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Fantasy Terrorchild: Awakening

Offer Sharyx a Lesson New
Option 1: 4 Votes (57% - Range: 1-57)
Option 2: 3 Votes (43% - Range: 58-100)
Fae Roll: 93

2. Offer Sharyx a Lesson - Unlike Embryx and Kulka, Sharyx is in high spirits, having cared little about Stalna. You decide you could use some levity, and ask her what she would like to learn tonight.

The princess fidgets slightly at your question, her excitement overflowing. "Oh ho ho ho... In that case," she answers, flashing her devilish smile, "I want to learn manipulation. It'll be tidier for me to take control of Aelesh if I can force my errant countrymen to love me when I enter their sight - and to offer me their prized possessions and darkest secrets with the utmost sincerity."

"Yeah?" you reply, unimpressed. "The spell wears off, you know."

Sharyx snickers and, amazingly, you realize that she's playing a joke on your expectations. "Of course, of course..." she says. "It'll still be tidier, regardless."

You find yourself cracking a smile at her self-awareness, but deep down you're also weary of her selection. Manipulation is dangerous - and you're well aware of the threat that Sharyx could pose, should things grow sour between you. On the other hand, you know that Kulka would want you to continue fostering her, and making her a better sister to the coven. "...I'll teach you the basics of compulsion while we're at it," you explain, "since we rely on crows for communication. It won't take long,"

Just like Corrinth two years ago, you begin by calling forth a crow from the trees above. As you explain the nature of imposing your will upon the bird, as well as the limits of the technique, you can see the changeling creeping forward, up to Kulka's side, so that she can watch you repeat the lesson she gave you - at least until Seith leads her away for bloodletting to complete his strange ritual. You glance over to her, briefly, and the two of you lock eyes for only the briefest of instants. You can only imagine what sort of thoughts and feelings are rattling around in her skull right now, as she reflects on that final night before her life began to unravel.

After a few minutes of explanation and demonstration, it comes time for Sharyx to show what she's learned, and she easily does so. By pointing her sword, she commands the bird to follow her directions. As she makes a slow circle with the tip of the blade, the crow hops along the ground in a similar large circle. "...I've got it! I've got it!! Yes - wonderful!" Sharyx raves. "Thank you, sister!"

"Good job," you say, finding yourself understanding, more than ever, the truth of Kulka's words when it comes to leadership within the coven. She said that elder sisters arrive at their status due to their ability to pass on the coven's teachings, and not from their power alone. Sharyx clearly adores you for your role in the Grand Design, but someday, she'll be a powerful witch and likely the Queen of Aelesh, and she'll look back on these humble beginnings. That you've chosen to foster her ambitions and guide her to greatness will grant you so both so much more than fear, paranoia, and rivalry could...

And then you think of Veralt, and how he came to join your circle because he believed in you and what you were trying to achieve. While you learned shadowmancy from him, you offered him little in return, and mocked him and Corrinth for loving each other. The resentment you caused by trying to place Embryx in control of his side of the army became a sense of betrayal as Embryx attempted to conspire with Wag against him, and the end result of all of these poor decisions was Corrinth's attempt on Embryx' life, the changeling's final plunge into helpless derangement, and then a disorganized, bloody battle that nearly caused the deaths of everyone in your circle - only prevented by your timely arrival in a state of divine rage.

You can't allow anything like that to happen again. You'll teach Sharyx without reservations, and do your best to remain allies.

"Now, let's talk about manipulation," you explain. "All magical techniques begin with imposing your will - whether it's upon the bodies and minds of others, upon their souls, or upon space or nature. So the question of imposing upon emotions is this: where do emotions reside?"

"The mind," Sharyx answers, confidently.

You shake your head. "Truthfully no, they're unconscious and run deeper than that. To manipulate emotions, you have to prod the soul and get a reaction."

Her eyes widen. "The soul?"
"Yes. It's actually not even hard to reach the soul;" you explain. "The first thing I did when I awakened to magic was accidentally kill someone by ripping his soul out of his body. Obviously, manipulation is a much finer technique. Done correctly, they won't even know that you've got them under your spell."

"Unless you want them to know," Kulka interjects. "That can be useful at times."

You give a sickly smile, remembering how you toyed with the Queen of Turadal before her death. "That's true. And since emotions precede conscious thoughts and actions, you can watch them tie themselves into knots trying to justify themselves as they bend to your will."


