Winter 20.

  With his planned leisure day emotionally ruined, Aemric was fairly irritable on the next day. He had at least gotten his assignments done – with minimum effort put in, of course – but nothing else really pleased him.

  When he was sitting in his history class and waiting for it to end, though, he suddenly found his vision taken someplace else. A warmly-lit balcony, with fine architecture and beautiful tropical plants. It looked like a high-class hotel or an estate; at the very least, it was someplace rich. One man sat alone on in a chair on the balcony, several bottles of wine by him and – oh, he wasn’t alone. There was a woman under the table in front of him. Aemric wasn’t inclined to want to look at that. He put it out of his mind.

  This was a development indeed. This man – well, maybe it was the woman, actually, since they were close enough together – in any case, one of them was the focus this time. The ‘camera’ was placed directly above them, and Tiria was nowhere in sight; the place didn’t seem to be near Leansville, regardless, since there was a storm in Leansville and both the people here were dressed for warm weather.

  It also looked like too nice of a day for someone to die. Beautiful sunset lighting, warm winds, green grass.

  Aemric wondered what to do. His first instinct was to back out, since he was in danger of being detected and he really didn’t want to watch what was happening down there right now. Sure, in the right mood and the right people involved maybe, but the man down there was… not exactly pleasant to look at.

  He had greasy hair, a rounded belly, and a terrible sense of fashion. Orange shutter shades adorned his face, and a slightly-off orange shirt immediately clashed with them. Aemric didn’t look at his shorts, and he wouldn’t have wanted to even if the man were just standing there on his own; they, too, were a crime against fashion. Flip-flops to go along with this would have been merciful.

  The woman down there was a beauty, at least. No time to think about that, though.

  Aemric finally got his head in the game, and looked around for some kind of threat. There… didn’t seem to be anything. Maybe there was a ninja in one of the giant ferns nearby, or a sniper somewhere in the distance, or poison in the wine, or maybe the woman was an assassin herself.

  Aemric started realizing something after a little while. There was no sound. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, but it seemed odd… no, it wasn’t silent, it was dulled. Very, very dulled. When Tiria had gotten hit by that truck, it had been the same. Something was wrong with the perspective character, that kept them from hearing; earplugs didn’t seem reasonable right now, so probably not something simple like that.

  The man jerked, and Aemric made an imaginary face. Then, suddenly, he pushed himself off his own chair, and fell onto the ground. The woman under the table looked on, surprised and disgusted, and seemed to say something to him… then she just left.

  Anticlimactic, Aemric decided, in multiple ways. Now, at least, he was sure of who he was controlling, in theory. He decided to try a command – telling the man to get up – but while there was a brief attempt, the drunkard failed completely. He groaned, and then fell silent.

  Everything went black.

  That was it?

  What the hell?

  Aemric hoped the bastard had been poisoned or something, because otherwise, what a shit way to die. He decided after some serious consideration to the contrary to try and save the drunk man’s life, though, and put some thought to it. What to do? Well, he had some time to figure it out. Sunset was a few hours away, and unless that place was on an entirely different Chain, it would have the same day-night cycle as the rest of Carpanga.

  For now, he looked around. Nobody in class was looking his way, and the teacher was no exception. He’d only been ‘out’ for a second or so, as usual. Aemric considered going back immediately, but he decided against it.

  Instead, he got on a bus. He went to a coffee shop at the edge of town, got a donut, and then went to the park to find a secluded spot. He could see quite a distance from on top of one of the hills there, all the way to the edge of the Land. Nobody else was here, since it was cold and windy, and so Aemric figured he could get away with a pretty long dream without an issue. Magic residue dispersed over distance.

  He got to it. The man with the god-awful sense of fashion, please! The Dream began.

  Here was a familiar sight. Fancy architecture, tropical plants, a middle-aged slightly-flabby man with, indeed, flip-flops. He was even on a balcony again, but it was a different balcony. One with a television and an awning. There was some sports game going on the TV, and already a few beers on the table; empty ones. With how much the guy drank, Aemric wouldn’t have been surprised if he wasn’t fighting imminent liver failure. Wait, was liver failure even lethal?

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  He wasn’t schooled in this area. Still, what he already knew made him miss dealing with Tiria; she was… well, a saint wasn’t right, she was a cold-blooded killer, or at least a mobster. Easier to work with, though, compared to this.

  Aemric considered exactly what to do. Well, any number of things could’ve been the problem just there. The way that girl had just skipped on this guy was a little suspicious; maybe she did poison him somehow? Maybe it really was excessive drinking. Hell, maybe it was some other drug mixed in with the drinks, or maybe the guy actually had earplugs in and he’d died to a sniper Aemric couldn’t see or hear. No, there hadn’t been any blood, so that probably wasn’t it.

  He decided to take precautions against the ‘lifestyle threats’ first. Those needed long-term prep. So… a command. [Alcoholic drinks now taste absolutely terrible to you.]

  Aemric wasn’t sure that worked, and after a moment, he was even less sure. He’d never tried a change in how a person reacted to something before, and while the man did briefly look at his beer after the next sip, he just went “Ehh.” and continued to drink.

  Oh, right. Drinking often wasn’t about the taste, huh.

