The owner of the second voice drew closer, and looked remarkably unremarkable. A trimmed beard, lighter in color than his comrade's, and long hair pulled back in a ponytail. “You're a smart, educated woman. Do you know what a lobotomy is?”
The owner of the second voice drew closer, and looked remarkably unremarkable. A trimmed beard, lighter in color than his comrade's, and long hair pulled back in a ponytail. “You're a smart, educated woman. Do you know what a lobotomy is?”
“Yes, of course,” I promptly say, having performed a few in my time as the Master of Getting Things Done for Lichensith Ulroke and his silly little Crimson Hands.
“Think of this snare as a temporary version of the procedure,” the second man continued. “The stone taps into the brainwaves of whoever it's embedded in, shutting down certain impulses while leaving them otherwise able to function as normal.”
“That explains why I haven't killed you two yet,” I managed to mutter after several seconds of trying to process his brief description. I raised my hand to the left side of my face and drew my finger across the stone again. The tip of my finger danced along the edge of the implant, for lack of a better word. The two strangers watched me with mirth written on their faces as I picked at it a couple times. I pictured myself tearing it out and immediately butchering these two guys in a shower of acid and vines.
And then I suddenly lost interest and allowed my hand to fall back down to my side.
The first man's grin grew until it was ear from ear. “Those who fall victim to the snare find themselves incredibly lethargic, which makes them pretty easy to deal with.”
“Except for the transportation part,” the second man said under his breath.
“It's an expensive device, to be sure.” The first raised his grimy, blood-stained hand and lightly brushed my cheek with it. I did not flinch, I did not pull away, I did not react in any way.
“But when it came to bagging you, Freebird, it was absolutely worth every last piece of silver.”
-~-~-~-~-
Several days passed as the three of us traveled in silence (at least on my part) towards our destination. I did not ask them anything about the bounty that was apparently on my head. I felt only the quickest flickers of curiosity about their contract, actually. As far as I was aware, there weren't any outstanding bounties floating around that had my name and hastily-sketched profile all over them. Aurelianus would have told me as much, and we would've taken sufficiently violent steps to get them annulled.
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