A few days after the Leaden Key tried to assassinate both Kana and Cera, the group made its way back into Defiance Bay and headed straight for the Sanitarium - everybody's more than ready to stop the Leaden Key for good. And they got ambushed by the group once again, though this time nothing nearly as fatal happened to Cera or her friends. Cera mutters "Thaos must be getting desperate, if he's sending people after us this much - in broad daylight to!"
Pallegina nods, and says "You've likely meddled in his plans more than anyone in many years has even by accident. That tends to get someone's attention, Amica."
Cera nods grimly, and then they get into the Sanitarium. Cera walks up to Ethelomoer's statue, which greets them warmly, asking "What brings you back here, Watcher?"
"We believe there's a member of a group known as the Leaden Key in your Sanitarium, Ethelomoer."
They're fully expecting him to have no idea of the group - so it's quite the surprise when he doesn't sound all that surprised about the name or the fact that one of them may be in the place. "I only wish I didn't know what you were talking about. From time to time, some of their less skilled infiltrators get uncovered. Never very good sources of information though. And whenever they get exposed, disaster is right on their heels or has already struck - and it's impossible to know whether it struck on its own or whether they had a hand in it. By all means, feel free to find this latest infiltrator. Where do you think they are this time?"
Cera says "It's just easier to show you, if you wouldn't mind."
"Please, I'd love to be of some help." A minute later, one where Cera zoned out for a minute staring at the statue, Ethelomoer says "That's the North Ward, where we keep the most…unstable of the patients isolated for their safety as well as everyone else's. Some of them are rather…volatile, if you know what I mean. Do be careful."
They thank him, and then head downstairs past all the animancers - and Cera's careful to make sure Bellasage isn't coming out of her office any time soon, much to Aloth's relief. Because bets are she at least has her suspicions about why her notes went missing.
When they get to where they keep the patients, its nothing like upstairs with the comfortable chairs and brightly-lit rooms - it looks more like a dungeon than anything else they can imagine. Aloth barely manages to hide his disgust, this is how they treat their patients?
Cera's mind brushes his, and he hears her whisper in his head. Like I said, appearances don't say much, Aloth. But this isn't what I saw, not entirely. It's close though.
Her own sadness and sympathy passes to him - with the uncomfortable knowledge that this place may well be her next home mixed in somewhere - and he suddenly looks over to see her next to him. He doesn't even think about it before squeezing her hand gently - he does feel a reaction in her for a split second before she quickly cuts the connection between them. Far too brief for him to figure out what she was feeling, but the fact that she doesn't slip her hand out of his is one thing. The fact that she won't look at him while their hands are clasped is another.
When they get into the North Wing, it's depressing and extremely isolated - at least there was a common area in the last section of the building. Here, each of the patients stays in their assigned rooms - cells converted to a new use, they all suspect - and the guards are everywhere.
Cera looks at each door, an expression of both horror and sympathy growing on her face as she reads or hears something from each of the occupants. In front of one cell, she stops and gets a horrified look on her face followed by sympathy and no small amount of pain - and the name on the door says 'Gram', they'll have to ask about him later. Because Cera violently flinches when Sagani puts a hand on her arm to ask what was wrong - being a Cipher isn't all that great sometimes, apparently.
And then they come to a door and her expression turns to pure confusion. "What? I'm not…I'm not getting anything from in here. Ethelomoer was certain that all the cells had occupants though…"
When Pallegina looks inside, there is indeed a person in there - a human, little more than a boy really, lying slumped on the floor and staring blankly into space. When they cautiously go inside, he doesn't react whatsoever - making Cera all the more suspicious of this man, something must be up. It's when she peers at him through the Ether, that she sees another man inside of him - Thaos. Looks like Lady Webb was right about his soul being able to move into another kith's body. She narrows her eyes, then she's locked in what appears to be a staring contest with a guy who has done nothing but stare at them glassily.
After maybe a minute, a tense one for everyone but Cera, she suddenly cries out and whirls around. "He's getting away!"
All of them look confused until some of the constructs step forward somehow menacingly. Eder asks "Didn't you say Thaos could possess kith?"
"Kith, constructs, if it moves he can use it."
"Great. You learn anything from him?"
"Oh, a few things. Like how he's been sabotaging Animancy experiments - including one in Copperlane where Caedman Azo was humiliated, outcast, and his entire career nearly destroyed altogether. Was a rather big one, though the name escapes me at the moment. He tried to implant a proxy soul in a Hollowborn girl, unknowing that Thaos was occupying her and destroyed the machine and the public's view of Animancy."
Itumaak barks suddenly, and then all the patient doors swing open apparently on their own - Thaos is really trying to kill them without making it look like he did then. Aloth nervously asks "Cera, you wouldn't happen to remember that skill of yours from the Iron Flail Fort, would you?"
"Yeah. Something I only use in emergencies."
"Amica, I'd consider this an emergency. Wouldn't you?"
Cera's voice quietly says "I do." She stills suddenly, and then all the patients and constructs do the same. Her face twitches in multiple expressions at once - horror, pain, concentration - and then the patients go back to their cells and close the doors of their own accords and the constructs return to their patrols and posts.
Kana says "Cera, that is definitely one of the most useful talents I've ever seen."
Cera's gone pale, either from the effort of controlling at least a dozen patients and constructs or from what she saw while doing so, and says "Yeah, well, lets get out of here. Ethelomoer will likely find a way to kill me for this, somehow, and he should probably know that Azo was experimenting again when it was forbidden for him to do so."
