Valerie put her fingertips on the subject's nearly bald head. He was still regaining his senses and a little dazed as well.
Hopefully she won't have any difficulties.
Quies watched from afar. He stood, arms crossed.
'What's she doing?'
He watched as Valerie stood slightly crouched in front of the subject… man. The man looked no younger than his 40s, though his Etrean guard uniform made him look younger.
Quies was wondering what Valerie was going to do in order to extort information from this poor guy. Maybe she would have done the same thing to this man as she did to him. Fortunately, there were no bodies of water around.
He did not want to approach any whirlpools or gateways to the Depths ever again.
'Could Valerie really threaten a man like this with the Depths?'
The depths… it was a place which everyone had heard of, but never really visited. Daring adventurers would venture in search of whirlpools, a much more peaceful and easier method of transit into the Depths.
At least, more peaceful than separating your body from your soul, better known as death.
Because when you die in lumen, there is no afterlife. The soul, separated from its bodily anchor, is mercilessly dragged down.
Dragged deeper.
And deeper…
Deeper still…
Until it rests in the insanity that is the depths. Quies had heard from his father…
He paused for a moment.
Ah, that's right. He had heard stories from the eldritchian hell. Cold, but not desolate. Underwater, drowning, yet your breath is not stifled. Creatures that have evolved and adapted to impossible circumstances.
'Maybe I should talk with a historian once this is all over.'
He broke free from his thoughts and saw Valerie. This time, there were sparks of bright yellow escaping from her arms.
He wanted to ask, but he didn't want to interfere. Maybe he'd talk with her after.
Suddenly, a glob of indescribable contents formed above and behind the subject. It was gray, formless, chaotic.
'No… it's forming into…'
This must've been what Valerie was talking about. Turning incorporeal thoughts into visible forms. The subject's thoughts were cloudy and grey. Maybe in a few moments…
Sharp spikes jutted out of the mass of thoughts.
'Is she shocking his brain?'
The spikes formed, jutted, and broke in fractions of a second. He looked towards the subject's head, and saw Valerie adjust the position of her fingers ever so slightly. With each movement, the spikes changed.
As the man's thoughts cleared from the sudden shock, colors appeared.
Then, texture.
Valerie experimented with her hand positioning, seeing what would happen. Soon, the thoughts were able to coalesce. The mass of colors and shapes turned into… a map?
A map. That was what it was. Tattered at its edges, it looked to be a map of an island from afar. Rifts separated it into different sections, the center had what looked like a tree…
'It's a map of Etris. What is that on the right?'
Quies tried to focus his view on it, but suddenly the form broke. The map was no more. For a moment, the mass returned to its free-flowing form. A second later, though…
Long and articulated limblike shapes formed first. Then, a sort of veil… a dress. The remaining mass separated into fibers, no, strands. Long strands. Long strands that flowed as smooth as the dress in an imaginary wind. And then, there was the face.
It was a child.
A young child. A blissful child.
'Who is this man?'
Did Valerie kidnap… a father? Quies knew Valerie was brutal, at least when she needed to, but this was not what he expected.
But suddenly, a new thought demanded his attention.
The child smiled with innocence, her face as tranquil as the Etrean sea.
'Do I know her?'
***
"Y…ahehah…ye-yes."
Suddenly, Valerie could feel a thin string of allegiance with the subject.
'Huh, easier than I thought."
She thought this was going to be one of the more difficult parts of the operation. She had doubts whether this would even work in the first place.
Vows are complicated.
It seems to be some sort of contract, which involves the participation of two parties. It was weird, because vows didn't seem to have any connection to the song whatsoever. They did not mention verses or even use a sliver of ether to form a bond. In Lumen's formalities, the upper party would be deemed as the pag, and the lower party would be deemed as the lue.
In this case, Valerie was the pag, and the subject was the lue.
Thus, Valerie would ultimately dictate the contents of her vow. The other party, the subject, is free to accept or deny her terms. Well… this time the subject didn't really have a choice.
However, it worked. Turns out you only need a physical form of consent in order to make a vow with another person.
Valerie experimented with the position of her fingertips. She moved them to different spots, testing to see how it would affect cognitive functions. In front of her, the subject's thoughts began to take physical shape. She assumed that she had influenced the short term memory function of the brain, recalling thoughts formed before Valerie had taken him. She didn't pay much attention to those.
"So, tell me. What do you know about the lord regent?"
Surprisingly, the subject responded orally to her question.
"Oh, well, I'm sure you… would already know… He saved us, the people of Etris."
"Wrong."
Valerie increased the voltage, feeling the current running faster through her body.
The subject yelped.
"Let me ask you again. Who is the lord regent?"
She paused.
"Tell me his name."
The poor man was barely recovering from her increase in voltage.
"His name… Lord…"
He struggled to push out a sentence.
"Name?"
It seemed like he was trying to push through an impenetrable wall in his mind. It was the mind veil. Valerie increased the voltage again, but gradually as to not interrupt his train of thought.
She had to break through.
And a moment later, she did.
"His name is…"
The subject's eyes were wide, as if the words he was about to utter were forbidden.
"Zi'eer."