"A protection spell?" Trinity's head shot up at that comment. She remembered him mentioning that he had placed a protection spell on her before, but she had assumed that he had meant that the spell was for her to protect him while he was a stone gargoyle. She never realized the protection spell was designed to protect herself.
"Your reaction was genuine, so I'm assuming you didn't know about this." Amara smiled at Trinity. "You have a strong will about you. I can see why my brother is trying so hard to manipulate you. The protection spell he placed prevents me from reading your mind, thereby making it harder for me to undo any damage he has caused up there." Amara answered. 'And coincidentally prevents me from feeding off you as well.' Amara added silently to herself.
Trinity sat up straight with determination. "He never manipulated me!"
As Trinity sat up, Amara grinned. "We shall see about that! There are other ways to bypass a silence spell, if you're talented enough!" Without giving Trinity a chance to look away, she locked her gaze with Trinity and pushed with her mind. "Even if I cannot read your mind, I can still influence your mind into telling me what I need to know!"
Realizing too late what Amara was about to do, Trinity attempted to push her out of her mind, just as she had done with Zyxel previously. However, she quickly began to feel her mind going cloudy as she was having trouble focusing. Unlike her experience with Zyxel, her mind wasn't wanting to respond to her attempts at fighting off Amara.
Amara smiled as she sensed Trinity's mind giving in to her. "That's a good girl! Just relax your mind and let me in!"
Zyxel started to panic. 'No!' he wanted to shout! He could only hope that Trinity's mind was as strong as he'd assumed it was. She was able to fight off his influence when he tested her. But Amara was more skilled in this area than he was. He crawled back and forth silently on the roof, pacing as he waited to figure out the result of what she might try. He wanted to storm into the room and pry Trinity out of Amara's grasp, but that would only give Amara exactly what she wanted. He needed to find a way to heal this link first so that he could face off against her on equal footing.
"Now, let us start with some easy questions while you become acclimated to this experience."
"What are you doing?" Father Kiran asked as he noticed Trinity seemed to fall into a trance.
"It's ok Father. I'm simply trying to bypass any mental barriers my brother placed in her mind. As long as she does not attempt to resist me too much, her mind will not be harmed."
Father Kiran reluctantly nodded, trusting Amara.
"Now Trinity, let us start simple. Something that we already know. Did my brother take you from the alley?"
"Yes," Trinity replied without hesitation.
"That's a good girl. Now Trinity, I want you to speak honestly with me. Did my brother ever try to influence your mind like this before?"
"Yes," Trinity replied again.
Zyxel knew where she was going with this. Amara was trying to make it appear to the priest as if he had forced her to obey. The only time he had attempted to influence her mind was to make sure she would be able to fight off Amara. Which now seemed like Trinity was not succeeding.
Amara nodded, pleased with the result so far. "A few more questions, Trinity. When he influenced your mind, what did he do?"
Trinity's head gave a slight involuntary twitch. "He... didn't."
Amara blinked. "What did he not do?" she asked, confused.
"He tried... but didn't succeed." Her head twitched again.
Amara blinked again, this time in surprise. "Interesting. What did he attempt to influence you about?"
Trinity twitched repeatedly, several more times.
"Amara, what's happening to her?" Father Kiran asked, worried.
"She's attempting to resist me. Whatever it is, she doesn't appear to want to willingly answer, so she is fighting me. She has a very strong mind. Trinity, relax and calm your mind, and everything will be alright."
Zyxel smirked. Trinity was trying to resist Amara! Even if she failed, the mere fact at her being able to resist Amara at all made him proud of her.
Trinity instantly relaxed.
"What did he attempt to influence you about?" Amara repeated.
"He tried..." She blinked a few times as her head twitched again. "He tried to... seduce... me..."
Father Kiran gasped in shock, while Amara sat up straight, blinking repeatedly. She was not expecting that answer.
It took all of Zyxel's willpower not to burst out in laughter on the roof. He would kill to see Amara's expression right about now!
'As disturbing and revolting as that thought may be, it does explain why he might have kept her for so long.' The mere concept of being with a human made her want to turn her nose up in disgust at the idea. Looking at Trinity, she could not see the appeal that might have attracted the attention of her brother. Not wanting to delve deeper into that unsettling topic, Amara wanted to change the topic.
"Alright Trinity, can you tell me where you slept these past few weeks?" She was hoping that by avoiding the direct question of where he had taken her, that it might bypass the spell he placed on her.
Trinity twitched several more times as her eyes flickered. "Cannot... say..."
Amara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It annoyed her to find a human mind who could resist even slightly as Trinity was doing. It annoyed her even more at how strong her brother's spells seemed to keep hold in her mind.
Amara tried again with a different approach. "Did you enjoy the landscaping? You must have stayed somewhere nice!"
Trinity twitched again. "Land... scape... was..." Trinity twitched and blinked again. "No! Cannot... say."
Sighing, Amara rubbed at her temple, while making sure not to break eye contact. This was not going to yield much results.
"One more question, Trinity. What happened in the forest?"
