They continued on their original route to see the wizard, and as they walked Ismene grew more and more flushed at the prolonged exposure to him as they continued on their way.

A few minutes into their walk, they passed one of Cornelius's classmates, a man by the name of Viktor, he normally just goes by Vik though. Viktor was in a hallway with the slave that the kingdom gave him. He had pressed the poor girl up against the wall and had his left hand down the front of her dress, while his right was up her skirt.

Her brown hair was disheveled and she was panting. Her lifeless eyes were staring off at the wall, but her face was flushed as he felt her breasts through her thin dress.

Ismene looked at the girl with eyes full of pity, knowing full well that that exact outcome could have happened to her if she had misbehaved or if someone had wanted her. Her mind flashed to the events to come, and she realized that she would soon be in that girl's exact position soon. This caused her smile to fade and her to cling to her master even tighter. He noticed her reaction and then let out a small sigh, but kept walking.

Viktor hadn't noticed them, and they were soon through the hall. Upon emerging from the end he stopped her, and looked into her eyes. He spoke after staring into her eyes, hints of emotion prevalent, it seems like the scene in the hallway affected him too, even if only slightly...

Cornelius : "Ismene, hold off on your advances for a few days, perhaps there may be more options then just this one..."

Ismene nodded, her smile resurfacing. She looked at him, querying him for an explanation on why he said those words.

When he noticed her eyes, he paused for a moment, then half awkwardly he spoke.

Cornelius : "Perhaps that is not the best outcome, nor the best plan. There is a different method which I had in mind..."

Her face paled after a moment at the thought that he would try to do it himself. He glanced at her, locking eyes once more.

The words which were about to pour out of her mouth were silenced and she obediently listened to his explanation, however grueling it was for her.

Cornelius : "They have told us that there is a magic which can extract information from a mind, even without the owners consent... elaborate on that for me Ismene..."

Ismene's face became full of understanding as she realized what he planned to do.

Ismene : "Yes Master... That magic... is an extremely hard one to do..."

Cornelius looked at her for a moment, his eyes full of impatience.

Ismene : "Hard to do.. but not impossible...it requires several days to crack someone's mental defenses, meaning that we would have to isolate him, and make sure nobody comes looking. The wizard has the capability to do it..."

She trailed off, glancing her eyes downwards.

His ice cold demeanor cracked for a moment, as he gave a small smile and a light laugh.

Cornelius : "Hmph...Then why didn't you propose this earlier?"

Ismene : "As I said, it takes several days to crack someones mind, up to several weeks if that person has been magically reinforced to prevent that exact outcome. All of the upper nobility has been strengthened by the very same Wizard in order to prevent such a leak from happening..."

Cornelius : "Meaning that you would need a stronger mage to break the defenses? Hmm how long do you think the wizard would take to crack the noble if he had all the time in the world?"

Ismene cast her eyes to the side.

Ismene : "I don't know master, but I would guess around a month..."

Cornelius : "And it was because of this that you proposed the other method?"

Ismene : "Yes..."

Cornelius : "While I can see your reasoning, it implies that I do not have a month to spend, nor the resources to smuggle a noble away from prying eyes for a month. Right now, that is correct, but given a few days I can remedy this quickly...

Ismene: "..."

He paused, looking at her again. He gently grasped her chin, lifting it so that their eyes met. She blushed and started smiling again.

Ismene : "Yes master?"

Cornelius : "I am sorry for my previous reaction, I don't know why, but it seems like I'm a bit sociopathic right now, I can only feel slight traces of emotion. I only noticed this after I felt these traces..."

He let go of her chin, causing a look of slight dissatisfaction to surface on her face.

Cornelius : "Whatever it is though, it is annoying me..."

Ismene : "Something limiting your emotions Master?"

Cornelius : "Yes, for as long as I can remember, I have never felt anything but contempt for people. I saw them as inferior, my attitude led to me distancing myself. It was natural for me, and yet, since I came here, I have... felt ... it is truly a remarkable thing... so foreign and out of place in the calm of my inner self. I desire more of it, yet am unable to figure out how..."

Ismene's face suddenly showed comprehension, and she let out a mischievous giggle...

Ismene : "Your servant knows Master, she knows how to solve your problem..."

Cornelius : "Do you now?? What is it then?"

Ismene : "The problem is a common Stratovian one..."

