Berg gave an order and his men swiftly carried it out, confiscating the girl’s bags. Already his mind turned to the task of divvying up the spoils. Thoughts that were quickly interrupted by suspicious movements amongst his group.

“Hey, Gunther, what the hell are you doing?!” he exploded. “And you, Fern, put that shit back!”

Berg was livid. Never had he thought his comrades would betray him like this. To skim some of the spoils while they stood right in front of him, seconds after snatching them from their mark. His grip on the shortsword tightened.

Gunther, Fern, and several others had expressions of confusion and disbelief. “Uh, boss, what are you talking about?” Fern asked.

Spittle flew from his lips as he shouted, “Are you right in the head?! What the fuck is wrong with you?” Is this a coup? Are they trying to get rid of me to get a bigger share? It wasn’t unthinkable, plenty of guys were willing to stab their friends in the back if it meant earning even a bit more than usual.

“Boss, you ain’t makin’ much sense! Been hittin’ the flakes a bit too much?”

Fortunately, Berg spotted a few allies amidst the group, those who were just as outraged as him. He pointed his blade towards the betrayers. “Shameless bastards, pocket'n a bit of the haul for themselves while we’re watchin’!” His glare turned icy. “We don’t need bastards like them. Kill ‘em.”

=+=+=+=

Saewynn hummed quietly to herself as she watched the carnage unfold. As soon as the men had started shouting at each other, she silently excused herself and found a place to sit.

Manipulating emotions was trickier than most assumed. She couldn’t create emotions from nothing. Rather, she could shrink or inflate preexisting emotions, or move them around inside a person’s psyche. In this instance, she had supplemented her terrible acting by ballooning the self-assuredness and shrinking the suspicion of the thugs. While they were busy taking her things, she latched on to their surface-level greed, cranked that shit up, and suppressed their sense of guilt. At that point, all she had to do was ratchet up the suspicion and anger in the remaining half of the group, and ta-da, instant bloodbath!

Though she’d prefer not to admit it, it was a rather inelegant use of her Imperium. Lady Yltris could pluck at just the right moments and in just the right way and achieve the same results with minimal effort. If she thought of Lady Yltris as a conductor guiding an orchestra, then she viewed herself as no better than a child playing with mud.

“ARGAAAHHH!” a man shouted as he rammed his dagger into someone’s eye. Before he could pull it back out, he was slashed across the back with a longsword.

Saewynn’s musings were interrupted by the sound of a woman’s voice. “Miss, what about your things?” her other chaperone, Larsa, inquired.

Saewynn’s eye twitched involuntarily. She hadn’t thought about that part. Oops. “I’ll speed things along; I’ll just need a few more minutes,” she replied, attempting to sound as nonchalant as possible.

Grothe nodded. Grothe was blessed with influence over disinterest. Entering Battos had been incredibly easy thanks to that. Through her emotion-sense, Saewynn felt the waves of pressure radiating from the Sagoth. In fact, ever since they had entered the city, he had been radiating an aura of indifference that affected anyone who even remotely paid any attention towards the group. That indifference was also why the whole neighborhood hadn’t reacted to the commotion.

Nice, offloading work onto your subordinates is the best! She turned her attention back towards the massacre in front of her.

Of the original ten or so, only four remained. The leader bled from the numerous cuts across his chest, Fern’s left arm dangled uselessly at his side, and the other two were in no better shape.

Saewynn sighed internally. This won’t do, they’ve lost their bloodlust. Unfortunately, she couldn’t just crank it back up, there had to be some sort of logic to it, otherwise the brain would resist her attempts to manipulate it. She had to surgically push and pull at certain emotions in certain sequences in order to get her desired result.

A flash of pain to remind them of the situation, gradually increase the desire to live, then up the fear, tension, and finally, grab at the newly formed desperation and let it multiply-

“aaaAHHHH!”

“DAMMIT, JUST DIE ALREADY!”

Saewynn watched in content as the four soon became three, then two, and finally one. Surprisingly, it was Fern, not the leader, who survived. She stood, patted at her clothes, then made her way towards the man, carefully avoiding the pools of blood. With each step, she dialed up the feelings of guilt, pain, loathing, regret, and dulled his sense of self-preservation and inhibitions.

Then she drove the final nail into the coffin. “You murdered your friends,” her icy voice bore directly through his mind, “a bastard who betrays his friends shouldn’t get to keep on living.”

Fern’s face contorted in agony, hot tears mixing with the cold blood that had spattered against his cheek. He shook, staring down at the knife in his hand.

Saewynn turned, rifling through the pockets of the fallen thugs for the items they had taken from her bags. Fern’s body toppled, slamming against the stone with a thud. Saewynn flinched at the close call.

Any blood that had gotten on her possessions or clothes was wiped off with a cloth, which was then stuffed into one of her bags. That done, she turned to Grothe and Larsa. “I’m done, let’s head back. Can you lead the way? I’m exhausted,” she sighed.

With unhurried steps, the trio left the scene, Saewynn bouncing happily as she her two allies trailed behind her.

Back at their room at the inn, Saewynn relaxed in her chair as Larsa sat behind her, brushing her hair. It was one of the luxuries Saewynn enjoyed, having people to take care of things like that. She didn’t mind brushing her own hair, but why would she waste something that’s been given to her?

“What was the point of that?” Larsa asked, more curious than accusatory. Like an adult asking a child what their scribbling was supposed to be.

Larsa wasn’t one to chitchat. Well, neither of the Sagoth were. Saewynn thought back to the day’s events.

“That? Are you talking about the extra ring I bought or the thing with the thugs?”

“The latter.”

Saewynn shrugged. “Practice. I’ve been told to take advantage of every opportunity to exercise my Imperium. With you two along, there’s basically no chance of getting caught.”

Larsa continued brushing her hair as she spoke, “Was the experience enlightening?”

Saewynn considered her response carefully. She was pretty sure that Grothe and Larsa had been tasked with observing her and reporting back what progress she’s made in her training. With that in mind, she tailored her response accordingly. “Yeah, it was. For starters, I didn’t realize just how weak-willed commonfolk are, I pushed way too hard. If they had been even the least bit observant, they would have realized something was off. Fortunately, stupidity is the world’s deadliest disease, and they were in the terminal stage,” she smiled wryly.

“This is true. However, it is one of life’s many spices.”

Saewynn cocked an eyebrow at that. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll answer your question with another. What would you think of a world in which all people only made the most logical, or optimal if you prefer, decisions?”

Everyone acts according to the same set of logic, huh? “Abysmal. I’d rather have my head sliced off and my spirit depart for the afterlife than spend even a single moment in that world.”

Larsa nodded. “Yes, I feel the same way. A world in which every decision is essentially predetermined is a form of torture I’d not wish on even my most hated of enemies.”

Saewynn sat in silence, having nothing further to add. I feel like I’m forgetting something though.

“Miss Saewynn, did that help?”

“Help what?”

There was a pause. Saewynn imagined Larsa’s eye twitching. “Do you now understand what I meant about stupidity being necessary for excitement?” she asked, only a hint of frustration in her voice.

“Oh, right. Yeah, I get it now,” Saewynn responded.