There was a reason why Balfas was so nervous during his conversation with the Headmaster. Lady Jirni Ernas had a peculiar hobby that made her a really unpleasant guest. Whenever she was left waiting, she would run a thorough check on the nearest person to her. In this case, Balfas. He could see her scrolling through his military files, payrolls, and daily expenses. Sometimes she would click her tongue, more often she would look at Balfas briefly, giving him a wolfish smile. When Linjos finally arrived, Lady Ernas was already questioning Balfas about his new house in Derios. In particular about how he could afford it and pay up all due taxes. "Lady Ernas, it’s a pleasure to meet you again." Linjos lied through his teeth. She was wearing a dark blue military uniform with boots at her feet, black leather gloves on her hands, and her hair held up in a ponytail. Lady Ernas was one hood away from resembling an executioner. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that my daughter is all right." Her reply was a breach of almost every etiquette’s rule at once, but Linjos was a practical man. He could see from her eyes that despite her role, she was just a worried mother. That and the faint impression of seeing in them a grave with his name written on it, prompted him to give her a quick answer. "I swear that nothing happened to her." Lady Ernas sighed in relief. This time Linjos had told her the truth. "Sorry for my earlier rudeness, Headmaster Linjos." She gave him a small bow. "Now I need to talk with the prisoners." "Prisoners? Don’t you mean the students?" Linjos didn’t like that turn of events. "I like calling things with their names, Headmaster." Her voice oozed sarcasm. "According to the lab results, they were in possession of recreational drugs, but the real mother lode is five different kinds of sleep inducing, memory erasing drugs. It’s enough to arrest them." She showed him the report on her magical silver tablet. It was similar to a communication amulet, but bigger and linked to all the Griffon Kingdom’s archives. "How did you get them before me? The master Alchemists of the White Griffon told me they needed days to analyze everything." "In my line of work, I don’t have the luxury of time, Headmaster. On the other hand, I have a lot of friends or people that want to be my friends, willing to pull an all nighter for me. Bottom line, the Pontus boys are mine now." Linjos found the idea that even inside his academy there were people willing to go over his head to please Lady Ernas quite disturbing. Yet he wasn’t eager to repeat the experience he had had with Lord Ernas, so he Warped with her to the hospital. - "I wish I could leave it to Manohar to deal with her, but I learned from experience that whenever he is involved, I’m the one that ends up paying the price for his madness."– Linjos thought. As soon as they arrived, Jirni stared at the three youths laying in the beds with hatred, pulling out the medical files at their bedside to understand what was going on. "Are you also a Healer?" "Gods, no. I can only use chore magic, but I know a thing or two about the human body." The tone she used sent a shiver down Linjos’s spine. "Who dares to approach my specimens?" An indignant, petulant voice chimed in. "Manohar!" Linjos roared. "How can you call two human beings, students at that, specimens? Don’t you have any decency?" "You are right, Linjos. Back off from my specimens who also happen to be students, midget. I’ll not go easy on you just because you are an old lady." Manohar promptly corrected himself. "Manohar, the unruly man-child." Jirni chuckled, releasing enough killing intent to make every single patient of the hospital wing search for a bedpan. "Let me tell you a couple of things, child. First, your disappearing so often every time there is an ongoing crisis has made the Crown very unhappy. Enough that no one would care if I decided to rough you up, as long as I leave your precious mouth and hands intact. It’s all you need to cast spells after all. The rest of your body is redundant." Manohar found himself shivering. Jirni’s tone reminded him of the times when he was still a child and his mother scolded him for experimenting with his new spells on the neighbours’ sons. "Second, whoever puts themselves between me and my enemies becomes my enemy as well. Do you want me to treat you as an enemy?" Manohar had learned from experience that he was about to cross over from "you are grounded until you are old enough for the academy" to "do it again and I’ll spank your a*s so hard that even my grandchildren will bear the mark of my hand". He was the archmage known as the god of healing, the one and only Royal Healer, as well as a genius like the ones that appeared only once in a thousand years. He had a reputation to uphold, so he did what had to be done. He promptly hid behind Linjos after a hasty retreat. "No mom. I mean Ma’am. Please, make yourself at home. If you really feel the need to, please take it up with Linjos. I recommend hitting him in the stomach. It’s much softer than the head because he never exercises." - "Note to self, learn how to emit killing intent for taming idiotic healers."– Linjos thought. "What’s their problem? Why don’t they wake up?" Jirni asked ignoring his whimpering. "That’s a really interesting question, mom... Ma’am. Their bodies are fine. There is no sign of internal or external trauma, no drugs or toxins. It’s the first time since..." "I won’t ask again! What’s the problem?" Jirni snarled. "Emotional trauma. I think their minds are shutting in because of emotional trauma." Manohar replied from Linjos’s back. - "This is amazing!" Linjos was barely holding back tears. "Not only he actually obeys her, but she also manages to obtain quick, not convoluted answers. Also, it’s the first time in months that we are both in the same room and I don’t look like a fool."