Other than the roar of the fire in the distance, the city was eerily silent. Serenity had traveled the route to and from the Palace a number of times and he’d never seen it so still. Part of that might have been the holiday; if much of the population was at the demonstration when the coup started, it was likely they hadn’t all made it back. Any that had seemed to be lying low.

It was strange; it wasn’t like the other forceful changeovers of power he’d seen in the past-that-never-was. Some of them certainly kept people indoors, but in the residential areas you could still see the signs that people were around. Serenity didn’t see any sign of people in the area; when they walked past houses, the doors were all closed and there was no movement at all.

It reminded Serenity far more of an area that had been evacuated in a hurry. There were partially completed tasks lying in the open in places; Serenity even saw a couple of toys that had clearly been dropped, which meant they’d been hurrying. What Serenity didn't see was the emergency that pulled them from their homes.

Until he suddenly noticed that Andarit turned right while he continued forward. Serenity doubled back to catch her, wondering if she’d seen something or thought she knew a better route. When he got around the corner, he realized that wasn’t it at all.

She was no longer moving cautiously, looking for other people and keeping to what shadows there were; instead, she’d relaxed and was walking on the street as though she didn’t have a care in the world.

While there was no one around, that was clearly not the reason.

Serenity briskly marched up to her, not bothering to hide himself either. There wasn’t a point anymore, especially not with Andarit where she was. “Andarit!”

“Hey, Serenity! It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?” Andarit grinned like a fool as she replied.

“No, it really isn’t.” Mind control of some sort, but what sort? And what was the best way to counter it? She was talking, so there was a chance words would work. “Where are you headed? Weren’t we trying to get to your house?”

“Yup! This is the right way; I know you haven’t been here before. I’m looking forward to finally being home. It’s been months! I wasn’t able to stop by on my way to Zenith, so I haven’t been home since before I went to Tzintkra. Did I tell you about that? It was amazing. I met this great group of people; they were down a healer since…” Andarit prattled on about her trip to Tzintkra.

Serenity had heard it all before, so he didn’t pay much attention to her words; instead, he noted that she thought she was heading somewhere completely different from where they were. “Andarit, we’re still in Zenith. Lowpeak isn’t anywhere near here.”

Andarit’s steps faltered for a moment before they resumed. “I know it’s a long walk, but it’s still a lovely day for it! Why are you so gloomy?”

Talking wasn’t going to work; Serenity doubted that getting in her way would, either. He could certainly build a mental shield for her, but that would take time he wasn’t certain he had. He had a sinking feeling he knew where she was walking, and he might not have the spell ready in time. Fires could move quickly. “Which direction is it?”

Andarit had a bounce in her step, cheerful as she pointed ahead and a little to the right, directly towards the roar of the fire.

If Blaze were here, he’d be able to knock her out safely. Of course, if Blaze were here, there would be a lot of other options. He might as well wish for Honoria and her mental defense; it was likely that she had a Skill that could defend another.

He had to do something he could do.

Serenity went over his options; knocking her out was a last resort, since he didn’t have a healer handy in case he did real damage and he wasn’t certain her hair ornament could deal with a brain bleed. It probably could, but it was still a last resort.

Simply picking her up and carrying her had the virtue of simplicity, but it had its own issues. He was both larger and stronger than she was, as well as better trained, so he could almost certainly do it, but it would be awkward at best. She probably would struggle and might shout; he could handle the struggling even if he didn’t want to, but with the pull towards the fire, shouting would either be irrelevant or it would draw others specifically to help her. He needed to avoid that.

Which meant that since he couldn’t remove the mind control without a spell he didn’t have time to build, he either needed to knock her out or restrain her somehow.

Serenity skimmed his way down his Ability list. Nothing was really made for the purpose; it wasn’t something he often did. Perhaps he could materialize some rope with Call on the Origin? That would work, but he’d have to immobilize her first.

No, wait. He had the perfect ability; it was a stretch since it wasn’t at all designed for it, but in some ways that made it even better. Andarit wouldn’t expect it at all.

“Could you stop for a moment?” Serenity put his hand on her shoulder.

Amazingly, Andarit paused. “What is it? I’d like to get home, but if there’s a reason?”

Serenity triggered his shift before he replied. It would take time, but surely he could stretch the explanation out for long enough; after all, the mind control seemed to be building an alternate world, not changing Andarit’s personality. “Armor. We’re headed into a dangerous area, and I want to make sure you’re in the best possible armor.”

When Andarit opened her mouth, Serenity shook his head. “Yes, I know you’re already wearing armor, but you’ve seen mine; it’s better than yours.”

“We’re just heading home, silly! There’s nothing to worry about at the Lowpeak estate.” Andarit laughed brightly.

