Omnipresence: The Created and the Perverted

Omnipresence: The Created and the Perverted

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Omnipresence: The Created and the Perverted
Omnipresence: The Created and the Perverted
Chapter 15: A Night of Madnesses

Chapter 15: A Night of Madnesses

His mouth began to twitch, and as he attempted to walk, he staggered, clutching at his collar. He shook as if something jumped on him, bending his back and knees, while sweat washed down his face.

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Almer Alice He
Mar 17, 2025
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Omnipresence: The Created and the Perverted
Omnipresence: The Created and the Perverted
Chapter 15: A Night of Madnesses
3
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If this is your first time here, welcome aboard⚓️! Let’s start from Chapter 1:

Chapter 1 : The Forest

Chapter 1 : The Forest

Almer Alice He
·
August 24, 2024
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Becoming an annual paid subscriber (ONLY 3.32/mo.) to Alice by the Palm will get you a 6-month paid subscription to this novel (vice versa):

Alice by the Palm
A renewed mind receives what is counterintuitive intuitively. This newsletter was created to unwire carnal minds and inspire people to think like Jesus. Subscribe to tune in with the things above outside of Sundays.
By Almer Alice He

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Places mentioned:

Castle Katella
A self-sufficient, city-like castle where the King and the Queen and the unmarried Valrinos live.
Tyrannoson:
One of the three kingdoms on the Central Continent, ruled by the Valrino family.
Spring
The capital city of Tyrannoson.
Linsaidea:
One of the three kingdoms on the Central Continent, northwest of Tyrannoson, across a narrow sea, the Rustless Sea, to Mandia. A nomadic, rather savage people that tame mammoths.
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Creatures (that can speak and have names) mentioned:

Leopoldo Valrino
The King of Tyrannoson, and the sixth monarch of the Valrino family.
Queen Evelyn
Leopold'o’s wife. Her brother is the King of Dovewing.
Yisreal Valrino
A son of the King. Leopoldo met the young Yisreal in the woods while hunting. Then the King brought him back to Castle Katella and announced him to be his son.
Chester Valrino
The first-born son of King Leopoldo and Queen Evelyn.
Princess Irene
Leopoldo’s daughter-in-law, married to Prince Chester. She’s also a princess of Dovewing and Queen Evelyn’s niece.
Sean Valrino
The second son of the Queen.
Leslie Valrino
The third son of the Queen. When Leopoldo first brought Yisreal back from hunting, the Queen was pregnant with Leslie.
Nicholas Valrino
The youngest son of the Queen.
Carwen Valrino
The youngest child and the only daughter of King Leopoldo and Queen Evelyn.
Meredith
A mysterious murderess—presumably a mermaid—entrusted to Ivan’s custody by Yisreal, who was supposed to execute her.
Mr. Galorde
Ivan’s grandfather’s apprentice, having served both his grandfather and father as their assistant.
Princess Lorien
The daughter of the King of Linsaidea. She arrives in Tyrannoson to fulfill a marriage promise between the two nations, a condition for the Tyrannoson army to pass through the Mammoth Plain and invade Mandia.
Mitheran
One of the two guards and mammoth riders for Princess Lorien. Both of them wear a silver metal mask. Mitheran wears a golden tunic in this chapter that distinguishes himself from the other.

Lust, gluttony, idolatry, pride, envy—how many more sins can you point out in this one chapter?


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15

The Queen turned to Lorien, “My dear, does your mother allow you to walk away like that?”

“I believed the Queen of Linsaidea died the year we crossed the Mammoth Plain,” Yisreal said, staring at Lorien as if he got this information from her face.

Surprised, the Queen glanced at Yisreal and quickly adjusted her words, “It must be so hard for you.”

I giggled, and Galorde shook his head, laughing. Though the Queen was embarrassed, Lorien didn’t seem to be bothered by the mentioning of her dead mother. She still kept silent, her eyes down, avoiding any contact with Yisreal.

On the other side of the banquet, people among us were discussing whom Lorien was going to marry. Some said Yisreal, because he was appointed to escort her to Castle Katella; some said Sean, who was the oldest other than Chester; the rest bet on Leslie, because he was not in the army.

“What do you think?” Galorde asked.

“Nicholas.”

“Come on.”

“Why not? He’s the youngest, and our King probably doesn’t expect him to succeed the throne.”

“It’s not like the King is gonna die anytime soon,” Galorde said. “It’d be Sean, definitely not Yisreal.”

“How do you know?”

Galorde shook his head with a smile. “You watch.”

“Maybe the Queen will gladly make that happen,” I argued.

“Just watch,” Galorde assured me.

Before I noticed, the night had slipped into the best part, as everyone was drunk at different levels—at least, I could say it for myself. This was the first time I got drunk, ever, and the first time I attended a banquet like this, being in the presence of many beautiful women in the heart of the world, Castle Katella. Galorde had fallen asleep on the bench in the courtyard himself when I went out for a piss, and so no one would notice my whereabouts tonight.

