“Oi. Oi, dog. Stop drooling on my floor and wake up.”

Arthur blinked open his eyes, feeling a thick layer of crust resisting his efforts. He wiped his face with his palm, his limbs clumsy and heavy. He blinked rapidly as he sat up, feeling as if a stonehead whale was strapped to his chest.

As his vision cleared of the fogginess of sleep, he made out Lou, dressed in a sheer nightgown that didn’t suit her and carrying a mug that smelt of bitter tea. He flinched at the sight of her. “…Lou?”

“The hell are you looking at me like that for?” the noblewoman muttered. She looked down at herself and grimaced. “Yeah, it doesn’t suit me but I asked Kierra to toss me something. She got a giggle out of it so it’s fine.”

She ran a hand through her hair. “I was in such a hurry to get down here because I was…ah, fuck it. I was worried about you. You brought this on yourself but as a responsible summoner, I might feel a tiny bit guilty abandoning you to your fate. I…hey, are you listening to me?”

Her words washed over the confused pirate as he grappled with her presence, wondering if he was losing his mind. Lou couldn’t be standing in front of him. Nine years ago, with the help of the thrall, he had trapped the summoner in a hastily constructed cellar beneath her own home. He’d kept her bound, gagged, and drugged so she couldn’t order the thrall to act against him.

Once he left the Hall, he’d transported her in a box to Graywatch. He’d used his earth magic to carve a cave into the face of one of the many cliffs and left her there, forever gazing out at the bleak sea.

The last time he’d seen her, she was nothing but skin and bones, her dark hair long and matted. Her confident violet eyes were glazed over with madness as her cracked, dry lips mumbled nonsense in reaction to his presence, despite not recognizing him. “This…you’re one of the thrall’s tricks.”

“Oh saints. She did a number on you.”

Arthur ignored her, eyes moving over the room as he searched for the source of his greatness and all his suffering. “Come out! Explain your game.”

“No more games, Arthur. Look.” Lou jerked her head in the direction of the window, where the shades were drawn and sunlight poured into the living room. “The sun is up, your bet is concluded, and my succubus has withdrawn her influence from your mind. No more games, no more tricks.”

“…I see.” He wobbled as he pushed to his feet. “This is another reminder. I am fully aware how powerful you are. There is no need to mess with my mind. Simply tell me the price this time and let’s see this done.”

“I’m telling you, this isn’t…oh, this isn’t working. Hey, get out here.”

Soft clomping announced the arrival of the thrall. Arthur startled when he saw her. The creature had taken many forms throughout the decade of their partnership. Sometimes, it was a nightmare from the depths of the sea. Other times, it took seductive forms that could make a man lose his mind at a single glance. But it had never again taken the form it had when it served Lourianne Tome. He didn’t know if it was out of disgust or respect to the summoner she betrayed.

“We all must wake from our dreams, pet.” The thrall chuckled. “No matter how alluring they are.”

“I grow tired of your ploys,” Arthur snapped.

“Give me the short version of what happened,” Lou demanded. She closed her eyes, nodding periodically. Several minutes later, her eyes snapped open with a grimace. “Saints damn it. I told you not to destroy him.”

“His reason remains intact,” the thrall said with a smile, tail whipping rapidly. “He is merely operating under a few misconceptions.”

“A few? This sorry bastard has ten years of fake memories clouding his mind. He’s completely different.”

“The impression of the memories is faint and I’ve kept his personality intact. They will fade and he will know they are false.”

“And how long will that take?”

“It depends on how strongly he clings to the memories. If he accepts—"

“Enough!” Arthur called on his mana. He didn’t often use violence on the creature, as it always found ways to get even, but sometimes it took force to put an end to its games.

But to his surprise, his mana core was significantly smaller than it should be. Where it had once been as vast as the ocean, it was a piddling pool in comparison.

Almost…almost as if he had gone back in time ten years when he was still an initiate at the Hall.

