You hear no lies

Getting the jump on this asshole was easier than I thought, guess when your team is always doing the ambushing you don't expect as much, or they left the worst member to guard their stuff...

Either way I had him by the neck and wanted my answers.

"How did you know to come after us? Who told you about us?"

I felt him gulp before shaking his head, dangerous for someone in his position.

"Brave little shit, might want to change your mind, I'm not the forgiving type, don't waste-"

"Mir, stop, look."

What was she talking about, I was looking at this guy.

"His mouth, I don't think he'll be answering any time soon."

Spinning the bastard around I get my first good look at him, my first thought was reconsidering my assumption he was a guy, face being almost as pretty as Roxy or mine.

There was just enough sharpness to the face and a tiny bump of an Adam's apple to leave everything ambiguous.

The real surprise though, and what Kay and Rox were likely referring to, was the fact their mouth was open, showing a distinct lack of a tounge.

Taking in the rest of this person had me releasing them completely, there was a tattoo around their neck that was fading, no not fading, flaking off like dried blood.

I wasn't sure but I had a sneaking suspicion.

I would get my answers, laying my hand again on their neck they stiffen.

"Don't worry, hold still." I began to attempt to heal them but the wound was too old, had become seen by them as a part of who they were now.

My standard healing wouldn't work here, it's reduce cost because of how it worked, using the souls memory of the body, was now a road block, how ever the more I tried the quicker the blood tattoo flaked off, so I pushed until it was all gone, dust on the wind.

Despite everything they've likely been through, they managed to never internalize the slave tattoo forced on their throat.

Placing my hand over their face, I knew this would take more than half my reserves but I couldn't not follow through, I needed answers and if what I suspected was the case, they deserved to tell them.

'Be made whole, banish the mark of evil left upon your soul.'

I would have to do this in two parts, force a fix into their soul through their mind via internal concept of self and then cast my normal healing.

Something I now knew was what my Goddess did to me every time she changed me, I didn't have time to properly process that, If she would even let me feel the existential dread long enough to try.

I could see the surprise and forced acceptance wash over them, "Its ok, take a minute, I know this can feel werid but it was the only way I was sure would work to fix what they did to you."

"Mir was that what I thought it was on their neck?" Rox had seemed to come to the same conclusion I had and seemed startled.

"Yeah, I'm going to stay with them while they process it, can you and Kay get the others out of the cages and check them over, see any more tattoos you bring them to me, understood?"

"Absolutely, but when we are done can we talk?"

"Always." with them turning to their task I turn my attention back to our poor newly freed slave. "When you're ready, could you tell me what you know?"

I place the hand that was on their face on their shoulder and squeeze in what I hope is reassuring way.

I get my first smile of the night and a wordless nod, before they seem to realize they aren't so limited anymore. "Y-yeah" *cough*

I offer them my canteen, "Here, swish this around your mouth and gargle before swallowing, it should help, I healed all the damage but the lack of use would have left bits you didn't even know you had dry and rough."

They follow my advice and take a few more drinks before the canteen comes to rest in both their hands and their eyes drift down as they begin to get introspective.

I lead them to the camp fire and throw a few more logs on while I give them time.

"I didn't think I'd get to live this long, I'll take this gift before I die for the blessing it is, ask me what you want, I'll tell you as much as I can before those that claim to own me come back and kill me for the betrayal."

"Oh you poor thing, you're really free now, they can't hurt you anymore."

"Don't patronize me, no need to lie to me, were that true I would already be dead, you and your friend recognized this damn mark, you should know what happens to ones like me, I'm linked to them. Healing me doesn't change that."

"Be hard for them to hurt you from the dead."

"WHY lie to me?! We both know if that were true, so would I!"

"Oh honey, why do you think it took me so long to finish?" I summon a polished buckler shield and show the truth of my words in its reflection, handing it over and retrieving my canteen. "Don't think me so unskilled that it would take that long to heal something so small. Keeping you alive while the mark burned itself out trying to take you with it is something more my speed."

"Its real, its - its gone."

Rox and Kay are walking over and join us as I let this poor thing settle. "Mir they are healed and ready to travel, we put them under a sleep effect just in case."

"Good job," Turning back, "Now how about we start with a name."

"My name is Jay and I would be more than happy to tell you everything I know."

---

After getting everything we can out of Jay we let them rest with the others while we discuss what we just learned.

