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All in all, it wasn’t that I hated him. It was that he had done certain things to annoy me, to push me slightly too far, and so here I found myself in his room in the middle of the night. I had slipped in like a spectre, even ensuring to dress myself all in white to complete the effect (and because noses tended to bleed when one pushed a mind too far - the blood was, upon occasion, where the rumours of physical torture came from - and I rather liked the idea of staining my shirt with the evidence of what I had done. I wanted everyone to know it had been I who had as good as killed him).
Before I woke him up I took his blood - a pinprick in the finger was all I needed. I then awoke him more gently than I would have liked; it would not do for him to scream before I had done what I came here to do. Aulame opened his eyes and when he had the audacity to smile at me it took a commendable amount of self restraint for me not to begin immediately.
“Not to worry,” I said, perched upon the edge of his bed. “I have simply come to ensure you are sleeping well enough. I can help, if need be. Make amends, if you will.”
Dark as it was, I could make out enough to see that he was suspicious. He had every right to be. I most certainly would be. “Did The Esar send you?”
I smiled, showing teeth. “I came of my own accord. I assumed it would be a nice surprise for him to see us getting along once again.”
“Perhaps you ought to come back in the morning,” he said. He was growing uneasy. I considered conjuring a guard, conjuring The Esar himself, conjuring anything at all to back up my claim, but why wait? I was well aware patience was a virtue but it was not one I frequently employed. I did not see fit to delay myself any longer; his presence was beginning to make me feel unwell.
“Perhaps,” I mused, and reached out my hands to him. “Perhaps not.”
I pressed my fingertips against his temples and felt him relax beneath them. I would not normally touch someone so immediately, but this time I was aiming to break. I did not need to hold back, however I did not want this to be over too quickly and so I let him fight me. I felt the tension in his mind as he tried to push me out of it, and I let him think he was winning for a moment before I sent another wave of confusion over it. He was trying to speak but I had long since stopped caring for anything he had to say and did not allow it.
“Margrave Aulame,” I murmured, and made no attempt to keep the pleasure I was feeling out of my voice. “Tell me you’re sorry for what you did.”
Of course, even if he had wanted to (which I strongly sensed he did not - and I was in his mind and so had a certain degree of authority on the subject of what the Margrave Aulame wanted) I would not allow him to express it.
“No?” I said. “What a shame that is.” I exerted more pressure on him and felt the beginnings of a migraine which was not my own. “Apologise.”
He did try, that time. I felt his jaw working away as he tried to draw enough breath to speak but every time he got enough I ensured another wave of pressure over his mind took it away.
I was having fun.
I so rarely got the opportunity to test the full limits of my Talent and now I had already made up my mind to accept whatever punishment The Esar deemed fit for me I felt somewhat liberated. Another spot of pressure and his nose did indeed begin to bleed. I was close.
“You’re making a mess, my dear,” I told him quietly, wiping away the blood with my sleeve. “Would you like me to stop?”
I removed my fingers from his skin and he gasped, louder than I would have liked. That would not do. I had aimed to tease him, to let him think perhaps he would escape this with his mind intact but if he was going to go and wake people up then perhaps I had let this go on for longer than he deserved.
I pressed my hands back against him, harder than necessary, letting my sharp nails dig in, and I broke him. Simple. Easy. I unleashed my frustration with him, my anger at him, the entirety of my Talent all at once and I felt him grow limp beneath my fingers. I could have ended him entirely so easily, but I wanted him to live with it. I wanted to know that he was out in the world suffering because of me.
I left him like that to be found in the morning and made sure to give a merry wave to a guard as I passed. Though it was too dark for him to see the blood on my shirt, I would leave it out in my room for them to find. I would go to bed and deal with the consequences of my actions in the morning gladly.
I deserved a good night’s sleep for working so very hard, after all.