A Difficult Case (Solo)

[Alric Wilmot]

20th Day of Fall 511AV

Alric sat opposite of a young woman covered in filth. She had little, in terms of both possessions and relationships. Alric was actually quite sure that she was an escaped slave. Her throat was red and raw, as though it had been handled roughly. Her wrists too were red and inflamed. She wore a black sackcloth, that smelled rather oddly. He felt pity for her, and was quite sad that all he could offer was his meager hypnotic services. He was actually fairly sure that she had stolen the gold Miza necessary for his services.

Unfortunately, it wasn't in him to deny service to anyone, even if they were better off spending their money elsewhere. The poor thing was nearly skin and bones. Alric knew he was poor, but he was no where near the wallowing poverty of this person. Still, despite her obvious misfortune, she wanted him to use Hypnosis on her for one reason, and one reason only. Whatever it was that had led her to such squalor, it had broken her spirit. She wanted him to fix it.

It sounded pretty, but Alric really had no idea what that meant. He had asked her if she had an alcohol addiction, a sex addiction, a drug addiction, or any addiction at all. She replied that she had none at all. He asked if she wished to share her story, and what exactly happened to her. She refused to even tell him her name.

With no information to go on, Alric honestly didn't know what to do. He wasn't going to deny her service, she had already paid. He didn't know how honest it was, or if it was intruding on her privacy at all. But he felt as though he only had one real option. He would put her into a trance. But not just any trance, not one like he normally used. He would be using the full extent of his power, and put her into the deepest trance he could. While she was in that state, he would hopefully be able to receive answers to his questions, and from those answers be able to ascertain her problem(s). And, from those answers, he would be able to provide a cure.

Alric sat behind his booth with a very rare expression on his face, a fake smile.

"My dear, I believe I've found a way to help you. But I need your absolute cooperation okay? No questions, no second guesses, no backing out. Whatever I tell you to do, you need to do it. Do you think you can handle that?"

The woman gave a grimace, and seemed to mull over Alric's words. She sat in the chair much like someone would sit on the floor, with her legs crossed and her arms resting on her lap. It was quite obvious that she was quite used to the floor, rather than a chair. After a brief pause, she nodded.

"Fine, but don't call me 'dear'. We aren't close, and I don't appreciate you acting like we are."

Alric gave a brief smile at her words. "Very well, very well. Now, I need you to sit correctly in the chair, and relax for me."

She scowled for a bit, but eventually relented. She unfolded her legs and placed them on the stone cobbled floor. She winced slightly, as though her feet were incredibly sore. She flexed a few muscles before closing her eyes and nodding.

Alric raised an eyebrow, that was relaxed? that was terrible! He could see most of her body still tensed up, ready to run away if necessary. The worst part was that she was probably unaware of it. Her muscles were telling him of her worry and stress, and he was quite positive that she was nowhere near relaxed. Still, with some coaching, he might be able to steer her in the right direction.

"That's very good!" he lied. "However, I need you to take a few slow even breaths. In fact take, oh I don't know, 35 of them."

She practically shot out of her seat and gave Alric a dirty look, but after she realized that Alric was serious, she let out a huff and proceeded to do as asked. After she was done, she gave a nod to Alric, attempting to goad him onto the actual hypnotism. That was actually too bad, because Alric was nowhere near ready to actually get to the hypnotism.

"Now, we are going to slowly go through your body and relax each and every part of it. Trust me, the more comfortable you are, the better I'll be able to hypnotize you. Now, I want you to bend your right hand back at the wrist and briefly hold the tension. Now relax. Now do the same thing with the left hand. Hold the tension and then relax it.

Now, this time tighten both hands into fists and hold the tension. Feel it spread up the arms towards the elbows, and relax it. Bend both arms at the elbows and raise your hands up towards your shoulders. Tighten up the muscles in the biceps. Hold it, then let it go. Now for your forehead raise your eyebrows up as far as you can and hold the tension. Hold it, and release it. Good! very good.

For your eyes, squeeze the eyelids tightly together. Hold the tension, now rela- good! You're really getting the hang opf this aren't you? For your jaw you just bite down and clamp your teeth together. Feel the tension along the jaw."

"And relax, I know."

"Yes, well. That is the point of it. Alright, tell you what, I'll just point out what you need to do, and you release the muscles on your own terms, okay?"

"Sounds good to me."

Good. Now, for your neck, just bend your head forward as if trying to touch your chin to your chest. Feel the tension along the back of the neck. For your shoulders, just raise them up as high as you can and notice the tension. Now let them drop all at once and- well you get the idea. For your chest you need to do two things. Take a deep breath and hold it while at the same time trying to touch your shoulder blades together by pulling your arms back. Hold it for a minute before releasing."

As she let her breath go, Alric noticed that she was now, at last, fully relaxed. In fact, it seemed as though she might fall asleep at any moment. This was the ideal condition to induce a trance. When someone was tired, on the verge of sleep, they were not fully aware. They let down their guard, and let things in that they normally would question. This was ideal for a hypnotist, who's greatest friend was subtlety.

