A Jaded Life

After putting the nice people who had decided to visit us into our holding cells, I had to decide what to do with them. Normally, I would readily use them as test subjects, or even kill them outright after making sure that their actions had been what they appeared to be, but in our current situation, I wasn’t confident that it would be the best step.

Sure, it would deal with them, meaning they wouldn’t be able to attack us again, but at the same time, there might be others like them, waiting for the group to come home. If they knew that these five had made it into the tower, or even near the tower, but hadn’t managed to get back out of the tower, it would point at us as aggressors. That, in turn, could cause their community to see us as hostile and attack, forcing us to kill numerous humans, as I had no interest in leaving this area. Thus, I ended up in a familiar situation, one where I needed to know more to make an informed decision. Funny how that happened, endlessly gathering information only to come across yet another gap in my knowledge.

Maybe once Jack and his group were back I could ask them about the local survivor groups and gather some information that way, or I could use a scrying construct or the Oculus, both would likely be able to let me learn more, though not necessarily about the needed details. It wasn’t as if these five had been wearing identification badges or something, letting me know where they came from or what I would have to expect from their community. I couldn’t even rely on their behaviour being some sort of indication of what type of community they came from, they might simply keep their ill behaviour away from home, following the old adage about not spoiling one’s own nest. In that case, these five could be seen as trusted pillars of the community back home, only to abuse their power in the worst sort of ways while out and about.

In regards to their powers, I had done my best to learn as much as possible about them, without waking them, that is. I had no intention of letting foes into my tower unless I was in complete control of these foes but, sadly, the cells we had built had their limits. I couldn’t be completely confident that they could stand up to everything and anything these people could throw at them unless I learned as much as I could.

And so, I started with using my Soul Sight in an effort to learn their affinities if only to make sure that they wouldn’t be able to open their cells with some magical trickery I wasn’t aware of and using Blood Magic to gather information from their physical state. We even stripped their bodies down to nothing, just to make sure they didn’t have additional gear secreted, or rather stuffed, away, waiting for us to let our guards down so they could stab us in the back. I even considered using Mind Magic to figure out something about their intentions but for that, I would need them to be awake.

Alternatively, I really wanted to try a few things using my Mind Magic, mainly the sort of mind-reading the ability’s name seemed to imply. So far, I had mainly used it to strike with fairly blunt force or to impart simple commands the opposition couldn’t resist when in combat or to draw voluntary subjects into a mindscape, allowing me to direct and guide them. Now, what I had in mind was something similar to the second application, only that I didn’t care about the subject’s willingness, nor did I seek to guide them, I wanted to draw information directly from their mind. If nothing else, it would allow me to ascertain their intentions, they might have been planning to do nothing more than pressure and intimidate me. Not the most pleasant thing to do, certainly something I would condemn but, at the same time, I had used my own power to do so before and shouldn’t judge too harshly.

Of course, if their intentions had been to rape, pillage and burn, my response to them would inevitably become harsher, even if I had pillaged before. Burning, not so much, mostly because I still wasn’t comfortable with Fire Magic and raping, well, that didn’t fit my style. I could recognise the utility of the act as a tool of terror but there were better ways to sow fear, at least in my opinion. Maybe I would have to test some of those ways on these five if their intentions had been malevolent enough to warrant such tests. Time would tell but, for now, time told me something else entirely, namely, that there were even more people approaching my tower.

Again, I moved to welcome these visitors down in the library and, again, Lia joined me with gleeful anticipation, hoping that these visitors would be more palatable than the previous ones. Apparently, she had taken a brief sip from the guy she had chocked out but the blood had not been to her taste, whatever that meant in this context. Too little Astral Power in the guy’s body, maybe, or too much Vitality, maybe? Or there might be some sort of Light Affinity that made the blood taste foul to her vampiric sensibilities, I wasn’t sure. It might even be something along the lines of virgin blood tasting better, which I considered to be a fairly strange idea, and yet, it had also been prevalent in various stories from before the change. Either way, her primary, and almost sole, source of blood so far had been me and she had never complained about the taste. It might simply be that she was used to the taste of my blood and power, given that she had never really known anything else. Maybe I would find out in time, as Lia herself learned more but at the end of the night, it didn’t really matter.

With a small, mental exertion, I opened the doors of the tower, just as I felt the people outside move towards them, allowing them entry. This time, I didn’t conceal myself, I simply waited in the middle of the room, curious about who these visitors might be.

The slight tension within my body faded when I recognised Jack at the front of the group, with the rest of his people following behind. While I didn’t trust these five, they were a lot less problematic than the fools we had put into the cells upstairs, if only because we already had an agreement made. They might break it but the agreement offered them distinct advantages, meaning they would be fools to casually break it.

Though, given the apprehensive look in Jack’s eyes, I had a feeling that they had talked to one or more of the legacies, not that I begrudged them the action. Gathering more information was always a valid course of action, especially if you didn't know enough about your potential opponent, not even if they were a friend, foe or neutral competitor.

“It is good to have you back,” I greeted them, just as Lia approached Samantha, getting an amusingly mixed look of apprehension and curiosity from the older woman, at least older in comparison to Lia. She truly didn’t know what to do with Lia and her enthusiasm but I had a feeling she wasn’t all that opposed to it, or she might simply felt swept away and off her feet by Lia’s charisma. Just another thing I might want to study in the future, just how strong the influence of traits and attributes in interpersonal relations was. And, in comparison, how strong had it been before the change? Sadly, when it came to data from before the change, I doubted I would be able to get any decent information, simply due to a lack of objectivity.

People had charisma and certain internal traits that made them more or less attractive to certain individuals, some of those traits had even been fairly universal but it wasn’t as if there was a databank somewhere, listing just what made a person attractive to which sort of people. Sure, there were primitive attributes, traits that might indicate that a person would be advantageous as a mate to give advantages to future children but, luckily, humans were a little more complex than other animals. Or maybe we simply liked to make things complicated, either could be the case.

Sure, now, with the system, one could likely make a list of traits and attributes, allowing one to form comparisons and contrast between the aggressor in the relationship and the pursued but without a chance to compare it to the days before the system, such a list would be fairly worthless. And I had a feeling that there wasn’t a real need for one, not if the positive traits were as straightforward as the negatives, like my own Ruthless trait.

Even as my mind was pondering these questions, I went through the usual dance of greeting and recognition with Jack and the rest of his group, before offering them a brief tour through the shelter I had prepared for them. Afterwards, we could get to the meat and potatoes of the exchange, lessons and, hopefully, information on the local conditions.