The dim light of the moon hung high above the inner city, bathing Arkhaven kingdom in its ethereal glow. In the dead of the night, when the lights below had long since been extinguished, and when the mere sound of rustling leaves could reach the ears of someone three blocks away, the city experiences an uncharacteristic moment of peace.
But in the Capital, things were far from calm.
Within the High Council Hall in the heart of the Capital, Shadowy figures gather around a grand table, speaking to each other in hushed tones.
As the clock above struck 12 o-clock, the hushed whispers hurriedly died down, and from the opposite end of the table, a door slammed open.
From within, a man with glasses walked out, carrying a thick file that was nestled comfortably in his hands.
All eyes in the room turned to him as he strode up to the end of the table and slammed the heavy file on the table.
He looked in front, to the person that sat at the other end of the table whose presence seemed to slightly overwhelm everyone else, and upon his signal, the man nodded and started the discussion.
"I presume you all know why this emergency meeting was called at this time."
The room remained silent.
"I am here to present more information on what was sent out two hours ago, regarding the breach."
"Just over two hours ago, an item was declared missing from the treasury."
This statement caused quite a stir among the figures, which gradually died down amidst the formal setting.
The man took out a small remote and pointed it at the screen behind the person at the other end. The screen lit up, displaying the artifact that was stolen.
"B-class classified artifact: Pure Arcana Crystal, harvested from The Source."
A 3d rendering of a crystal came into view on the screen.
"It is not the artifact that is important, but rather the fact that the treasury was stolen from. The time of discovery was two hours ago. We are all gathered here today to discuss the intruder."
"Who would even be able to break into the treasury?" A sturdy-looking man with a small beard that outlined his squarish face asked. "It's one of the most protected and secure places. Only the people sitting around this table," he cast accusing glances left and right, "have the ability to merely request the chairperson to grant them access into the treasury." he nodded down at the end of the table. "Apart from that, only a few carefully selected nonmagical officials are granted access for maintenance and patrol."
"And those nonmagical officials lack the ability to steal any artifacts," a woman chimed in, "because the seals on the artifacts can only be unlocked by using arcana. Those without magic cannot get past the seals."
"That means that the breacher is someone in the room." The man that exuded slightly more presence, the chairperson, finished for her.
The prospect made everyone shift uncomfortably in their seats.
"I now invite the official that reported the loss to present his findings." The man with glasses declared upon seeing the response, and pointed at a person in the corner.
"Um…" the nonmagical stepped forward into view, trembling ever so slightly, clearly intimidated by the presence of so many powerful people. "Yes, I was in the vault when it happened. Actually, I was standing right in front of the now stolen artifact."
"Tell us exactly what happened, down to the minute it was discovered." The man with a squarish face demanded.
"I was doing my daily routine of patrolling and cleaning dust off the surfaces, and I was about to wipe off the dust on the glass box that contained the artifact, when all of a sudden, I felt really sleepy and passed out. By the time I woke up, the artifact had already disappeared, leaving only the glass box."
Afterwards, the man spoke no more, only fiddling with his hands nervously in his pocket.
"He has finished giving his account." The man with glasses concluded. "I shall now open the floor for discussion. Does anyone have any opinions?"
"Questions for treasurer Mr Voss," an ancient man that looked too old for the job raised his hand and croaked out. "I recall from the last time I went there 10 years ago," he put his wrinkly hand to the side of his forehead, "That everyone who entered will have their names recorded in the Book Of Truth. Who was there at the time?"
The man with glasses, Mr Voss, pushed his eyewear up: "When he passed out within the time period of 8 pm to 10 pm, there were only two other officials inside. Other than that, nobody was inside."
"And where are these two officials right now?"
"They are still at the vault. I didn't feel the need to bring them here."
"Could there have been a breach in the treasury's protective barrier?"
Mr Voss shook his head. "Impossible. Anyone who is powerful enough to try wouldn't be able to do so without making a lot of noise, or triggering the security alarms. Besides, no such attempts were discovered."
"In that case, it must have been carried out by the officials inside." The square faced man declared.
Everyone turned to the one official in the corner, who had shrunken back into a corner.
"The officials certainly do have motives to steal artifacts from the treasury." Reasoned out Mr Voss, "But they lack the ability to unlock the seals."
"Couldn't they have used external artifacts to unlock it?" He pressed on.
"No, nobody is allowed to bring any magical artifacts inside. Only with the chairperson's approval can people take artifacts out, but nobody is allowed to bring anything in, except the chairperson."
"Could he have learned how to use magic?" The square faced man asked, looking at the official with narrow eyes.
