Chapter 23: Bandit Experiments

“Haha, don’t run from us cuties, where are you going?”

“C’mon don’t be like that, pretty faces like those shouldn’t be out alone, you wanted this to happen, didn’t ya?”

“EEK – leave us be!” a woman cries as she runs next to a friend through a forest trail just off the eastern road heading to Sante.

Three men are chasing them, and they’re faster than the women. In 10 paces, they catch up and grab onto the two women’s clothing – nearly making them fall.

“AH no!” the women cry.

The women turn to face their attackers, who are now smiling ear to ear at the targets who are frozen in place before them-

“HOHOHO, young ladies, are these men being a bother?” an old man with a hunched back appears out of thin air. Two women holding small baskets of foraged plants stand to his right, while three men brandishing swords and knives stand to his left.

“EEP! Please don’t attack us!” one of the women cowers and intertwines her arm with her friend’s.

“OHO young lady, a gentleman would never harm an innocent woman foraging in the woods. Please quell your fear” the old man says with a warm smile.

“Bu-but these men were trying to take us!” she cries with her head buried into her friend.

The three men look on, confused –

“Where did the geezer come from?”

"His posture is awful"

“We should just kill him”

“Now now, these aren’t gentlemen, they’re bandits.. and bandits aren’t even people..” the old man says with a wicked grin, running his eyes across the men like a hunter sizing up helpless prey.

“Hah not even peop- HURGH AHHHhhh..” one of the bandits yells.

An immense pressure bears down on him, slamming his eyelids shut. When he opens them, he’s hundreds of meters in the sky.

“Look at that, he’s a bird, ahaha..” the old man cackles, having just flung the man into the air by the crotch.

“Can the other two fly? I wonder..” the old man stands beside the remaining bandits, giving them a side eye while speaking.

“HUH what, Dan’s gone!?”

“We gotta go, run!”

The bandits about face and kick off the ground, winding between trees to escape a danger they don’t understand.

“HOHO, young ladies, there shouldn’t be any dangers between here and the city wall. If you’d excuse me, I’m not fond of bandits who run away from their fate” the old man says gently before a serious look returns to his eye.

“Wait! Um, excuse me” one of the women says with a flustered bow, “thank you for saving us Mister, could I have your name?”

“HOHO, I appreciate your attitude young miss, but please don’t waste your precious memory on those not long for this world” he says before stepping back slowly and disappearing before the girls' eyes.

“Who was that?”

“The old man of the mountain.. I didn’t think the stories were true..”

“What stories?”

“My sister is seeing a knight whom he saved, supposedly he has inhuman speed and strength. And whenever his back isn’t in pain, he descends from the mountain and helps people..”

“His back? Maybe he has a war injury. But if he’s so strong, who could’ve hurt him?”

“There are rumors that he’s a descendant of the people who lived in the cursed land after the holy war, it’s said they all developed monster like strength because the area was so dangerous..”

“Did people really survive there? My mother told me it was hell on earth when I was young..”

“Who can say? If only he were a little younger..”

***

“HAA HEE HAAA HEE. Keep.. running! I didn’t even see what he did to Dan, we can’t stop!” screams one of the fleeing bandits, “Chris! Don’t slow down! Wha- where’d you go?”

The bandit turns his head from side to side while running, but doesn’t find his compatriot. He stops.

“CHRIS!?”

“KKRTHUNK”

“What the?!”

The bandit turns to face the sudden crashing sound behind him. A small crater is there, inside is an amalgamation of blood, muscle, and snapped bones – all wrapped inside of Chris’s clothing.

“CHRIS! NO! I have to run, I have to get away!”

“BONKK URGHUH” the man collapses into the dirt.

***
“Wakey wakey” I splash water onto the bandit's face. He’s tied up in the living room of the portable house.

“GAH what!? Where am I?” he yells, looking around the spacious living room.

“My house, where else?” I look down at the bandit with a smile, “now I’ve got good news and bad news for you. Bad news first, your friends can’t fly..”

“Fly? What are you talking about?” he asks.

“Oh, you see, I threw them up into the air to see if they could fly, but they just came crashing down. I’m starting to think that people are bad at flying..” I say with a thoughtful expression, like I’ve tested this on countless people.

“Wha- Chris! He was.. that was.. from falling..” the man looks at the ground and grimaces.

“Yep yep, not a flyer that one. It happens. But I have good news too! You get to be part of a totally different experiment! I won’t throw you into the air even once, that’s a promise!” I say, giving the bandit a thumbs up and a wink.

“Wait, no, please. Don’t kill me or experiment on me. We were wrong to attack those girls. I’ll never do something like that again! I’ll change my ways! I swear!” the man pleads.

“Oh sure sure, I’ll make you a deal. Cooperate with the experiment, and I’ll let you walk out of here” I say with a shit eating grin.

