Nancey smiled her genuine smile and replied, "Well, nothing more than a nibble as long as we're really careful." It occurred to Nicole just how much Nancey conveyed with her different smiles. She wondered if she had ever smiled as much as much or as freely as this woman did.
Nancey lost her smile and a look of concern creased her forehead as she made her decision. "I need to show you this, and you need to pay attention, try not to over react, and we'll be okay."
Nicole's breathing slowed as she steadied herself and continued watching Nancey, not quite sure what was about to happen. Nancey's aura started to brighten and colors began washing over it as she started walking towards Nicole. "Don't over-react, you're safe, but I need to touch your hand to show you this. If you could just hold it out to me, I wont hurt you in any way."
Nicole was dubious, but as Nancey drew closer, she worried less about what was happening and involuntarily started to raise her hand towards Nancey. "This is Compulsion," Nancey explained. "You find your hand reaching towards me, and you don't know why, but what I'm saying is strangely calming. Look at my aura, and look at yours, it should start to make sense soon."
Nancey was very calmly explaining the situation and Nicole couldn't find fault in her explanation. Compulsion. She hadn't heard that word spoken with such an intensity before.
Nancey continued her explanation. "I should have warned you, and you have my word that I will never use this against you in a way that would intentionally put you at risk. Look at your hand where you're reaching for me."
Nancey reached her own hand towards Nicole. That was when she finally saw it, Nancey's aura now looked almost exactly like Nicole's own aura.
Nancey could somehow change her aura at will. Nancey looked sadly serene as she continued her explanation. "I'm not going to hurt you. You should be feeling, at the very edges of your awareness, a tiny unease at what I'm saying. I can already see in your eyes that you're struggling with this." Nancey seemed to pause in reaching out and then pulled her fingers back for a moment.
"I'm going to touch your fingers, and then I'm going to move away. I'm doing this so you can understand." And then their fingers touched. The tiny seed of doubt and struggle that had been growing bit by bit was completely extinguished. Nicole trusted absolutely everything that Nancey had just described and she knew with the very fiber of her being that it was the absolute truth. Nancey had just shown her that she could change her aura. As she did it, Nicole understood that it enabled a form of compulsion. Nicole knew that Nancey only did it to demonstrate a lesson. She could immediately appreciate the value of the lesson. Then Nancey's fingers moved away from her own.
The trust remained. She could not doubt what Nancey had just told her. "Now, keep watching, and try to remain calm. I'm going to ask your permission to do something, but I want to make sure you understand what's happened." Nancey took a few steps back and her aura shifted again, almost instantly, back to its plain non-sorcerer, completely human hues. During the transition, Nicole had entirely dropped her guard and was simply observing.
"I would have liked to explain it better, but we just don't have the time." Nancey gave a weak shrug as she explained, "So I thought that this would be the easiest way to make you understand."
Nicole thought a moment about what had just happened. Nancey had compelled her trust. She was okay with it. It shouldn't have been possible, and she shouldn't be okay with it. "Why am I okay with this?"
"The compulsion is just as strong as any decision you make on your own. You will feel it to be just as true as anything you would have thought on your own. I did this so you could see in a safe and objective environment that this is something that's not at all safe or objective. But the longer you think on it, the more of your own conclusions you can make. It should scare the hell out of you. You can still see my aura, back to normal, and you can tell that the things I'm saying now aren't as quickly believed as when I matched your aura, so you should know what I'm saying now is still true."
Nicole trusted the explanation. It wasn't the same as being under the compulsion, but this lent even further weight to Nancey's words.
"I wouldn't have believed you if you tried to explain it. You raped my will to demonstrate that you could rape my will?" Nancey visibly winced at that question, even though Nicole wasn't really feeling the full force of the emotion that should have accompanied such an accusation.
"I needed you to experience this for yourself before I ask you to willingly do it if we're going to pass through the forest. You can think back on what I said and did and you'll eventually decide that I didn't take advantage of the compulsion except to show it."
"Oh? And how does compelling me make it possible to pass through the forest?" Nicole was feeling more and more anxious about the compulsion, and that combined with her skepticism-laden question was strangely comforting her.
"I need to do it again if I'm going to fortify you against the Demon Wreath and I'm not willing to do that without your full cooperation."
"You're not willing to do it without my cooperation?" Nicole's brows began to pinch together angrily as the question formed, "So what you're saying is that you can easily do it without my cooperation?"
"Yes," she answered with a sad little smile this time.
I was worried I was going to miss the update window to edit the last past before it hit seven days, so I dragged myself out of bed, crawled over to the computer and uploaded the text portion of the story, but I haven't created an image yet. I'm really hoping I can get to that before the next edit window closes!
So, apologies for lack of art, but at least the story continues!