"I see..." Sharyx says, quietly giddy at the thought of the power you're offering her. "It's not quite what I thought it was; better in some ways, more limited in others. ...How does one prod a soul?"

Now, you reflect on Diala's teachings as you pass them to another. "...The first thing you should understand is that the soul both is and isn't a single item. Just like the body, it's a whole that's made up of parts, and just as you can attack a particular faculty without killing your foe by attacking a single part - such as blinding someone by attacking their eyes - you can locate specific threads within the weave of the soul and tap or tug on them. You can imagine advanced manipulation as similar to playing a lyre."

Sharyx seems confused by the analogy. "But how will I know which threads are which?" she asks.

"Because you have a soul as well, and common threads resonate," you answer. You sigh as you try to explain it in your own words. "Let's say you want to strike fear, alright? You know what deep, primal fear is only because you've felt it before... That instinctual memory of the fear is what guides you as your magic reaches into a victim, seeking its counterpart. When you reach it, you'll know, and then it's just a matter of prodding it. You can be subtle if you like, or you could violently seize it and induce a wild reaction."

"And that's what happened to Corrinth?" Sharyx asks.

You nod. "Now... I want you to see if you can manipulate me. I want you to make me laugh, if you can."

Sharyx accepts the task diligently, pointing her sword first at the sky, and then, carefully, to you. "...I don't feel you there," she anxiously says after a moment.

"Remember to use your will," you reply.

She swallows hard, looking deep into you as she tries to produce a spell. You sense compulsion, however, and quickly push back, easily overcoming her weak technique.

"That's compulsion, Sharyx, you have to look deeper than- ah ha ha ha HA!" You break into cackling laughter in the midst of coaching her, suddenly overcome with myth and malice - a dangerous combination. "There it is! Now... Want to see what I find funny!?"

"I don't think we do," Kulka interrupts as Sharyx backs away fearfully. The lich breaks the hex and releases you from your runaway excitement. "Do be more careful, Agranne. I'd have told her to cast her spell on the dog instead."

You grunt in agreement, feeling embarrassed that you couldn't resist Sharyx' hex after so easily defying her compulsion. You suppose Kulka was silently teaching you a lesson as well - about treating your charges with the respect they deserve. "Well... I suppose that's the lesson, then. How do you feel, Sharyx?"

She places her sword back in its scabbard.
"Ever-thankful, elder sister. ...I cast compulsion by accident, but when you resisted it I could feel you pneuma against mine, and I could finally sense your soul."

"Good," you reply. "From now on, you won't need the first step, since you know what you're looking for."

She grins, unsettling as ever.
"That I do, Agranne."

---
A while after you conclude Sharyx' first experiments in compulsion and manipulation, Seith stands up, dusts off his hands, and declares that the ritual is ready to begin. The rest of your group gathers around the campfire in guarded curiosity. "That's close enough," Seith warns. "You don't want to be too close to a chaos-eater unless you're one of the dishes."

"Aren't we, though?" Embryx asks, impatiently.

Seith shrugs. "That depends on whether you still want it, after you see how it works."

Embryx huffs. "It's not like I'm going to change my mind..."

"Mm-hmm. We'll see," Seith says with an innocent smile before pulling a fife out of his pocket. "You may want to plug your ears for this," he warns, before blowing a high note that echoes through the woods. You do as he says and cover your ears, and so Embryx follows your lead. He plays another blasting note, and then again, before breaking into a jaunty melody that doesn't quite make musical sense. Even through your palms, you pick up on the strange progression of the song, and you sense that you almost know how it's meant to continue. A fixation gradually settles over you, and you want to remove your hands and hear the song in its full beauty - only through a heavy exertion of will are you able to stay seated and keep your hands where they belong.

It's just then that you remember that you didn't order Corrinth to do the same, and when you look over to where she had been, she's gone. Instead, she's crawling on the ground, following behind the voidsinger as he circles the fire as if hypnotized by his fife playing. At the same time, Kulka and Sharyx are watching with their ears uncovered, merely curious at the entire display, until you watch the drow's expression turn to genuine horror. Out among the trees, the glints of eyes in the darkness begin to emerge - fae visitors from all around, all being drawn in for the ritual - but they stop at the edge of the camp's clearing, warded by Seith's preparations. They grow restless, circling outside as his song grows more chaotic and theatrical. Still, however, the elf plays on as if unbothered by the fae now thrashing at the invisible barrier he's created for their kind - all except for Corrinth, Embryx, and you.