"Forest..." Trinity went quiet as her head continued to twitch.
"Go on! Tell me what happened in the forest!"
"Energy." Trinity answered. "Death."
Amara attempted to keep calm. She already knew that these two events would have taken place. She had already sensed the tainted divine energy that lingered in the air at the location, and she already knew of all of the forest animals that must have perished when he had drawn out their life force.
"What spell was he working on?" Amara asked.
"Question... invalid"
"Alright, what kind of a weapon was he making?"
"Question... invalid"
Amara sighed again. "I thought for sure it would have been either a weapon or a spell that he was developing. So if it wasn't a spell or a weapon. What was he doing, that required all that energy?"
Outside, Zyxel was growing nervous about the questions being asked. If anything that Trinity answered caused even the slightest bit of suspicion, she might choose to dig deeper, and he wasn't sure just how much more Trinity's mind could fight her off. Worst of all, he was hating himself for just sitting out here, unable to do anything.
Trinity's eyes appeared blank and unresponsive, but her head continued to twitch more frequently. "Unknown," she finally replied after some time had passed.
Amara frowned at the answer. "Why is this memory unknown?" she questioned her.
"Mind... was distracted." Her voice dropped to a bare whisper. "Pain... burning... fire... Don't... make me... remember!" The twitching of her head became more violent.
Father Kiran gasped and his eyes went wide at what his daughter was saying. 'What did that demon do to her out there?' His eyes fell on Amara, he wanted to tell her to stop whatever she was doing. It was clearly affecting her greatly, and she had been through so much. But Amara had assured him that Trinity would be fine, so he clenched his fists and chose to let her continue with the interrogation.
Grinning, Amara leaned in close. Finally she felt like she was getting somewhere with an answer. "Not yet, Trinity!" She pushed deeper with her mind. "Just a little more! I need you to tell me in detail exactly what you know about what happened. What was he doing?"
Trinity blinked rapidly as her twitching turned more into convulsions. Finally, she let out a scream before shutting her eyes as tight as she could. Covering her face with both of her hands, she shouted, "No! I won't! I won't! I won't!" Trinity broke down into tears. "Please," she whispered. "I can't!"
The scream had been due to her reliving the memory of feeling burned alive by an invisible energy source. However, it was also due to this memory, that had helped her to break free of the mind influence Amara had over her. Trinity began rocking back and forth in her spot on the bed.
Trying her best not to lash out in anger, Amara stood up and walked over to Father Kiran. "I cannot press her mind any further without causing injury. She has a very strong mind and is fighting me, but unfortunately from what I can gather is that he has manipulated her mind, very deeply. Somehow it seems that she genuinely wants to protect him. Although her mind claims that his seduction attempts failed, I do not believe that to be accurate according to her behavior she is displaying. Although something had happened inside the forest that must have frightened her deeply."
Amara narrowed her eyes at Trinity as she sat there rocking back and forth. 'I must know more!' she thought silently.
"There's no way my daughter would defend a demon, unless she has been manipulated in some way. Please, is there anything you can do to fix her?" Father Kiran pleaded.
Amara regained her composure and faced Father Kiran. "It will take some time, but I believe I can manage it. For now, she needs her rest. If you walk with me, I think I might have an idea that we can do, to help not just your daughter, but for everyone in your church!"
Father Kiran stared at his daughter with concern. He wanted to make the demon pay for everything he had done to her. Reluctantly he turned to allow his daughter to rest and recover.
Amara and Father Kiran walked out of the room together, as Amara discussed some of her plans that she wanted to implement inside of the church, as well as the surrounding community.
Zyxel crawled silently across the roof and watched both of them leave the house as they ran through the pouring rain, towards the church. As much as he wanted to listen in on what his sister was scheming, none of that mattered as much as making sure that Trinity was ok.
Circling back, he reached down with his tail and slid open her bedroom window, before doing a backflip off the edge of the roof, landing silently on Trinity's bedroom floor. Little droplets of water fell off onto the floor, as he landed.
Looking up, he could see Trinity sitting on her bed; rocking back and forth with her hands cradling her head, as if she expected Amara to still continue her mind probing.
Flapping his red wings hard one time, he flung the rainwater off of his wings. Walking over to her bed, he carefully sat down beside her and pulled her gently into his arms. He wrapped his wings around her in an attempt to comfort her in a double embrace. Although they were not his normal black feathered wings that she preferred, he hoped that his presence alone would still provide some measure of comfort to her, while in this state of emotional distress.
"ᓭꖎᒷᒷ!¡"
Zyxel spoke as he commanded the sleep spell in the divine language.
Leaning against him, her body fell into a slumber, as he held her close while stroking her hair softly. "I know how hard you must have fought against her mentally. To you, it might seem as if you failed, but you have no idea just how proud I am of you right now! You have a strength that burns bright, buried deep inside you! Never let her snuff it out." he whispered into her ear. "Sleep now, and allow your mind to rest so that it may heal!"
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(Question in the Author's Comments below!)
Books I am currently writing:
- The Forbidden Luna
- Divine Banishment