Page 140 of Alchemised
She swallowed, forcing herself to speak steadily. “It’s an elixir that’s bonded to the surface. The coating bends light to make things hard to notice unless you know to look for them.”
He crouched and lifted her left hand, his thumb sliding across her fingers until he found the ring by touch. His eyes narrowed. He tilted her hand this way and that.
His eyebrows went up.
She could tell he could see the ring again.
He was silent for a long moment. “I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”
“It was never fully developed.”
An eyebrow rose as he met her eyes. “Yours?”
She gave a reluctant nod. “One of my undergraduate projects. Never got it to work well on things much bigger than this, though. The refraction grows irregular.”
He stood, pulling her to her feet.
She struggled not to flinch away now that she knew what he could do with that touch.
“I’m not having my cover blown because you’re incompetent,” Ferron said.
Helena had never been called incompetent in her life, and she bristled. “I wasn’t aware that immunity to mind-reading was something you expected from a war prize.”
“It’s not mind-reading,” Ferron said, looking derisive. “What I did was simply a minor manipulation of your brain. It might feel as if I’ve reached in and seen your thoughts as vividly as if you were reliving them, but unless I’m being exhaustive and replaying them, there’s only glimpses; most of it is lost in the noise. It’s only the things you focus on that are clear enough to decipher easily. If you’re ever caught, don’t let your interrogator trick you into thinking they saw more than they have.”
“So, what did you see?” she asked, trying to understand.
He smirked. “Mostly your terror. Disorienting you with fear made you vulnerable. You weren’t coherent enough to do anything to resist. Then it was a blur. The two clarity points were when you were analysing the door, and the ring. You were so focused on them, you weren’t thinking about anything else that would have blurred the memories. The mind is excellent at betraying its priorities.”
So an interrogator couldn’t see everything, just all the important things. Lovely.
“What do I do, to protect myself?” She hated that she had to ask him. “How are you expecting me to prevent that?”
“An interrogator won’t stop until they have valuable information. If you’re captured, there’s nothing you’ll be able to do to stop it, but if they think you’re weak they won’t look carefully. You have to give up something valuable enough that it seems legitimate as a way to keep the things that matter most hidden.”
She considered this, still leaning against the wall because she wasn’t sure her legs would hold her.
“Think about it. Choose something. If I’m looking for information about the Eternal Flame or Holdfast, what can you give up that would seem like the biggest secret you have? Using resonance on the mind like that is like setting someone’s house on fire. Minds instinctively bolt to protect what’s most important to hide. You have to train yourself to do the reverse. Focus on what doesn’t matter. And remember, whatever you think they saw, unless you draw attention to it or they’re being extremely thorough, they only glimpsed. Don’t focus on it.”
She nodded slowly. “All right.”
“I’m going to test you again next week. Be ready for it.”
CHAPTER 27
Februa 1786
WHEN HELENA TOLD CROWTHER WHAT FERRON WAS capable of, he had her removed from all the Eternal Flame’s meetings and cut off from any information regarding Luc’s whereabouts.
Everyone assumed it was due to her mysterious “breakdown” which was being whispered about. This was convenient for Crowther but rendered Helena even more of a pariah than usual.
She was relieved when Ferron calmly invited her in the next time rather than accosting her before she’d made it through the door.
The tenement was depressingly drab. Clearly there hadn’t been much concern about the workers living in comfort back when the factories had been running.
“Ready?” he asked, stepping towards her and slipping a black leather glove off.
Helena clenched her own bare hands, feeling the texture of the scar across her palm as she nodded.
