Elrianthe filled the room with a thick cloud of pheromones. When ready, she grabbed Cornelie by the chin, lifting her face upward.


    Looking at her, she regretted that she had earlier rejected the idea of puppeteering her at this stage. She felt that a later official meeting would benefit her more. Although she could do it now and explain everything later, Alice''s watchful gaze could alert her that something was wrong. They were both in a difficult situation and needed to find a way to communicate without Alice finding out.


    ''I hope this works...'' she thought and, closing her eyes, began listening to the thoughts.


    After activating < Acquired Psychosis >, she tried to create the illusion of her voice in Cornelie''s head with which she wanted to communicate with her.


    She started sending impulses, trying to get her brain to play her words like an echo.


    Wire: “What''s that? Someone talking behind the wall?”


    Elrianthe''s efforts began to yield results, but the message was unclear, so she kept trying.


    ''~Hey. Can you hear me clearly?” resounded a voice in Cornelie''s head.


    Wire: “What the fuck is going on? Is she the one doing this?”


    ''~Listen carefully. We''ve both gotten into a swamp over our heads, and we have to work something out to get out of it.


    Wire: “That''s her voice! How does she do it? How do I answer her?”


    ''~Just think what you want to answer. I can hear it,'' the voice replied, but Cornelie couldn''t tell if it was a lie or not. Elrianthe''s mouth remained closed, and her ability did not work in this case.


    Wire: "Fine. I trust you. You haven''t lied to me once before.”


    ''~Have you checked before if I''m lying?” asked Elrianthe, taking advantage of the situation to confirm her assumptions.


    Wire: “Yes, my skill can detect lies. You only started lying after you met Alice. That''s how I know I can trust you.”


    ''~I don''t like that you verified my truthfulness. Are you going to verify an elf too?


    Wire: “No. Sorry. I needed to know if you were trying to deceive me. That way I avoided more than one trap.”


    ''~Never mind. Where is your security?''


    Wire: “They should be here in a few minutes-”


    “What the fuck are you doing?” growled Alice suddenly, who had been watching the whole situation.


    Elrianthe frowned. “You are disturbing me. I''m trying to break her by showing her frightening visions and things she fears.”


    “You''re showing her visions?“ she asked suspiciously.


    “It takes a long while, but then she''ll have had enough, she''ll start to sing like a canary without resistance.”


    "Bullshit. You can''t do something like that,” scolded Alice, walking up to her.


    Elrianthe let go of Cornelie''s chin for a moment and asked Alice, “Do you want to try?”


    “Sure. Show me something!”


    Elrianthe grabbed her hand, and the next moment Alice sprang to the other end of the room, drawing two daggers in a split second and assuming a defensive position. Her heart was pounding like a sledgehammer, and her anxious gaze sought out threats from every direction.


    “What the fuck was that?!” shouted Alice after instinctively jumping away. Her body reacted on its own before she even realized what had happened.


    “Something dreadful that you didn''t expect,” Elrianthe replied.


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    Alice looked at her distrustfully. “Did you know him? Do you know what happened to him?!” she called out aggressively.


    “Who? I have no idea what you saw,” Elrianthe defended herself, trying to keep up the appearance of coincidence.


    “I saw ... my husband. He appeared out of nowhere and threw himself at me,” mumbled Alice, loud enough for Elrianthe to hear.


    “Forgive me, I have no control over what you can witness. I forced your mind to show you... something. I thought you would see some spiders or something like that,” Elrianthe replied awkwardly.


    ''So your last victim was your husband... I hope this jumpscare will keep you awake at night,'' she thought.


    “Okay, whatever.


    Do your own thing. I need to... cool off a bit,” Alice replied, hiding the daggers.


    Wire: “Fuck. My hands are shaking. It looked so real,” Alice thought.


    Wire: “It was awesome though! Do it to her again,” she heard from Cornelie''s side.


