“Ms.” A man hissed falling against the counter. “You have to help me I feel like I’m going mad.” He breathed and described symptoms she knew all to well. The Cultivators influence. She glanced at her own bracelet that was still a bright blue. She looked at the man thought he might be monitored though. Still she couldn’t not help. She wrote down the groups contact and slid her bracelet off.

  “If this looses it’s color run as fast as you can here.” She informed him staring at his face while her stared at the bracelet she slid on. She only caught a flicker of grey before he followed her advise dropping the bracelet and ran. She slid it back on her wrist and it stayed grey through out her entire shift.

  When the clock struck for them to leave. Enforcers met her.

  “Helper the Cultivator requests you.” One informed. She didn’t fight she followed knowing that as long as the bracelet was grey there was nothing she could do that wouldn’t put those she was protecting in danger.

  When she stepped into his office he looked even more tired and sickly but she didn’t offer him a candy. It must be exhausting controlling and monitoring.

  “Where did you learn about the bracelets?” He asked.

  “In the system base. It’s placed pretty deep but not in accessible.” She admitted.

  “What do you know about them.” He questioned his tone as cold as his touch had been.

  “I know they tell when someone is in your head.” She informed him. He continued to ask her questions and she continued to answer them as honestly as she could. Until he asked about the group.

  His lips turned down and he stared sharply through her when she refused to answer. She felt a pressured push at her skull. It felt like hundred of knives piercing through every thought searching.

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  You will do as I say

  The command boomed in her head. Felt the command of it. Then remembered being being a child. A visit to see her mother and step father. It was even before her half brother had been born. Her step brother’s red face his shove into her head trying to force her to do something she couldn’t remember. What she remembered then though was the shove back.

  And the pressured gone.

  The Cultivator gaped at her. Panic tore through her because not only did she remember the fear of that day her mother shaking her fear in her eyes, telling her that she was never to do that again and made her promise not to fight the removal of the memory. But the knowledge now as an adult that she showed a second magic.

  There was no saving her.

  She was a horror in this world.

  Just as she thought it the door shot down shattering. She turned and caught sight of faces that had been sent to her that she’d helped. Fog filled the room and an unfamiliar man pulled her up and out.

  She followed too shocked to argue.

  You don’t want to do this

  The voice pushed harder than it ever had she shook it away rubbing her temples. She continued to run with this group until someone called that it was safe. She collapsed. She looked around at the group.

  Most she recognized but only from brief conversations before sending them the way of this group. She didn’t see Bren. Her heart thudded in her chest.

  A man who stood with an authority that shook her after her recent ordeal glared down at her.

  “I didn’t want to waste the time to come and get you but the others seem to think you’re useful.” His tone was harsh but she found herself pathetically breathing.

  “Helpful… I’m helper.” She squeaked. He rolled his eyes at her.

  “Rengin. Leave her be.” A voice called. His glare shifted to the man who’d come to her defense. He’d been someone who’d come to her a bit more frequently. She hadn’t recognized him at first because his hair that had been long and elegantly braided was now chopped to curl around his ears.

  “Bren?” Eleaza asked.

  “She’s with some of the weaker, the children and a few men are waiting at a safe house.” The leader Rengin informed. “We need to make our way over there.” He insisted. Eleaza nodded and stared at her bracelet that was still greyed. The leader took notice of it and nodded. He pulled out a vial and held it out to her. “This will make you groggy and it won’t be comfortable but no one will be in your head.” He informed her. She noticed the challenge in his eyes and ignored it.

  She didn’t want anyone in her head. She downed the liquid and followed on.