<\/p>\n
We sat around the fire, at ease, or nearly, for the first time in days. We were not all friends, but there didn’t seem to be any lingering enmity, and that might be enough to let friendships happen. Failing that, we could at least do what we needed with a minimum of distraction.<\/p>\n
And what we needed to do now was… plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should ford the Kralsbeck by midmorning tomorrow,\u201d Elizabeth said as she took her seat. \u201cFrom then on, we will be in duchy Wafret, two days’ hike from the Duke’s manor. But what then?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat exactly do we know?\u201d Nancy asked, turning toward Helen. \u201cYou heard it most directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know precious little. The Duke, like half of those who were in the capital, fled to his estate in the wake of the recent attacks,\u201d Helen said. \u201cThat in itself is, of course, not nearly enough to implicate him. However, his guard was ready for an attack where others were not; they took the greatest share of the assassins, and put all they found to the sword.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEliminating the knowledge of his own scheme,\u201d Jacob murmured.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr,\u201d added Rebecca, \u201cbeing of a thoroughly suspicious mindset and a touch overzealous in pursuing his own safety. Let’s not leap to unsupported conclusions, good people; I do suspect<\/em> Wafret is involved, but what we know so far ties him to the plot only by circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs there anything else to add?\u201d Elizabeth enquired, nodding to acknowledge Rebecca’s point.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing,\u201d Rebecca cut in, somewhat to my surprise. Even more so was what she actually said: \u201cAnya Trellig’s name came up in all this \u2013 she was on the night watch at Weston House, her name was known to the conspirators, and she quite likely assisted in setting the fire. She’s from Wafret \u2013 was part of the Duke’s personal guard in the past. It’s possible she’s acting independently of the Duke, but one way or another, she’s in this up to her ears. With the Duke back on his estate and Weston House put to the torch, it’s possible she accompanied him back to the duchy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo,\u201d Elizabeth summarized, \u201cthere is one person who is most likely here and may be involved, and one who may be here and is<\/em> involved. Two angles to work from. But where do we start? It’s not as though we can simply walk up to his door, ask if he had the royal family killed, and expect him to admit it and come with us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe might have another way to learn these things,\u201d said Rebecca, giving my hand a light squeeze.<\/p>\n It didn’t take me more than a breath to figure out what she was referring to. \u201cWe can’t rely on that,\u201d I objected.<\/p>\n And found myself met by blank, uncomprehending stares.<\/p>\n Rebecca brought her hand up to my jaw, chuckling softly. \u201cEdmond? I hadn’t said that aloud.\u201d<\/p>\n The ramifications of that<\/em> took a little bit longer to register.<\/p>\n \u201cThe point here is that we might be able to get the truth from their heads without<\/em> needing to ask them directly \u2013 and if they don’t know that we know, they won’t have as much reason to do us a harm. If<\/em> this happens, we’ll want some hard evidence \u2013 but a telepath’s word will<\/em> suffice before the House of Lords if we can’t get anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo all we need do is turn it into something on which we can<\/em> rely,\u201d Elizabeth mused. \u201cWhat in the world would that<\/em> take? I’ve never been this close to anyone else else with that manner of gift, I’ve no idea of what goes into their training.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to start most easily with those for whom there is some personal connection,\u201d Rebecca said. \u201cFriends, family, lovers. If there is some fondness on the subject’s part, it’s easier for the one for whom they’re fond to get a glimpse of their thoughts \u2013 as I just recently demonstrated.\u201d She flashed a toothy grin, and then continued, \u201cPlainly, we can’t rely on such things \u2013 but it could still be a useful starting point to practise. You’ll have to try to focus on it, Edmond \u2013 I wish I could say more about it, but it’s not a gift I have, so all I’ve heard has been very tenuous at best.\u201d<\/p>\n Focus. Focus what?<\/p>\n It actually turned out to be not so difficult as I feared. She concentrated on a phrase, I turned my attention to her \u2013 not necessarily my eyes or my ears, but my awareness \u2013 and suddenly I heard snippets of thought; with some practise, even in the course of that evening, I found myself able to pick out complete phrases, not only in her, but in Travis as well.<\/p>\n I didn’t think it coincidence that it was both of those whom I’d bedded that I could reach. I couldn’t do so with Elizabeth, but that wasn’t entirely surprising, all things considered.<\/p>\n I kept at it the next day, as we crossed the Kralsbeck River and headed into duchy Wafret. It wasn’t so easy, of course, when we all of us were more intent on walking than on anything else; sometimes I thought I’d sensed a thought, but was never quite sure if it wasn’t my own. Part of the difficulty was that when I made an effort to focus, I didn’t \u201chear\u201d the words as I had in the past \u2013 I became aware of them, but it was like I had thought them, not like the other person had said them.