Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3)

by Jay Boyce

  “But not anyone else can, so we’ll still thank you.” Derrick cut in gently, smiling broadly at her.

  Shaking her head at the inevitability, she cast her eyes back to the capall Logan was still holding. Indicating it, she questioned, “Are you going to stick around for the next bit?” She was still carefully choosing her words, not wanting to alarm or alert anyone who wasn’t already in the know.

  The two royals glanced in trepidation at the bundles behind her before nodding slowly. “Yes, I think we will. I’d like a word with the...prisoner.” Derrick’s voice held slight hesitation, but she could see various emotions playing across his face: guilt, anger, fear, sorrow, and perhaps a little bit of hope. She knew he wanted his brother back, but he’d also figured out that Tevon was the reason his children were taken and their escape route was compromised. He was why good men died. If you kept that in mind, the conflicting emotions were normal.

  “Of course. Let’s get to the area the healers set up and you can try before the operation.” They looked serious at her words, probably having a bit of trepidation about what she was going to attempt. There was also the fear that talking to Tevon beforehand could cause problems. Nevertheless, they beckoned for Mike, Cody, and Scylla to lead the way to their staging grounds. The procession turned a bit solemn as those who knew what was going on walked with them, leaving the rest of the reuniting behind.

  The royal parents left her side to walk with their rescued children once more, both of the twins hooking their arms through their mom’s, and Derrick draping an arm over Tisha. Victor and Camille managed to squeeze their way over to her, taking each of her arms as she walked. Victor smiled tiredly at her, obviously not having gotten much in the way of sleep while she was gone. “You did it, just like you said you would.”

  She smiled wanly back at him. “Of course I did. I keep my promises. Did you ever doubt me?” Her tone was joking as she tried to interject a bit of dry humor into the solemn atmosphere.

  Camille poked her in the side, causing her to squirm into Victor for a moment as she mock glared at the girl. Camille smiled sweetly as she snickered, “No, of course we never doubted the outrageous claims you’ve made. We just blindly hope that you can follow through with everything.” While she was trying to match Jade’s joking tone, she could tell that there was truth in the statement. They may not have believed she could do it, but they hoped without reason. Or maybe the reason was that she’d actually managed to follow through with everything else so far.

  Of course, her craziest promise was yet to come...well, maybe not the absolute craziest. That had been bringing back the taken. Now it was trying to see if she could change the taken back to pre-taken status. She was going to do her best, but she had a bad feeling about it, the main reason being Frank’s state of mind since she’d saved him. It might not seem like it, but she’d been watching him closely, and she was fairly worried for him. The other taken seemed to be having a better time of it, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t seen the almost haunted looks they’d been sending towards the woods.

  None of the others had been subject to the trauma he was. None of them had been as close to the change...and none of them had had the brain damage he did. Yes, that was something she’d glossed over and tried to avoid thinking about. There had been parts of his brain that would never be the same, even after she’d eradicated the virus from it. Thankfully, it hadn’t been much, but it was there. What she was afraid of was how much deeper the damage would be on someone like Tevon, who’d been turned for so long.

  The real question was if anything would be left untouched. Thinking about Tevon, she glanced at her two friends and asked, “Actually, where’s Brodie?” She hadn’t seen him at the gate, which surprised her.

  Camille answered quietly, “He’s already at the staging area. He said he didn’t really want to see the reunions…” Oh. She couldn’t blame him for that. Having to see everyone reunited with your loved ones, when you knew your own father was coming back as a monster...yeah, she wouldn’t want to see it either. She took small comfort in the fact that whatever happened, he would finally have closure. As long as it didn’t scar him for life. The probability was a toss up in her mind.

