Tunem and Nashra were sitting in her bedroom, where Nashra was struggling to make sense of the situation.
“So…Lilith used to be a human boy before making those wishes, which got the attention of the Society of Light. A goon tried to hypnotize her, but it ended up backfiring, and some sort of alter ego turned the assailant into Alex. Now, the three of them are here so Lilith can get trained, and you can look at Alex?”
“That’s the shape of things, yes.” Tunem responded, “We’re keeping her nature as a Perfect Chimera to instructors and tutors, so as to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to her while she studies. We’re telling you because you’ll likely find out anyway, and to ask if we could have you help her learn about her demonic side.”
“That sounds like a giant pain. Why me?”
“For convenience, really. You’ll be spending a fair amount of time with her, and I think it’ll help you both grow.”
“Doesn’t sound convenient to me.”
Tunem sighed. “If you do it, I’ll let you cut class twice a week with no repercussions, in addition to being taken out of class to help tutor her.”
“Make it three times and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“Deal. I’ve got to take her to do some preliminary tests now, but I have one final request before I do.”
Nashra groaned. “Haven’t you asked enough already?”
“This one is small, and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Please hear me out.”
“Fine. No promises, though.”
“Please try and be gentle about any faux pas she makes. Correct her, but be nice about it. She was still Veiled a few days ago, so this is all new to her. I doubt she’ll ever mean to make bad remarks, but there’s a chance she will anyway, and we don’t want to reinforce any misconceptions she may have.”
“I’ll think about it. Now leave, I want to take a nap.”
Tunem smiled as he left the room. “Thank you.” He strode down the hall and knocked on Alex’s door. “Hey, we’re going to take Lilith out to test her abilities, and we’ll need you to be there.”
There was a shuffling from inside the room. “I’ll be out in a minute. Why do you need me anyway?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.”
Judy and Lilith walked a bit behind Tunem, Alex, and Vithi, letting the three of them converse while they worked their way towards the testing room. “Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Judy asked hesitantly, “I mean, this must be all so bewildering, all heaped on you like this.”
“I…think this is for the best. This is probably the best way to get used to things, and I won’t be in nearly as much danger here as I am outside.”
Judy grabbed Lilith’s hand, and gave it a squeeze. “Well, I’m just a phone call away. If you have any questions about…things or want me to visit, just let me know.”
Lilith nodded, and spent the rest of the walk to the room in companionable silence with Judy, smiling faintly. When they got to the room, Tunem stopped to talk to a woman near the entrance. “Are all the proper wards in place?”
“Yes, sir. Everything is up to the specifications you gave.”
“Excellent. This way, everyone.”
The group shuffled into the room, and Tunem directed Judy and Vithi towards a booth near them, and then led Lilith and Alex to a chair towards the middle of the room.
Once the door was shut behind them, Vithi turned to Judy. “Hey. Just gonna let you know, things are gonna get…odd. Please don’t be scared, Lucas will be fine, we just need to ask some questions.”
Judy frowned. “What do you mean? And why are you calling hi-her Lucas again?”
Vithi shook her head. “It’s just to help clear things up in this instance. Anyway, she’s going to start acting strangely. You’ll see in a second.”
Outside, Lilith had sat down in the chair, and Tunem was drawing a couple of things on the floor. He nodded, then turned towards Lilith. “For the first test, I’m going to try some mind control spells. Don’t freak out, I’ve given Vithi an emergency stop in case she feels things are getting out of hand. You likely won’t remember much, but it’ll be good to establish a baseline for how resistant you are. Is that OK with you?”
Lilith nodded. “Sounds fine.”
“Good. Now, look into my eyes…good, it should be taking effect in three…two…one…now, are you under my control?
“That is correct.” Lilith stated flatly.
“I know you’re lying to me. Alex?”
Lilith pouted. “How did you-”
“Mistress, we need your memories.”
Lilith froze for a second. “Ah. There we are. Well, I suppose this isn’t much of a surprise. What do you want with me?
Alex stepped up. “First things first, how do we break the contract you made with me?
Lilith shrugged. “No clue. I already removed the easy avenue, so your guess is as good as mine. Speaking of, it looks like Lucas decided to get rid of the happiness component. Are you sure you don’t want that back? I could give it to you, you know.”
Alex seemed to stop for a moment before violently shaking her head. “Absolutely not!”
Lilith laughed. “Just messing with you. Anything else you need from me?”
“We’d like to know more about your altered state of consciousness, and what exactly you can do like this. Care to share?” Tunem asked
“Of course, I’ll do what I can, but I’ll leave up some things I think it’ll be nice for Lucas to know, and she can tell you those.” She hummed a bit, waving her hand in the air as if moving things around. “Alright, first off my current state is a bit of a special circumstance. My mind was affected right before I gained mental resistances, and then I got some abilities that ended up with this. As for how I know all this and why I can do things, that has to do with those abilities, which I’ll let Lucas tell you about later. For now, while I’m like this my capabilities are basically like any fae, but far more potent. I just lack the knowledge of how to perform most magic. I got most of what I did from Darragh, so honestly I can’t do too much more.”
