ARC 7-Cursed Fates-74 (Patreon)

He doesn’t look like an assassin.

It’s not just the ropes binding him to the chair and his lack of clothes, Alana insisting on stripping him to find hidden weapons, never mind said weapons aren’t a danger to anyone with me and Geneva in the room. He simply isn’t…intimidating. His slight frame and lack of height combined with an unassuming face, bah. A killer should look fierce. His glare should be enough to cut a man in half.

Not…this.

At least he has the composure of a professional. Despite trembling in the slight chill for several minutes, his eyes remain steady and he hasn’t tried to utter a single plea for mercy from behind his gag. The air about him is heavy with dread as he awaits his fate.

“You don’t have to be here for this. Either of you.”

“He’s not leaving my sight,” Alana proclaims from where she’s leaning against the wall. Still armed, despite the threats having been neutralized but I know better than to tell her to relax.

“It should be an interesting lesson,” Talia adds from her perch at the end of the bed.

“…you heard. Speak up for the class, pet.”

Geneva, standing next to the bound man, smiles indulgently. “Of course, my summoner. A little review never hurts. Then, will you explain the two ways to apply mental magic?”

My eyes narrow but the succubus isn’t fazed in the least, tail whipping slowly with amusement. This Abyss-damned creature. One moment she is yanking on my emotions like a child with a toy and the next, she’s the embodiment of understanding and patience as she plays the role of teacher. How do I punish something like her? How do I bring her in line? How do I win?

“Mental magic can be used internally or externally. Internal magic focuses on boosting the mental capabilities of the caster. It can also be used to control mental processes, though dipping your fingers in your own mind is dangerous. External use can be used to bolster or dampen mental capabilities but is severely hampered by the need for mana intrusion.”

“A wonderful answer. There are two ways to interrogate someone using mental magic. The first is using internal magic to make yourself more sensitive to their thought emissions.” Fire sparks to life around her, the flames forming numbers and letters. A spell. Ah, I should have—

“Here you are, Lou.”

Fen extends a piece of paper. Written in beautiful cursive script is the spell, as well as several others, though there are strange gaps in a couple of them.

“…thanks.”

The second succubus steps back, fading into the background with impeccable skill, and Geneva quickly recaptures my attention. “The benefit of the first method is that the spell itself is relatively simple. This—" A finger points to the densest clump of variables in the spell made of flames. “—is the most complicated part of the spell. It defines the part of the brain that can understand thought emissions. Luckily, there is no benefit from understanding each part besides the academic. It also scales simply. The more magic you pour into the spell, the more sensitive you become to the emissions.”

“Simply, but not easily,” I grumble. It’s a channeled spell, which means mana must be continuously supplied to maintain its effect. That scaling applies to mana per second. Something like that can drain a core before a caster realizes what’s happening.

“This method is best utilized in conjunction with mundane interrogation tactics, using it in small burst to detect falsehoods or direct questioning. Of course, it has the obvious weakness of being reliant on the caster’s interrogation skills. Personally, I have found that the proper application of pain is best. Nothing focuses the mind like pain and the threat of death.”

“Mmph!”

Our captor finally makes a sound, the casual discussion of torture enough to break his composure. We ignore him.

The flames around Geneva transform into the next spell on the list. “Now, the most common external spell. It is quite similar to the previous spell in that it allows the caster to better interpret the thought emissions of their target, but it does so by creating a connection between the caster and the target. That connection makes reading the target’s thoughts infinitely easier to read, but it requires exponentially more in mana to create and maintain.”

“A base cost of 50 mana that scales depending on the mana of the target you have to overcome?” I mutter in disbelief.

“That is a spell that has been optimized by myself over centuries. Many are not so efficient. I once knew a creature the equivalent of your masters in its society, considered the best in the field of mind magic, whose own spell has an initial cost of two hundred mana.”

If I didn’t know it already, her little comment would perfectly how much of a monster Geneva is. And how valuable. “Well, it’s still too much for me.”

“Indeed. When it comes to any spell requiring a connection, time is essential, as no creature has a bottomless core. It requires practice before it becomes more efficient than internal use.”

“When you say practice—"

“Unless you are particularly talented in the area like Umphrieltalia, then you are looking at decades of dedicated study. The mind is a complex opponent, no matter how meager the intelligence of the creature wielding it.”

Was that an insult? I feel like it was. Or maybe I’m too sensitive to the succubus’ words after our argument. “What are these other spells?” There are six of them, divided into two groups of three.

“You are dedicated to growing stronger now that there are dragons to fight, hm? Then those are the essential spells you must learn. The first three are internal spells. Fen can explain them later.”

She knows I’m planning something, even if I’m not sure what that something is. Saints, of course she does. She practically dared me to. Why? She always has an angle. What does she get out of forcing me to take a harder stance against her actions?

“For now, we have a mind to search.” Her pink eyes gain an alluring glow. The bound assassin pushes against the rope as the succubus approaches him but his struggles amount of nothing. His eyes start to glow but the moment I register it, his face snaps to the side from the force of Geneva’s tail whipping him across the face.

“None of that,” she coos as her hand gently strokes the cheek she just bruised. He shivers as his chin is grasped in her dainty claws, pinching the skin without breaking it. “This is going to happen. No one, not your fellow hunters, not your guildmaster, not even your saints, can save you from me. There is only one thing you can do for yourself now. Behave, and this doesn’t have to hurt. But fight me…”

The assassin screams behind his gag as his body goes rigid. Every muscle is tensed as he strains against his binding, veins pulsing near his eyes as his face is flushed with blood. It last for five breaths. Then he slumps into the chair, tears pooling in the corner of his eyes.

“Shhh.” Geneva’s claws comb through his short dark hair as she holds his head to her small chest. The man shakes in her hold but doesn’t dare fight back, the memory of whatever he endured petrifying him. “I can make that last all night. And all day. You can spend the rest of a very long life being torn apart and stitched back together, over and over, until your mind shatters from the horror. Is that what you want?”

“MMPH!” the poor assassin shouts, shaking his head in the negative for good measure. It’s almost enough to make me feel sorry for him. Almost.

“Then be a good boy and answer my questions. Ah ah, not with your voice. Focus on the answers. Give your mind over to me.”

Seeing she’s prepared to start her questioning, I cast the first spell. There is a small pinch as the mana is drained from my core and the effect is immediate.

Using the minimum amount of mana to activate the spell, I grasp only the vaguest hints of the thought around me. From Talia, I detect interest in the proceedings and that her attention is focused on Geneva. Alana is much harder to read as she is a jumble of emotions. I think…anger is the strongest amongst them. Or perhaps that’s anxiety. I can’t imagine my stalwart knight is happy with what she’s witnessing. She’d cut an enemy down in a heartbeat but torturing a man? She may recognize it as a necessity, but I doubt she approves. She was raised in the north, where conflicts are settled out in the open. These things done in the shadows must go against everything she was raised to believe.

The succubi are impenetrable. Mentally, they are voids to my newly heightened sense. A part of me wonders if they’re intentionally shielding themselves from me but the worry is quickly dismissed. At my level, I can’t ascertain anything of relevance. It’s much more likely that this is either another passive defense or they’re simply accustomed to shielding their thoughts. If I lived in a world where my peers all had mental affinities and centuries to develop their magic, mental defenses would be important to me as well.

“Let’s begin. A simple question to start. What is your name?”