“You mean it? But what’s the experiment? Is it going to hurt?” he asks.

“Dunno, I’m going to pour healing magic into your head, and try to make you see things and hear things – you just have to tell me what you’re experiencing. Cool?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s just healing magic!? That’s fine, I’ve been healed before!” he says excitedly.

“That’s fantastic, now just sit back and tell me if what you’re seeing or hearing changes..” I request.

I manipulate my magic and weave it into the energy in the air before pushing it into the man’s brain. I move it slowly, trying to feel out the structure of his brain. I’m familiar with my own from running lines of magic through my body every night, but it’s a little different when it’s someone else.

I let the magic seep through the structure until I have a good understanding of the shapes and positioning. Sure enough, the bottom center of the brain has a separated and somewhat circular structure. I focus the magic into this area and start my experiment.

“I uh.. don’t see anything, like it’s dark out suddenly” the man says with a hint of panic in his voice.

“Right, that’s expected. Nothing is wrong with your eyes, just keep telling me what you’re experiencing” I say.

“Oh-ok, I see buildings? They’re reflecting sunlight, and they’re impossibly tall. What in the world..?” he asks.

“Yes indeed, I’m showing you images of my homeland. It’s quite different from this area” I reply.

“Incredible, there must be so many people” the man has transitioned from panic to awe, “it’s loud now, there’s a crowd of people, and there are short carriages everywhere. But they move without horses?”

“Yes they do, this land could replicate them, but it’d take a lot of work. Focus on what’s next. I want you to pay careful attention to what I show you” I explain.

“gulp, alright..” he says with returning worry, “there’s a person in a white coat, they’re saying something, but it’s quiet.”

“Hmm.. alright keep focusing I’m going to make it louder” I say.

“Right ok.. oh it’s louder, and I can hear them, but the words don’t make any sense?” he mumbles.

“Right, you wouldn’t speak that language, let’s try something you would understand. Stay focused” I command.

“I see a short, pudgy man. He’s speaking to me, calling me Sio? I’m speaking, but it doesn’t sound like me, I called him Sir Dante?” he says.

“Perfect, the movements of Sir Dante’s lips, do they match the words you’re hearing?” I ask.

“Yes, they do, it’s like I’m looking through someone else’s eyes and hearing through their ears. Are you watching someone’s life with this magic!?” the man asks, confused about what he’s experiencing.

“Something like that, have you noticed the smell in the air changing with the change in sight and sound?” I ask.

“No, I haven’t smelled anything” he says.

Hmm, sight, sound, and wakefulness can be tempered with by directing magic laced with latent energy into this area of the brain. I should poke around other areas and try to find smell. Memory could be good too, though it would feel like cheating.

I run healing magic through various areas of the man’s brain, focusing on the smell of my cooking until I get a hit. There’s a small line that connects the nose and brain that I can interfere with. Neat.

Now where’s memory? Even if I find it, there’s no guarantee I can pull information out the way I put information in.

“HURK – ah that felt hot” the man complains.

“My bad, my focus slipped, try to relax, there’s only one more thing I want to test” so I can’t condense much magic in the brain to get anywhere besides causing pain..

I’m not really making progress with memory, time to go nuclear. I let my healing magic spread to every region of his brain and keep a trickling flow connecting the magic in my body to the interwoven magic and energy in the man’s brain.

Memory, memory, visualize him visualizing.. feet?

“Dude, do you like feet?” I ask.

“HUH? WHAT? NO I DON’T!” he yelps.

He totally likes feet. I don’t kink shame, but the hygiene in this world isn’t so compatible with his thing. He’d be way happier in my first world..

If he likes feet so much, maybe focusing on them will.. HOLY hell that’s a lot of feet.

“Wha- what’s going on? I’m not seeing or hearing anything?” he asks, concerned.

“Oh, it’s fine I was looking at your memories, I’m happy for you” I say.

“Huh- what’s that mean?” he asks.

“Nothing..”

I keep my magic flowing through the entire structure of his brain and repeat all my earlier experiments. They work just the same, and I feel stupid for not trying this from the start.

“Alright, I’ve got what I needed. Do you remember what the front of the house looks like and the path here?” I ask.

“Oh, right, yes, I think I do” he says, like he’s pulling in a distant memory.

I untie the ropes and lead him to the front door.

“You’re free to go, thanks for your help” I say with a polite smile as though I’m saying goodbye to a houseguest, instead of a hostage.

“Right.. um thank you.. for letting me go” the man says with a stiff bow, before turning and scurrying out the front door.

“AHHHHH.. thunk”

No shit, it worked! I tried pushing a memory into the guy’s head of the portable house when I had it lower in the mountains with a path to walk down.

Unfortunately for him, the house is on a cliff today. Maybe he was too distracted by the chance to escape and relied on what he thought he knew. Incredible stuff.