Beads of sweat could be seen trickling down the official's forehead.
"Another Impossibility." Mr Voss replied. "We selected these people precisely because of their non-magical lineage. They cannot learn arcana without awakening, and all artifacts that awaken arcana are strictly controlled and contained within the treasury."
"Let me speak." A man in a crisp white dress shirt covered by navy attire made his presence known. "I've dealt with many cases like this before. Could the officials have been mind controlled?"
"I will not throw that out of the window, Mr Bryce," Mr Voss responded, "but it's highly unlikely. Life overseeing the treasury is hectic. You need to keep in mind that these officials live their entire lives out within this very building the moment they agree to maintain the treasury. Even their families have to get permission from us to visit them. Apart from occasional visitors, everyone working here at the heart of the Kingdom's operations is trustable. There wouldn't be many occasions where one could have set up a magical curse on the official even with his consent, let alone without it."
"But that's the closest thing to a clue we have now, so I would like to request a check on that person," The man in the navy attire, Mr Bryce, pressed on and pointed at the official, "on whether he is indeed being mind controlled."
All eyes turned to the chairman for the final verdict.
"I'll allow the search." The chairperson answered.
"Then I'll check." Mr Bryce stood up and walked to the official, who tried to hide a deep gulp. The man patted him on the shoulder and assured him: "Don't worry, this won't hurt unless there is something to expel from your body. And even if it does, it won't hurt. I am not the Chief Interrogator for nothing. So you can relax."
Mr Bryce placed his hands on the head of the official and closed his eyes. Slowly, a thin layer of transparent aura travels from the man's hands and covers the official. Then, suddenly, he opened his eyes and secured his hand more firmly on his head. The transparent aura around the official suddenly dispersed from all around his body, shooting outwards in thick aura spikes, before they, following a predetermined path, were pulled back to Mr Bryce's hands. Once all the aura from the official disappeared, he maintained the aura around his hands and clenched his fist.
"The thumb and pinkie represent the legs. The index and ring finger represent the arms. The middle finger represents the head, and the palm represents the body." Sitting back down at the table, he presented his closed fist to the others, and opened it.
"There are no signs that the official is being taken over." He said, revealing his empty hand. "If there was foreign arcana, I would have extracted it into my hand, on the body part it was found on."
"Alright, lets move on to our next hypothesis-" "Mr Bryce, you should look closer." Mr Voss tried to speak, but was interrupted by the chairperson.
"Hmm?" Mr Bryce looked at his hand once again. On the surface, he couldn't see anything.
But the chairperson has spoken, and he was hardly ever wrong.
Squinting his eyes, Mr Bryce directed his arcana around his eyes, covering it in thick aura, allowing him to zoom in hundreds of times smaller. His eyes moved as he scanned his hand, until finally, it landed on the middle finger.
And then he widened his eyes and dispersed his arcana.
"There is indeed foreign arcana." Mr Bryce looked up at the table and concluded.
"How are you sure?" The square faced man asked.
"It is small, the smallest arcana strands I've ever seen. But it's there, in his head." Mr Bryce put out his hand for everyone to see. "It did not exceed the size of five cells. If not for my proficiency in vision, I would not have been able to catch it."
"…"
Everyone in the meeting room fell silent for a moment, as they squinted their eyes in hope of catching a glimpse of the foreign arcana.
Then the chairperson broke the silence. "Ms Lazrielle, can you do a quick scan of that official?"
A petite woman with purple hair who had been slumped on the table this whole time and hadn't yet spoken slowly got up and lazily rubbed her eyes. With a hunched back, Lazrielle looked at the chairperson, and in a groggy tone, she protested: "Do I have to?"
"Yes, you do." The chairperson remained firm.
"Haaaaa…" she exhaled and sprawled out on the table in protest, but the chairperson did not move.
"...fine, fine." Lazrielle grumbled, and slowly, she pushed herself away from the table dragging her chair back, stood up, and approached the officer.
"Look into my eyes, please." Taking both of the officer's hands that were stationed at his side, she looked with fluttering eyes at the officer. He looked around furtively at the table, before submitting after everyone had their eyes on him, and looked into her eyes.
The moment his eyes met hers, Lazrielle's eyes glowed a deep purple and her pupils transformed into a hypnotic spiral. The officer's body straightened as an invisible force forced him to stand upright and stare, even deeper, into the abyssal eyes of the woman.
A few minutes later, the force died down, and she released her stare. "He was definitely possessed, but there is nothing else to see on my end."
