Despite being the clear practical decision, fleeing from what would have been an exciting fight irritated Sable more than she thought it would. Several times, she considered turning around. Her better senses pushed away the ridiculous idea.

There were other practical reasons to flee. As much as wanting to be on full health and higher mana for the encounter, Sable needed to test something that she’d been putting off. A beast like the [Frostfang Titan] would make a great thrall, but she had two slots remaining, and had yet to discover exactly how dismissing previous thralls worked.

She wanted to save her last two slots for important recruitments. Roman, to name the obvious, should the necromancer decide to take Sable up on her offer. The fifth slot for whoever else. Preferably a sapient—though that came with obvious issues of morality. She’d yet to make up her mind on how she wanted to handle her mind-control ability, but the utility of it was plain as day. If she could find, say, a political figure in the human kingdoms to take control of, her campaign could be greatly simplified.

But as much as putting herself on the radar of the Children of the Keepers, forcible mind-control revolted her sense of ethics—which she couldn’t afford to abandon, else she become a real tyrant, and not a masquerading sort-of one.

Hence, she was undecided on how to use the slots. But she wanted them open.

At the same time, she wanted the [Frostfang Titan]. Constantly upgrading her hoard’s guardian seemed smart.

So could she dismiss previous thralls? Free a slot for another recruitment?

The idea bothered her. It felt disloyal, which was probably overly sentimental, but that didn’t change the fact it was the way she felt when it came to Granite and Ignisfang. Not just that, but what did it mean if she gave them intelligence, then took it away? Wasn’t that death, of a sorts? Even if they weren’t fully sapient in the way Aylin was, the boost to their cognitive abilities was clear. Being able to speak with her, to name the obvious proof. So if she revoked that, then wasn’t she killing them in some sense?

She probably couldn’t afford to be this mawkish when it came to her monstrous recruits. Maybe she shouldn’t even be keeping Aylin, seeing how quickly the goblin girl was being outpaced. Sable really hated disloyalty, though, and so her practical side warred with her emotional one. Plus, at least in Aylin’s case, titles seemed to be helping her along. She would make a useful asset down the line.

But the ability had to be tested. She needed to know if thralls were permanently under her control, or if she could dismiss them. Ignisfang, Sable reluctantly admitted, was the one she would try it on. Since he was her designated lair-guardian, then it made sense he would be replaced with the Frostfang Titan, if possible.

It made more sense to replace Granite, being the lower-level monster under her control, but she would worry about that after finding out whether it was even possible.

After familiarizing herself with the mountain peak’s location—it would be rather unfortunate if she couldn’t find her way back—she flew back to her hoard and set down. The orange and gray-scaled wyrm was curled up to the side of her pile of treasure like he usually was. He dipped his head in respect at Sable’s arrival. Yellow predator eyes surveyed her with wariness.

A pang of guilt attacked her, but she pushed it away. This really did need to be tested. [I need to see if I can release my control of you,] Sable said. [I’m not sure what will happen, or if I even can.] Dominated targets could break free of the effect themselves, Sable knew, so she suspected she could release them herself—though didn’t know for certain. [Are you ready?]

Ignisfang didn’t hesitate at the request. [The Mistress’s will shall not be denied. This lowly wyrm will do as she requests.]

That he didn’t seem bothered by his recently acquired sapience being taken away was relieving, even if it didn’t fully assuage her.

Releasing Ignisfang might revert him to his hostile natural state, but Sable wasn’t worried. While not trivial, her fight against him the first time hadn’t been difficult, and she’d once again grown in strength since then.

Without further ceremony, she groped out for the mental link that bound her to the wyrm. Grasping it, she focused her intent and tried to release her control.

Surprisingly, she succeeded without difficulty. Ignisfang stiffened as, presumably, his previously granted intelligence disappeared—as well as his forced allegiance to Sable.

He lunged at Sable, teeth bared, but Sable had expected it, and took off into the air.

She checked her thrall status.

[ Thrall capacity: 3/5 ]

Every time she had captured a target before, it had given her an updated report on how many thralls she had. Releasing Ignisfang hadn’t reduced that number. She still had three of five. Why? The link was broken, as the hissing wyrm beneath her suggested.

Frowning, she focused inward and dug for information.

She didn’t have the answer dropped into her mind in the form of the usual voiceless system response. Instead, it came through intuition as she puzzled over the topic. The link between her and Ignisfang had been broken, but she sensed that it still remained nonetheless. It would take time to truly dissipate, for one of her five mental-links to be freed up to be used on someone else.

How long? The answer wasn’t clear-cut, but she got the impression it would be in the order of weeks rather than days. A good chunk of time.

Huh.

And since the link wasn’t really broken, Sable suspected reinstating it wouldn’t be too difficult either. She wouldn’t have to attack the wyrm to weaken and claim him once more.

Indeed, with a simple application of [Dominate], Ignisfang was under her control again, and the hissing and spitting wyrm stilled, no longer mindlessly aggressive. He slithered over to Sable’s pile of treasure and curled up there.

[My apologies, Great Tyrant,] he said. [I forgot myself.]

Sable set back down into the grass.

So. What did she do with this information? Links could be broken, but took time to fully go away, and open up a space for a new member. She couldn’t recruit and send away thralls however she pleased; she needed to be strategic with how she used the slots.

An idea hit her. Would killing Ignisfang speed that timer up? Since there wouldn’t be a target for the link to grasp onto at all? Or would the time restriction be in place no matter what?

She obviously wasn’t going to test the idea. Maybe the pure pragmatist would, but not her. She didn’t even like the idea of tossing aside her thralls as soon as they weren’t strictly useful, much less killing them off.

Regardless, since she couldn’t free up a slot to recruit the [Frostfang Titan], she probably wouldn’t be recruiting the creature at all. While such a powerful beast would be useful to command around, her problem wasn’t strictly firepower. She wanted the slots to be open for people like Roman. Plus, maybe filling all five slots locked out her ability to use [Dominate]. It had saved her life during the confrontation with the cultist, so having that ability on stand-by was something she wanted to keep if possible.

Hopefully, more skills related to collecting and maintaining her thralls came in the future. She’d already learned—or was at least suspicious—that her desires influenced what skills she received. Or maybe just by design skills patched up holes in her power set, and that was why she constantly received abilities useful to her goals.

Since she wanted to heal before tackling the Frostfang Titan, then subsequently moving over her hoard, that meant she had an evening open to herself. She needed to check in with Skatikk at some point, but it was right around noon; she had around five or more hours to herself.

And seeing how she didn’t want to expend herself in any way, with recovery being the point, that left her with only a few options. She could scout her way down south, getting a feel for the landscape, and locating human lands, or she could go visit Aylin and Granite in the dungeon. Sable wanted to get a better feel for her human form, and squashing low level mobs would require very little mana, but still provide training for her new body.

She mulled over her choices, then decided. Low-stakes dungeoneering it was. Maybe she’d even lug them all to a tier one dungeon. It was time her minion duo started tackling more difficult foes. Since thralls couldn’t be swapped out easily, they needed to get stronger. As much for their sake as hers.