"Sooo, how do we get away with killing an official and their likely noble backer."

"Kay no!" Roxy tries to fight the losing battle of keeping our lover grounded.

"Kay YES!" Kay is having none of it.

Rox turns toward me for support, probably to try and get my help to convince Kay of something along the lines of 'proper channels' or whatever is probably right way to handle this. Sorry Rox but no, "Why get away with it, I want everyone to know how bad of an idea it is to try and hurt you two."

"Mir! do you know what kind of shit storm this would bring down on us?"

"YES and I DON'T FUCKING CARE", I reign myself in, I never want to snap at her like this, "Rox, they were in our tent, knife to our throats, the only reason they didn't kill either of you was because they woke me up to force me to give them what they wanted. I won't be able to rest until I know that everyone involved is dead. "

Seeing she was outvoted or maybe seeing my point, she relented. "Then we do this in a way that keeps more danger from finding us. The only ones how can know are the ones that we need scared off and us. No witness otherwise."

"Sweet Roxy's onboard, so I'm thing scorched earth-" Kay immediately pipes in.

"So are we killing Jay or are we making them one of us."

"What!?"

"They are the only one here that saw enough and knows enough to get us in real trouble. If you are serious about this, you need to figure out what we should do about that."

"Well they can't join us, they don't even have a pact with a god and I am not killing someone I just saved, even for OpSec."

"Mir you have all kinds of BS abilities don't you have something that can, I donno, wipe their memory?"

I think and look at my ever growing ritual tattoos hoping for an answer I could stomach, because the only answer it gave me so far makes me want vomit. "I'd rather have their blood on my hands than put them through something worse than death."

"What the fuck answer do you get from your power?!"

"I could erase their memory, but the process would, fuck how do I explain this, when I healed their tongue I had to heal their soul first too much of my healing abilities seem over powered because they use the souls understanding of itself to direct things, makes the whole thing more efficient, to do so I need to understand the internal logic the machine work of their soul operates on. This was all happening under my conscious level until tonight when the soul was the wounded part. I understood that part of them and how the trauma had twisted them to see the damage as part of them."

"Ok...? That's fucked up and everything, but what do-"

"Kay, what would happen if you had enough control you could repair an injury wrong? Or treat a healthy body part as an injury?"

"But that's not how that worrksss... No..." The horror on her face is well placed

"Yeah, like I said according to them and my normal healing ability, there was nothing wrong, that damage was a part of them being 'healthy'. When I was 'healing' them I was messing with their soul via their mind, I could change them to not have memories of tonight, but the way memories are written on the mind and soul or how they are connected? It'd be like ripping out a handful of blood vessels from random organs." I share the horror on her face as I stare at my glowing tattoo covered hands, searching so another answer and just getting more details of all the ways I could be a monster.

"So defiantly not fucking doing that, MIR, snap out of it, we got shit to do and I am not unpacking any of that, we are just going to file that under Miranda's BS Goddess continuing to 'give her broad swords when she asks for letter openers'."

Rox was getting better at that, "You're right, so that only leaves getting them to be one of us... How do we do that? I kinds fumbled into my partnership with Kay, She basically had you 'adopted' by the time I woke up the night we met, and Rook literally followed me home. Leaving out their lack out anything that would keep them alive on out missions."

Kay seemed to have snapped out of it too, "Well we have three options, all of which you have had experience with."

"Huh?"

"First you can have them hang around me until Stockholm syndrome kicks in, Like what happened to us," That got a giggle out of me and Rox, " Second you can just hire them like a human version of what you did for Rook. Or Third You could seduce them Like we did with Roxy here."

That last part got a blush out of all of us and finally broke the last bit of tension, "Don't you mean when you seduced her, we feel in love after you two's first kiss."

"Oh don't act like swooping in to save her from that first dragon or falling out of the sky onto another one didn't get our cute miss here all hot and bothered."

"Kay! Mir does not need to know what we talked about while she was passed out!" Her blush had to be stealing blood from every part of her body at this point.

"Yes I do," I tease her for a second before getting back on task, "So its settled I'll offer them a job with us, watching the camp I guess? Get them a pact with a god so they can survive. I'm sure you'll both stop me from accidentally seducing them"

"You bet, I'm not looking to share you with anyone besides Roxy. After we get them sorted, then go and prove our point to some assholes?"

"Exactly, here's the plan..."

---