  [You now crave water instead of beer and wine.]

  That seemed to do the trick- wait, no. The man kept drinking casually a minute later; he’d just set down his beer because he felt like it. He didn’t crave beer or wine. He craved getting drunk, of course.

  Shit. Aemric was really struggling to understand this guy’s mentality, and it was over very simple things. [Getting or being drunk doesn’t feel fun or pleasant to you now, and you don’t like it.]

  That did it, finally. The man kept drinking a little, and then set down the beer. Then, he picked it back up.

  Oh. This kind of command just outright didn’t work, did it? He commanded peoples’ bodies to do things, he didn’t control their minds… for some reason. Surely there wasn’t a physical difference here?

  Aemric sighed internally. He went blunt-force. [Never drink alcoholic drinks or do drugs again.]

  The man raised his beer can again, and then stopped a moment before his lips. He froze there, then looked confused for a moment. He looked at the can, then tried to drink again, and stopped. He looked around, and saw no-one.

  Aemric cut in and controlled the man’s lips. “Yes, hello. You’re being controlled. It’s for your own good. This evening, you died for an unknown reason. It was either the girl you were with, or the wine you were drinking. I’m here to save your ass.”

  That all came out much less polite than with Tiria, but what could be done? It had been a shit day in class and dealing with this was awful too.

  The man stood up and continued to look around. “What the hell? Get out of my head!” He cried out.

  “No. Look, okay, I’m not going to interfere more than I have to. Here’s the deal: for one reason or another, you’ve been selected to be one of my ‘pawns,’ and I’m on a quest to literally save the world from imminent doom. Two years from now, it’s all going to be wiped out. If you die, it’s one less option we have for coordinating and stopping that.”

  “The fuck?” The man was quieter now; almost the same murmur as Aemric used.

  “Get all that?”

  “I heard you, you shit. Whoever you are. Look, do you know who I am? I’m the President of Sal Tudi, bastard. I’ll find you and take you down.”

  Oh. Oh. Now, this was more like what Aemric was expecting from ‘saving the world with mind control.’ Sal Tudi was a smaller Land off of Lomi, on the upper end of what you could call an island. It even had a small ocean, or a really big lake, on it. They were kind of a big deal, since there was a scare twenty years ago where they started getting all militaristic and talking about taking over some other islands and things. Then, there was a rebellion, and… what was his name? Oh… President Agrianto. Norvash Agrianto, he was put in power. He’d been president ever since, and it had all returned to peace and prosperity, not a war in sight. He was kind of funny, thanks to the… oh, the brightly-colored shirts he wore under his suit, and the goofy jokes and videos he made as part of his public image.

  This was him, wasn’t it? Meeting the man behind the suit was awful.

  “You’re President Agrianto? Well, it’s good to meet you. I’m serious, here. The world is going to be destroyed soon, and so you and all your presidential powers are too good to let die. So… for now, you have a guardian angel.”

  “Was it you who stopped me from drinking?”

  “Yes. Sorry, it’s just how it has to be. I can give you some kind of daily limit, but if you die like you would have in a couple hours, it’d be a problem.”

  “Bastard.” Norvash shook his head, and leaned on a nearby wall. “Silence for a while. I need to think.”

  Aemric complied with that one.

  “Fine, you fucker.” The island president sighed, and looked up at the sky, as if there was something there. Why do they keep doing that? “Give me… one bottle of wine and a six pack per day. And then stay out of my damn life.”

  Aemric didn’t know how much that was, consequences-wise. “We’ll start there, I guess.” The sheer speed at which Norvash seemed to be adapting here definitely looked like he was just waiting until he could get a magician to come over and look at the problem, though. “And one more thing… do you have a wife? A girlfriend?”

  “No. Do you really think any woman would want to get with this?” The President chuckled; he didn’t seem to have any qualms about who he was, genuinely.

  Aemric wasn’t sure whether to think this was good or not. “So… uh, a callgirl, huh. Did you already make plans?”

  “… I did. How do you know any of this, anyway?”

  “I can see the future and change it. Look, this girl might be bad news, it’s hard to tell. She skipped instead of getting help and I have no idea if that was intentional or what. Maybe pick someone different.”

  Norvash didn’t seem broken up about that. “This one was a new one. Oh well.”

  “Cool… and if you were thinking of going after any other weird drugs today, maybe don’t touch those. Ever.”

  “Relax, kid. Wine and women are my specialities. Still, with the shit you seem to want to put me through I might have to try some of the other garbage out there.”

  Kid? Wait, how does he – it must be how I talk. Shit. Well, okay. “Well… if you get another call from me it’s because you died again. So, do us both a favor and keep me from having to give you more orders.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Sheesh.”

  “One more thing. [Don’t tell anyone about me, or the mind control, or any of it, not even in a roundabout way.] Talk about the end of the world if you like, see how many friends that gets you. See you.” He hadn’t put that kind of command on Tiria, but Norvash seemed to have the intent to speak, the means to do something about it, and a temperament that Aemric wasn’t fond of.

  After that last order, Aemric got out of there. Important contact or not, he didn’t like the guy, and figuring out how to use him was going to be more complicated than just starting to give orders now.