  She was still pondering the possibilities in the ensuing silence when they arrived at a large, nondescript building. As the guards in front of them opened the huge doors, she examined the training grounds that were repurposed for the day. Mike and Scylla led the way with Cody, and she realized they’d brought in a heavy metal table that was fully equipped with metal clasps for the neck, hands, and feet. It didn’t look like something that had been newly made, so that meant…

  It was a torture table. Something to hold the victim or prisoner down while they were tortured or interrogated; probably both. Granted, that was pretty close to what she was about to do: get information and then cause extreme pain, albeit that she was trying to save his life, rather than for the purpose of causing said pain.

  She was still staring at the table as the others filed in behind her, the doors closing with a loud clang as she jumped a little, finally noticing that those who’d already been in the room and those who’d followed were all looking expectantly between her and the capall Logan was leading. Glancing around, she met the grim gaze of Brodie and nodded to him before sighing and taking a deep breath.

  Walking over to the capall, she twitched the blanket off, taking her cage of birds and setting it to the side. Gasps rose when Tevon came into view. He was obviously awake and glaring balefully at everyone from inside his bonds. Using wind magic, she lifted him from the back of the beast and towards the table as she began to speak. “So here’s the deal. I have no idea if this procedure will even work, so I’ll compel him to answer a few questions before we begin. However, the law of diminishing returns is in effect. He will become increasingly resistant to my compulsion and attempt to hypnotize you in return.”

  She paused, setting him on the table and using metal magic to lock him into the restraints, using the metal casings she’d put around his hands and feet to create even more restraints around the elbows and knees. She didn’t want him getting any momentum. As soon as he was settled, she went on, “From past experience, the limit was about three questions, less if they’re stronger, which I’m guessing he is. So I’d say you’ve got one, maybe two questions. Make sure they count.”

  Victor and Camille returned to their parents’ side, as did Brodie. She waited while they held a short murmured conversation about what to ask first. Finally, Derrick and Brodie stepped forward, standing on the other side of Tevon, across the table from her. Derrick nodded for her to go ahead and remove the gag. Before she did, she gave everyone in the room a quick glance as she spoke compellingly, “You don’t need to follow anything the mesmer says.” She felt several of them startle as the compulsion took hold, her voice layered with hypnotism as well as she turned back to Tevon and spoke directly to him, “You may not hypnotize anyone, and you will answer their questions quickly and truthfully.”

  As soon as the words left her lips, she used a bit of wind and metal magic to pull the gag from his mouth. Derrick wasted no time as he asked his question, “Was there a reason you took my children specifically?”

  Glaring, but obviously compelled to obey, Tevon hissed angrily, “The Dark One has ordered ussss to take thossse who know the traveler and will make good sssssacrificessssss… They were jusssst the firssssst.”

  Blanching slightly, Derrick quickly asked a follow up question, “How did the Dark One order you to do this?”

  Revealing a ghastly smirk, Tevon effused, “The Dark One issssss in ussss all…” Well okay, that wasn’t really helpful.

  Brodie spoke quietly, “Is my father even still in there?”

  “My ssssssson, releasssse me and I will sssssshow you the joy the dark can give.” Tevon’s eyes narrowed on Brodie as he spoke, smirking evilly as Brodie unconsciously took a step forward, reaching for the metal which bound Tevon.

  “And that’s t
hat.” She instantly shoved the gag back in Tevon’s mouth, having felt his hypnotic pull before her mental fortitude took effect. “Brodie, snap out of it.” Her voice was laced with compulsion again as he seemed to come out of a deep daydream. He stared in horror at his father, recoiling a few steps. Tevon was struggling ineffectually against his bindings, angry at having been thwarted once again.

  Sighing as she looked down at the once-man, she spoke commandingly, “Tevon, it’s time for you to sleep now.” She could see him struggling against the suggestion, so she reinforced the order imperiously, “SLEEP.” He struggled for a moment longer before his body went limp and his eyes closed.

