"What is he babbling about! I'll make them release Kurone!" Kat burst into the Guild, where all our comrades had already gathered.
"Calm down, you won't be able to convince your father!"
"You don't know that!"
"No, I do! By challenging him, you've made his advisors' opinions more crucial. Do you think he kept you locked up because he values your opinion so much?"
"But how can you say that!" Kat's face flushed with golden light. "But he must listen to reason. Kurone is innocent, and if they want to interrogate someone, I'll gladly take her place."
"Don't talk nonsense. They need the slightest pretext for accusations, and your impulsive actions can only harm."
"A pretext? A recording of one of our battles is a pretext for them? Where did they even get this crystal from?" I glanced briefly at Vina, and she guiltily lowered her head.
"I don't know, but it will be enough for them. Besides, influencing the court is much more critical to them now."
"Do you believe that? How could Kurone control so many people, it's absurd!" Katrina protested, but I didn't rush to respond. A heavy pause hung in the air, and the princess was already becoming nervous. "She couldn't do that, why are you silent?"
"Krito, what are you hiding?" Seleria glanced at me with doubt. "By the way, the nobles' reaction at the hearing seemed too emotional to me as well. If Kurone can only transmit our thoughts, then there's nothing serious here, but what if she's capable of more?"
"Huh, hard to hide anything from you, huh?" I tensed a little at the dark smile of the red princess.
"Well, I just thought, if Kurone reads our thoughts and transmits them between us, then why can we sometimes communicate directly bypassing her? And how could you connect our minds through magical crystals when she wasn't even close?"
"Really?" Reines suddenly put down her teacup. "I've been wondering how such young students could work so harmoniously as a team, and it turns out you read each other's minds! Funny."
"And you don't? Kurone must have contacted you too, right?"
"No, it hasn't happened."
"Strange, she seemed to have done her trick with Rumy and Levris, why didn't she touch you?" Seleria looked at the gray dragoness with suspicion.
"Maybe she just couldn't?" I also looked at the necromancer.
"Hmm, that's possible, indeed, only if she used necromancy, but..." Reines pondered for a moment. "What does her power look like?"
"Well, first, she just transmits messages, and then she can do something more significant. And she can remain unnoticed by people, without becoming invisible."
"Oh, then it must be her. The magic of the mind."
"What? Are you saying Kurone is a necromancer?" Seleria clicked her tongue doubtfully. "But she's nothing like you."
"And do you think all necromancers look the same?"
"Well..." Seleria looked at Rizel, then back to Reines. "There are some common traits."
"Yes, yes, I understand what you mean, but that doesn't mean all necromancers are the same! We are like this only because we made a direct contract with Thanatos, but throughout history, there were other mages whose power of death manifested to a lesser extent without affecting their appearance."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, I told you that the power of necromancers is passed on to direct descendants. So, literally from one parent, all the mage's power and immortality are transferred to one child, but no one excludes the manifestation of power in other children. Someone may control shadows, and someone may use the power of decay, but immortality is only inherited, and other mages die like ordinary people.
"Then, does Kurone come from a lineage of necromancers? But she said her parents had no connection to the nobility."
"That doesn't matter, and the power of necromancers can persist through many generations and manifest very rarely. And if you think about it, there was only one sorceress who possessed the magic of the mind, and she didn't pass on that power to her daughter," Reines looked at Rizel.
"What? Are you saying that Kurone is my... sister?"
"Haha, no, of course not. But Risa actually had two daughters; she just couldn't pass on her power and wished for the second one to live life as an ordinary person. The power of such a mighty mage couldn't leave no trace, and most likely, it occasionally manifested in their lineage, but no one developed it like Kurone did, so it went unnoticed. She's probably your great-great-great... very many greats-granddaughter."
"For some reason, I feel very old."
"That feeling will pass in about two hundred years, don't worry. But for now, we need to do something about her arrest. Her power may not be demonic, but I doubt the Inquisition cares about that."
"But we can explain everything, and they will release her!" Katrina nervously fiddled with her fingers.
"To whom will you explain that? Her power is dangerous to them, and they will do everything to ensure she never goes free."
"But why should they care! If she only used it on us, then it's our decision!"
"The question is how she did it, and that's what the inquisitors will undoubtedly persuade your father of."
"Krito, do you want to tell us something?" Kat squinted angrily, and small lightning-like discharges ran through the room. "Kurone started testing her power on us at your request, so what was she actually doing all this time?"
"Well, how should I put it," I awkwardly stepped back, but Seleria was already waiting by the door. "You still think she was only transmitting your messages to help in battle, but that's not all. I asked her to do something else."
"What did you command her to do?"
"I would call it 'uniting minds,'" evaluating the reactions of my comrades, I continued, "the time Kurone needed to tune in to the new guild members had nothing to do with her having difficulty penetrating their minds; after a couple of months of training, it was not a problem for her. She spent that time establishing connections between us. She sought common traits, interests, and occasionally dropped thoughts about them to others."
"That's a bit scary," Seleria involuntarily shuddered, "don't you think that's going too far?"
"Well, why not? I asked her to do everything possible to unite the guild, and sometimes it had the desired result. That's why Leira agreed to help Kat, even though she didn't have friendly feelings toward her before. That's why Asura decided to come to us for help, even though we had only cooperated a couple of times before. In the end, Hilda, Seleria, and Ragnar, who don't easily trust others, were able to integrate into the team and make friends."
