Alexandre stroked his chin as he looked off to the side, tabulating the additional variables. After a moment, he looked at Anne again. "And the third?"
"Herbert also mentioned once that Silver Eyes has a unique method of persuasion. Whenever there were disputes with him among the crew, he could turn them around with a few pats on the shoulder, and some whispered words. Any would-be enemies, no matter how upset they were with him, turned jovial in mere moments. I don't care how silvery his eyes or his tongue are, no one's that good at persuasion, at least not with one hundred percent effectiveness."
Alexandre nodded as he took a moment to absorb the information. Then Anne saw something she never thought she would or could ever see from the Frenchman: his eyes flew open in shock for the briefest moment, and then he was angry. No, not angry; enraged. His eyes smouldered with volcanic activity, a stark contrast with his relaxed body. That look was the look of a man ready to kill.
"These people are under a forced trance." Alexandre said the words as though he were making a comment about the weather, but Anne could tell he was disgusted.
"Are you sure?" As soon as Anne asked, she felt the fool for asking. One did not doubt Alexandre's diagnosis.
"Of course."
Alexandre was now looking at the back of the shop, in the direction of the storage room where Jules was rummaging around unseen but heard.
"Can you help them out of the trance?" William asked, his first comment in some time.
"I don't know."
Alexandre was not his usual self. Anger showed in his typically passive eyes, but it went deeper than that. During times when he was short with people, as he was now, it was with an exasperation of not wanting to be a part of a dull conversation and a desire to end it as soon as possible. Now… Now Alexandre's short replies felt as though he were holding back, like he could explode at any moment, or as though he were distracted, not by something interesting to him, but by something upsetting.
"To be this far gone… " Alexandre closed his eyes and shook his head in a mournful expression and muttered a French expletive under his breath. "They must be under several layers of their own mind. Months of work went into this."
Anne suddenly realized what that would have meant and why Alexandre was so disgusted by the event to actually show it, and it made her sick. The people were docile because they had no choice. In their fugue, they probably weren't even aware of what was happening.
"Whatever you're thinking, it is far worse than that," Alexandre said, his eyes still smouldering, but Anne could see his profound pity for these people. "Putting one in a trance is a useful tool for the willing, something that can help ease pain or strengthen the mind. The trick is that you can't be put into a trance for long unless you let yourself. And, there are tricks to bring one out of a light trance as well. To do this," Alexandre gestured to the hamlet, "one would have had to start small. Perhaps one would begin with promising to ease the mind of the ailing or exhausted, then with a sense of letting go of worries. Deeper and deeper in the mind one goes, the easier it becomes to say yes. Soon, one wants to say yes without knowing why. Then, he could have made them question everything. Why do you toil for a worthless coin? It is just a burden. Give it for free. Released from your worldly possessions, you will have no more to worry about. Why live with worry?"
The anger made Alexandre's accent thicken, but he didn't lapse back to French, his mind caught between the two in a more perfect balance. His hands were a wild flurry of gestures with each statement, the kind only seen from those raised on the impoverished streets of Paris. He was more animated than he had been in years, and Anne was beginning to understand why.
"After this, consent is meaningless. The trance is so deep and penetrating that a sense of self can be overwritten. You may think it impossible, but with enough time and a few key steps, one can break a mind. I could convince you that you were not of royal lineage, I could convince William that he committed atrocities that had never happened."
"And this is just one of several villages on this island," William said, breaking into Alexandre's abyss of atrocities.
Alexandre sighed and resigned his arms across his chest once more. "Exactement."
Alexandre's explanation and William's observation sent an icy chill down Anne's spine. How many people had Silver Eyes entranced? How many were doing things against their will and being taken advantage of? Worst of it all, how many of the women were being victimized by this? Anne, though her time aboard was brief, had been on Calico Jack's ship before. His men were savage monsters that wouldn't hesitate to commit heinous acts against women, she knew that for a fact. Victoria was also living proof of it.
"This is abhorrent, and an affront to le médecine and les science." Alexandre looked deep into Anne's eyes. "Whatever happens on this island, Silver Eyes dies by my hand."
Another wave of shivers crawled across Anne's body. She nodded, knowing it wasn't a request, but a proclamation.
"Without knowledge of the trigger, of which there could be several, I may not be able to help these people. If I knew it, I might be able to reverse it, but there is no way to know."
Anne cocked her head and brow, confused. "What about the bell? Isn't that the trigger?"
"Perhaps, and perhaps not. We do not know if it is meant to trigger a deeper state of trance, if it is some type of control should the citizens not comply, or if it serves some other purpose." Alexandre glanced over
