I opened my eyes and saw Anise sitting on the windows sill, gazing into the distance. Lifting myself up, in a sitting position, I asked:
"What are you thinking about?"
She turned and looked at me before she answered:
"Nothing special, just the academy and stuff."
"Your mother?" I asked, noticing a trace of sadness in her voice.
She turned to look out the window again and nodded silently.
"Don't worry, she didn't mean what she said and was just angry. She'll come around in the end."
"I know.. Everything is just a little scary. What if I don't succeed in learning silent casting? What if I fail?" she replied, her voice cracking a little at the end.
I walked up to her, sat down on the other side of the windows sill and said in a comforting tone: "It will be fine. If I can do it, you can as well. Let me show you something."
After saying that, I opened the window and created a green lightning ball before making it hover outside. A smile appeared on her lips as she fixed her eyes on the ball of lightning that looked like a small star.
"Congratulations, you did it. It's beautiful."
"A couple of months later you'll be able to do this as well. I know everything seems hard and scary now, but you'll see that as you learn more and more, everything will become easier. Trust in yourself and trust in me. I'll make you the strongest wizard in this world."
A chuckle escape her lips as she asked: "Second only to you?"
"No. I'm not of this world, remember?"
She laughed again and turned her eyes away from the ball of lightning, fixing them upon me before she said: "I trust you. Thanks, for everything."
"You're welcome. Wanna go to sleep now?"
"You know, I suddenly feel like studying some more. Are you up for it?"
"No problem." I replied and we sat down on one of the beds. I started reading though the lessons and so the entire night soon passed, with me speaking and Anise quietly listening.
Once morning came, we ate breakfast and went on our way again. A day later, around noon, mount Kally appeared in our sights. I paused my lesson and said to her: "We should be able to reach the closest village in two hours at most. Let's stop here with the lessons and look around to see if there's anything suspicious on the way."
Anise agreed and we stopped out lessons as we paid more attention on the way, but noticed nothing suspicious all the way to the village. Once there, I canceled Zephyr and removed my cloak and mask before making our way inside. Weirdly enough, the atmosphere was completely normal in the village as well. We could even see kids playing around here and there, not like the atmosphere we were expecting in a village that had people going missing.
Confused, we made our way deeper inside, heading straight for the village chief's house, which we assumed to be the biggest house in the entire village. Once we arrived, we spotted a well-built, late thirties man cutting some firewood in the courtyard. We walked up to him and I asked:
"Excuse me, are you the village chief?"
The man put down his axe and looked closely at us before he said: "That's me. How can I help you?"
"We're with the adventurer's guild, here on a quest about missing people."
The man nodded and said: "Well, the quest is no longer available. I'm sorry you had to walk up to here for nothing."
"No longer available?" I was a bit confused about the whole situation, "What about the missing people?"
"They all returned fine, two days ago."
"What happened to them, then?"
"They say that they don't remember a thing after they went missing. The same thing happened in all the nearby villages, but as long as they are all right, everything is good."
I frowned at his words and thanked him before walking back with Anise.
"So what do we do now?" She asked me.
"I don't really know. Everything is really strange. I say we investigate a little on our own."
Anise nodded and we both started walking around the town, looking for anything weird. After asking around for a bit, we found one of the people that went missing, a young man, not older than 15. After speaking with him and his parents for a while, we found out that he was missing for two weeks and returned home with no memory of the entire time. The strange thing was that not even his parents seemed concerned about this.
As we walked out of his house I asked her:
"Anise, is it normal in this world for people to be so indifferent about their child missing for two whole weeks and returning with no memories?"
Anise shook her head and said: "No. Something is definitely wrong here, and it's not just the people who went missing. Everyone inside the village is behaving strangely."
With no explanation about the whole thing and no idea how to proceed, Anise suggested we search for a tavern and try to find out something there.
Once we reached a tavern, we sat down at the corner of the room, ordered some ale and started listening to the conversations going on around us. With our levels, listening in on other people was not that hard. As we kept listening, a conversation soon caught our attention.
"Should we return?"
"We came all this way, we can't go back empty handed. I say we go and check on the other villages as well."
"Damn, this quest is such a pain."
Looking in the direction of the voices, we spotted five people with adventurer badges on their chests sitting at a table. Anise looked at me and said:
"Looks like we're not the only ones here. Should we go find out if they know anything?"
"That didn't seem to be the case judging from their conversation. I think we should also go check on the other villages. Maybe not all the missing villagers returned."
We agreed to look around the other villages and we started going in the direction of the closest one straight away, hoping we will reach it before nightfall. After we walked a bit further away, I cast Zephyr and we started riding away at full speed.
