A Fantasy Mage in a Cthulhu World

Chapter 17: The Witch

"Mister only regained his senses temporarily because of the interference ritual my Ghoul friends performed. But he is still under Yolanda's control. He could only try to get family members to investigate him by asking them to find his autobiography, hoping someone would discover my existence and get help to me. But you, the only one who found me, refused to communicate".

"Now, wake from this dream, you mysterious wielder of magic. If you can defeat Yolanda and save Mister, we will reward you handsomely. If you cannot, I ask that you at least save one male heir of the Bennett bloodline and bring him to the church. I will thank you with my own personal treasures".

The Ghoul, Piers Bennett, spoke quickly. Then, he pointed a finger in the air, and Jonathan's world went black.

"Ah!" Jonathan woke up on a lounge chair in the third-floor hallway. The dried bread he had been eating was scattered at his feet. He turned to look at the window to see if it was day or night, but the window was gone. The space within the mansion had become distorted. At the end of the third-floor hallway was the first-floor kitchen.

A sense of physical euphoria surged through him. He opened the Codex.

New Status: Ecstasy of Death-Sleep (You can recover from any form of sleep, but after this state ends, you will require a much longer sleep to forget the pleasure.)

His three spell slots had been restored.

Jonathan stood there, his mind racing. The Ghoul Piers's story is credible; it aligns with what I've investigated. But I can't trust him completely. He's definitely hiding something. I can't escape the mansion with a male heir. I only have eighteen hours left to live. Running is suicide. I have to find Mister and Yolanda. Finding them is the only way to solve this mystery, the only way I have a chance of survival.

He realized that in the two days he'd been at the mansion, he had never once seen these two key figures, nor had he ever thought to seek them out. He was finally aware that he had been unconsciously influenced all along.

Picking up his cane, Jonathan began to move. He opened the door to Miss Lettie's room, but inside was not a bedroom but a washroom. He stepped inside. The door closed automatically behind him. When he opened it again, he was in the first-floor hall.

Every door he opened led to a new, random location. Every window he encountered was sealed shut and indestructible, showing only a deep darkness outside. Every person he met was in a deep slumber, unable to be woken by shaking or splashing water.

After traversing the mansion several times, Jonathan arrived in a lavishly decorated bedroom. On the wall, a strange oil painting caught his eye.

It was a Bennett family portrait. He recognized a young Keelan Bennett, an infant Jacob Bennett, and two teenage girls he had never seen before.

He guessed the older one was Mrs. Etoga Bablot, who had left the mansion, and the younger one must be Yolanda Bennett. The portrait also included a middle-aged woman, who must have been Mister's wife. Mister himself was in the portrait, but his head had been cut clean out of the canvas.

Searching the room, Jonathan found some worthless art, mementos, women's clothing, and simple toiletries. In the nightstand, he found a notebook.

It belonged to the eldest daughter, Etoga Bennett, from before she was married. The notebook was filled with resentment toward her father, Mister Bennett.

When their mother was alive, all the children had witnessed their father's brutal a***e. It had made them all fear their father and pity their mother, leaving them with deep childhood trauma.

Furthermore, Mr. Bennett had a severe preference for his sons. While his two sons could manage a strained relationship with him, his two daughters wanted nothing more than to escape the house. After their mother's death, this desire reached its peak.

The diary didn't describe how Etoga and Yolanda had escaped through marriage, but combining this with Mrs. Melanie's earlier introduction to the family and what he had seen over the past few days, Jonathan understood completely. He understood why Mrs. Etoga had been so eager to leave, and why Miss Yolanda, now a witch, had not harmed anyone else in the family, focusing all her wrath on her father.

So, why should I save Mister? Jonathan thought. Maybe I can talk to Miss Yolanda. Her actions so far don't seem entirely irrational. If she's reasonable, I'll just persuade Miss Lettie to give up the search for the autobiography and the inheritance. We can just negotiate a truce.

He opened the door again and continued his journey through the warped mansion. After several more transitions, he opened a door and found himself not in another room, but in a field of ruins. In the center of the ruins grew a giant oak treehouse.

As he approached, a faint, sinister cackle drifted down from the canopy. At the base of the oak, a wooden door was set into the trunk. He opened it and stepped into a narrow, enclosed spiral corridor. Glowing fruit grew on either side, illuminating the stairs.

The door vanished behind him. He climbed the spiral corridor up into the canopy, arriving at the treehouse.

The dim light of the glowing fruit illuminated the cramped room. A black, six-pointed star was drawn on the floor. In the center of the hexagram lay a dying old man—Mr. Bennett.

He was n***d, twitching, struggling, and vomiting on the floor, but he could not leave the circle.

On the other side of the hexagram stood a humanoid figure. It wore a tattered noblewoman's dress. Its hair had turned into green willow branches, and where its face should have been, there was only a smooth wooden plank. Its exposed skin was as white as a peeled tree trunk. Its hands had become sharp claws, and its feet were two thin wooden poles.

Semi-Mythical Creature Encountered: One of a Million Favored, Yolanda Bennett (Unfavored)