CH955

There was a lot to process as he tore through their minds, trying to understand what had created that situation, but one thing more than anything else was immediately true. The feeling of evil he’d been detecting had disappeared, with only one explanation. It was clear it hadn’t been coming from either of the two he’d caught and nothing else would have been able to escape with them, leaving only the item itself.

An item that was no longer giving off the feeling either, but that was easier to understand. Tools themselves could rarely be considered inherently evil, it was the fact that while it had been trapping the two that it had been active in that use, perpetuating the wrong done to them what must have been thousands of years prior.

But as for why… oh. Oh fuck.

“Thera, put everyone around us to sleep, now!”

“What?” she asked, still starting her spell as requested but not before noticing the change in so many of the people nearby. Adventurers and templars with glassy eyes, locked onto the two as they began to shuffle towards them, with not even the other sirens safe. A scene that seemed almost familiar to her in a way that made her stomach twist, even if she didn’t instantly understand what was happening before they all fell to the ground unconscious, though it was something she’d been traumatized through more than enough times herself, with everyone in the area falling under an overwhelming level of charm.

But that wasn’t a discussion for then. Quickly materializing a resistance band around both of their sirens’ wrists, there were other clear problems that needed to be sorted first before he could deal with it all and seeing their panic rising, both of them in an unfamiliar place with things that looked like people yet clearly weren’t of their race, the priority from there was calming them down.

“Hey there, I know I must look strange to you, and this must seem scary and confusing, but I promise you’re both safe,” Ben told them, speaking in their native tongue instead of allspeak to try and make them more comfortable. “How you ended up here is complicated, but I promise, nobody is going to harm either of you, so please, try to relax while we sort this out.”

Reassurances that did nothing for the older of the two, the mother of the young girl looking more panicked by the second.

“No, we have to go, we can’t be around so many people like this, we-”

“Are not going to be charming anyone, don’t worry,” Ben finished for her, seeing the shock in her eyes as he said it. “I don’t seem charmed, do I? I’m personally nice and immune, you don’t need to worry about it and you and your daughter are both fine for as long as you wear those bracelets too, they’ll keep you from charming anyone else around you for as long as you wear them, okay?”

“What? Where did this come from?” she asked as she looked down at her arm, leading Ben to try and make things simple as he gently placed the two down before materializing a doll in front of their eyes and handed it over to the child.

“On this one front at least, you can consider yourselves in luck. You appeared in front of a master mage and the apostle of a god. For now, I’m going to get the two of you comfy, and we’ll try and talk about what happened. It’s a long story, so do you think the two of you could relax for me?”

“Um, yes, of course,” the woman nodded, Ben calling himself an apostle leaving her more nervous for the secret she kept and made him regret not seeing that might happen, with the child in her arms more uncomfortable, scared of the situation and picking up on her mother’s mood, leading Ben to try and focus on that first.

“For now, can I offer you both some sweets?” He asked, pulling some of the food from his rings out after selecting what would look most like food to them considering the alien ingredients it would be made from, ending up on cookies and watching as the daughter’s eyes lit up, dropping enough of her fear to notice her hunger as they both took from the plate, letting Ben direct some of his thoughts Thera’s way.

Thera, operate on the assumption that everyone you put to sleep has been charmed, except for Amy, Jake, and Yuzu since they should still have had their amulets on. For the rest, do me a favour and cast magic nullification on them to try and speed up the time it will take for them to get over its effects.

A request that instantly filled her with some level of understanding about what happened, it left her to cast a look at the two who came out of the item once more before doing as he said, with Myriad using the pause to speak into his head.

<Ben, we need answers up here. Who are they? What happened?>

What happened, Ben started, allowing the rage he was feeling to touch his thoughts, even if he made sure to keep it from his face. Is that the world just got a new demigod.

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