"Good, you're relaxed now. You're nearly asleep you are so comfortable. I imagine your eyelids are awfully heavy, you probably want to close them don't you?" Alric watched as she closed her eyelids, and began to breath more steadily. This was very good, she was responding quickly and easily. He had thought that it might be difficult with the noises of the bizarre all around them, but he was mistaken. It seemed that the noise was so blended together, that it acted as static, simply making it hard for her to think. That ,of course, just worked in his favor.

"Now, miss, what is your name?"

"Ophelia"

Alric gave off a genuine gleeful smile. She was successfully induced into a hypnotic trance. Before, when she was fully aware, she refused to answer any of his questions, including telling him what her name was. Hence why he called her 'my dear'. However, now that she was under his trance, a full trance, Alric would be able to determine the exact reason her 'spirit was broken', and fix it. Honestly, he was quite under the impression that the girl, Ophelia, did not even know what that meant. His guess? She wanted to forget some traumatic experience and didn't understand that a hypnotist has no power over memory. Chances are she didn't even know which magical discipline she actually needed. Still, she had come to him, and it was his duty to preform at his absolute best and find out exactly what he needed to do.

First, he would confirm his suspicion.

"Ophelia, are you a runaway slave?"

She didn't answer right away, but after a few seconds relented, "Yes"

Alric nodded, somewhat glad he was right, and yet, somewhat sad as well. He observed Ophelia's face, and saw her grimace at the answer. The grimace told him much, but he, unfortunately, did not speak the grimace's language.

"Ophelia, who was your master?"

She grimaced yet again, and for a moment Alric thought he might have asked too much. His fear was unfounded however, and she proceeded to answer his question.

"My master was a man named Logis."

Alric raised an eyebrow. Was that all? He supposed he either needed to be very specific with his questions, or she really didn't want to talk about it. Of course, that just meant that he needed to make her want to talk about it.

"Now, Ophelia, do you want to feel better?" she nodded her head."Now, Ophelia, the only way to help me make you feel better is to tell me about your Master. That is the only way. So, if you want to feel better, that must mean you want to tell me about this Logis too, right? You want to tell me about Logis."

"I-I do want to-to tell you." Alric gave himself a little praise, before goading the woman on. " He was, a Zith. An elder of a colony not far from here. He took me from my parents when I was a little girl. He always threatened to eat me if I didn't do what he said."

Alric was about to suspect the worst, "And what did he tell you to do?"

"He wanted me to teach his children about the outside world."

Alric raised an eyebrow, that was not what he expected. Granted, Zith did use slaves as teachers, but only the larger colonies as far as he knew.

"What happened to make you run away?"

"Logis caught me teaching his son...things he didn't want the boy to learn."

"Like what?"

"About the immorality of slavery."

Alric was honestly intrigued. He did not usually bother learning morals, instead allowing himself to decide what was appropriate one decision at a time. The one thing he considered as never appropriate was lying. It wasn't intellectually stimulating, and only served as an obstacle of understanding. Still, he had never heard slavery talked about as immoral. He had heard of other things being so, but not slavery. It was just there, a natural part of life. Although, he supposed it was only natural for a slave to feel as though it was wrong. Still, she definitely wasn't eaten after that encounter, so what had broken her spirit? He had initially thought that she had been sexually assaulted, but now, he wasn't quite so sure.

"Tell me what happened next."

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and even attempted to open her eyes briefly. She was unable to, however, because of the deepness of the trance. She wasn't even doing these things consciously. Rather, she seemed to want to keep this secret so badly, she was fighting it even on a subconscious level. Alric needed to know the answer however, and had to calm her down. He sent into her a vague feeling of trust, but it did little good. He tried again and again, just to stop her from squirming. By the time his hypnotic feelings worked, there was a sheen of sweat on Alric's forehead, and he felt as though he had a terrible headache. Most likely, he had overgiven by just a small amount. He'd have to be careful, if he worked his djed too much, he might accidentally trigger a much more violent reaction, or hear sweet whispers. The thought frightened him to his core. he didn't know why, but he was deathly afraid of voices that weren't there. It was like a mockery of his beliefs, they weren't even illusions, delightful interpretation of reality ready to be solved. They were just like lies. They were a mockery, that he felt could consume him if he didn't wrap up this session soon.

"Okay, Ophelia, you want to fix yourself right?"

Ophelia was sobbing, but still under the trance, "Y-yes."

"Then You want to help me right?"

She swallowed her tears and merely nodded.

"Then you want to tell me what happened after Logis found you teaching about the immorality of slavery right? You want to tell me what happened next."

She shook her head again. Alric was grateful for that, because his headache was worsening.

"Then tell me."

"H-he, he found my parents. He found them in less than 3 hours. All that time, and they were so close! I could have gone to them sooner, I could have escaped to them-"

"Keep on track Ophelia." Alric told her. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. He was getting dizzy, and needed her to get to the point.

