She will need another telepath or a special godclad to remove the mark in her mind. Even if they could, they would have to be extra careful not to harm her mind in the process.
Another advantage is that since the mark is in her mind, they can use it to communicate with her regardless of the distance. They don’t need to use the mental probe ability to be in contact with her mind to communicate mentally with her.
So the pathway of the telepath is enhancing the pathway of slavery and vice versa. This kind of power is why they decided to drop the pathway of travelers for the pathway of the telepath.
They led her to the outskirts of town but still didn’t show up to meet her. Instead, they made her wait there for some time while they made sure that there was no one else following them and that she didn’t have accomplices.
When they were sure that she was alone, they went to the outskirts but still didn’t appear before her. They stood in a position within 100 meters from her where they could see her emotions and see her physically.
Then they began questioning her while monitoring her actions and her emotions.
“So this is how this is going to happen. I will ask, and you will answer. A lie or a refusal to answer will cause you great pain.”
“First question, what is your name?”
She looked around her but didn’t see anyone. Around her were the slums of the town, and in front of her was the darkness of the wilds.
She replied with trepidation, “My name is Clare Sinclair.”
They saw the fear spike in her mind when she replied, so they activated the bondage in her mind.
She fell to the ground screaming again. This time she screamed for a while longer because the pain was greater.
The pain was greater because they wanted to punish her severely. Now that there was no one around, they could punish her for lying without any fear of being interrupted or drawing unearned attention.
After a full one minute of pain, she had wet herself. Snot and mucus were running down from her nose, and her face was wet with tears. Her clothes had also become dirty because she rolled around on the ground for a long time.
The pain left, and the voice in her mind spoke again. “Let us resume from where we stopped.”
“What is your name?”
She replied with tears in her eyes, “My name is Amelia Madison.”
They saw that she was afraid, but her emotions were mostly that of sincerity and hope. She was truly sincere and hoping that her sincerity would be seen. The little fear was about what would happen if her sincerity wasn’t recognized.
They recognized her sincerity, so they moved on, “So Amelia, where were you going earlier?”
“I was following someone.”
They said with surprise, “Oh. Is that so?”
Then they asked innocently, “Who were you following?”
They knew wherr she was going and who she was following, but they asked to make it seem like they don’t know her target and aren’t related to them.
She shook her head with tears in her eyes as she replied, “I don’t know.”
They asked unconvinced, “Then why were you following them?”
Legion-11 wanted to say “us,” but he caught himself and said “them”
She replied, “I was told to see where they were going to.”
“Is that so? Who asked you?”
“My boss.”
“I see. So you’re part of a crew.”
“Yes.”
“How many are you in your crew?”
“Five.”
“What are the pathways and ranks of you five?”
This was important information, but she revealed it without hesitation. She said quickly, “I’m a rank 2 seer. Our boss is a rank 3 assassin. We have a rank 2 traveler, a rank 2 giant, and a rank 1 merchant.”
Legion-4 said to the others, “So she is rank 2. That must be why it cost us so much spiritual energy to bind her mind.”
Legion-6 thought about the abilities of the pathway of the seer and said, “I think we were lucky to catch her. If she had used her rank 2 ability, things might not have been so easy for us.”
Legion-12 also said solemnly, “This is more serious than I expected. Five godclads with one at rank 3? Things would have been very different if they all had come after us.”
All of them felt solemn when they heard the information about her pathway and that of her group. Her pathway especially gave them a lot to think about.
The pathway of the seer, for example, are the best at tracking and finding both people and information. If she had used the rank 2 See Through ability, which enables seers to see through obstacles, it wouldn’t have been easy to catch her off guard.
It would only have been more difficult if she could see through walls. Things might not change at all even if she saw them through the wall approaching her from the other side of the wall. It is not as if she could tell what they were planning and how to resolve it.
They can understand why she didn’t use the See Through ability to track them. It is an active ability that consumes a lot of spiritual energy to use.
She would have run out of spiritual energy if she had used the See Through ability to track them. It was more sustainable to use her less expensive tracking ability.
The Tracking ability lets seers see traces of people in places they’ve been. The more powerful the seer, the more traces they can see and the older the traces they can see.
With this ability, it is unlikely that they would lose her no matter how they meander through the town. She would be able to see their traces and be always able to find where they go as long as those traces are still fresh.