"So he was mind controlled?" Mr Bryce asked.
"Yes, but I couldn't find anything else."
"Can you bring me along?" He requested.
"Lazrielle, you should accommodate his request." the chairperson agreed.
she turned his eyes towards the chairperson, eyes pleading for no more work, but the chairperson did not falter.
"...fine." Sighing, Lazrielle turned back to the official. "You," she lifted a finger at Mr Bryce, "Stand here," she motioned beside the official, "and stare into my right eye. And you," She looked back at the official, "Stare into my left eye. With both eyes, mind you."
As they got into their positions, Lazrielle took a hand from each of the subjects, and her eyes turned purple again.
As Mr Bryce stared into the eye, and following the spiralling of the pupil, his world started to spin.
At one point, he gently felt a tug that pulled him towards her right eye, though Mr Bryce couldn't respond to the tug. But, rapidly and exponentially, the force grew stronger. And stronger, until he finally felt himself rapidly hurtling forward into the eye.
All of a sudden, Mr Bryce found himself standing shoulder to shoulder with Lazrielle in a dark, empty world.
"Look down." Lazrielle pointed.
Mr Bryce looked down, and discovered that he was standing beside a bed.
Upon closer inspection, the saw that, tucked deep within the starry blankets and sleeping soundly, was the childlike figure of the official. His two hands tightly clenched the thick blanket, and, at periodic intervals, he would take one big snore inwards, and exhale a gigantic snot bubble. When the tension of the snot bubble reaches a maximum, it then bursts into coloured smoke that wafts upwards, joining a layer of white clouds hovering above him.
"Whats with this look?" Mr Bryce asked.
"Personal choice." Lazrielle curtly answered. "Anyways, I want to go back to sleep. What do you want to see?"
"What did you try to search for just now that yielded no result?"
"Well," she lifted a finger up, "I obviously looked at all the times he interacted with Arcanists in the past year. And no interaction I saw revealed a transferral of arcana, though the 2 hours during which he passed out was missing."
Mr Bryce put his thumb to his chin and pondered. Finally, he lifted his head up and asked, "Can you show me all the times his head has been touched by others?"
"Sure." Lazrielle approached the bed and started waving at the cloud, pushing it away. After a while, she grabbed three small clouds and dragged them above the big cloud.
"Here you go." She pushed the small clouds towards him.
He looked at the cloud with deep interest. Within each cloud, a scene of the officer's life played.
He concentrated his aura in his eyes, and zoomed in.
In one scene, Mr Voss patted his shoulder after he did a great job at work. This cloud had a green glow, reflecting his satisfaction. He didn't sense anything.
In another scene, a separate officer friend grabbed his head and shook it in frustration after he showed up 2 minutes late for work. This cloud had a red glow, reflecting his guilt and frustration at himself. He also didn't sense anything.
He turned his eyes to the last scene, where the officer was being petted on his head by his elderly parents who had come to visit him. This cloud had a glow of pure gold, reflecting his overwhelming happiness. But this time, he sensed something.
Mr Bryce stayed quiet for a moment, replaying the scene, before turning to Lazrielle. "Alright, I'm done."
"If you say so."
Mr Bryce felt himself being pulled backwards, rapidly away from the bedside, until the bed was but a speck in his vision, and all he saw was darkness.
Then, he suddenly felt as if the darkness was because his eyes had been closed the entire time, and he opened his eyes, revealing the familiar scene of the discussion room.
He looked at Lazrielle, who was already halfway to her seat, and he addressed the table once more.
"It seems like we have to make another record of a criminal arcanist. This one seems particularly nasty, and somehow seems to have the ability to brainwash," he paused, creating tension for his next words, "through touch, and touch alone."
The room started to buzz. This was insane. Someone who could brainwash people through touch, while still remaining relatively undetected? It was nothing short of impossible… and it was exactly with an ability like that that could have breached the most secure treasury in the Kingdom.
"Alright, now that we've settled that, let's move on-" Mr Voss, who was speaking, was once again interrupted by a vibration in his pocket.
"One second." He took out his phone and answered the call.
Then, his eyes widened.
And he turned back to face the table.
"More officials have called. More artifacts have disappeared. And they all have the same account as him." He pointed to the only official in the room.
The man with the square face put a hand on his forehead. He saw a headache coming their way.
"And pray tell me, which artifacts were stolen?"
Mr Voss looked around with a solemn gaze, and then replied: "Class A artifact, Veilrent Blade, and," he pushed his glasses up, such that the light hit it at just the right angle to reflect off, "Class S artifact, Mourning Lantern."