Chapter 1426 (Patreon)

It took Lia and me quite a bit longer than I had planned to get going. Luna wanted to have a word, too, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter much, since we had to wait for it anyway. The end of the day, dusk, the time when the detestable Sun vanished behind the horizon- that was when we fun people could cause some mischief, hidden away from those burning rays. And that was exactly what Lia and I were planning, though we dropped Luna and Silva off at Maggie’s community before we went to have fun. Apparently, the month of effectively forced isolation in the Nexus Tower was enough to make Luna crave some social contact, and the easiest way to get her fix was to visit that community. I had a feeling she also wanted to make sure the healers we had trained were skilled enough to handle the insane number of advancing pregnancies, but I wasn’t about to ask. If I did, I’d get roped into helping, something I was avoiding to the best of my ability. 

“Seems my colour scheme doesn’t work any longer,” I complained, glancing over at Lia. Her clothes, a leather and fur ensemble in dark browns and earth tones she had traded for in Maggie’s community, still allowed her to easily blend into the night. In comparison, my own clothes were made from white silk, partially diaphanous, making me stand out like a light in the dark forest. It hadn’t been as bad when the ground was covered with snow, though the thin silk had an almost otherworldly sheen from the enchantments Luna and I had woven into it; still, that was neither here nor there. My cloak, with its umbral colour, dark enough to make it seem like it was absorbing the light, didn’t help much, as it was actually darker than the night around me. Combined with the contrast between that and the silk’s sheen, I was sticking out like a light.

“To be fair, your clothes were never about blending in,” Lia chuckled, knowing full well I could only sneak around in my get-up because magic made me blend in. Otherwise, no amount of stealthy movement or blending in could make people miss my presence.

“Anyway,” I artfully redirected the conversation, not wanting to admit that fact. “Where do you think we should go to look for volunteers for my experiments? Preferably not volunteers with strong ties to the divine, especially not to Sunna.” 

“Why that caveat?” she asked, looking slightly disappointed that we couldn’t go mess with the sunburned crazies.

“The Gods can get a bit tetchy when it comes to the souls of their followers. I think it’s a little too close to stepping on their toes, and while I would love to mess with Sunna directly, I’m not confident I can dodge stellar death rays. So, I’d rather not go out of my way to piss in her cornflakes, or whatever cereal she prefers in the morning,” I explained. 

“Ah,” Lia frowned, possibly disturbed by the mental image. “Yeah, I can see where that would be an issue. Especially getting to her place to piss in the cereal, I don’t think her abode will have any convenient shadows for you to hide in, Miss Glows-in-the-dark.” 

“True,” I had to admit; hoping Sunna’s domain had any shadows was a long shot.

“Regardless, we have people to find, and I have experiments to perform,” I reminded her. 

“And you know that my information is over a month out of date? Though I can point you in the direction of a village or two, we can go from there,” she told me, making me nod in agreement. 

From there, it took us over two days of searching to track down a suitable target for my experiments. Mostly because the direction Lia had explored was far from any of my anchors, which made me wonder whether heading to one of them and simply checking the surrounding area for smoke would have been faster. But it didn’t really matter; we moved in that direction, checked for smoke or other signs that humans were nearby, and kept going until we found something. 

Not that the place we found was truly interesting. It looked like a group of people had come out to mine salt, or some other mineral. There wasn’t any other explanation for them to labouriously break rocks from a quarry, break them up until they were portable and then load them on a strange beast of burden. I had no idea what their animals were, which made me wonder whether I should get close and use Observe or Identify. Visually, they looked like a cross between a donkey and a goat, or maybe goats scaled up by a serious margin; I wasn’t sure. They were donkey-sized, and their heads were donkey-like too, but their balance and, from what I could see, legs and hooves were goat-like. Magically, they had some affinity to Earth, but nothing major, nothing close to those sheep we had seen at the Den. But they were interesting in their own right, but not interesting enough to take priority over my experiment. 

Ghosting through the night around their camp, Lia and I kept looking for a good target or two. We didn’t want to assault the group directly; fourteen people were too many to control easily, even if we could beat them. Their levels were relatively low, but that only meant they might die too easily, and I didn’t want to kill if I could avoid it. Well, I didn’t want to kill without intending to; it felt a little wasteful. So, we either had to avoid the main group or be careful in subduing them. 

To our luck, we were just making our second circle around the camp when I noticed movement in the night. A pair was slowly heading away from the camp, clearly trying to sneak off, and Lia and I exchanged a glance before we moved ahead of them, curious about what was going on.

When we reached them, maybe ten minutes after they started sneaking out, I had to forcibly control my amused reaction; otherwise, my laughter would have alerted the nearby group. The pair was engaged in a furious make-out session, their hands already pawing at the other’s clothes, and it looked like one wanted to shove his tongue down his compatriot’s throat. 

Needless to say, given their preoccupation, Lia and I could've waltzed up to them with bells and whistles and they wouldn’t have noticed, but that was only a theory. As it was, we stayed stealthy until we were close enough to spell them to sleep, only for me to notice they were resisting my compulsion. Not by virtue of willpower or some other aspect of mental strength; they were simply too excited to fall under my spell, or maybe just too horny. 

Lia and I couldn’t help but exchange an amused glance when my first attempt fizzled out, just like my second, despite the added power. It looked like my subtlety had been beaten by the physical urgency only a pair of young adults could show.

“Let them have this,” Lia suggested, her voice so soft only I could hear her. 

“Fine,” I nodded, feeling a little amused. Still, after a moment of amusement, I decided to experiment a little with something entirely different. Mind Magic could be such a fascinating tool, and here I could use it for something entirely new. 

So I started channelling my Mind Magic, using it to enhance and strengthen that pair's experience. If I could induce pain or fear, I certainly could induce pleasure, dampen hesitation and shame and give these two the experience of their lives.

And that's exactly what I did, using my Mind Magic to turn their physical urgency into something even stronger. It didn’t take them long to go from making out to something more mature; their clothes came off, and things got loud quickly. Glancing at Lia, I saw her blush furiously, which made me grin even harder. 

“I might have to muffle the sound so it doesn’t reach the camp,” I chuckled, watching Lia turn away, no longer willing to watch the pair. Only she hadn’t turned completely, and I could see her keep watching them out of the corner of her eye.

To make sure our targets could fully enjoy themselves, I made sure nobody could hear them before adding more Mind Magic and raising their pleasure to an even higher level. Maybe that's why their activities were cut short, well, by virtue of early completion. Their moaning and groaning certainly climaxed rather strongly, and the pair was clinging to one another, shaking like leaves in a whirlwind. 

That state was useful to me, as it made them incredibly susceptible to my influence, especially since my magic was already present. Now, I only had to drag them under, their bodies succumbing to magical sleep and leaving them rather vulnerable. Just as I had intended.