By the time he was in position, just outside the campsite, Ina had already confirmed the steady breathing that came with sleep from the two tents he was looking at. He prepared himself, as best he could, and then spoke across his link to Dice.

Buff me with Quiet Steps.

Dice had one spell that would be helpful here, but she had little experience casting spells on other people. He was worried she wouldn’t be able to cast anything after he had broken her mind, but as near as he could tell she could still cast her spells. He had to order her to do most things, even relieve herself, as he found out their way here. There wasn’t really a person there any more. Just a puppet capable of some complex commands. She wouldn’t ever learn a new spell again, and she couldn’t adapt to a situation, but with a few attempts she was able to buff him.

Go into the campsite and sit near Karmis’ tent. Do not wake Karmis and Wersa, and say nothing if they do wake. Protect me if they wake and attack.

He decided to send in Dice first, to test the waters. He watched her approach the campsite slowly and calmly. Eventually she sat on a log near the smouldering remains of the fire, close to where Karmis slept. He waited a moment, but Ina said there was no change in their regular breathing.

Next he would go in, as quietly as he could, but before he would go in he needed to speak to Ina.

Speaking through their bond. “Ina, if they wake, don’t go in. Just run, I will run too. Don’t worry.”

“Dem, You don’t have to lie to me. If we need to fight, we can fight, if you are in danger I will take you away.” Her voice in his mind was filled with concern.

“If we run, they will probably catch us Ina, and if not, they will kill my parents.” He hated the grim sound of his own voice. What he was saying was obvious to him, but it still hurt to say it out loud, as if that made it more real.

“Then we will fight.” Her voice was determined.

“We will fight if we need to, but first I will try something else.” He could hear significantly less confidence in his own voice than hers.

Speaking one last time, “I love you, Ina.”

“You are a good mate, Dem.”

Not the response he was hoping for exactly, but probably the closest he would get from Ina.

He took his first step into the campsite, filling his spell-templates with power.

***

He had taken it slow, worried that some alarm spell tuned to him, would wake the camp, but who would tune a spell to a man you already thought dead? Karmis was plenty arrogant in his estimation, and he had little choice but to try this approach first, before fighting either Karmis or Wersa.

With Dice’s buff, his steps where muffled, not entirely quiet, but nearly so. The Wilds were a loud place, and so he didn’t really have to be worried the sound of his steps, such as it was, would carry far. He had made it all the way to Dice, without incident. He thanked the Divine Humanity both had decided to sleep off their night cycles. Still it was a bit odd, they slept totally reliant on his spells. It was true this was probably the safest time to do, as beasts were just waking up or going back into sleep. It would be like Karmis to assume Dice would do her job and then come back immediately. Dice knew how to work his alarm spells as well, it was one of the many basic things he had shown her. The circumstances also told him something about how low Karmis’ regard was for him. She hadn’t thought much of him, if she hadn’t even stayed awake to ensure Dice had done her deed.

As he quietly stepped past Dice, he slowly reached for the tent flap. This would be a moment of risk, worse than just entering the site itself. He drew back the tent flap, his terror had grown, and his hand shook, but no alarms sounded. He had gotten lucky, very lucky. Lucky Karmis thought nothing of him, he supposed. Looking into the tent all he saw was an unmoving sleeping form. His next action was simple, or so he thought. He just needed to touch her to begin his first spell, or he could wake her and try with his gaze first. He was suddenly frozen by indecision. If he used Gaze first, there was more of a chance of her waking Wersa, but his later spells would be more effective, if he cast one of his spells first, he would be much less likely to be successful, but Karmis would be busy contending with his attack mentally.

He need to just move, every moment wasted increased their chances of being caught. He readied all his spells, drawing from the power gained from his domination of Dice. He filled the spell-templates in his head to the brim, ready to unleash them as fast as he could cast them. Neither template was of the quick-casting variety. They weren’t meant to be cast over and over in quick succession. He would get a chance with Dominate Mind and a chance with Dominate Will, and his Dominator's Gaze if she opened her eyes, and then would have to ready them all over again. His best bet was to just hit her in as many ways as possible and hope for a chance to kill her, or at least that is what nerve-racked mind was telling him. He had to just do it, and get it over with.

So he did. He pushed into the tent, knelt over her form, slammed his hand over her mouth and cast his first spell, Dominate Mind. Faster than even the spell could begin to work, her eyes snapped open, and her hand rocketed towards the hand covering her mouth. As her eyes snapped open, he activated his Gaze as well just as his first spell left his mind, looking directly into her eyes.

He could feel her nails stab into his hand, it was not painful yet, but he could feel blood begin to pool. In a split second, she had activated some latent personal transformation spell, and buried elongated fingernails into his hand. His gaze though, stopped her from stabbing him again. She was stunned slightly, her pupils dilating almost instantly. He thanked the Divine Humanity, because his Dominate Mind spell took effect at the same time he felt her go limp.

What happened, though, was not what he was expecting. Pain shot through his mind, she had immediately begun to fight back mentally. His Gaze had clearly done little. Unlike with Dice, her attacks slammed into him, like weight of a granite-tree falling. He road the waves of pain from each mental attack, trying to refocus, but every time he got himself together, she slammed against him again. The amount of influence here to help him, was almost nothing. She seemed to have somehow been nearly totally resistant to his passive influence spell. Had he known, he might have tried something else, but now he was committed. He probed through her mind, as each of her attacks seemed to push him further back into his own boy and the outside world. Worse yet he could feel her try to reach out for her own body, no wait, she was reaching for her Path, for her spells. She was going to cast something while fighting him off mentally. How was this possible? He knew it would harder than with Dice, but this was a thousand times harder.