  Looking bleakly at the people around her, she focused on the healers. “As fun as this reunion was, it’s time to see if we can save him. Please take your positions.” She absently pulled some of the meat from her ring, chewing on it as she pondered aloud, “Is there more food nearby? Most of us are probably going to need to replenish energy during this…”

  She chose her position near his right shoulder, pulling a stool out of her ring and sitting on it. She didn’t even want to try standing for the whole thing, as tired as she knew she already was. She felt someone come up behind her, ready to support her if she needed something. Glancing up, she smiled at Hunter. He seemed to have taken it upon himself to be her backup for the day, despite the deep rings under his own eyes.

  The other healers took their positions while Brodie and Derrick stood nearby, gazing solemnly down at the man they called family. The rest of the royals also seemed prepared to pitch in where they could, and she now saw they had buckets of her smoothie solution and other food in hand. She nodded as she took a deep breath, wincing at the rancid smell of Tevon that assaulted her nose.

  “Let’s begin.” Steeling herself, she laid her hands on Tevon’s shoulder as the other healers did the same in their chain, letting her magic flood his body as she took inventory of the changes and damage done.

  Once she had a mental map of his entire body, she began to force the change back, correcting the cells that she could and eliminating the sickness she couldn’t fix.

  Silently, she sent up a prayer to whatever gods were listening that this would work.

  Chapter Sixteen – Responsibility

  Only the gag in his mouth stopped the screams from being completely overwhelming. The induced sleep she’d compelled him into broke as the healing energy forcefully started reverting his body back to human form. One of the first things to clatter to the table were the excess claws that his fingernails had become. His skin began to shift back from ghastly grey back to a pale peach, his teeth losing their sharp points. These were the obvious changes.

  The true fight was taking place on a molecular level as she sought to reverse the damage done to his organs. They’d become twisted, the most noticeable of which were his heart, brain, and the very blood which ran through his veins. The black tar-like substance could hardly even be called blood anymore.

  She barely noticed when Brodie quickly replaced the gag in Tevon’s mouth with a contraption similar to what she’d rigged up for Kevin. It still plugged up his mouth, but allowed him to suck nourishment into his body through a straw when he wasn’t screaming eerily in unimaginable agony. A straw was held against her own lips and she drank greedily. She leaned heavily on Hunter as she worked, the world around her turning into a vague blur as she focused on the minutiae of the healing.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Despite her and the other healers pumping energy into Tevon, the man’s muscles were deteriorating at a visible rate as she struggled to reverse what was done by the virus. She was slowly purifying his blood and heart, his pores exuding the impurities as a sticky brown sludge. The smell was nauseating, and she could hear someone retching into a bucket nearby. Hopefully one that had already been emptied.

  His brain was an altogether different matter. The virus had taken over, and trying to get rid of it was modifying his neural pathways. She could see the changes, but it felt...wrong. Even as she was humanifying them, she had the sinking feeling that something was missing. His organs were struggling to make the change, having been sustained by who knew what in their viral form. His heart was weak, straining to accept the new, or technically old, form of nourishment.

  And then his heart stopped. When healing energy wasn’t enough, she sent a jolt of electricity, trying to start it again that way. It pumped for a beat or two, then stopped again. She tried once more, twice more, three, four times. Her fist moved, pounding on his heart through his chest to try and keep it going, only realizing afterward that she’d been mumbling over and over again, “No. Live. You will live. LIVE!”

  The sobs came as she realized she couldn’t keep it beating. “Nooooooo!” Her scream of frustration rent the air as her hands dropped, beating uselessly against the table. She failed. Through tears she stared at the body in front of her.

  He didn’t look dead. He looked like he’d been lost and starving in the forest for a while, but was taking a peaceful nap. He looked like an anorexic human, probably similar to what she’d looked like when she’d first arrived if she’d been covered in black tar. The gag was removed from his mouth and his face relaxed, almost as if in acceptance. She could hear muffled sobs behind her, turning to see Derrick holding Ashanna and Brodie as they cried.