"He,he,he..." She began sobbing again, but with another small hypnotic push, continued. "...ate them! He found them, tied me up to a stake in front of him while he ate them and shared the-the meal with h-his son! I saw him cut their arms off He tortured them! There was s-so much blood! The-there was so much blood. And it was all my fault! All my fault. All my fault."

Alric was feeling uncomfortable. On the bright side, he had found the problem. She had the illusion of control. She believed that her imprisonment was her fault, that she could have escaped and re-united with her parents if she only attempted too. She also seemed to believe that her parent's murder was her fault as well. And this was all true. Alric was of the opinion that she was right. If she hadn't taught Logis's son her own opinions, her parents would still be alive. However, he wasn't going to tell her that. No, in order for her spirit to 'be fixed' she had to believe that there was nothing she could have done, and that it was all someone else's responsibility. She needed to focus the blame and guilt on a more appropriate target. The easiest, Alric believed, would be Logis. Alric ignored the stares of passerbys as they observed the crying woman sitting at his booth. He had already served seven others before her today, and would be able to leave as soon as he treated Ophelia.

"Listen to me Ophelia, it wasn't your fault. It isn't your fault."

"It is! it's all my fault!"

"No it isn't, Ophelia. It isn't your fault. Was it your hands that cut into your parents' flesh? Was it your tongue that tasted their blood? No, it wasn't. It was Logis. Your parents' death was Logis's fault. Blame Logis. Do not blame yourself."

Alric was having a difficult time. His eyesight was getting blurry, and she wasn't responding very easily. He pushed the suggestions into her psyche as much as he was able. She responded, but slowly. She was still sobbing badly, and he was quite sure that she was going to break the trance any minute. However, he underestimated himself. She soon began to nod, and her tears were drying up. Alric decided to press forward.

"Say it. Ophelia, say it. It is not my fault. It was Logis. It was Logis's fault. Not mine."

Alric sent a thought into her, to help his persuasion along. he needed to finish this up, his head was throbbing, and he thought he could taste blood on his tongue.

'It wasn't my fault, it was Logis's. It was Logis's fault. It was Logis's fault.'

As he projected the thought, he could see Ophelia's face lose its pain. She was accepting the voice as her own. It was a good thing too. Alric wiped his lip with his index finger, it confirmed his suspicion. He was bleeding from the mouth. He broke off his Djed from her mind, and took deep breaths. Hopefully, he had cut off contact in time to keep his overgiving into milder levels. He clutched his chest, for some reason he was having trouble breathing.

As Alric's Djed left Ophelia's mind, she began muttering the last phrase Alric had given her over and over again. It was Logis's fault. As she came out of the trance however, the muttering got quieter and quieter. Alric payed close attention, hoping he hadn't gone through all of that for nothing. As her eyes fluttered open, she looked around as though she had awoken in a strange new place. However, as she looked about, and met eyes with Alric, she seemed to realize what had happened. She straightened herself, and hardened her gaze once again. Alric had to admire that. She was weak, abused, and had no power at all. Yet, she still had her pride. In fact, he was fairly sure that her 'spirit' or whatever that might mean, was now stronger than ever.

"So, did it work?" asked Alric

She didn't answer verbally, but gave a nod and faint smile.

"Thank you, I'm not sure what happened just now, but, I do feel different. I feel better, more...resilient."

Alric smiled, "I'm glad you're satisfied. It took all of my ability to help you. If I might be so bold, I hope you might find another hypnotist. One more skilled than I am. I wasn't really able to do much."

"Nonsense. I feel...empowered. And to be honest I didn't think you would even be able to do that. I took a shot in the dark, and it seems like it actuallly did something. Thank you. I-I didn't really expect much."

Alric raised an eyebrow. Wasting a gold Miza for something as vague as peace of mind was a very alien idea to him. However, he kept his mouth shut. He was paid, and that was all that mattered. It was none of his business if she wanted to waste her money on his services.

She shook his hand, and walked away, apparently satisfied with his work. Alric spat on the ground, and was not surprised in the least when he observed its color. Still, he imagined it could have been much worse. He still vividly remembered his first experience with overgiving. It was far worse than this. And then there were the whispers. He shuddered at their memory, and yet at the same time felt a sort of pride. He had been able to control himself, and was aware of his limits. He knew he had timed the entire thing perfectly, and was certain that if he had allowed the session to drag on, he would have heard those nightmarish whispers once again.

As he watched her leave, he couldn't help but be proud of himself.

[Fallacy]

XP Award! Name:Alric Wilmot XP Award: Rhetoric- 3 Persuasion- 2 Observation- 2 Hypnosis- 4 Lore: Teaching Relaxation Using trance as a tool to gain information Helping a runaway slave Slavery is immoral? Minor Overgiving Zith (Poor) Notes: You did much better with your hypnotism this time around. You described it more and the effects and even what it was doing to you. That is what I was looking for, and if you want to go a step further you could even go above and beyond and get really creative with this stuff. Who says it has no sway on memory? You could certainty make someone think a memory never happened or even make up your own memories for people You just have to be smarter than the average bear. Any questions or concerns about the rewards gained please send a PM