Cornelius looked at her. He stopped walking again, and grabbed her shoulders, facing square with her. She looked deep into his eyes and let out a mischievous smile.

Ismene : "Master... Before I tell you, your servant humble begs something..."

Cornelius : "Go on..."

Ismene : "As you have rejected my previous plan, my... reward... is annulled... When you regain your feelings as I help you, please..."

He sighed, knowing where she was taking this. She cast her eyes down, knowing full well that she was being disrespectful to her Master, and that she was making him angry. She was about to give up and continue with the explanation downheartedly, when her mind was thrown for a loop.

Cornelius : "Fine..."

Ismene's face instantly became more radiant then the sun, and she started jumping up and down. After the third jump, she saw her Master's annoyed face, and instantly she stopped jumping and went on with the explanation. Her face had a smile from ear to ear and her joy could not be contained as she leaned on him more.

Ismene : "When Stratovians first descend, their locked minds can't think on the level which they normally do, this also, for some reason, inhibits their emotions to the point of almost not feeling. As Stratovians progress along their unlock they regain their feelings and mental abilities.

Pardon my saying this master, but right now you are like a moving rock. You can only move, not truly 'thinking' in comparison to your normal level, and not even feeling at all!"

Cornelius : "That much was obvious, how do I fix it..."

Ismene's smile faltered a bit, and then regained its flourish a moment later.

Ismene : "Well, there are several ways... The first, is to force the brain to work again. This can be done several ways, such as falling in love with your little sliver of available emotions, or to constantly think on hard problems. The falling in love part is harder, yet much faster then the other one...

The second method is to meditate... This is more along the lines of the "constantly think on hard problems" but it is more about "trying to figure out how the universe works".

The third method, is to just wait. You have read on your card master, that you have a "crack" in your barriers. This will slowly leak your locked intellect, and allow you to breach your barriers faster and faster. This is the most boring method of all..

The last method, is to meet another unlocking or already unlocked Stratovian. I don't know what this does for you, only that it works..."

Cornelius just looked at her, slight disbelief in his eyes

Cornelius : "And how do you know this? These methods can't just be common knowledge..."

Ismene : "When the Wizard saw your card he told me the ways to aid you when I found you..."

Cornelius : "And how is it that he knows these things?"

Ismene : "The Stratovians are Very thorough, they have records of how to unlock one of their own placed everywhere, should one of their descended citizens wish to ascend early or quickly. Every Capital has a mystic box which tells things about the Stratovians to people... The Stratovians left it there to help other Stratovians...

In this kingdom however, only the Wizard and the King have access to it..."

Cornelius : "Hmm, so the Wizard knows about this because of this "magic box"? What else can it tell him?"

Ismene : "The box knows a lot... But anything it feels we don't need to know, it either doesn't answer or answers in a language nobody can understand...

If you ask a question about helping a descended Stratovian it will respond in your language, but if you ask it a question about the sky, it will respond in some language which no one knows, and show weird symbols on the surface of the box (formulas)...

If you ask it about the ground it will do the same thing... We think that it is the language of the Stratovians, seeing as how its their box."

Cornelius : "Couldn't we just ask the box where the Princess is?"

Ismene : "Sorry Master it doesn't work like that... You ask the box a question about the world, and it tells you, but some questions like that one, it won't answer..." She cast her eyes down, at the realization that this too, could not help him.

Cornelius : "Then what you are saying is basically any question which "humans" don't need to know doesn't get translated from the Stratovian language..."

Ismene : "Correct Master..."

Cornelius : "While we are visiting the Wizard we should try anyway. I have the feeling that I can understand this "unknown" language... If not understand, then probably I can recognize it..."

Ismene : "As you desire Master..."

----------------------------

Wow, enough with the hateful comments guys D: I get it, the scumbag noble will die, MC will gain feels again, and Ismene won't stray from the pure servant/slave path. You can stop telling me not to "make" her do anything...

Anyway, I am going backpacking this weekend, see you all on Monday afternoon... (Interesting stuff coming up, stay tuned (just wait for the cheese to go down...)

In other news, I think I was going to put a spoiler here, but I guess not as right now its 12:00 PM and I need to get up in 4 1/2 hours...

Gnight all, sucks to be you, Keep on keeping on...

Oh... Cant forget the window...

LURKERS BEWARE!!! FOR I DESIRE COMMENTS!!!

(i like the pink, its a nice shade when my eyes are tired...)