The spear flew through the air towards the distortion. The early afternoon sun was reflected off the polished haft as it crossed the fifteen feet towards its fleeing target. Octavius followed the spear at a dead sprint, ready to take advantage of any opening his attack created.

A short scraping sound reached Octavius’s ears, and he watched how the spear’s course was diverted. The straight path of the spear curved to the right a few degrees, and it slammed into a tree trunk. Just to the left of the vibrating spear, a bush caved in as something unseen fell against it.

Barely a second behind the spear, Octavius charged towards the bent branches of the bush. Spreading his arms wide for the greatest chance of catching his invisible adversary, he tackled the bush.

His body slammed into the bush, and his left wrist jarred against the ground. The only part of his body that made contact with his watcher was his right arm. He moved to grapple to the humanoid shape of his opponent.

Rolling over, he felt a blow against his chest as he straddled it. The force of the hit was dissipated by the armor that covered his chest, but he reached forward to get control of its arms to avoid future strikes.

As he grappled with it, all of his previous encounters with thralls were clear in his mind. What became clear above all else, however, was that he needed answers. Remembering the fate of the last thrall he captured, his hands followed its shoulder down its arm. Holding the hard skin of the thrall, he quickly grabbed its right hand.

He reached over its palm the moment its long, spindly fingers began to close into a fist. After a moment of struggling to free its hand against Octavius’s superior strength, the thrall stopped. Taking the opportunity, Octavius gripped the ring on its third finger and pulled it up. It caught on the first knuckle, but using both hands, he was able to force the ring off the slightly bent finger.

Below him, the short, grey thrall snapped into existence. Its left hand was held up, palm towards Octavius. His eyes widened as he saw the streams of blue light gathered above the grey skin of its hand. A final stream of light seemed to exit the thrall’s palm, and the whole bundle of light raced forward towards him.

He threw himself to the side as the round projectile of energy flew past his head, only a foot to his right. Octavius looked up to see the thrall once again raising its hand as energy began to gather. He didn’t know how long the attack spell took to activate, but it had to be at least a few seconds.

Diving forward, he tackled the now visible thrall to the ground once more. Its hand slammed against the dirt, and the streams of light dissipated. It scrambled, trying to push him off as hard as it could, but Octavius was stronger than it.

Getting behind it, Octavius tried to think of a way to disable the thrall without killing it. A chokehold won’t do anything, and I can’t tie it up without it running away while I get some rope, his mind raced to solve the issue.

Holding it into the ground, he levered its hands behind its back and forced its head into the dirt. Now there weren’t any easy ways for it to kill itself, but Octavius couldn’t bring it anywhere, but that just meant that he would have to interrogate it on the forest floor. Before speaking to it, he used Identify.

Zreks - Thrall (F) (Lvl 20) (Mage)

Leaning down slightly, he tried to think of what question he needed it to answer first.

“What are the thralls doing in the tutorial?” His voice came out in a low growl as he demanded an answer from the thrall. It just continued to struggle with its mouth closed. Octavius lifted its head and slammed it back into the ground. “I know you can understand me.”

The thrall continued to thrash under Octavius, desperate to escape. Octavius was about to start threatening it when the guards with whom he had fought the chimera burst through the trees.

The leader of the party of guards, who he vaguely remembered being named Jabir, eyes widened when he saw an alien creature under Octavius. “What the hell…” his deep bass of a voice trailed off as the six other guards pulled up short.

They all watched the grey-skinned thrall thrash around under Octavius with surprise and fascination. It was clear that they’d never even heard of the thrall. He could see their eyes reading an invisible screen as they all used Identify at the same time.

“Jabir!” Octavius’s voice snapped like a whip, and the team leader quickly focused on Octavius, “I need something to tie its hands together so we can bring it in for questioning. Send someone to fetch some rope and a cloth! And not the cheap woven stuff; get something that is strong.”

The Arab man nodded before turning to the lowest level guard present and starting to bark orders, “Saʽid! You heard what he needs. Go, and be quick!”

The level 8 fighter, Saʽid, turned towards the Sanctuary and sprinted away as if the hounds of hell were on his heels. Octavius shifted his hold on the thrall so that he had it facing upwards in a rear mount. With his legs hooked inside of the thrall’s thighs, it could barely even struggle. He clasped the thrall’s arms and held them tight against its chest to stop it from firing off the blue energy bolt spell again.

Looking up at Jabir, who looked rather concerned with the unexpected turn of events, he started to issue orders. “Set up a perimeter,” he said, “I don’t want to be surprised by a beast attack before Saʽid gets back. Tell everyone to look out for distortions in the air, there might be more of these things, and some can turn invisible.”

Now that he had a thrall in front of him, it was clear as day in Octavius’s mind that he wanted to tell David about them the previous morning but seemed to forget. Looking back, he realized that he spent a lot less time thinking about the thralls than he should have. They were a race of hostile, high-level, and organized fighters. They were quite possibly the largest threat to humans within the tutorial, and he knew next to nothing about their numbers, capabilities, or even their goals.

