I looked at her. The couch had no openings for tails so Lucy’s was curled around her. How inconvenient would more of them be for her? And how fluffy? I placed her tail in my lap and started stroking it. She did not seem to mind.
Thessia watched our antics, clearly amused. Lucy rested her head against my shoulder. We fell into a comfortable silence. At some point Lily returned with Minerva.
“My ladies, I have returned.”
She placed the woman on the floor in front of the tree. We stood up and approached her.
“Good job, any problems?”
“Some inquiries from the guards but Elandru handled them. He is monitoring the entrance to the temple to make sure we are not disturbed.”
“Hm.” I pondered that. “It makes sense that they look into an unconscious person being carried around. Let’s hope that they won’t cause any trouble.”
Meanwhile, Thessia had started to examine Minerva. She was disrobing the woman to further inspect her body. At first I could not see anything out of the ordinary. Until the dryad cast a spell. Suddenly black runes appeared around Minerva's navel. Even with my Eye’s of the Fey I was unable to see them before.
“What did you do? I could not detect those runes before.” I asked.
“They have been crafted into the body. Those are not simply drawn on her. I am not sure how. It’s like she is permanently shapeshifted into a body with runes…” Thessia looked startled.
So, they altered her DNA? They programmed certain cells to have a different pigmentation? It would mean we could not remove those runes. Even if we cut them out they would regrow. At least they were not powered at the moment. I studied those runes with my arcane knowledge.
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After a while I could make sense of them. “This is disgusting.” I said, shaking my head.
“What have you figured out?” Lucy asked.
“The spell puts a person under the control of the caster. But magic like that would not last forever. In order to keep the spell going it uses the mana of the victim. It would kill a normal person and weaken a strong one. That is also why those runes are hard to detect with magic. The enslavement is essentially like a racial ability. It becomes a natural part of the body, not an external force. What I don’t know is why we could not see them with our normal eyes. How did you reveal them, Thessia?”
“I cast a cleaning spell. They were simply hidden with paint. But your discoveries are disturbing indeed. I have never heard of such a thing.”
“Why is she in a coma? You broke the spell, right? Can they reactivate it?”
“It’s not like a daemon binding. I can’t see anything here that creates a bond. Maybe they were afraid it could be used to track the caster. Or maybe they did not know how to create a bond. I assume she received her orders in person, or with a communications crystal.” I paused, studying the runes again. “I am afraid the enslavement has a failsafe. If the magic is being overwhelmed it uses everything to fight back. It’s designed to kill the person before it fails….”
Then, why was she still alive? Because I did not use a normal dispel? Devour magic was one of my cheat skills. It was a spell that was only available to certain bosses in the game. I thought back to the times I had used it in this world. It was literally devouring magic, not just breaking a spell. So, the failsafe never triggered? Wait…
“I think Lily’s interrogation triggered the failsafe. Minerva was screaming because her own magic was hurting her to fight back against Lily. Devour magic should have safely disabled the runes but there was some damage before that. Let’s hope it’s not permanent.” I theorised.
Thessia looked at me. “Your knowledge about magic is far superior to mine. I will trust your analysis. Do you have an idea how they changed her body? This is a natural shapeshift, not a temporary one.”
“Powerful alchemy?” I guessed. Maybe someone created a magical DNA changing potion? They did not transform her race, at least I did not think so, they only added those runes.
“How do we change her back?” Lucy asked.
I sighed. “I have no idea. And that is a huge problem. Those runes are part of her. And they can be reactivated. Thankfully, it’s something you can only do in person. So they would have to get close to her first.”
“At least I can heal her, I think.” Thessia said. “Is there any danger of me reactivating those runes? Can I safely use spells on her?”
“Yes. Binding her requires a ritual. You would need to use a small gem, put some blood on it and insert it into her navel. Then activate the magic. The gem would fuse with her in the process.”
“I see. Thank you for trusting me with that knowledge. I will heal her now.”