    For the next few minutes, Elrianthe and Cornelie, in secret agreement, acted out the interrogation stage. Elrianthe asked questions that Alice wanted to know the answers to, and Cornelie answered, faking reluctance and horror. Sometimes her reactions and impulses had to be tweaked by illusions to make them look better in the leader''s eyes.


    It also happened that Elrianthe had to show the half-elf something unpleasant to add a realism that she could not replace with her skills.


    By directing her mind to various fears, she was able to create real fear, which was reflected in her voice and behavior. One such trigger was the death of her ailing mother, for whom Cornelie chased money so hard.


    Despite all the drama, Alice had learned nothing that would give her an advantage over her opponent and decided it was time to end it.


    “We won''t learn anything more important. Let''s go,” Alice said, grabbing the door handle.


    “Wait. What are you going to do with her?” asked Elrianthe.


    “I''ll tell one of the boys to get rid of her. We won''t need her anymore,” replied Alice.


    “Are you sure that''s the right decision?” Elrianthe questioned the leader''s choice.


    Alice turned around with a sour face, “Do you think I''m making a mistake?”


    “You might piss off the people she works for,” Elrianthe pointed out, trying to dissuade her from killing Cornelie for concern of possible retaliation.


    Alice crossed her arms over her chest. “And you think I care? I don''t give a fuck what they do. I can even quarter her and send her to them in the mail in five packages.”


    “Isn''t it better to have a contact at the enemy''s door than to give them more motivation to fight you?” she suggested.


    “And you think this nasty elf will be suitable? I doubt it,” Alice replied maliciously.


    “I think it''s better-”


    Before Elrianthe had time to finish, an intense light flashed from behind the chair, blinding the arguing women, and thick smoke filled the entire room.


    At the same time, a portal appeared, and two masked men grabbed Cornelie and pulled her in with them. By the time the ladies regained their sight, there was no trace of the half-elf.


    Elrianthe breathed a sigh of relief that Cornelie had managed to escape before Alice got any sick ideas.


    *cough*


    “What are you so happy about?” asked an exasperated Alice, coughing because of the thick smoke.


    “I''m glad we''re okay,” replied Elrianthe.


    Alice opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. “Sure. Come on, before we suffocate.”


    Despite the poor visibility, Elrianthe noticed that Cornelie''s belongings rested untouched against the wall, so she decided to take them, throwing them into the magic stash.


    Gaz sat at the table, waiting for Elrianthe to return. They had locked him in the meeting room, where they had previously discussed plans to capture the spy, and he was accompanied by Krek, who was to oversee him on the boss''s orders.


    After a while, the leader entered the room along with Elrianthe. Alice''s presence made him uncomfortable, but Gaz could finally relax, seeing Elrianthe unharmed.


    Alice walked over to the cabinet, took out a bottle of stronger alcohol, and turned to Elrianthe: “It''s a pity that in the end, she escaped us, although it wouldn''t matter much if we didn''t learn anything more. I must admit that you impressed me with your abilities. What bothers me is your morality, but that can still be worked on.”


    Gaz got up from the table. “So it worked?”


    Alice took a big gulp from her glass and turned back to him. “Not the way I would have wanted it to, but it did what I expected it to do.”


    “So can we leave?” asked Gaz.


    “You can, although I want to ask one last time,” she replied, looking at Elrianthe. “Would you like to join us? It won''t take long before you become my right hand. What do you think?”


    “I''ve refused before and now I''ll refuse a second time. I''m not interested in it,” Elrianthe repeated. “Forgive me, Alice, but I want to rest, so let me take Gaz and we''ll go,” she added, trying not to sound annoyed.


    Alice sat down behind her desk, throwing her legs over the countertop. “That''s too bad. It didn''t hurt to ask though. You can go. Krek, lead them to the exit and call Simon for me.”


    “Yes, ma''am,” replied Krek and left with the guests.


    Elrianthe and Gaz were escorted to the exit door and immediately headed toward Roland''s inn.


    Alice watched them from her office window as Simon went inside. “Send someone discreet behind them. I want to keep an eye on them 24 hours a day,” she ordered.