Page 118 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

But then she shook her head. “I know nothing of Ashara. I’d be even more lost there than I am here.”

“It’s got to be better than Ardani, in any case.”

“You wouldn’t be trying to get rid of me, would you, Vaara? It almost sounds like you want me to leave Ardani.”

“Do what you will. I’m going to fuck off back to my stupid dark forest, anyway.”

“I thought you said there was nothing left for you there.”

“Where else would I go? I can’t stay in Ardani.”

Crow didn’t answer.

Truthfully, he wouldn’t have minded staying with her longer. At least for a little while. He’d never experienced anything like what he had a few moments ago.

And somehow, her company had become almost tolerable lately.

He glanced down at her. If she was listening to his thoughts, she didn’t show it.

“Crow…” he began.

She looked up at him expectantly.

“Have you ever used empathy to influence my thoughts? Without me knowing?”

She frowned. “You’ve asked me that before.”

That had been a while ago, when they’d known each other even less well than they did now. “I want the truth.”

She looked a little sad as she said, “No. Except when you asked me to.”

He kept watching her, searching her eyes for a trace of dishonesty.

“This is the trouble with being Ashara,” she said with a bitter smile. “No one can ever completely trust me, can they?”

He believed her. But a part of him hadn’t wanted to. He’d wanted to believe that she was brainwashing him. He hadn’t wanted to believe he could be so drawn to her without outside influence.

What would everyone back home think if they saw him with a human? What would Zaiur say? Or their parents?

It didn’t matter what they thought now, he supposed.

“You said I have loud thoughts,” he said. “How do I make them quieter?”

“It’s not a simple task,” she said. “You’re a very emotional person, and—”

“I’m not.”

“Of course you are. I would know. People with powerful emotions often have more strength to resist my suggestions, but they also have louder thoughts. Try to keep control over your emotions. Stay calm. That keeps things muffled.”

Now his thoughts wandered to what she’d done to him earlier under Patros’s orders. When he’d tried to escape her, her empathy had come down on him hard, trapping him in a mental vice. It was the first time she’d ever used empathy against him in that way. It had given him a new appreciation for the fact that she’d never done it before. It was one of the most awful sensations he’d ever experienced.

That part of her still terrified him.

“How do I keep an Ashara from controlling me?”

She took a deep breath. “It’s not something you can just do. Some people are naturally better at it than others. Other people just have no resistance to it at all. If you do have some natural ability, you might be able to further train yourself to resist empathic suggestions. I’ve noticed it’s slightly more difficult to influence mages and elves—people with more innate magic.”

“Can you resist it?”

---