We reached there faster than I expected, because we still had a couple of hours of daylight left. Asking around, we found out that the situation was the same as the last village. Night soon started to settle and we decided to sleep right outside the village since there was no inn to rent a room.
Finding shelter at the base of a tree, a couple of meters outside the village, we started our lessons again as we waited for the morning.
Around midnight, as I was responding a geometry question Anise asked, the calming voice of a woman, singing, sounded from the direction of the village. I stopped and looked in the direction of the village when Senna's voice sounded inside my head.
[*Block your girlfriend's ears. This song is a mind attack. You will not be affected since your soul is split from your avatar, but that's not the case for her.*]
I turned to look at Anise and noticed that she had a dazed expression, like she was in deep thought. Seeing that she didn't react to me calling out to her, I channeled my mana and created a wind barrier around both of us. As soon as the barrier appeared, Anise snapped out of her daze and looked at me with a confused expression:
"What happened? Why did you create this barrier?"
"Because that song we heard is a mind attack." I replied as I turned and looked in the direction of the village.
"Song? Mind attack? I don't understand." Anise replied, looking even more confused than before.
"I'll explain later. Can you create a barrier that blocks sound around yourself while I go investigate?"
"Can't I come with you?"
"No, you will be affected again."
Seeing that I was serious, Anise cast a spell and created a transparent barrier around herself. I canceled mine, and seeing that she seemed to be alright, I started running in the direction of the sound. On the way I also put on the cloak, mask and activated Owl Eyes.
After reaching the town, I noticed that all the people inside were walking in the direction of the sound in an unsteady manner like a horde of zombies. Since I wanted to investigate first, I also joined them and pretended to be a mindless zombie as I followed after them.
'Senna, Ai, do you have any idea what is behind this?'
[*There are many possibilities, you'll have to investigate yourself.*]
[I also do not know.]
Since Ai and Senna had no clues, I could only slowly follow the horde of zombie villagers. Half an hour of walking up the mountain, I finally cast my eyes upon the culprit. In front of us, two half-woman half-bird creatures were waiting. One of them was singing the song that spellbound the entire village while the other waited nearby.
As soon as we reached them, the tune of the song changed and all the villagers stopped in their place. I also followed suit and stopped. The one that was not singing walked up to the group and started looking around. After a while, his eyes stopped on the adventurers we saw on the other village, that apparently arrived here as well.
After scrutinizing the party of adventurers, he knocked them out and carried them towards the other creature and started saying something in a language I didn't understand. The tune changed again and all the villagers started walking back towards the village. After following them for a while, I retreated silently from their midst and walk back the same way, wanting to follow the two creatures and see what they planned to do with the adventurers.
As soon as I reached back, I was horrified when I saw that the only female member of the party was already cut into pieces on the ground and one of the creatures was eating on one of her legs like it was a chicken wing. Taking a deep breath to calm down, I asked inside my head:
'Are those harpies?'
[Affirmative.]
'I should have just attacked before. Another person died because of me.'
[*He died because he was weak. What does that have to do with you?*]
'If I attacked before, I could have saved him.'
[*Your quest is to investigate this place, not to save other adventurers sent here with the same quest as you. Just keep observing and see what they will do after the song sends all the villagers back.*]
'But, if I do that, the other adventurers will get killed as well.'
[*I don't think so. They must need them for something otherwise they would have just killed the entire village and eaten it. Keep observing.*]
I decided to listen to her words, but I was still ready to attack if they showed any sign of trying to eat the other adventurers. After eating about half of the body of the adventurer, the harpy waited patiently for the other one to finish singing, which made me sigh in relief. Thirty minutes or so later, the song ended and the harpy that sang the entire time started feasting as well.
After both of them were done, they picked up the other four adventurers under their wings and started walking further up the mountain.
Hiding under the cover of darkness, I kept following after them.
After 30 minutes of walking, we reached a dark cave, guarded by another two harpies. Seeing that the ones I followed here entered the cave, I quietly approached the entrance and waited for them to get a bit further in. After a minute or so, I channeled lightning in both of my hand and shot it towards the two guards, killing them instantly.
Ignoring the still smoking corpses of the guards, I walked slowly inside. After walking through a straight cave for almost an entire hour, light could finally be seen at the end of it.
As I slowly approached the light, I was finally able to see inside, and what I saw left me stunned. There was a small village inside, full of both people and harpies, both apparently living in harmony. As I was observing the place, Ai's voice sounded inside my head.