“So, does that mean you wiped your knowledge of how to do most of the things you did to me when you chose to erase your memory?” Alex asked.
“No, actually. Lucas knows full well how to do most of what I did, save the contract stuff. She just hasn’t bothered to think about it. Wouldn’t make too much sense to erase knowledge that she could use.”
“And you think Lilith shouldn’t know everything? That she could use this knowledge somehow?”
Lilith shrugged. “I happen to know Lucas better than any of you. I can hazard a guess as to how she’ll react. She’ll start second guessing herself, not trusting any of her power at all. It’ll hamper her growth as a magic user to an unnecessary degree. It’s a fact of her life now, and it’s not one that I think should be revealed yet. The truth will come out sooner or later, but I think it’s better later. There’s a reason the memory-removal spell came with a fail-safe, and I intend to use that to my benefit.”
Tunem pondered this for a moment. “I can see the wisdom in that. However, I reserve the right to inform her of this should I deem it prudent, or should incidents arise that keeping it secret would take more effort than is reasonable.”
“I find that fair. And that’s really all I know. If that’s all you need, I’ll reactivate the spell and you can release the mind magic, alright?”
Tunem nodded. “On your mark.”
Lilith groaned as the magic wore off. “How long was I out?” She asked
“Only a couple of minutes. We just had you pull up some information we thought would be helpful, just to streamline things a little. If you could just read those off to us, that would be excellent.” Tunem replied.
Lilith blinked. Sure enough, there was a large box labelled “New Abilities” in the corner of her vision, which she began to read.
|
Jekyll and Hyde While the user is in an altered form or state of mind against their will, the user has access to all Traits in the Domains corresponding to the altered form or state of mind as if they were already unlocked. Should the user already have unlocked Traits from those domains, the effects of those Traits are magnified. Mad Scientist: The user may, with practice, willingly transform into forms they have been transformed into against their will. While in these forms, the user does not have any additional Traits unlocked, but the effects of already unlocked Traits are slightly increased.
Benevolent Leader Beings bound to the user receive minor bonuses to parameters related to assigned tasks while willingly working in accordance with the user. Should Jekyll and Hyde be active, this Aspect does not take effect.
Tyrant User gains the ability to receive a bonus to parameters by causing an equal penalty to the parameters of a servant. The size of the bonus and penalty may be freely changed. This cannot be used on a being benefiting from Benevolent Leader. Give and Take The user may freely give or take magical energy from beings they are the master of. Template Vessel If servants willingly give their energy to the user, the user may store an additional 10% of the servant’s maximum capacity without experiencing any ill effects. |
Lilith waved away the box with a frown. “When did I get all these? I thought I was supposed to get a pop-up whenever this happened?”
Tunem shrugged. “You most likely got Jekyll and Hyde, Mad Scientist, and Tyrant at about the same time, when you first blacked out when Alex tried to mentally dominate you. As for the rest, you most likely already had them when you first became a Perfect Chimera. It didn’t tell you about every single thing you got at that time, so it would make sense you didn’t get notified for those either.”
“And what about those abilities? How did I get Jekyll and Hyde, and Tyrant? I just blacked out and then Alex’s spell rebounded. I certainly don’t recall any altered state of consciousness, much less forcing someone into servitude”
Tunem tapped his chin, lips moving softly. A slight shiver went down Lilith’s spine, and Alex glanced over at Tunem suspiciously. “Well, if I had to say, blacking out can be considered an altered state of consciousness, and when the spell rebounded you could have been considered the new origin. You have to remember that the “prerequisites” given to you by your abilities are just approximations of what happened to you that caused you to gain them. They’re only really prerequisites in the loosest sense of the term, and this especially applies to Aspects. Someone could have a similar ability from completely different sets of circumstances. I wouldn’t read too much into it.”
Lilith nodded. “Are the names always so…thematically appropriate?”
“Sometimes, but honestly it’s hard to say. Most people don’t have innate knowledge of their Abilities, and don’t bother getting identified. From what we’ve gathered, even names for things in Domains vary from person to person, but some sort of naming scheme is common. Regardless, while you were out, I taught you some simple telekinetic and transformative spells. I have a few sample tests with those, if you would be so kind as to follow my instructions…”
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While the user is in an altered form or state of mind against their will
Small plot hole in this chapter? she was being mind controlled with her permission so the ability shouldn't activate.
Whoops, you're totally right! I've made a note to fix that!
i assumed against their will just meant when an outside force caused it so drinking alcohol and taking mind altering drugs will not trigger it but any spell cast by another person will trigger it
Thanks for the chapter.