This goes on for several minutes, the agony and temptation growing with each passing second until you're going cross-eyed just trying to shut it all out. Something has to give - either the creatures outside the camp will overcome the weak barrier that Seith created, or you'll lose control of yourself and join Corrinth in utter helplessness. Then, just as you think you can't hold out any longer, there's a tremendous commotion from the outside of the camp and the eyes begin to scatter. Seith, still playing his hypnotic tune, locks eyes with the new presence emerging from the dark - a beast so large and horrifying that it resembles no fae you've heard of - and he guides it inward. With its slithering form and numerous appendages, it easily breaks through the magical barrier and invades the space.

It looms over the fire, nearly swallowing it in its vast and horrifying darkness. You look to Sharyx, who hasn't moved, but is clutching her sword and cowering behind it, unable to lay eyes on the monstrosity before you. Even Kulka's mummified jaw hangs open in shock. At last, as the creature is within striking distance of Seith, he stops in his tracks, takes two steps backwards until Corrinth, who has yet to notice the intruder, is between them with her unfocused eyes lost in a hypnotic bliss. Gently, Seith presses his foot into her back, pinning her to the ground as he continues to play, her arms and legs squirming and swimming in the air.

And then, a single, shimmering and wet tendril reaches down from the beast, caresses her cheek, and then drives itself into her ear.
Her screams, still the pitch of a child's, ring out as loud as the fife and break you free from the music's pull. You want to look away; even if you've seen some horrible things - things that you've had a direct hand in causing, this is something that until mere moments ago, you were ready to consent to have happen to you. The creature is ripping and tugging at her, its slithering tongue consuming something within her skull that you can only assume is her brain matter.

But you don't look away. The horrid spectacle continues until Corrinth's screams die down, and the monster slows its consumption. Seith's playing slows as well as he sets a more relaxed pace for the cleansing ritual, playing more gently for his otherworldly assistant. Then, as the melody appears to finally resolve itself, the monster seems to hesitate. Seith stops playing, only for a moment. "Corrinth, dear, if all is well that ends well, then to what end do we work that would make it so?"

The changeling squirms beneath his foot, the tendril still writhing in her brain, and she gives an eerie snicker. "...If there ever was an end that was well, then it must be one that makes ends meet."

Seith begins to play again, and the monster feasts once more. Corrinth's screams nearly drown out his playing, but you find yourself frozen in terror, unable to act, until again the music dies down and Seith tries again: "And Corrinth, what would you say if you were to meet an end?"

"...To meet... an end?" she replies, shakily. "Any end I meet would be my own, and I wouldn't be much for talking, would I?"

Another blast of the fife, and another round of screaming follows. You look to Embryx and find her crying.

"Corrinth," Seith begins, but he's interrupted.

"...S-stop it," she begs, her voice having deepened as has reverted to her true form once more. "I- it hurts..."

"Corrinth," Seith repeats, more forcefully, "if all is well that ends well, then to what end-"

Corrinth screams. "...End... End this...! End me..."

Seith strikes a sour note on the fife, and the creature finally releases Corrinth, who curls into a ball and begins to sob. The voidsinger then motions to you and Embryx to stop plugging your ears.
"You see, he's had his fill," he says, reaching out and stroking the black tendril that still drips with Corrinth's blood. "You two's touch of madness would be nothing more than a light dessert at this point."

You look to Embryx. "...Is this really the only way?" she asks quietly, barely above a whisper. You nod, fearfully, and she reaches out and takes your hand.

1. Comply - "...Come on," you say, unable to think of any reassurance that would alleviate the fear you're both working through. Neither of you want to allow yourselves to be violated, but you also know that if you back down now, Embryx will undoubtedly follow suit, and in hindsight, she'll always resent you for leaving you both addled with madness and the guilt of Stalna's death - along with many other bad decisions you've made.

2. Refuse - "We don't have to do this," you say. "...We're not going to do this." You know that Embryx wants to be cured, but in this case, the treatment is worse than the disease. You just hope you can find a way to protect her from future situations like the one you encountered in Ellifarre.
 
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