His eyes grew wider and wider as he went over his memories of talking with Ava. He should have given her information about the thralls to pass on a week ago, but the idea never seemed to enter his mind for more than a second. Then again, when he’d determined the reason for the high average level for the tutorial. He’d never even considered the thralls until he came to the conclusion in an incredibly roundabout way.

Maybe he could write that away as a coincidence, that he just didn’t consider anything but humans being counted towards the average level. However, with all of these strange happenings becoming clear in his mind, he discarded any possibility of it being a coincidence. That only left one option; something was messing with his mind.

His first thought was his ring. While he had used Identify on it, it wasn’t impossible that there was a hidden effect that was invisible to his Identify skill due to its level. Whatever is causing the effect doesn’t seem to be that strong, seeing that as soon as something reminds me of the thralls, the effect disappears.

Tilting his head slightly, he called out to Jabir, who was standing with the other guards in a circle around Octavius and the thrall. “Jabir, I want you to ask me something as soon as we secure the thrall, ok?”

The older man looked over his shoulder at Octavius with a curious expression. “Ok, what do you want me to ask you?” he asked.

Octavius looked at the man from behind the thrall, “I need you to ask me, ‘Where is the ring from?’ Got it?”

Jabir nodded, “Ok, ‘Where is the ring from?’. I’ll remind you later.”

The group waited in near silence as time passed. After about a minute, the thrall stopped struggling. Octavius didn’t ask it any more questions, nor did he let up on his grip. Two minutes after that, the thrall thrust its hips upwards and slammed its head back. It was clear that it hoped that Octavius would have grown complacent, but was disappointed when his situation remained unchanged.

The headbutt missed Octavius’s head entirely, and it lacked the strength to escape him. After its failed escape attempt, it went limp. Probably looking for an opening or maybe even deciding to commit suicide. Octavius guessed Like I’ll let one of you try that again.

They waited as the hour dragged on. After ten minutes, they were attacked by two level 16 beavers who had likely traveled upstream towards the Sanctuary since the Emergence started. Another five minutes passed, and there was no sign of the guard or the restraint materials he was supposed to bring.

The smallest guard of the group turned to face Octavius, instinctively treating him as the higher authority than Jabir, though Jabir didn’t seem to mind. “Sir, should I go after him? It’s taking him too long.”

Octavius looked over the young man. He was somehow deathly pale, even after nearly two months within the sunny tutorial. Short, spiky black hair added an inch to his small, five and a half foot frame. Using Identify quickly, he learned the guard’s name. “Don’t worry, Dylan. He’ll probably be back any minute. If he’s not here in five minutes, you can go.”

Truthfully, Octavius was beginning to worry, it shouldn’t take nearly this long for Saʽid to run into the Sanctuary and run back with supplies. He was considering telling Dylan to go looking for him when the sound of approaching footsteps reached his ears. As he scanned the direction that the noise came from, he realized that there were two distinct pairs of steps.

His brows furrowed when Saʽid rounded a tree at a quick pace, followed by David. Saʽid looked to be flustered and embarrassed, a stark contrast to the hard look that was set on David’s older features. Octavius was already used to David’s easy-going smile, so the lack of it made him think that something was wrong.

“What happened?” Octavius asked as David approached with an actual pair of handcuffs and some rope.

David, apparently assuming that he was referring to Saʽid, responded, “I found this idiot eating near the cafeteria. When I asked him why he wasn’t guarding the border with his team, he went all wide-eyed. Told me that you captured some sort of alien and sent him to find restraints. Only, he forgot to get them and instead went to eat.”

An embarrassed blush spread across the young man’s dark olive skin. Jabir immediately started to berate his subordinate, but Octavius ignored them. His mind raced as he realized that whatever was affecting his mind was also affecting the minds of others. That ruled out his ring unless Saʽid had one, but he seriously doubted that.

This development was bad news. The thralls had some way of affecting the minds of others, and he didn’t know how they did it or what its limitations were. What was most important, however, was that he didn’t yet have a way to counter it.

David handed him the handcuffs with a look that made it clear that he wanted answers as to what was going on. Octavius once more forced its hands behind its back and cuffed it. Once that was done, he rolled the thrall’s once again resisting form onto its stomach and used lengths of rope to tie its legs together at both the ankles and knees.

Moving back up to its head, he covered its eyes with the cloth and tried to tie it in place. Its struggling and thrashing knocked the cloth off twice, and Octavius looked up at David. “Hold its head still.”

David nodded sharply and knelt. While David gripped its head by the back of its head and jaw, Octavius tied the blindfold into place. The two thrall mages he’d fought so far had been visually impaired during their fights, and neither was able to use a spell. There was a chance that the real reason for that was the fact that the spells he’d seen, from the apparitions in the dungeon to the thralls blue ball of energy, all took time to cast, but that wasn’t a reason to take chances.

He pulled the thrall up to its feel and pointed at two strong looking guards, “You two each grab an arm and carry it. Don’t let its legs touch the ground.”

They moved quickly to either side of the thrall and grabbed an elbow. Lifting it off the ground appeared to barely strain the two guards, likely due to the thrall’s small stature. The older of the two looked from the thrall to one of his teammates and back again with a frown before speaking in an overly serious tone. “Dylan, I think it’s your long lost twin.”