He tried to think through his options. He couldn’t keep this up, and soon she would cast something either at him, or to wake Wersa. His only chance was was Dominate Will, but even as he had prepared it, it required concentration. He could feel her seething anger in each of her attacks. She had seen him, known it was him who was attacking her, and been enraged. He had to do something, even if she managed to reach the portion of her mind that cast spells, there would still be some casting time, so he had to take a risk. He weakened his guard slightly, drawing himself inward, and focused on the spell-template, casting it directly into her mind the moment it was ready. She had misinterpreted his weakness and redoubled her attacks, probably hoping to fight him off completely or damage him in return. In doing so, she left herself nothing to use to reach further for her spells. Her focus had been totally on trying to hurt him. The pain of her renewed attacks was immense, but he felt Dominate Will descend on her mind.

He could feel it begin to corrode whatever she was mental resources she was using against him from the inside out. Where Dominate Mind was a direct battle mind to mind, Dominate Will was a cancer that destroy a person from core of their Will, outward. Her struggles lessened, but still remained painful. She seemed to have no defense against this attack from within. He could sense her despair as she lost the ability to even care about what was happening to her. She made one last attempt to push towards the area of her mind devoted to spell casting, but he slammed his mental-self between her and what she sought, blocking her. Rather than bashing herself into him, and breaking, like Dice had done, she simply recoiled from him. Her last feelings were those of unwillingness and anger, before finally the Dominate Will spell had run its course. In the end, there was nothing really left of her, less than the mess he had made of Dice. A sense of victory washed through him, as well as the elation of advancing down his Path, but he quashed all his emotions, letting a bit of the cold grow once again in his heart.

He drew back, leaving a link to her mind, breathing heavily. He sighed, looking at the body that was formerly Karmis. She was still breathing, her robe had fallen open, but he had no interest in looking. He leaned over to look her in the eye again, but was disgusted at what he saw. Her eyes were unfocused, staring in different directions. Drool crept down her chin. He realized then he could not feel his arm. Looking down, saw that he was still bleeding. He knew he should have clotted now, given his enhanced constitution. The nails must have had a paralytic, or some anti-clotting agent, he thought. He focused on casting a restorative spell on himself, and moved slowly away from Karmis.

Ina was nearly driven mad with the smell of his blood on the air, but she hadn't intervened. She seemed to be more worried about Wersa waking, which was probably for the best. If he couldn’t handle Karmis, none of this would work. He thought about taking Karmis right now, and just leaving. Would Wersa go after his parents? If he left now, would she even know he was still alive? He wasn’t sure. He also noted the contract had not broken. His spells didn't’ seem to be covered by the constraints of the contract. He hadn’t killed any members of the party, or broken his end of the deal technically. The fact the contract was still in place would alert Wersa to him being still alive. He had to handle her in some way.

He sent a command to Karmis to exit the tent, but her movements were bizarre and she seemed to be babbling to herself quietly. He knew then that he had really screwed up his spells. Applying them both at the same time had saved him, but damaged Karmis nearly beyond use to him. She had made noise getting out of the tent, and he was on edge, looking in Wersa’s direction, but all he heard from her was a quaking snore. The woman could really sleep.

Answer through our link, Karmis. Can you cast spells?

What he received back was a jumbled mess, and he heard her babble some more. Drool now covering her chin a thick layer. Still, he could feel her gather power from her Path, and begin to fill a template, so it was clear something was left of her. It would have to be good enough. Though he didn’t have any control of which spell she would cast. Any spell would be helpful against Wersa.

He would have to approach Wersa like he did with Karmis, though it would be far more dangerous. He was pretty confident that Wersa would not fight him in the way Karmis had. Karmis had seemed experienced in mental battles, far beyond anything he would have imagined. She also must have had a powerful mental fortitude. Whatever her Class was, it clearly dealt with manipulating minds, as well as lust. Wersa had no such protections, her Class literally the epitome of a meat-head. Without much influence to draw strength from, it might be hard, but it couldn’t harder than what he had dealt with when he had invaded Karmis’ mind.

He took a moment to check himself. His head hurt, but the pain was slowly dwindling away with the restorative spell he had cast on himself. The rush he had received had advancing on his Path also helped mitigate some the pain he felt. After a few more moments, he could feel his arm again, though it was weak. He hoped it was just a paralytic, or something similar. Karmis didn’t strike him as the poisoner of the group. She didn’t get her hands dirty directly, that was Dice’s job.

He readied his spells again, filled them again with the might of his Path. He focused his Gaze as well, but hoped he wouldn’t need to use it. If Wersa was totally awake, her eyes open, it would be death for him. Ina moved in closer, ready to drop down on Wersa. He commanded Dice to get in a good range for her blades. He even, very slowly, moved Karmis so she could at least cast whatever spells she had readied. Each sound they made felt as loud as thunder, but in reality it was all easily covered up by the sounding Wersa’s snoring.

He bent low, and crept close enough to touch Wersa’s foot. He just needed to touch somewhere on her body, and his spell would target her mind automatically. His spells were ready, and he extended his arm, his fingers reaching.