<\/p>\n Still, by the time we camped on another rocky tor, I was able to pick out snatches of ongoing thoughts, and to my embarrassment, caught a snippet from Helen’s mind starting with her finding me fair, and promptly going into quite explicit detail of how she wished to bed me.<\/p>\n Embarrassment, yes, there was aplenty, but in truth it was somewhat exciting, as well. That she’d shown no indication of it outwardly \u2013 sneaking glances, perhaps, but otherwise going about her work \u2013 made it feel a bit stranger still, but in a way only added to the allure.<\/p>\n Was her time coming up, then? I could hardly help but wonder. If so, it might be best to see that come to pass sooner rather than later. It wouldn’t do to have her, and the other men, distracted should I need to work on my own for any great length of time; we’d lost enough time on the way here to be quite aware of that.<\/p>\n But truly, the most curious thing of all was that it did<\/em> feel easy. I hadn’t heard anything between the first time with Angelique and the evening before with Rebecca… or had I? From time to time on the course of our trek, many of us had had little things to say. Maybe some of the offhand remarks I thought I’d heard, hadn’t been spoken aloud at all? It would make a good deal more sense, truly, than this coming to life so easily when I tried to pay attention to it, but not at all in the intervening days. Much more sense indeed.<\/p>\n One thing I couldn’t yet do was guide the course of thought. Rebecca and Elizabeth, both of whom had been witness to the proceedings of the high court at times that a telepath was needed, both agreed that such a one could delve deep into the minds of even the unwilling, and pry out the secrets they sought. All I could learn was what a person was thinking at that exact moment \u2013 by the end of our first evening in Wafret I could do so with any of my companions, but it was a far cry from finding hidden truths in an enemy’s mind.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m not sure it’d be an entirely wise course, come to think of it,\u201d Elizabeth noted that night as we cleaned up after our meal. \u201cIt didn’t seem to be a very gentle process.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, indeed,\u201d Rebecca confirmed. \u201cCertainly not discreet. If you can only know what someone is thinking at the moment, though, it may still be possible to guide them to think what you wish.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow…?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSimply by steering a conversation,\u201d she replied. \u201cKeep the words flowing, and the person you’re speaking to will think of different things as they reply.\u201d<\/p>\n This was not<\/em> so easy. Oh, it was easy enough to talk to my companions, or to try to get a glimpse of what they were thinking, but the combination was much more difficult. Keeping track of two different conversations at once, even if one of them was one-sided, was not something I’d ever needed to do.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the courts are not the world for you,\u201d Rebecca remarked after a frustrating half-hour, \u201cyou might consider becoming a mediator. Knowing what people are thinking can be useful there, but being able to follow two lines of thought is crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI’m not so certain that would be wise, then,\u201d I responded, scooping out a bowl of stew. \u201cI’m hardly doing well here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re doing better than you think,\u201d she said, shaking her head. \u201cI’m not sure if it’s more difficult to follow thoughts that are<\/em> about the matter at hand, or those that aren’t<\/em>, but I suspect it’s more difficult to keep them apart when they are related to one another than when they come from entirely different sources.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat still doesn’t leave this very useful,\u201d I said, shaking my head.<\/p>\n \u201cSo perhaps someone else will need to be there assisting you,\u201d was her suggestion, as she stood and squeezed my shoulder. \u201cDon’t fret so, Edmond. I’m aware that you’ve been frustrated by this, but I think you’ve actually been progressing rather well, considering that nobody here can give you any sort of formal instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n I tried to take her words of confidence to heart, but my own doubts made it rather difficult to do. Always when I tried to think of what she’d said, instead I only could see the number of times I’d made an error, sometimes minor, sometimes completely ruining the thread of thought. I certainly wasn’t one of those people who was cut out to be a spy, it seemed. And normally I’d not have minded that thought in the least, but at the time it would have been a damnably useful talent to have.<\/p>\n With the greatest conflicts among the group resolved, the bigger question still remains: what, exactly, can they do about the mess they’re in?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[16,28],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courtesans-war","tag-mf","tag-mature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/furry-tales.net\/shurhaian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<< Previous<\/a> | Next >><\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"