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Grey frowned. “I think that would be beyond the power of mesmerization. As I said, elegant thinking was required in this case. I tracked them across the kingdom, and from what I’ve been able to piece together, it was a process of several steps. First, the islanders mesmerized the farmers into believing they’d seen blight and that they should contact the plants affinity at the Guild and stay away from the infected fields in the meantime. When the mages arrived, they found nothing, of course. But the islanders intercepted them on their return journey and mesmerized them into believing they’d not only seen blight but also burned the infected fields.”
“But you said the farmers wouldn’t have…” I trailed off as I realized the truth. “The islanders were the ones to burn the fields.”
Grey nodded. “That is the conclusion I’ve come to. They burned the fields, and then convinced both the farmers and the Guild mages that the Guild were the ones to do it due to the blight. It’s standard procedure in such a case, so it’s easy to believe. And once the fields were burned, there was no evidence to break the illusion, so they’ll go on thinking it forever.”
“There was never any blight…” I shook my head as I fully absorbed the enormity of that.
There was no mysterious blight that couldn’t be fixed by the Guild. For a moment I felt relief, but it didn’t take long to realize that the effects on the kingdom were the same. There might not be a blight, but the unrest and food shortage were very real impacts of the deception.
It was hard to contain my emotions, but I had to try because Grey’s initial lack of caution seemed to have worn off, his eyes tracking me more closely than before. He was worried this news was going to shake me enough to throw off his own mesmerizations.
“Teach me.” I thrust out my arm, inviting his touch, although it went against every one of my instincts. “Teach me how to mesmerize.”
Grey’s eyes lit up, and I knew I’d made the right move. It was easy for him to believe this reaction because it aligned with his own. I was sure he’d been eager to try mesmerizing ever since he first heard of it.
Grey put his hand on my arm, his power snaking inside me. But it was a light, subtle touch that I almost missed since it made no attempt to connect with the various central systems of my body.
“Your tent back in the crevasse was such a beautiful blue,” he said, almost casually, and I found myself nodding in agreement.
I could see the gorgeous, deep, peacock blue in my mind’s eye. Grey dropped his hold of my arm, but I ignored him, distracted by thoughts of my old tent. But despite the harmless beauty of the image, something about it tickled at my mind, unsettling me.
I gasped as I remembered the feeling and where I’d felt it before. Instinctively I pulled up my wall, pushing Grey’s power out of my body and purging the falsity from my mind. My tent had been ordinary canvas.
As soon as I was free of the grip of Grey’s mesmerization, I remembered that I wasn’t supposed to be able to free myself. I looked quickly up at Grey, but thankfully he’d released his hold before my instincts took over and had no idea what I’d done.
He smiled with satisfaction as he thrust a plain canvas bag into my hands. “This is the canvas we had access to back in camp,” he said. “We used it to make a number of bags as well as all the tents. Your tent was never blue.”
I stared down at the canvas in my hands, pretending to be struck by his words. After a carefully judged moment, I gaped up at him.
“I was expecting you to do it, and yet I still…”
He smiled broadly. “Powerful, isn’t it? Just being on your guard isn’t enough.”
I shook my head as I remembered how it had felt. “I could remember the tent as blue! I could see it in my mind! How is that possible? How did you plant an image in my mind along with the words?”
Grey shook his head. “I didn’t do that. You did.”
“Me?”
“Our brains are incredibly clever—too clever for their own good, in this instance. Once you believe something implicitly, your brain cooperates and creates memories that match. That’s where the power of mesmerization comes from. Once those false memories have taken root, it takes a lot to dislodge them.”
“Incredible,” I murmured, despite myself.
There was no denying how horrifying this ability was, but it was equally impossible to deny the curiosity coursing through me. I wanted to understand how it was done.
I didn’t try to suppress the feeling, instead letting it show on my face and in my eyes. Grey smiled at my expression, convinced I felt the same way about this as he did. Sticking his head out the door of his cabin, he called for someone to join us.
At first I was just a silent observer, allowing my power to ride along with his as he convinced this new person that their tent back in the camp had been blue. And when he did it again to the next person, and then the next, I sensed the patterns of his power.
By the afternoon, I was doing it myself. The first time I succeeded, I let out an involuntary cheer, buoyed by the satisfaction of success. I couldn’t deny the underlying thrill of power.
But one look at Grey’s pleased smile brought me down hard. The slimy feeling I had felt when I first understood Grey’s deception trickled through me again. I was playing games with people’s minds, and while it was harmless deception on this occasion, no one should have that kind of power over someone else.
I couldn’t refuse to cooperate, however. Too much lay in the balance for me to alert Grey to my true feelings. I would play along—at least until he asked me to deceive someone about something that actually mattered.
Even knowing the importance of fooling Grey, I was still exhausted by the end of the day. Doing it over and over again had made the slimy feeling fade, and somehow that was the worst feeling of all. I couldn’t let myself become desensitized to using this new skill.
Once again Grey had simply handed me the answers I sought, and once again they had turned out to be a poisoned chalice.
