Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3) by Brian Wilkerson

failures blared
in her mind while it shouted over and over again how only Lunas could save her
from another one. All she had to do was kill the Trickster’s Choice. Then
Ataidar would have a grand future under her rule.
    “NOOOOOO!”
    Kasile erupted in a pillar of white flames. It was all
around her and illuminated her with a divine radiance.
    “He’s failed me right now! I don’t need him!”
    With hands curled like tiger paws, she grabbed the red gem
in its casing and tore it off, along with the choker itself. She dashed the
thing on the floor and then swung her other arm to the side, quelling the
blazes engulfing both her and Eric. He collapsed like a scorched scarecrow.
    “Eric!”
    She rushed to his side and sent new flames, healing
flames, through his body and soul.
    "How could I let this happen!? I knew it was
coming!"
    She slouched, looking less a queen and more a mere girl.
“He got me eating out of his hand all the same…Almost made me kill my best
friend…..Please, Eric, wake up!”
    Eric groaned and opened his eyes.
    “Do I get Confidant Compensation?”
    Kasile chuckled and lightly tapped his head. “Idiot.”
    Eric leaned up and sat cross-legged. “Seriously, was that
celestial fire or nether fire? I feel like it was burning my soul instead of my
skin.”
    “The Sage of Mt. Fiol tells me it’s all the same, just as
creation and destruction are the same thing. Then he told me that left and
right are the same thing, that smug old relic….Do you know what he calls me?
‘The queen who is not queen’!”
    Eric gave her a hug.
    "I warned you,” he said next to her ear. “The best
ordercrafter is one who doesn’t need ordercraft. What happened to that
anti-ordercraft circlet anyway?"
    Kasile spoke to the floor, but Eric knew how she felt all
the same. A profound sense of defeat radiated from every part of her.
    “He recognized it. He recognized it and asked if I saw
anti-divine flame protection on him. He talked about trust in successful
relationships and...before I knew it...it was off and that choker was on. I
don't know what happened but...it didn't seem so bad... and I felt so
secure..."
    Charismatic Eye... Grey Dengel said. Do you
remember when the real Dengel spoke to you about “crowbars on willpower”? Eric
nodded. He was not deceiving you. Such an ability does indeed exist.
    "Eric, are you spacing out?" Kasile asked. Eric
smiled because she sounded more like her regal self than the submissive facade
of the choker.
    "I'm talking with 'Grey Dengel.' He’s like a search
function for my sub-conscious. He says he knows what happened."
    “Oh. Carry on."
    Charismatic Eye is similar in principle to Evil Eye; a
spiritual technique powered by the user's emotions and requires eye contact to
activate. However, instead of inflicting a mental paralysis with negative
emotions, Charismatic Eye induces a feeling of trust in the target and this
trust can be amplified into submission in sufficient quantity and sufficient
skill. Also like Evil Eye, Charismatic Eye will not work on everyone. You
recall how your Evil Eye failed to affect Professor Haburt, yes?
    Eric nodded.
    That is because your negative emotion, that were you
attempting to inflict upon him, paled in comparison to that which he possessed
towards himself. To use a metaphor, you were throwing a bucket of cold water
into the Arctic. Charismatic Eye, by contrast, exploits a weakness in the
target. It is similar to a virus infiltrating a system and taking over its
central processing unit. I recommend asking Her Majesty about her experience.
If you can find the vulnerability, then she can patch it.
    Eric leaned away from Kasile and explained all this to her,
as gently as he could, and waited for her to respond. It was what he expected:
the hardship of ruling young, the loss of her parents, and the pressure to live
up to the people's standards and her own. Red in the face, she confessed to a
guilty pleasure where she imagined the arrival of the