Aloth opens his mouth to ask what he was doing, but Cera's voice suddenly whispers in his head You don't want to know, Aloth. Trust me, you don't want to know what kinds of things I saw in here. Her voice in his head sounds so…small. Usually she's a quiet whisper, but she's never sounded quite like that. She said she was getting some horrifying visions back in Durgan's Battery - nearly every time she brushed a skeleton or held something in her hands - but even then it wasn't quite this bad. Maybe because the events were long-past and had no real relation to her at the time.
Before he can say anything though, Cera says "Thaos stirred up a Xaurip Tribe out there, he's got the entire common room in a frenzy. I can stop it, calm them down, but it won't be easy. C'mon, let's get to the door."
When they look out at the common room, it's a total disaster compared to the relative order it was in before. Yeah, it was crowded and slightly noisy, but it was general chatter between patients, not the screaming and wild fighting they see now.
Eder incredulously asks "You can calm that down?!"
Everyone, even Cera, agrees it won't be easy - that doesn't mean she won't give it a try. More guards are already on the way to try and subdue the crowd, and Cera mutters "Ethelomoer is going to murder us himself. Somehow." She focuses on the room on the other side of the door, going absolutely still and getting a look of concentration even harder than at the Iron Flail fort - none of them even thought that was possible - and then all at once the fighting stops. They all look incredibly confused, but nobody around Cera notices that as she collapses to the floor while holding her head and everyone's head starts hurting inexplicably for a solid minute until it suddenly cuts off.
Explanation: Cera's powers connected all their minds to hers for a minute. Maybe all their minds to each other's as well, but it was impossible to tell as all they could feel was a lot of pain.
Pallegina looks out and says "Amica, you did it. Pain in our heads or no, everyone out there has suddenly calmed down."
"Nghh…" That's the most coherent thing Cera can respond with at the moment - she must've stretched herself a little thin with that stunt. Most couldn't even attempt to do something like it on a lesser scale, from what Aloth's read in the Caed Nua library at any rate, and even Cera's formidable powers were stretched to their limit with that feat. Going from one patient to the next wouldn't have worked, as they'd just keep getting attacked by others, so she connected and freed them from Thaos' control all at once - a much harder feat than starting the riot, as he would only have had to possess a few of them long enough to start the chaos and then watch as the panic ensued or leave.
When they get upstairs, Ethelomoer immediately asks "What happened down there?!" Cera is on her feet - though being supported by Aloth - and says "I'll just show you instead."
After a moment, she moans and puts a hand to her head, and Ethelomoer says, with a little awe in his voice, "I've heard of accounts of people with the ability to do this. One even goes as far as suggesting it's all the same man."
Cera grimaces, and says "That one may be the most accurate. Lady Webb says a man named Thaos ix Arkannon…you might say he's cheating the Wheel. Reborn exactly the same man since Engwithan times, Awakened during adolescence, and picking up right where he left off with his death."
She suddenly claps a hand to her head and moans, nearly falling to the floor except Aloth catches her weight with his closer arm. Kana says "I'm no expert on Ciphers, but I'm fairly sure that someone in Dunryd Row must be able to help. This started when she snapped all the patients and guards out of the panic Thaos caused, maybe someone there will be able to at least tell us what's wrong."
Eder says "Yeah…don't we gotta stop by there anyway? Give Lady Webb an update on the Leaden Key's activities?" Cera nods, wincing as she does so.
When they get inside, Lady Webb happens to be downstairs talking with a Cipher. She's still alive then, big surprise as nobody had seen her in years. She seems incredibly old, but her gaze is every bit as sharp as Cera's - and word is she's a powerful Cipher, so there's that as well.
She raises an eyebrow at the sight of Cera still being supported, and says "I heard there was a commotion at the Sanitarium. Can I assume it was something to do with Thaos?"
Eder nods, and says "Creepy old guy, Awakened Cera's soul, has been sabotaging the Sanitarium for a while? Yeah, he started a big mess - Cera stopped it, but now…" He just gestures to her, which is honestly all that needs to be done. She really doesn't look good at all, and when they got out of the Sanitarium she said something about everything being too loud.
Lady Web looks at her for a moment, then says "She stretched her mind out a little too far, connected it with too many at once. You said she stopped the riot Thaos caused?" Aloth nods, eying Lady Webb's hand as she turns Cera's face up to look at her. "The sheer amount of panic, all the emotions she was feeling all at once…it hurts. I know from experience. She'll be fine with some rest and some quiet - away from the city, preferably. Anything else?"
Cera moans "Dyrford…Cliban Rilag…" Kana lights up and starts describing what the Leaden Key did in the ruins, and how the machines are causing the Legacy.
Lady Webb goes still, and says "By the gods. The Leaden Key is framing Animancy for Waidwen's Legacy. They're determined to see Animancy's fall, and this might actually do it."
AN: Alright, the next chapter is up! Yes, I didn't really think it was fair to have to kill all the innocent patients just because Thaos stirred up trouble. And, yeah, I was feeling pretty bad for Garm and the other patients and I can't really imagine being psychic would have been very amazing right then either. As for the Animancy Hearing, it's coming soon! Promise! Just be patient - haha, very funny. Anyway, enjoy! Reviews are appreciated! More chapters coming soon!