hey, shut up! I already had that thought," Everly glowered.

"Whoops! My bad," apologized Beverly.

"So, I guess Neverly took the bait, and must have overreacted," said Marcis. "Well, she wouldn't be the first girl to ever kill her sister over a boy. It's an old story. One told countless times throughout history." He then turned to Tyler and asked, "Is that how it happened, boy? Neverly walked into her room, witnessed you both and then dragged Cleverly away to punish her?"

"That doesn't make any sense," Everly cut in.

"Why not?" asked her father.

"Well, for starters, Cleverly was still one of me. I wouldn't just let myself get snatched away, I'd put up a nasty fight. But we don't see any signs of that around here. That means Cleverly was taken by surprise. Something else to consider is him," she said as she pointed a finger at Tyler.

"Huh?" Tyler asked.

"Why would Nev let you live? In the heat of the moment, if I thought you'd betrayed me, you'd be the first one I'd annihilate. And yet, here you are, safe and sound and walking around naked in my crib. That's pretty unlikely, Tyler. What else haven't you told us?"

"Nothing!" he insisted. "I swear! Except just before Cleverly put the call out, someone knocked on the door. After she went to speak with whomever it was, she was gone for a while, and that was when I came looking for her and found all of you."

"Hmm," Everly said to herself as she considered the evidence laid out before her.

"What's she doing?" Beverly wondered.

"Shh," said Marcis. "Let her think."

After giving everything a few minutes of serious consideration, Everly nodded to herself, satisfied by the conclusion that she'd arrived at.

"All righty, everyone. In a situation as serious as this, I've decided there's only one thing I can do to get things under control."

"What's that?" Bev asked eagerly.

"Yes, daughter. Do share," Marcis said as he stepped closer to listen better.

"I'm going to delegate!" Everly said decisively. She then turned and snatched Lyona's hand before saying to the others. "My mother and I are going to barricade ourselves in my room. While we're safely hidden away, the rest of you will track down this killer and dispose of her. Sounds good, right?"

"Uh, Everly, what if we're the ones who get killed instead?" asked Bev uncertainly.

"Well, then, that'll be fewer people to suspect, right?" replied Everly.

"Wow, I didn't think of that!" Bev said. "Oh, that could work!"

"I'm glad you agree."

"Everly, I clearly couldn't have had anything to do with this," Marcis said unhappily. "So why should I risk myself?"

"Don't trust him, Everly!" Lyona said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "According to Anne, he was the one who sent Claudia and Aiden after that awful Sloth demon! The disaster of Bremburg was his fault!"

Even Everly was surprised to learn that. "Father? That couldn't possibly be true, is it?"

"Lyona, dearest, please reconsider the source of your information," Marcis said patiently. "That was a lie that Aiden came up with to avoid being punished by his mother. I didn't have anything to do with that miserable scheme."

"How can we trust your words? You despised your own son. You wouldn't hesitate for a moment to point the blame his way. Especially now that he's dead and can't contradict your story!" Lyona said angrily.

"Lyona, please. Saying I despised my boy suggests a deeper emotional connection than our relationship warranted. I assure you, that simply isn't true."

Lyona opened her mouth, about to say something else, when Everly gently reached into her mind and coaxed her back to sleep, catching her in her arms as she fell unconscious. Then she turned to her father and said, "I don't care about who's telling the truth. Just do me a favor and get this taken care of! Okay?"

"I already saved your life, Angel! Wasn't that enough of a favor?" Marcis asked her incredulously.

"Dad! Be useful!" Everly said as she hurriedly departed the conference room.

"Wait, what about me?" Tyler asked her. "Everly, I don't even know what's going on! Please, I don't want to die here!"

"Well, that's what you get for cheating on me, isn't it?" Everly said dismissively.

"Everly, I'm not even with you! I'm with Nev!" Tyler wept.

"Yeah, and I'm her too, dumbass! Honestly, your lack of shame is terrible."

Before Tyler could think of anything else to say, Everly was gone. Marcis shrugged his shoulders indifferently at him, and Beverly clucked her tongue in disapproval, as she reached for the spear embedded in Cleverly's neck and pulled it free, causing the body to fall to the floor.

"S-so, what do we do now?" Tyler asked the other two.

"Don't ask me, cheater," Beverly harumphed.

===

Once she safely returned to her room with Lyona, the first thing Everly did was seal the area by envisioning every exit and window being covered with steel bricks. When she was satisfied that entry was now impossible, she laid Lyona on her bed, and then sat down in an oversized leather chair that she favored.

Once seated, Everly closed her eyes, took a deep calming breath, and waited until she felt utterly still and centered. Then, when she felt she was ready to begin properly processing the events of the day, she remembered in vivid detail the ease with which Lady Anne had utterly stomped her into the mud. Beaten her like a rag doll.

Kicked. Her. Ass.

That was when Everly began screaming in anger and throwing things.

It was a good thing that Lyona was in a mystically compelled slumber and thus unable to see her daughter's behavior, because at that moment Everly was absolutely livid! She smashed things, slashed things, bashed what she couldn't slash, and hacked what she could smash.

In no time at all, her room became a complete mess.

When she was done letting out her anger, Everly sat on the floor with her back to a wall, knees bunched up beneath her chin, and sulked. She couldn't believe how easily she'd been trounced. What a humiliation! After years of seeming invincibility, for someone to come out of nowhere and casually slap her into the dust was…well, it was unthinkable!

That was the kind of treatment reserved for a mid-level anime or street tier American comic book villain. There was a fun tradition of such characters popping up during a hero's journey to boast about their overwhelming power, only to easily get swept aside because they were incapable of realizing the difference in strength between themselves and the heroes. Characters like those were jokes! Jobbers! Memes! Everly wasn't supposed to be one of them! She wasn't trash!

Even worse, she'd lost to another bad guy! That absolutely wasn't supposed to happen! Everly had her sights set on being a dark lord! No, the dark lord! Losing to anyone else was unthinkable. It not only meant that she hadn't yet finished her training and was possibly out of her depth, but it also meant she was a loser.

That couldn't be true, could it?

And now, with this traitor, (most likely Neverly), running around adding to her troubles, it was all getting to be a bit too much. For the first time in what felt like ages, Everly felt uncertain of what she should do next. What was the right answer? What path should she take?

What was going to happen to her dream?

"Wow. You look how I feel, blondie," Fenn said despondently as she slumped to the floor beside her.

"Ah. Perfect. Just perfect," Everly muttered to herself.

Today the hits kept coming.