"Hey! I can make friends too!" the red princess protested indignantly.
"Well, yes, of course, it was especially evident from the crowd of your friends who greeted us in Iringare."
"Oh..."
"You started trusting each other, understanding the thoughts and intentions of your friends, feeling when someone among you feels bad. Such a level of trust is possible between battle comrades, but usually it takes decades to reach. I didn't have that much time, so I asked Kurone for help."
In the room, a hush fell over as recent comrades in arms exchanged glances, unsure if they could trust each other.
"Tell me, did Kurone alter anything in our memories and desires? Did she only allow us to understand each other?" Katrina decided to ask what others hesitated to.
"As far as I know, no. I understand you have every right to be angry with me for not telling you earlier, but there's no need to quarrel over it," I replied.
"Then I see no reason for concern, except one," Seleria slyly narrowed her eyes and leaned towards me, "why don't we hear your thoughts, oh great conspirator?"
"Haha... well, how can I put it... Most likely because her power doesn't affect me," I explained.
"What are you saying? We heard your commands in battles; it can't be true!" Katrina exclaimed.
"Well, it is. Kurone can hear my thoughts if I want her to, but she can't sense them as she does with yours. Her power is similar to Katrina's shield—it's constantly active but barely noticeable. Just as I won't be affected by a ball of lightning unless Kat intentionally intensifies it, telepathy from Kurone affects me only in isolation. Her power is concentrated magic, like a punch, and I won't be able to dissipate a spherical lightning, but this power is more like a soft caress, just like Katrina's protective field—it acts weakly but constantly, and it doesn't affect me significantly," I elaborated.
"Hmm," Seleria smoothly approached me closer, and I felt the room become unbearably hot, but not enough to make me give in. However, the others hurriedly moved away, "interesting, this heat is enough to deflect lightning, but you endure it quite well. I've noticed before that magic affects you less than others, but I didn't pay much attention. Where could such power come from?" Seleria wondered.
"I have no idea; you know I didn't know my parents," I replied.
"That's true, but such a phenomenon is usually observed among dragons or mages closely related to contractors. It seems someone exceptional was in your lineage—powerful indeed," Seleria mused quietly to herself, "however, rarely can anyone withstand all elements at once."
"Such power could indeed have alarmed the inquisitors, but that's not a reason to arrest Kurone," Katrina immersed herself in her thoughts, "although the ability to influence the minds of the heir to the throne and others can be concerning. But how did they find out... Krito, are you still not telling us something?"
"Well, there is something," skeptical gazes were increasingly piercing my back, "during the trial... I also asked Kurone to use her power on those around us."
"What do you mean? You said it takes time for her to tune in to different people," Katrina inquired.
"Yes, if I wanted to unite them with others, but here I asked her to initiate a different process—release hidden feelings of those around us."
"What?"
"Hidden resentments, anger, distrust. To understand who was truly involved in the assassination attempts, I needed to provoke them. Rector and Ignis helped to fuel the argument, but it's not easy to engage cunning politicians in an open conversation. That's why I asked Kurone to slightly weaken their inhibiting factors," I explained further.
"Pff, now that's more serious," Seleria frowned unhappily, "interference in princesses' thoughts can be seen as treason if they themselves acknowledge the harm caused, but here she openly influenced heads of states and could have triggered a world conflict with these actions. That's a serious matter, but how did they find out?" Seleria pondered.
"It seems I underestimated them. Yesterday, when we tried to contact Ailyn, someone interfered with the process, and I think it was the inquisitors. They haven't been capturing extraordinary mages and those who defy them for centuries without a reason. Perhaps their knowledge of magic is far greater than we can imagine. And I don't even know what else they have up their sleeves.
"Do you think the church is preparing something in secret from the rest of the world?"
"It's quite possible, and it's not excluded that Kurone or all of us are needed for their purposes. If not now, they would have found a way to frame us later. Now, all we can do is stand against them."
"No," Katrina stopped me, "we won't be able to, and you know that. They are currently one of the most powerful forces on the continent, and we are not their rivals."
"But should we just submit to them then?!"
"Of course not! But I won't expose everyone to danger either!"
"I'm not going to abandon Kurone!"
"Me neither! You've already messed up enough; let me try to fix what you've done."
"What can you do?"
"I'm still a princess, and I will try to persuade my father to release Kurone, and you do nothing until I return."
"He won't listen to you; his advisors are much closer to him, and you know what they'll tell him."
"But I'll still try. Maybe I'll have to sacrifice something, but I won't let you all suffer because of this."
Katrina headed for the exit.
"Try not to do anything foolish, and I'll figure this out somehow."
Slamming the door shut, Kat left us in anxious silence. Not knowing what to do, we began to disperse. Only one vendor guiltily sat in the corner, not making a sound.
"Vina."
The girl flinched when I called her. There was no one else in the room, and she could no longer hold back her tears.
"It's my fault. They found out about Kurone's power from me. If anything happens to her, it's because of me!"
"Shut up," I rudely interrupted the girl, "hysterics won't help here. I'm also to blame because I allowed you to do it, so now you'll help me get her out."
"But Kat said..."
It won't help; she won't do anything. That's why you must do as I say. Find all possible sources of information—former inquisitors, historians, anyone. I need to know what's behind those great gates in Belenore. The castle's layout, security, everything you can get. You must do it before Katrina returns; there won't be time afterward."
"Are you planning to infiltrate there?"
"If necessary, I'll take the fortress by storm, but I will set her free."