  She reached down, taking the still-warm hand of the dead man in her own. She didn’t know how long it’d been since she’d started working on him, but she absently used water magic, washing the sticky substance from his body to leave him clean, even if he was still in rags. It was the least she could do to honor the dead. She sent one last bit of healing magic through the body, making sure there was nothing more she could do.

  It was then she realized she’d been doomed from the start. She reached for the hand of one of the healers nearby, taking hold of him in his surprise and sending a burst of healing magic through him. In her mind, she could see the side by side comparison of their brains. The neurons of each cell were damaged, the pathways refusing to connect properly. Even if she’d managed to save and revert his body, his brain was beyond repair. If he hadn’t been in a coma the rest of his life, he’d most likely have lost all his memories and have to start from scratch. That was if the motor neurons even recovered enough to work. The virus subverted them, and in trying to heal it, it almost seemed to destroy what was left behind.

  There was no saving them.

  She could hear the voices of the doctors quietly discussing what they’d just witnessed. She heard the voice of one doctor stand out as they spoke, “We were so close. Next time we’ll have to…”

  “There will be no next time.” Her voice was harsh as she rasped out a curt interruption, causing the doctors to look at her warily. Her haunted gaze met Mike's as she continued, “His brain was basically destroyed in the process of removing the virus. The process isn’t reversible. All we can do is make the body look more human in death.”

  Immediately, most of the doctors moved forward, touching the body to verify what she’d said. Frowns stole across their faces as they realized the truth of her statement. She’d removed the last of their hope as they realized there would be no next attempt. This would be the first and last time they tried to cure a mesmer.

  “Is that true? There’s no hope, then?” Derrick’s voice was hesitant as he looked at the healers over his wife and nephew’s heads.

  It was Mike who looked consolingly at the royal family and shook his head. “It doesn’t appear so. What Jade said is true, his brain...he would never have been right again.”

  It was Ashanna who moved forward out of her husband’s arms, closing in on Tevon to look down on his face. Sighing, she brushed a lock of unkempt hair from his forehead as she spoke quietly, “Then nothing has changed. Those who were taken before are dead.” Turning back to Jade, she smiled wanly. “Thank you for bringing back Tevon’s body. At least now we can have a proper funeral for him, which is more than most.”

  St
aring down at the lifeless form in front of her, Jade shook her head as she thought of the bodies she’d left behind in the woods. At least now she knew they were beyond saving…the things she killed were merely the husks of people left behind and taken over by monsters. And yet...were they? Tevon remembered his family. He’d remembered his life before, enough to lead his new comrades through secret passageways.

  Then there was what he’d spoken before the surgery. They’d been ordered to take those who were close to the traveler. It was her fault the royal family was being targeted. The very association with her was putting people in danger. Everyone she knew and was coming to care about was at risk, simply because they knew her. She could feel her breath coming in shallow gasps as she started hyperventilating, the panic attack taking control of her reason.

  She could hear people moving around her, but her attention was focused inward as she went over all of the possible ramifications of her mere presence in the city. She knew she needed to calm down, but couldn’t seem to control her breathing. It was only when she felt the sting of a sharp slap across her cheek that she was able to focus on the person in front of her, staring uncomprehendingly into Mike’s kind eyes. She felt the pain in her cheek disappear as he healed her.

  His voice was quiet as he asked, “Are you back with us?” At her mute nod, he went on softly, “It’s not your fault, you know.”

  “What’s not my fault?” She could feel her body calming down, struggling to maintain deep, even breaths.

  She heard someone chuff from beside her and turned to look questioningly at Victor. “It’s written all over your face. You think it’s your fault that the mesmer are taking your friends.”

  “Isn’t it, though?” Her voice was plaintive as she rebutted him. How was it not her fault that they were picking people she’d come into contact with? How was it not her fault that the city itself had come to the attention of whoever the Dark One was? She may not have been the start of their problems, but it sure felt like she escalated them.