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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.
Oh, he's not asking permission, he's reaching through her hand, grabbing the sword, and pulling that too through her hand as it disappears, all in one motion.
She can react pretty quickly, but in this particular case that doesn't actually help. She tries to kick the invisible attacker, hopefully hard enough to send them at the couch a few feet away without injuring them even if they are otherwise a baseline human.
Nope. He doesn't want her to touch him. He scoots back a few inches in the air, evading the kick.
Lucian doesn't really want to get into an argument with the person who is probably doing mind control... on the other hand, if he has a shot at persuading Lianelle to back down then that's probably the best way out of this.
"You act significantly differently in a few key ways that seem designed to make you more willing to obey May than you otherwise would be."
"-it's not just that! It's that your okay letting May make decisions for you and you're perfectly content to stick around as her bodyguard rather than going off fixing things on your own - that's... that's not being you."
"If I were mind controlling Lianelle to make her more convenient why would I have resurrected you? - also who are these other people! Two more yous and also a random other person, where are we?"
"They can't see me," Haru clarifies, now standing behind them to make that cheaper, still holding the sword.
"Billions of people have lived and died! I could have resurrected someone who knew more useful things about magic! I could have resurrected Kareem Husain Fathi! Or Edward Jenner! I could have brought back Norman Borlaug! Twice! I picked you because you were Lianelle's friend. It was also useful to have a test run but it's not like resurrecting you tells me anything about whether an esper will keep their powers."
"Non-esper who was big in coordinating the espers that kept Egypt from going the way of Indonesia. Who are you?"
"I remember you! Quite a lot! Even if I don't remember as much of you as you remember of me. You're the only person from my past I talked about with May."