Serah frowned. “Can you really do that?”
Lucian watched the woman. It would be far simpler to kill her and be done with it. The Queen’s mind was trapped, stuck here due to Lucian’s block. Presumably, her mind would die along with the woman.
But he didn’t have it in him to kill someone like that. How did this woman come to be possessed by the Queen in the first place? Who was she? Lucian would never learn those answers unless he spared her life.
He was sure with the Orb of Psionics helping him, he could drive the Queen’s Focus out of the woman for good. That would force the Queen to return to her own body back in the Golden Palace, or wherever she happened to be. Or at least, he could only assume.
The Queen watched his moral dilemma play out, her violet eyes cunning. “If you kill her, then yes, you kill me, too. But if you want her to live, you must drive my Focus right out of her. I won’t be able to reach her again. Or better yet, release my Focus and let me do it myself. That way you don’t bungle the whole thing.”
“That’s not happening,” Lucian said.
“We should just kill her,” Serah said. “This woman was likely one of her lackeys who willingly gave herself up. Powerful mind control magic doesn’t work unless the target is somewhat complicit.”
“We don’t know her reasons for being mind-controlled,” Lucian said. “She may be innocent.” He looked at the Queen. “Who did you possess?”
She gave a small, treacherous smile. “If I told you, would you believe me? You can find that out easily enough by saving her.”
Lucian sighed. “True enough.”
“More is at stake than one woman’s life here, innocent or not,” Serah countered. “There’s no court here. No judge, jury, or executioner, save us. We will never get this chance again.”
Lucian had no idea what to do. Was Serah right? He knew it made a certain logical sense, but his heart railed against it.
“I can’t kill an innocent woman,” he said. “Even if it means missing the opportunity to kill the Sorceress-Queen.”
Serah’s mouth twisted in disgust. “Lucian! This is our only chance! Psyche will be free from her terror once and for all. Don’t show her mercy. Never leave an enemy like this alive or they will hunt you down to the ends of the galaxy!”
Lucian watched the Queen, whose violet eyes peered at him with interest. She was feeling the power shift back to her, like oxygen to a flame. Those mischievous eyes belonged to a complete sociopath – unempathetic and uncaring. She already knew what Lucian was going to do, because a little duplicitous smile was stretching across her lips. A smile that said she had won.
Lucian roared in frustration, slamming the butt of his spear against the crystal staircase. Letting her go was a terrible mistake, especially if the woman she possessed happened to be some ally of hers. But Lucian just couldn’t take the chance. He wasn’t a killer, and didn’t have it in him to end someone who might be innocent.
Before he could second-guess himself, or before Serah could take matters into her own hands, he drew ether from the Orb of Psionics. He had never felt so conflicted. Why did doing the honorable thing have to feel so bad? Was there even a right thing to do? Serah had a point too, after all. Her way might even cause the least amount of suffering in the end.
He had to put that out of his mind. He reached for the Queen’s Focus, which was completely at his mercy. He couldn’t destroy it – somehow, he knew that to be impossible. The Focus only died when the body itself died. But he could force the Focus out of this woman and snap it back to its source, remind the Manifold that this wasn’t where it belonged. The Focus would return to the real Ansaldra, wherever she happened to be.
So, he prodded against the brand the Queen had made. The Orb allowed him to not only see the brand’s inner workings, but also the complex instructions that made it function. He instantly saw those instructions specified that this woman was Queen Ansaldra, that the Manifold would treat this woman’s mind and magic as if they were her. It was a sickening, twisted perversion of Psionic Magic – and it made his skin crawl knowing such a thing was possible. Lucian found the source of the brand’s power, a sort of switch. Tickle that switch with a thin stream of Psionic Magic, and the brand would dissolve. This woman would be herself again, and the Queen would be gone.
He drew a deep breath and streamed. The brand dissipated, and Lucian felt the Queen’s presence depart. Queen Ansaldra’s eyes – no, this young woman’s eyes – became lucid, their color shifting from violet to green.
Serah released her Gravitonic stream, mouthing a curse. The unknown woman immediately stood and backed away from them, her eyes wide and fearful and her breaths panicked. It was hard not to see her as the Queen, but there was something about her posture that was different. It was hard for Lucian to place a finger on it, but the way she stood was more solid and less airy. The young woman’s hands were clenched into fists, as if she expected a fight at any moment.
“Who are you?” she asked, her voice tremulous. “Where am I?”
This would be a long story indeed. But it wasn’t one Lucian had the energy to tell right now. He reached into the woman’s Focus using the power of the Orb, just to be sure the Sorceress-Queen was gone. It was only her, whoever she was. Queen Ansaldra was thousands of kilometers away from here, with no way to reach them without her airship – which was gone, anyway. They were safe, at