[The architecture of this place matches the cave where you got separated from Anna. I think that these might be the ruins of Atar.]
'Don't you know it's location from that book?'
[Only Mount Kally. The exact location was not mentioned.]
'So the harpies must have made their nest here, but what's with all the humans?'
[*They are probably mind controlled.*]
After looking carefully, I noticed that their movements seemed a bit robotic, akin to the way the villagers walked towards the mountain when they were hypnotized.
'But how? I can't hear any song.'
[*That spell should be stronger when it's focused on a single person. They are only able to induce small suggestions in a large group of people, but when focused on a single target, permanent mind control should be possible.*]
'Are you saying that they have been completely brainwashed?'
[*I'm not sure, but probably.*]
'Hmm, there are at least a thousand people here and a lot of harpies too. Ai, what are my chances?'
[If the humans attack as well, your chances are zero in direct combat.]
'Guess I can only report it back to the guild. Fuck, I should have saved those adventurers and not use them as bait.'
Sighing, I took one more look at the place before making my way back. The way back was a lot faster and after I reached the cave's entrance, I cast Zephyr and started ridding back to the village to meet up with Anise.
Anise walked up to me as soon as I arrived and said: "I was starting to get worried. How did it go?"
"Not good." I then started explaining everything that happened since I left her. After thinking for a while, Anise said:
"I never expected to encounter a couple of harpies. Those people in the mountain are as good as dead."
"What do you mean?"
"Harpies have the ability to completely modify a person memories. They usually live up in the mountains and raise controlled humans like cattle."
"Is there no hope of saving them?"
She shook her head and said: "Once their memories are deleted by a harpy there is no way to bring them back. We should hurry and report this to the guild so that they can take care of it."
When I was about to agree, Senna's voice sounded in my mind.
[*If the humans can't be saved, why not fry everyone inside.*]
'How do you plan for me to do that?'
[*Easy, have your girlfriend fill the entire city with water and just channel your lightning into it.*]
Her ideas, as usual, horrified me, but this time she had a point. After thinking for a second, I asked Anise: "Do you know any spell to flood a cave the size of the village we've just been trough really fast with water?"
She nodded and said: "I do, but the harpies can probably hold their breath for a very long time."
"That won't be a problem. We can kill them all, together with the brainwashed people, but are you sure that the mind control is irreversible?"
"Yes. Mind controlled people have been saved before but had to be killed since they kept attacking humans no matter what anyone tried."
Sighing, I said: "Let's go then. We can consider this a mercy."
After climbing on top of Zephyr we rushed back to the cave and were lucky that no one came out the meantime and noticed the two dead guards at the entrance. After we reached the end of the cave, we looked at the place and I asked Anise: "Are you sure you can do it?"
"No problem, my mana will be enough."
'Ai, will my mana last enough for me to kill everyone inside this cave?'
[Affirmative.]
Taking a deep breath, I took one more look at the place and said:
"All right. I want you to create a barrier to stop the water from flowing back inside the cave and start flooding the place. Try to do it as fast as possible to eliminate the possibility of them escaping through any other exit. Also, be careful not to touch the water directly or you will die as well. I'll be on the other side of the barrier feeding lightning into the water."
Anise nodded with a serious look and said: "I understand. Starting now."
She chanted an incantation, creating a small membrane of light between us before using another spell, causing water to start shooting out at an incredible speed out of ten different spots in the air just outside the entrance.
A commotion began amongst the harpies, as they started panicking and running around in all directions. Out of the blue, a loud screech came from the middle of the ruins, followed by all the harpies flying towards us since the water was already one meter tall, covering half of the entrance.
As they started getting close to the spot we were in, I channeled lightning straight through my feet into the water.
Screams of pain were soon heard from the humans that were constantly dying, but I ignored them and focused on the harpies in front. Once they got closer, I started shooting lightning balls towards them, keeping them at bay. A minute later, the entire entrance to the passageway was submerged in water and I stopped shooting balls of lightning and just continued channeling it into the water.
Ten more minutes later, I started swimming through the water to check the situation and noticed that there were only dead bodies floating all around and the cave was full of water. After swimming through the bodies for a while, I noticed that there were two more passageways, but they were both on ground level, which means that probably all the harpies were dead.
Closing my eyes to clear my turbulent thoughts, I canceled my spell and swam back towards the entrance. After reaching the light barrier, I signaled to Anise that it was done. She canceled the barrier and we were both pushed outside the cave buy the pressure.
Once outside, we both stood up and looked silently at all the bodies that were floating out of the cave. Horrified by the endless bodies, I mumbled quietly:
"What have we done…"