Capture
After discussing a few particulars, Tanya drew the circle around Sirene. As this was a single person targeted spell, it required more work than the usual capture spells Leona had her cast for decades. Once it was done, she didn't give Sirene a chance to second guess herself, and snapped her fingers.
Sirene felt a warm sensation come over her, like someone was hugging her mind. At first she resisted, but then she decided that she should trust Tanya. After all, she asked her to cast this spell. She felt like she should trust Tanya completely, and wondered why she ever doubted Tanya to begin with. In fact, Tanya should just do all her thinking for her. She would be Tanya's fists.
"How do you feel Sirene?" Tanya asked.
"Like I had been missing something for my entire life." Sirene said, smiling dreamily. "Please, give me an order, Tanya. Think for me."
"Sit down for now." Tanya said, gesturing back at the chair.
"Yes, of course Mistress." Sirene answered, sitting in the chair promptly. "Do you need anything else?"
Tanya looked slightly unnerved for a moment, but then the thoughts came creeping in. Maybe she could convince Lady Eigengrau to leave Sirene like this. Maybe the monster was more of a part of her than she was willing to admit. Maybe she could be the one on top, for a change.
"Lady Eigengrau." Tanya said.
"Do not undo it." Eigengrau stated flatly. "You will need her to help you kill Leona Barclay, and she will be enslaved by the mansion's magical circle immediately if she steps foot on its grounds. Unless a stronger spell is already in effect."
"You want me to keep her like this?" Tanya asked, gesturing at Sirene, who looked at both of them with a pleasant smile and vacant eyes. "I don't mind having a completely obedient bodyguard, of course. Will do wonders for throwing off the information network."
"Think of it as a test. You have every incentive to kill Baroness Leona Barclay, and once she lies dead, Sirene will be freed. She will remember how you treated her during that time, so if you treat her badly, she may choose to imprison or kill you."
"My Master is right, Mistress." Sirene added. "My sense of duty toward law and order is very strong."
"Do you wish to be freed?" Tanya asked. This was important, and a good indicator of if the spell was working.
"I live to serve my Mistress, I do not need freedom." Sirene answered, waving her hand dismissively. "Think for me, I will do your bidding."
Tanya's heart was nearly beating out of her chest at hearing the words coming out of Sirene's mouth. She motioned for Eigengrau to bend down and whispered into her ear. Eigengrau smiled broadly and whispered words into Tanya's ear, before leaving in the blink of an eye.
---
Later, as Tanya lay on the bed naked and panting, Sirene hummed as she bathed. Her Mistress was very fun, and she wondered why this hadn't occurred to her a long time ago. It was so much easier to have someone else think for you. On to the matter of Baroness Leona, though. She knew Tanya would want her to learn as much as she could about her, and so she resolved to question her about the information network when she got out of the bath. They would need to move carefully to avoid being spotted.
When she got out of the bath, she noticed Tanya had fallen asleep and was snoring lightly. She had also changed forms again, and was a curvy human woman with black hair. Sirene kissed her on the cheek and tucked her in, before realising something.
"What if she's Julia when she wakes up?" Sirene whispered.
Sirene sat on the bed, still naked, and thought. Well Julia wouldn't be expecting either of them to be naked so that was a problem. But what would she tell her about Tanya? Pleasing Tanya felt very good, even better than an orgasm, so she had to make sure not to make Tanya mad about oversharing. She didn't like lying, but was omitting the truth a lie? She opted to get dressed while she thought of these things, which turned out to be a good thing as she heard stirring and a woman shouting.
"Sirene! Where are my clothes?" A woman's voice could be heard asking.
"Julia?" Sirene called out from her changing room. "Is that you?"
"Who else would it be?" Julia responded. "Did you undress me?"
"Yes." Sirene responded, which wasn't entirely wrong, but also wasn't the answer to the question Julia had asked. "I have some extra clothing that should fit you." Holding some clothes, she emerged from her changing room to see Julia sitting on the edge of the bed. "Nice melons."
"Oh quiet you." Julia said with a laugh, holding out a hand for the clothing.
"Enjoy your rest?" Sirene asked, as she tossed the bundle of clothes into Julia's lap. She decided she better at least tell Julia about the existence of Tanya, to avoid problems later. Besides, she could always choose to restrain Julia if she took the news badly, and only travel with Tanya.
"Funny that, I actually feel even more exhausted." Julia said as she slipped on the corset.
"About that." Sirene said, choosing her words carefully. "This isn't the first time you woke up today."
"That sounds ominous." Julia continued, as she got into the rest of the clothing.
"Seems whenever you lose consciousness, through sleeping or otherwise, you switch minds." Sirene said, crossing her leg over the other. "I met the real you and she's..." Sirene paused. She didn't want to insult her Mistress, indirectly or otherwise. "A handful."
"So what am I then? Am I even real?" Julia asked, looking a bit unnerved.
"That remains to be seen. But I did learn there's someone powerful and very wicked chasing you." Sirene continued, folding her hands. This was quite hard, she hadn't discussed anything with Tanya yet, so she didn't know what Tanya would want to be said.
"I'd ask who but well..." Julia said, trailing off and laughing.
