Whistling to myself, I kept looking at the ever-increasing list of tricks I had played on the people of Sunna’s community. I really needed to come up with a better name to call that place, other than, well, that place, the town or the local loony bin. Something catching and fitting, maybe a play on the etymology of lunacy and the amusing relation it had to worshipping the Sun, but I hadn’t found something good yet. We hadn’t really needed one just yet, as the campaign to drive the inhabitants of the town even more insane than they had already been when we got here was only pursued by Lia and me, with a bit of quiet assistance from Luna, so everyone involved knew what was going on and which town, or place, we meant. However, if we ever wanted to include other people, a more suitable name was needed.

  For now, I turned my focus back on the list, looking over the numerous things I had already done, trying to figure out what I could do next.

  Fairly close to the top, right below my initial idea to use natural wind as a carrier for sound, which in turn carried Mind Magic, was something a lot more straightforward. On the second day, after Lia and I returned to the tower, I decided to sneak out again, making my way over into the vicinity of the town and waiting until somebody left the blindingly bright wards. Once that person, a guy in his twenties, moved into the forest, I started to use my Mind Magic on him. Part of my plan was to use the guy to improve my Mind Magic abilities. I was still trying to gain a better understanding of reading someone’s mind and perceiving their thoughts and memories. The idea was that, if the guy noticed something was amiss, I could simply disappear, leaving him with a lingering sense of unease and paranoia, exactly what I wanted to instil in these people anyway.

  That particular instance was only the first of a number of these attempts, and over the course of the next two weeks, I had started to get good at reading a human’s mind. By now, I was getting glimpses of their thoughts and could follow along, understanding what they were doing as well as they did. I had a feeling that it would only work as long as my Intelligencence and Intuition remained higher than that of those I could parse their thoughts. I assumed that the closer their mental attributes were to mine, the harder it would be to understand what I was sensing, and I’d be completely unable to read anyone’s mind who had a higher Intelligence than I did. Or, well, I might be able to read those minds, but I’d probably be completely unable to understand what I was perceiving.

  However, given that my tests were all with people below level fifty, as nobody with a higher level ventured out into the forest on their own, I couldn’t put that to the test. Though it was unlikely that somebody above level fifty, or even level one-hundred, had an Intelligence to match mine, as some pretty hefty traits boosted mine.

  The best aspect of this development was that I had gained another two points in Mind Magic, bringing me to ninety-two and ever-closer to that elusive one-hundred. I was already curious about what changes that level would bring, whether it would simply be a hard cutoff or whether the system would introduce another skill. Or maybe I’d get traits for awe-inspiring feats of Mind Magic, boosting my abilities beyond their present scope. Only time would tell, and, luckily, that time was soon.

  Another of the nasty tricks I played on the inhabitants of the local loony bin was to whisper lies into their ears. I had noticed that I could use Wind Magic and some of my traits in combination to augment my ability to hear, letting me listen to conversations that happened within their town. With a bit of effort, some creativity and an unhealthy dollop of malice, I could use Wind Magic to project sounds and even voices into their ears. Matching the voices I could project to those of the people they were talking to was a challenge, but it was one I welcomed.

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  At first, I only made them hear simple, single words as the conversation ended and people turned away from one another. A whispered ‘Idiot’, or something along those lines, was an excellent way to sow animosity between the locals. After all, who would react positively if the person you had just been speaking to was muttering insults as soon as your back was turned? A few times, it even sparked an argument when one of the insulted people turned around and confronted the other. The one who felt insulted knew what they had heard, while the other knew they hadn’t spoken and thought they were being falsely accused. It was, quite frankly, delicious to watch, especially when I hit the women of crazy town.

  In one case, my uttered insults and insinuations, maybe helped along by the strange, alchemical concoctions Lia had introduced into the town’s water supply, had been enough to cause a massive, all-female brawl. Even watching from afar made me goggle in disbelief as the group, who had been calmly washing clothes at the small brook that ran through town, started to lay into each other in a no-holds-barred brawl. There was scratching, hair-pulling, slapping, punching, kicking and even attacks with the various utensils they had on their persons. It was a good thing that none of those women carried a knife or scissors at that time, or the bloodshed would have been worse than it was.

  Which would have been a shame, I didn’t want these people to die just yet. And I certainly didn’t want the people who had just shed blood close to the ward line to die; that would be an utter shame. Especially as I had managed to get my grubby fingers on that blood without contaminating it further, giving me a direct, and usable, link to the people within the wards.

  With that blood, I had yet another avenue to introduce my mischief to the town. It turned out that the wards Sunna had provided for their town didn’t stop the sympathetic Blood Magic I was using. That meant I could affect the women who had set that blood at all times, casting all sorts of nasty curses through the link and have them take hold at my leisure.

  My personal favourite was to have them experience dreams and nightmares, giving them a bit of blissful tranquillity, only to warp that tranquillity into something sinister. Pain, pleasure, joy and grief, everything was fair game in my attempts to drive these women, who had shed their blood so carelessly, insane and even now, just a few days after that campaign had started, it was showing results.

  While it wasn’t easy to tell from the distance I was observing from, I did see changes to their gait, and the lack of makeup meant it was impossible to conceal the dark shadows under their eyes. Or the haunted looks in those eyes.

  And what made the entire thing even better was that I didn’t use persistent curses. I probably could have created a curse that caused similar symptoms and used it on people while they were outside the wards, but that would leave traces. Instead, I merely used their blood to introduce temporary conditions, nothing that lingered beyond the time it affected them. Unless Lorgar, the silly pony who led these people, was a lot more competent than I thought, or had some incredibly skilled subordinates, I couldn’t see them figure out that these experiences weren’t natural.

  Following our current watchword, ‘Subtle’, was the name of the game. Nothing that lingered, nothing that gave away what we were doing, just a slow, but persistent, deterioration within their camp. Something that was made even easier when conditions also worsened naturally, without any input from Lia or me, simply because a large number of people, all crammed into a fairly limited space without any good entertainment options, is a recipe for conflict.

  Sure, the Bearers of Lady Sunna’s Word, as I had heard Lorgar call his inner circle, were trying to counteract that tendency with discipline, physical training and a lot of prayer, but that couldn’t completely stop the issues. Especially not while I continued to whisper into their ears, poison their minds and plague their dreams.

  I wasn’t sure how long it would take for the situation to explode, but it was akin to a boiling pot on a stove, and the winter, trapping them within the confines of their town and their protective wards, made it so that no pressure could escape. It was only a matter of time.

  Hopefully, Lia and I would have a front-row seat to watch the chaos unfold. I could hardly wait.