He ignored the strange weakness and tried to cast his spell anyway. He knew from experience that the thrall could mess with his perceptions but not even its powers could take away his mana. Even if he couldn’t perceive it, it was still within him and would obey his will.

The spell should have summoned the metal around him, reformed it into chains strengthened by his mana, and bound the thrall and the apparition of Lou. But when he willed his mana into the spell, nothing happened. Arthur stared at his hands in disbelief. “What…”

“Hey, what did he just try to do? Seriously? Okay. Hey, Arthur. Look at me.”

Her gaze was sympathetic, her violet eyes hooded. “I need you to listen to me, alright? I’ve gotten a brief rundown on what happened to you. You remember waking up after your bet concluded, saints, ten years ago? Listen. That was a trick. Everything that happened after that was a trick. It didn’t happen. None of it was real.”

Arthur scowled. “No one can fake ten years of memory. However, confusing me for a few minutes is entirely within that creature’s capabilities.” He brushed past Lou and dropped onto a couch, fighting a yawn. “Let me know when you’ve finished your game. I have business in the city today.”

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Lou shook her head. She waved over the thrall and handed over the mug of tea. “Go prepare breakfast…and maybe bring out the Herbanacle. This might be easier for him to swallow with something to wash it down.”

“As you wish, my summoner.”

Arthur eyed the apparition of the noblewoman as she took a seat beside him. “I don’t know why it’s showing me you. You’re not scary or horrific. By the deep, I actually liked you.”

“Uh huh. And what supposedly happened to me?”

“Ah, is it trying to make me feel guilty? I did away with useless sentiment long ago. Locking you up was nothing personal but you should know a ship can’t have two captains. If there was a chance you’d have cooperated with me, I would have let you tag along. Wouldn’t even have tried to sleep with you.”

“Well, aren’t you the picture of mercy.”

“So? What are you here to do? Put me on a better path? Tempt me to a worse one?”

“I’m here to make you see sense.”

Arthur grimaced as she grabbed him by the mouth and forced him to meet her eyes. The pain of her grip felt very real but the thrall could mess with his perceptions. What was strange was the look in Lou’s eyes.

In his memories, she was flippant and short-tempered. The woman staring at him now was cold and somber, her expression blank but her eyes serious. Something in the back of his mind niggled at him, scraping at his conviction, but he easily swatted it aside.

“Listen to me, you sorry bastard. I know you’ve never heard of someone creating ten years of memories but that’s only because you’re thinking of human beings. My thrall is not simply stronger than most mental casters, she has centuries, if not millennia, of experience. She can turn your mind inside out without breaking a sweat.

“The last ten years you experienced is all fake. You’ll come to realize that soon enough, as I forbade her from permanently altering you, but it’ll go a lot easier if you stop fighting it.”

“I know full well what that creature is capable of,” Arthur muttered against her palm. “But there would be no point. Why would that thing fake ten years of life? If all of it was fake, then everything I did for it, all that power it gained, never happened. Why would it waste so much time?” He scoffed. “Isn’t it far more likely that this conversation is a little spot of amusement to remind me of my place?”

“See, there you go again, thinking of a succubus like a human. Ten years for amusement may seem excessive to you but what is ten years to a creature that’s immortal? And power? What power could you offer her that she couldn’t get for herself? Why would she bother with you? Think about it.”

Arthur frowned. “She needed me to be the face. To bring the crews of Graywatch together and fend off the king. After the Great War, they wouldn’t have accepted another creature as a sovereign.”

“Arthur…she’s a shapeshifter. She could just become a human.”

He blinked. The little worm of reason renewed its efforts to gnaw away his convictions but he suppressed it. “A mental or physical caster could have discovered the truth. It was better to use a puppet ruler.”

“A mental caster? She’s far better than anyone the kingdom could throw at her, something you should know. And a physical caster? She has that affinity too, you idiot. Besides, she can sniff them out. They wouldn’t get within eyeline of her if she wanted. She would have nothing to fear from anyone.