There was a long moment of silence as each one of them looked from Dylan to the thrall and back before the heightened tension that had built up seemed to break as the guards cracked up. Truthfully, the joke wasn’t that funny, but Octavius knew that even the worst jokes could kill it when stress was running so high. It even got a short chuckle out of him and drew him from his troubled thoughts.

The resemblance between the two was noticeable. They both had grayish skin tones, though the thrall’s was more that of stone, along with similar heights. The thing that made the resemblance clear was the way Dylan’s hair stuck up in spikes similar to the spikes on the thrall’s head.

The group walked back into the Sanctuary to puzzled stares. Two of the guards marched in front and two behind, with the two that were carrying the thrall in the middle. Octavius walked with David, quietly filling him in on his encounters with the thralls while he could remember them. The more he told David about the thralls, the more serious the older man’s face became.

Octavius understood that well. Individually, high-levels, invisibility, and organization would be dangerous in an opposing force, especially with the Emergence still in progress. Put together with a dash of mind magic, and they seemed to be in a world of trouble.

David led the group to a small enclosed clearing with a solid door of woven branches. “In here,” he gestured to the two guards carrying the thrall.

Stepping inside, Octavius noticed that the clearing was barren besides for a log that stretched seven feet into the air with another beam on top of it. Together, they made a ‘T’ shape, and Octavius immediately understood what it was for.

Trying to lock up criminals with superhuman strength without access to modern technology or materials was nearly impossible. In the early days of the Sanctuary, they built small cells like this one to house prisoners accused of serious crimes while they awaited their short trial where they would be found innocent, banished from the Sanctuary, or, like in seven cases during the early, violent days of the Sanctuary, executed.

They worked together to fasten the thrall to the post as it struggled to free itself. Even once it was secure, Octavius took it a step further but tying its head in place to stop it from hurting itself.

“Have two guards keep an eye on him. I’ll be back in five minutes. If I’m not, send someone to come get me.” Octavius told David as he hurried from the clearing, “And whoever you send, be sure they don’t know about the thrall.”

Octavius barely paid attention to where he was going, so focused was he on keeping the image of a thrall clear in his mind. He quickly made his way to his private clearing, where he tore open a small pocket of his rucksack and pulled out a pen. Sitting down, he placed his left-hand palm down on his leg and used his other hand to write the word ‘THRALL’ in large letters on it.

Looking off into the distance, he wondered how Ava was doing, purposefully not thinking about the thralls. Now that he was paying attention, he felt a slight tingling in the back of his mind and found himself actually beginning to wonder how she was doing.

I should go see her soon, he thought to himself, she was on the eastern border, so she should be relatively safe. Knowing her, though, I bet she volunteered for a more dangerous assignment already.

Looking into his lap, he caught sight of the writing on his hand, and his mouth opened, “FUCK!”

It appears to affect me even when I’m aware of it. That’s not good news. At least any reminders seem to break through its effects. It felt almost like I was compelled to think about anything but the thralls.

The writing on his hand seemed to work decently well at reminding him, but it was hardly a permanent solution. He considered his options and came to the conclusion that one of the stats must help with mental strength. When he phrased it like that in his mind, the answer was rather obvious: Will.

Pulling up his status, he looked at his stats and ten unassigned points. Will is something important, but I should probably put some points into wisdom if I want to learn that spell. That’s not to mention that I need to become stronger with the Lord of Beasts coming. Yeah, a few points into strength would help, along with agility. With my constitution stat being so high, agility would allow me to take advantage of that to cover massive distances quickly.

He looked into his lap as he considered, and once more, his eyes fell onto his left hand. His fists clenched as he realized that the compulsion nearly led him to put his points into other stats.

Ok, he thought, I don’t care about the thralls. I want to put points into will to combat any mental effects that I ever encounter. I really don’t like having my mind messed with.

As he reopened the status page, he didn’t have a problem putting a single point into will, bringing it to thirty-five.

Looking down at his hand, he grinned. It seemed that the compulsion only activated when thinking specifically about thralls, so he could trick it. However, that didn’t solve the problem; it only gave him a slight workaround.

He looked at the woven branches of his clearing and felt the buzzing at the very back of his mind appear again now that he was focusing on it. Only, this time it was slightly weaker. Before its effects were able to affect him more, he looked back down at his hand to overpower the compulsion.

He tried adding another point to will and felt the buzzing decrease again. The process of fighting the compulsion went from concentrating intensely on it so that he could feel it work to being able to notice the diminished buzz when he barely focused on feeling for it.

Finding it easier to fight the compulsion with each point of will, he added more one at a time until he reached forty.

Will +6 : 34 > 40

The moment that his will hit forty, the buzzing disappeared. To test if his will stat had truly overcome the compulsion, he once more began to count the branches that enclosed his lodgings.

He quickly counted to a hundred before thinking about the thralls without interference. It appeared that while thirty-five points made the effects obvious and combatable, forty points of will was the number needed to cancel out the weak but insidious compulsion. Grinning, he stood and exited the clearing. Walking back towards the makeshift cell, he began to compile a list of questions he wanted answers to and how to get them.