Serenity’s armor-self dissolved from where it was over his clothing and drifted over Andarit. He’d decided on the movement instead of duplication for increased speed; creating a third form was slower than moving a second. He’d timed it during one of the many Tutorials. “Yes, but we’re not at the estate yet. Maybe I’m overly cautious, but won’t you let me be? I’m supposed to keep you safe.”

Andarit’s expression wavered, so Serenity pushed the advantage. All he needed was time; his second self was already a hazy mist around her body. “Your father specifically told me to get you home safely. I know you said you don’t need me, but that’s why I’m here. Let me do this for you.”

Andarit stared at him for a long moment before she accepted. “Fine. As long as it’s fast. Where is the armor?”

Serenity smiled gently. He’d delayed long enough, especially if Andarit was simply going to let it happen. “Just stand there. Let the armor fit itself to you.”

Normally, when he did this with Rissa, he had her hold her arms out to the side to make it easier to form all the details. This time, he wasn’t about to do that; he was going to alter the armor to hold her legs more or less together and her arms to her sides. The armor couldn’t move, so he needed her to stand like that to begin with.

That much was relatively easy. The addition of a gag as part of the head protection wasn’t. He could manage a covering for the mouth, but the best he could manage in her mouth wasn’t really a gag; it was more of a mouth guard. With luck, it would muffle and distort anything she said enough to prevent her from calling on other mind-controlled people.

Andarit didn’t seem overly surprised as the armor formed, and Serenity was grateful that she’d seen him do it a few times over the past month. The moment the mouth guard pushed its way into her mouth, though, her amiable disposition changed. “‘Ereni’y? Wha’ aa’ ‘oo ‘ooing?”

Serenity swept her up in a princess carry, carefully supporting her back with one arm and her legs with the other as he thickened the armor enough to make it extremely protective and also difficult to move in. “Getting you home safely. Can’t let you get hurt on the way, now can I?”

“I can ‘alk! ‘Ut ‘ee ‘own!” Andarit squirmed, then seemed to notice that Serenity was heading in a different direction than she had been. “‘Ur going the ‘ong ‘ay!”

Serenity could see her looking towards the fire. Why hadn’t he thought of a blindfold earlier?

He had to pause to shift his armor-self to cover her eyes. Once again, it was a poor blindfold, more of an opaque visor than truly blinding, but it would prevent her from really seeing where they were going.

“This is just a different route, one your father told me about.” It was a poor lie, but Serenity wasn’t sure what else to say to calm Andarit down. Strangely enough, it seemed to work.

Serenity didn’t question his good fortune. He pulled her close to himself and set off running down the road towards the Lowpeaks’ Zenith residence. With him having to hold Andarit, there was no point in trying to be stealthy even if she wasn’t struggling.

After a moment, he realized that he had another good explanation to give Andarit. “I can run faster than you can walk, even carrying you, and I can keep it up longer than you can run. Much longer. Don’t you want to be home faster?”

With that, Andarit completely ceased her limited efforts to get free and put her arms around his waist, seeming to try to make herself easier to carry. It was amazing what going along with the false world created by mind control could do; it wasn’t the first time he’d used tricks like this, but it caught him by surprise every time just how gullible someone could be if what you said lined up with a mental effect.

It surprised Serenity; hadn’t he bound her arms to her side?

A moment later, he knew what had happened. His armor-self wasn’t intended as bindings; he was armor. The moment he took his attention off holding Andarit in place, he unconsciously shifted to be better armor. Constraining and protective, due to the thickness, but not unnecessarily confining.

Serenity shook his head, chiding himself with a slight smile. He should have known that would happen. It’d worked out fine; now all he had to do was get Andarit truly free of the mind control.

While he ran, Serenity tried to feel for the mind control itself. His Mind Affinity wasn’t one of his best, but he did have it; he ought to be able to at least find something that could take control of someone else, even if it didn’t find any purchase at all on his mind because of his Mind Resistance. He wanted to know what it was, because that would help him use the correct sort of shield.

The first thing he wanted to know was if there was a spell on Andarit that he needed to break or if he simply needed to protect her against some sort of influence. It would simplify his spell a lot if all he had to do was set up a shield and she’d come out of it on her own.

It took far too long to find. His Mind Affinity was simply not that great and he’d never done much practice with it for the subtler interactions; the way he eventually found it was by noticing that the area became ever so slightly less bright as he ran, but not because it was actually getting darker out; instead, he was seeing a diminishing mana field of some sort.

Once he concentrated on the mana field, he could tell that it was primarily Mind Affinity. It seemed to shy away from him, almost like he had an active shield of some sort, even though he didn’t.

Was that part of why Andarit wasn’t struggling more? Was she being partly protected by proximity? It seemed likely, and Serenity wasn’t about to complain.