“More importantly, it doesn’t matter. Humans won’t make deals with other races? What the hell do you have to say about Fortitude? A man-mutating abomination stole land from the king and killed hundreds of his knights and they still make nice with it.”

She shook him lightly. “Her influence was keeping you from drawing the obvious conclusion but you’re free from it now. Think. There are too many things that don’t make sense. First of all, you say you imprisoned me. Alone? I could kick your ass with my pinky.”

“The thrall helped.”

“Which is impossible. Do you think I’m an idiot? She can’t do anything to harm me. If she plotted against me, she would be destroyed by a power bigger than all of us. It is, very literally, impossible. But let’s put that aside. What happened to the other people in the house? Let’s start with Bell, my other elemental.”

His brows furrowed. “The imp ran off the night we attacked. I never saw it again.”

“Haha, hilarious. As if an elemental will just abandon its summoner. It’d make more sense if you said Bell followed you. Moving on. The servants. Do you think you could get past Earl and Gajin? Maybe Gajin if he’s not in the garden but Earl would slit your throat the second you showed hostile intentions.”

Arthur blinked. “The thrall took care of the servants.”

“Oh, so she dispatched my servants without waking either me or my wife with our incredible hearing? Amazing. Speaking of, what did you do with my wife? The elf with the pure physical affinity that could fight Dunwayne?”

The worm of reason grew tiny legs tipped with claws and scratched at Arthur’s convictions harder. “…the thrall took care of her too.”

“Oh? Did you see that? It should have been amazing. I’m sure they brought the house down at least. Did they shatter the Hall?”

“…I didn’t see the fight. When I arrived at the house, the elf and the imp were gone, the servants were dead, and the thrall had you bound. My role was to create a cellar to hide you.”

“Does that make any sense to you? My wife wouldn’t go down without a fight. A loud, messy fight. The whole Hall, saints, the whole kingdom would have known if they fought.”

The worm of reason became a mole and started to dig vigorously.

Lou saw something in his eyes and moved her hand. “That’s right. Think about it.”

“…Alana never came looking for you. I saw her around the Hall but we never spoke.”

“Which is damn strange. If I went missing, that stubborn girl would kick down every door in the Hall looking for me. Not to mention Miss Talia. And Miss Alyssa, being a part of the Grand Watch. That’s not mentioning who would come looking for my wife. Aurelius, that bastard. The grandmaster. Her mother, saints save us all.”

Arthur swallowed. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Stop thinking about it as a human. Succubi love manipulating others. This?” She waved a finger between them. “This moment right here is enough for her to turn your mind inside out. I know you suffered.”

“But…I didn’t suffer without cause. That creature demanded much from me but I got much in return.”

Lou shook her head. “She isn’t a brute who gets off on flaying your skin and whipping you like human torturers. She’s an artist. Anyone can hurt you. She made you hurt yourself by making you believe it served a purpose. Not to mention the pain you’ll feel every time you remember what you did was all for naught.”

Arthur stared at her blankly, heart thudding in his chest. “It said it could make me the king of Graywatch…if I killed my father.”

The noblewoman winced. “Fuck. You actually did it?”

“It stopped leviathans from attacking in return for sacrificing a child every month.”

“Saints. Really? Wait, did you do that too?”

“For once, the city was able to grow without worry of it being destroyed. We built a wall that kept out the kingdom’s army. We managed to cultivate farms.”

“But kids? Come on.”

“Not Graywatch’s kids. I bargained for that. But in return, I had to hand them over personally…and listen.”

“Ah.”

Arthur covered his face with his hands, his fingers trembling lightly. As the thrall said, the memories began to fade, things that used to be crystal clear losing detail with every passing moment, but the feelings were all too vivid. “It made me choose between my wife and my son!”

“…you were married?”

“Why? WHY?!” he roared.

Lou sighed as she stood. “Because she could. You’ll drive yourself mad if you dig deeper than that.” Her hand reached out to him but she stopped herself at the last moment and let it drop. “Just…take some time. And never make bets with elementals, idiot.”

She shook her head as she walked away from the young pirate as he grappled with reality.