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What convinced Lucian wasn't, ultimately, that Lianelle couldn't remember her past. Sure, it was suspicious how all of her connections to anyone besides May had been cut or weakened, but that was only enough to push Lianelle so far. What convinced him that May was mind controlling his friend was Lianelle's lack of interest in being anywhere but by May's side. Lianelle didn't do that for anyone. She loved Katia with an intensity Lucian had hardly seen in any marriage, but she'd only visit Quiteria for a week at a time - never staying unless it was urgently required. When armies had been raised to fight the Magyar Lianelle had been there, but even then she'd ride off alone often, returning with news about how one village or another was now free. Seeing her relegated to a bodyguard and lover of someone she'd just met, with no apparent intention to ever leave, was... wrong. It wasn't Lianelle.
And so, this is how Lucian finds himself digging a hole in an unremarkable forest in west Austria. Well, digging several holes - the landscape's changed enough in the last 1200 years that it's difficult to locate the exact spot where he and his men, victorious but weary, buried the Magyar's artifacts that they could not understand the purpose of.
"She claims to be an esper and from a world containing those rather than the world with the magic tournament I and Lianelle are from."
"And she's using her power to interface with your system somehow? Do you know what her power is?"
"Unfortunately I don't, assuming she in fact has one and isn't using it as an excuse to keep Lianelle nearby."
"I can at least tell you that it's a real esper thing to need other people to get rid of backlash from power use. If that's what's going on she wouldn't need any specific person, but it often works out almost that way for various reasons." He pats the back of Lifeline's hand.
"Getting rid of backlash feels nice and people have predictable reactions to a recurring need to touch a specific other person as much as possible in a way that feels nice. But there's no strong underlying tendency for someone who's backlash-compatible to also be personality-compatible or sexual-orientation-compatible or lifestyle-compatible in any other way. My last partner and I did not speak to each other at all because her backlash made her averse to social interaction, all I tended to see of her was her feet."
"You're going to need a codename, pet, you can't just coast on Lifeline having one any more. - my Lucien and I are also dating and also have magic powers but we aren't espers and we are from a universe where romance tends to work differently."
"We care way less about what gender people are and we have a different thing instead which is only moderately correlated with gender. I'm his dom and he's my sub. It's my job to take care of him and his job to do whatever I say. Plenty of subs talk more than this but he's feeling shy, it would seem." Pet pet.
"I'm pretty sure it's fine and he's just different from us - or at least me - along some relevant axis."
Lucien nods in agreement.
... Possibly he should say words, but his brain is still returning that only telepathy works right now, so he's not going to try.
"He says not yet. - espers have fixed power sets, eclipsed don't, we can teach ourselves to do anything from the appropriate half of possible magics, my Lucien and I are both psions which means we do things without physical effects. Information, illusion, etcetera."