Chapter Text
Alanna sighed. “All right, go on then. Thom, you’re trying to compel information out of me first.”
She met her twin’s eyes, with both Jon and Duke Roger watching. Her head hurt. She found she couldn’t look away, either – but the Duke had been able to do as much to her as a page, when her protection had definitely been there.
“Anything?” she asked, when she finally could look away.
Thom shook his head. “It’s like there are glass walls. I can’t make you speak, and I can’t go digging for information.”
She turned to Duke Roger. “Do we have to? I can’t see the Goddess continuing to protect me from my own twin, but not you.”
Duke Roger looked at Jon. Jon winced and said “We should confirm your protection against anyone who might be called on to conduct practical tests you supervise. I know kings don’t need to apologize, but I am sorry.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
She met Duke Roger’s eyes and her headache was worse again. He held her eyes for a much shorter time than Thom had – or than the Duke had when she was a page. “Nothing.”
The tests went on.
All three could, if they caught her gaze, hold it. None of them could actually make her do anything (or fail to do anything) while they did so. None of them could make her fail to notice something using compulsion magic, or to keep quiet about what she noticed. It took ritual magic, with preparation and external physical foci, to make her lose interest before acting more decisively than with speech alone. (She destroyed the foci herself and vowed to be more careful with her hair and fingernails.)