Irene and Chester were dancing, as were the Queen and the King, and among them were the high-ranked officials and ministers. Leslie moved next to Princess Lorien to chat with her, clattering his cup with hers that was on the table. She drank as he wished, which encouraged Sean and Nicholas to gather around her and bring her over to dance.

Yisreal remained at his seat, though he was clearly done with eating. He observed the two guards of Princess Lorien, who were closely monitoring their Princess on the dance floor. Yisreal stood up and sauntered to their table, acting like he was drunk. They didn’t stand up but simply looked at him as he picked up their plates and made some comments I couldn’t hear through the din. The two guards reacted passively, and Yisreal hailed a servant over, who took their plates away—on which there were only fish bones—and returned with two whole roasted chickens, some ribs, and steak. He tore a leg off the chicken, swung it across their faces, and then held it in front of the mouth of one of them persistently. The guard took the drumstick and put it back beside the chicken. Yisreal shrugged, and the guard almost threw up as Yisreal walked away.

I stepped up, out of a drunk curiosity, to sit down beside them and ate the dish they had refused. They moved away from me and continued to watch over their Princess—alas, she was no longer here, nor were Sean, Nicholas, or Leslie.

“Ivan!” Chester turned around as I knocked into him while tailing after the two Linsaidea guards. “You are surely drunk!”

“My apology, Your Highness.”

He waved and asked, “So, what do you think? Are you enjoying yourself?”

“I surely am.”

“So are my brothers,” he laughed.

“But you’re not?”

“Not so much, if I’m honest,” he whispered. “She came a few years late.”

“She was still a child back then.”

“You probably don’t know this, but I married Irene when she was still a child as well.” Seeing my face, he laughed, “No, not like that. We waited until she was old enough.”

“Will Carwen be married soon?”

“Probably, though we don’t want her to, unless she stays here.”

Before he walked away, I brought up the murderess he had Yisreal execute. He looked at me as if he were amused, but my instinct told me he wasn’t.

“Yisreal had no motive to cover for her. I trust him,” he said.

“What if he did?”

He glanced down in a sluggish way, whether it was his drunkenness or his boredom.

I continued, “What if she is still alive and—”

“Ivan,” he cut me short, putting his thick, heavy hand on my shoulder, “There is no ‘what if’ in this House. Whatever happens, we deal with it. Think no more.”

He walked away to a minister and his wife, Irene. My impulse—under the influence of the wine—was to go drag Meredith to him and ask him to “deal with it.”

I got out of the hall into the chilly fresh air of early spring, brought a jug of wine, and intended to drink all the way to the Castle wall on my horse—whose name was now Luna—to see the mammoth, I guess. Luna didn’t take the most direct path but detoured away from the paved avenue to the grass, bushes, and woods surrounding the Castle. I could just sleep in the woods if that was what Luna wanted.

However, I saw light in the dark woods, and it turned out to be fire. There was a belt of stone pavement that prevented wildfires from spreading to the palace from the woods, but still, this was stupid.

The closer I approached, the clearer I heard the laughing and singing. Luna was drawn to it—the light or the voices, I wasn’t sure—until I saw Meredith and Carwen in a small, barren open field amid the trees, dancing barefoot around the bonfire, wearing only their nightdresses. Carwen’s shoes and outfits—her belt, her tonic, her cape, and her dress—were laid beside the fire, and what she wore was never supposed to be seen by anyone but her maids. The collars were off her shoulders, and her legs stretched out from the skirt as she danced with Meredith.

It was better for me not to interrupt them. I tried to turn Luna around, but she was unwilling to move, and I couldn’t blame her—the singing of a mermaid was hard to walk away from. I got off the horse and hid behind a trunk in the shade. Meredith was teaching Carwen to sing like her, repeating the same melody over and over, refining her every cadence and pitch while caressing her.

“You’re prettier,” Carwen said softly, upset. And then the crackling of the fire replaced Meredith’s music.

“You’re both prettier than me,” Carwen said.

Meredith combed her hair with her fingers and began braiding it. “You’re the princess.”

“Why does that even matter? She is a princess too.”

“They are not the same.”

Carwen turned around abruptly as Meredith was holding the strands of her hair. “What if she married Yisreal?”

Meredith hesitated in giving an answer.

“I’m asking you!” Carwen insisted. She had never acted more like a brat than tonight.

“Then he would go to Linsaidea with her.”

“That can’t happen,” Carwen shook her head. “He is my father’s son. It’d be a shame for my family.”

“Maybe she won’t marry Yisreal then,” Meredith said.

It didn’t quite convince Carwen, as she looked deeply troubled in her silence.

“What are you thinking?”

Carwen looked up at her. “We must stop that from happening.”

“So we will.”

Meredith stroked her cheeks and kissed her forehead. Carwen buried her face in Meredith’s neck.

Just about then, the footsteps of intruders disturbed all three of us. They were the two guards of Princess Lorien. Carwen immediately grabbed her clothes from the ground and covered herself. Seeing Meredith and Carwen, they intended to walk away, but Meredith stopped them.

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