– "What’s your treatment?" "They need time and rest. It shouldn’t take more than a week for them to wake up." "A week?" Jirni sniggered. "No, they are going to wake up now. You see, there is another way to bring them back." "Really?" Manohar’s scientific curiosity was piqued, so he came out of his hiding place. "Yes. Do you know what’s here?" She pointed out the zones near the hips and the shoulders. "Of course, the thickest bundle of nerves that... (*)" Manohar was incapable of completing the sentence, mulling over the sudden revelation. "Exactly! All the most sensitive receptors, coming to and fro the fingers, erogenous zones, genitals. I only need to inflict on them more pain than the one that caused the trauma." Jirni smiled softly while several needles that looked like knitting tools appeared in her hands. "If I were you, I would create a silence zone." Linjos went pale too, rushing for the spell while Manohar secured a front row seat to better watch Jirni in action. "That Lith from whatsitsname is right! Anatomy is awesome! We should add it to the subjects of the fourth year Healer class." Manohar said with a childish smile on his face. "What a guy! He deserves a lot of points. If it wasn’t for his lack of personality, I’d say he reminds me of myself when I was his age. A true innovator." Linjos had many things to say, none nice, but chanting the spell kept his mouth busy. - "What you call lack of personality is just human decency. Or at least a pretense of it. If I had two Manohars, I’d run away from the Kingdom as fast as I can." He thought – The spell was completed just in time. One of Raynart’s cousins woke up letting out an inhuman scream right after the fourth needle had pierced his skin. Jirni quickly and painlessly removed them all at once. The temporary relief from pain would only make what was about to come more terrifying. "What? Where am I?" The boy asked. "Jirni Ernas, royal constable of his Majesty service." She handed him her badge and royal ID, speaking with a machine like demeanor. "I’m also the mother of the girl you attempted to r*pe." As soon as the boy understood his situation, rage twisted her visage in a cruel mask, making him wet himself. "With your uncle’s criminal record and what they have found on you, it’s in my rights to interrogate you how I best see fit." She took out of her dimensional amulet a leather roll, that contained a lot of sharp tool of curious shape and forms. "So, we can do this the easy way, or the painful way. As a constable, I hope you’ll pick the former. As a mother, I hope you pick the latter." Gorgus Pontus’s fight or flight instinct kicked in and immediately tried to escape, only to discovered he was chained hands and feet to the bed. He then tried to chant a tier three lightning, but a fist as small as powerful struck his jaw dislocating it. "Thank you so much!" Jirni chirped happily. "I actually lied before. I can’t use these tools on a kid just for drug possession. Or better, I couldn’t. Assaulting a royal constable is a capital crime instead. Why do you think I left your chains so loose?" She giggled, making Manohar hide again while Linjos felt the urge to puke. "Let’s play!" *** None remained to spectate the questioning, but Jirni recorded everything and used a silencing device to prevent even a single whisper from escaping her control. She had never needed Linjos’s help, Jirni had simply exploited the situation to put both the Headmaster and the healing god to test. Manohar creeped her out. In a way, he was like Jirni, but lacked any form of common sense and most importantly, he had no constraints. - "I have to get him married. His fear of motherly figures could be our only hope to controlling him. I already pity that poor girl though."– After being ’persuaded’ a little, Gorgus told her everything. Starting from the five Ws about that night accident to all the dirt he knew about his family and all of his parents’ plans. His brother, Sothes, did the same. The problems arose when she tried to wake up Raynart. Even after six needles, he was still unconscious. Jirni checked his pulse and heartbeat before stopping the procedure. - "He does feel pain, simply it’s not enough. Damn, to push things further I need a healer. Otherwise he may die of shock. I won’t let him take the easy way out!"– When Raynart finally recovered, Jirni needed to sedate him to avoid Raynart hurting himself. As soon as he recovered his senses, he went into a seizure like she had never seen before. Much to Jirni’s dismay, he answered all her questions while under the effects of the narcotic. His story was similar to that of the other two boys, but filled with unbelievable details like shadows coming to life or mystical eyes piercing his very soul. Normally she wouldn’t believe a word, blaming his delirium on the shock that had sent him into a coma. Too many things didn’t add up though. - "The insane amount of knowledge, him surviving an attack that killed an elite squad of the Queen’s corps, his contribution to the plague, surviving a group of assassins, and now this? If this was about anyone else, I would shrug off Raynart’s words like a bad dream. I got the feeling that both the background check on Lith and the Queen haven’t told me everything. I hate being kept in the dark. Looks like Lith and I need to have a little chat."– Before walking out of the hospital, Jirni removed all the pain medications from the three boys’ system, leaving behind a disposable silencing device so that no one would notice their screams.