"You want me to consume the worthless memories?" She popped up excitedly, "And keep the ones of interest."
"Ask me before you consume them, but yes," I stroked the little fox again, "You can consume any memory that I do not need or value provided you ask permission first. My subordinates might allow you to take some of theirs as well."
She wagged her bushy little tail, and bounded off through my hall of memories. I let her do as she wished. Taking memories without my permission would terminate her contract, and kill her so there wasn't much risk of her doing anything harmful to my mind. I drew myself out of my inner world. Shaking off the feeling, and realizing that I'd stayed standing this whole time.
Actually the time I'd spent within my inner world had been incredibly short. So short that my legs didn't have time to fold beneath me. That was a nice new little side effect of adulthood. I'd been idle for nearly an hour now, and I was waiting for the boy to come to me. He was a half elf, and he was the key to my new plan.
I wasn't all that patient, but it had gotten dark. There was a good chance that he was sleeping, but at the same time I knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep within an enemy camp. I switched to my human form once again. I'd noticed that I disturbed the environment a lot less when I blinked at the size of a human versus when I blinked in dragon form. I blinked across the camp to his tent.
He was alone in the tent. I knew that much with a glance. There was a dark haze around his tent. He was thinking some really dark things. His emotional hue read like a death threat.
There was rage, and sadness mixed in that darkness. I checked to see what state he was in using infrared before pulling the tent flap back.
"I didn't think you were sleeping," I sat down on the table next to his cot.
He was sitting at the end furthest from me.
"Are you here to give me new orders?" he sounded polite, but his emotions still read like a death threat.
"I don't plan on ordering you to do anything," I smiled, "It's completely optional, but it would be a lot easier for me to infiltrate the elven world with you to help me. I'm a lot more likely to succeed at getting the slaves back from the elven worlds with your help than I am without it. Retrieving your mom would just be payment for a job well done."
He just looked at me silently.
"Speak your mind," I gestured casually.
"You expect me to believe you," he snapped with a surprising amount of rage.
"I'm not in the habit of lying," I shrugged, "And if I wanted you dead there are quicker ways to make that death come about."
"None of my former masters were in the habit of lying," he stood up as dark angry flames started forming in his shadow, "Yet I've been lied to, and beaten for the hell of it more than once. Just because you wiped away the scars doesn't mean that they just disappear."
"Now I feel as if I should apologize," I pulled my jacket back so he could see the scar from the basilisk bite, "Scars are the outward signs of what we've been through. I'd imagine that you wanted to keep those."
I was surprised to find that I wasn't being sarcastic. Now he looked confused.
"What are you trying to pull?" he frowned at me.
"I'm not smart enough to really deceive you properly," I crossed my arms over my chest, "You can ask the others just how smart I am. Sure I've learned a few things, and I've gotten a bit smarter, but as much as I hate to admit it I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. Everyone close to me already knows this. You'll learn it fairly quickly if you choose to work with me."
"I should trust you because you're not smart enough to trick me properly," he made a face at that comment, "That's an interesting argument."
"I don't think you're ready to trust anyone just yet," I shrugged, "But I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to help me, and I'm offering you mother as payment. If you come to trust me in the process than call it a happy side effect."
"You want me to become like those other two," he moved a little further away from me, "I've seen the reports. Your bonded. Loyal to a fault. Connected to you by their minds."
I was glad I'd taken the time to inform them about the situation, and invite them over here.
"Talk to them yourself," I shrugged, "Neither of them need as much sleep as normal humans. They can chat with you for a few hours if you'd like. I don't control them. I've actually loosened their bonds now that I know how much it was restraining them. I'd rather risk betrayal then keep slaves." I paused a few seconds, "Although the only real restriction I had on them was stopping them from feeling hostility toward me. That same restriction applied to me as well."
"What makes you think talking to them will change my mind?" he practically snarled at me.
"They're the ones you think I'm enslaving," I shrugged, "Talk to them, and if they sound enslaved you can say no to me all you want, and I won't bug you again."
"Why bother talking to me at all?" he stood up, and stepped toward me.
His aura leaning more toward the red of anger, and bloodlust.
"He wants to make you one of his bonded," Savannah cut in as she stepped into the tent, "He's been interested in you since he laid eyes on you."