Despair washed over Alesha like the impact of a tsunami, overpowering everything else that was present in her mind. A year? It had been an entire year since she'd been summoned away from home?!
An avalanche of anxious thoughts assaulted her. What had happened to her family during that time? She didn't even know for certain who had survived the Chaos Zombie Outbreak back when she'd disappeared during her "Demon Summoning," and at the time, she'd only been absent from Elantris for a week!! Just how much more could have happened during the year that had followed? Had they died of starvation while attempting to survive in the newly demolished Elantris? Had Toltura's Army invaded in earnest? Had the Human Alliance imprisoned her family because Alesha had disappeared during an interrogation; were they being held hostage? Had they been disposed of because she hadn't returned?!
These ideas, and what seemed like thousands of similar ones, sprouted like weeds in her mind, quickly maturing into a thicket of worries that choked out healthy, rational thoughts.
In the end, all that was left was a sense of urgency.
… and a profound, all-consuming anger.
Anger at the King for betraying her. Anger at him for the flashes of terror she felt from simply recalling her time in that dark, empty torture room. Anger at the fact that because of his deceptions, she was now barely refraining from panicking due to the near-total lack of sensation she was experiencing now, which was all-too-similar to what she had felt then. Her newfound ability to detect life forms was now the only way she could sense anything beyond herself and it was terrifying. She felt an acrid, powerful bitterness towards the King for doing this to her. Another emotion, a sense of helplessness, only magnified her fury; his betrayal had caused her to lose so much time. If she finally returned home only to discover that her family was dead… she would blame him for the rest of eternity. She did not care whether he was real or not. It was his fault.
Another target of her anger was the Chaos Demon Zorhellian, whose ridiculous Storytelling Games toyed with lives and time as if they were meaningless bits of data in a video game. This was an anger she felt without having experienced the true horror of the "Soul Harvesting Story," which she had unknowingly been spared from because the 'Seed of Chaos' System had effectively turned her into a glitch; had she been exposed to it in full, a greater percentage of her fury would have been directed at him. As it was, however, Alesha's ire was almost entirely directed towards the King.
Alesha was so consumed in dwelling upon her fury that she didn't notice as the waves of her emotion flooded into the Captain's mind; in fact, she was unaware that such a thing was even possible. She hadn't noticed it happening moments ago and she didn't now. After awakening from her months-long slumber, her usually thorough analysis of events was put on hold due to her strong emotions. These very same emotions were in the process of overwhelming not only Alesha but also the Captain. Captain Edelle LuRoss, having been trained to be an elite among elites within the King's loyal "Swallow Knights," had an unusually strong mind. However, the skills that supernaturally reinforced her mind belonged primarily to Bana Laoch -- or rather, Alesha.
This proved to be rather unfortunate for the Captain.
When the King had first acquired (through espionage) the method for the crafting of Cursed Swords, he had been initially quite reluctant to forge, then use, a weapon with such an ominous name. The risks of such a weapon would surely be high. However, the idea had great potential if it could be wielded safely -- they were sure to be a great insurance against potential outbursts of deviant Heroes. Thus, he had commanded the High Wizard Merlin to personally lead a study into the theory of Cursed Weapon crafting in order to determine whether or not it was safe to use.
The outcome of Merlin's studies had determined that, in the process of forging Cursed Weapons, a soul's stats were drastically reduced and any sentience they had was completely eradicated -- after which, though they were no longer alive, they were also neither dead nor undead, merely "cursed." He had explained to the King that the weapons were known as "cursed" not because they could negatively affect the wielder, but because the method of their creation involved the darker side of magic. Proudly, he announced that this meant the so-called Cursed Weapons were entirely safe to use.
However, Merlin had made one crucial mistake in his studies of the theory behind Cursed Weapons. What he mistook for eradication of a soul's sentience was actually better described as "ego sealing," or the locking away of one's ego (sense of self). Erasure of sentience while preserving the soul and its power was simply not possible for mortals to accomplish. Mind Flayers could eradicate the sentience of those they ate, but rather than consciousness erasure, that was consumption; and what was left behind when they were finished was a shell of a living being that lacked a soul, not a soul that could not think for itself and therefore could be manipulated into forcibly sharing its skills. Completely erasing a soul's sentience was a task that neither humans nor demons could do.
The real danger of Cursed Weapons wasn't in any kind of simple curse, like the King had predicted. Nor was it some sort of trap hidden in the complex method of turning a sentient being into cursed metal, then forming them into a sword, as Merlin had initially theorized.
It was in the clash of "egos" that would occur if the weapon's sealed ego were ever released.
At a critical moment when Alesha's unsealed ego collided with Captain Swallow's, and the Captain was in desperate need of skills to reinforce her mind, Alesha subconsciously ceased sharing the use of those skills.