"Excellent point." Sirene said, also laughing. Perfect. She could avoid telling her because she wouldn't know who it is anyway.
Sirene gave a brief explanation of who Tanya was while leaving out any details she felt Tanya would deem unimportant, or any that would show Tanya in a poor light. She wished she had orders on what she could tell Julia, but in the absence of any, had to make guesses at how Tanya would want to be perceived. Thinking was hard, and she desperately wished Tanya was here to do it for her. How did she even manage all this time without her?
"Sounds like you're leaving out details." Julia said, raising an eyebrow.
"Frankly I am." Sirene said, crossing her arms. "Because I'm respecting Tanya's privacy. I don't know what she wants to share."
"But I am her!" Julia protested, pointing at herself.
"You also aren't." Sirene countered. "You don't have her mastery over her natural spell casting, you don't act like her, the only way you're her is you share the same body and mind."
Julia leaned back and thought. If Sirene was telling the truth, and she didn't seem to be the sort to lie, just who was she? A mere product of a damaged mind? But what about the people after her?
"What are we going to do?" Julia asked after thinking it over. "Obviously I can't just run forever."
Sirene inwardly smiled. It was going to be so easy to convince Julia to agree with Tanya's decision to kill Leona. All she had to do was be her Mistress's voice.
"We're going to arrest her." Sirene said, telling a half-truth. She knew Julia would be likely to object if she said kill outright and would try to hamper Tanya's plans. It would be very annoying to have to spend every other day with Julia tied up and gagged and she'd rather avoid doing that if possible, and not just because it would displease Tanya.
"You make it sound easy."
"It won't be. Suffice to say, you're not going anywhere without me." Sirene said. She now had the perfect reason to never leave Julia's side.
"Oh, am I your hostage?" Julia asked mockingly with a laugh.
"Far from it, my Princess. I am yours." Sirene said, standing up and bowing. "We must plan. But to do that, we must leave the Curia."
"To where?" Julia asked as she stood up and stretched. "If there's people after me, this seems like the safest place imaginable."
Sirene knew it was, but she also knew Natsuki would be able to tell she was Tanya's mindslave, and she didn't want to be detected. Then she remembered there was a library deep in the Eternal Empire, and chuckled lightly.
"We're going to a library even older than the Court. A library even older than me, the Eternal Library, deep within the Dwarven desert." Sirene said, flashing a grin. "We need to leave completely undetected, so let me know once you're ready."
Julia opted for a bath, leaving Sirene alone to prepare. Thinking without orders was so difficult, and for a moment she considered knocking out Julia so that Tanya would come back, before discarding it as that would indirectly hurt Tanya. No, Tanya was depending on her so she had to make sure she got her to relative safety as quickly as possible. As she tucked a single book into her robes, a knock at her bedroom door came.
"Who is it?" Sirene asked once she was right up against the door, but she knew damn well who it was. Only the Imperator and Natsuki knew where her chambers were, she glanced back and saw Julia was nearly dressed.
"Open up, old friend." Natsuki said. "I sensed that spell, what's going on?"
"Afraid I can't tell you." Sirene said, looking nervous. "But I need to leave again."
"Sirene, open up. You're not yourself." Natsuki demanded, louder this time.
"Julia!" Sirene whispered at Julia, who came over and listened. "We're leaving as soon as I open the door, got it?" Julia nodded, despite being not sure what was going on.
Sirene opened the door with a soft click, and came face to face with Natsuki for only a moment. It was the last time Natsuki ever saw Sirene.
"Tik!" Sirene shouted, and she was gone, along with the strange person she had brought with her.
"She's gone." Natsuki said sadly. "Imperator, we were too late."
"Sirene, what have you gotten yourself into?" The Imperator asked with a sad sigh. "Are you sure of the type of magic?"
"Positive." Natsuki said, shaking his head. "The worst kind of mind control magic ever invented. Enrapture. There's no resisting it."
"None?" The Imperator asked, looking worried.
"It's a real piece of work." Natsuki said, as they walked around Sirene's room. "Modifies common sense. Pleasing the caster becomes your primary goal, along with protecting your own enslavement. When she fled from us, she was doing the second one."
"So this Julia person likely used it on her?"
"Quite likely. I'm calling a Hunt." Natsuki said.
"You will do no such thing." Eigengrau said, appearing in Sirene's room in the blink of an eye.
"Lady Eigengrau!" The Imperator gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"Protecting my Apprentice." Eigengrau stated, walking up to The Imperator and Natsuki. She towered over them, and the Orc suddenly felt quite short for a change. "Sirene chose this path."
"What do you mean?" Natsuki asked, eyeing the ancient Goddess suspiciously.
"She asked for it. She specifically requested Enrapture to be cast on her." Eigengrau stated. "You will not interfere. The Umbra Curia will not interfere. Do not force my hand. Do I make myself clear?"
Eigengrau's presence completely dominated the entire room by this point. It felt like they were being drawn into a void, as the edges of the room were slowly fading to black. The conversation continued for some time, until she left, depositing them outside of Sirene's bedroom before sealing the door with magics neither of them had ever seen.