The news that players had taken down a Mechanical Church outpost and rescued the Palen sisters was quickly passed up the chain of command until it reached Murphy. The vampire lord couldn't help marveling at how swiftly his players had acted. They could now be considered Transia's rapid-response force.
But when he heard that the Palen sisters had apparently been "brainwashed," Murphy's brow furrowed at once.
The two young women weren't important figures in Transia's political landscape. Even if they returned to their homeland, they would have little chance of direct access to the upper echelons, let alone of carrying out some kind of "special operation."
The Mechanical Church had gone to a great deal of trouble to brainwash the Palen sisters, which seemed bizarre no matter how he looked at it. The cost-benefit ratio was far too low. But if they'd only wanted to recruit two new members, the scale of the operation was excessive.
Since everything about the matter seemed strange, Murphy decided to go and see for himself.
When Master Minx heard that the missing women had been rescued, he hurried over with several of his students. He'd been gathering the machinists to prepare for an expedition underground. By the time he reached the area of the outer-city refugee shelter, which had already been secured by the heroes, Murphy had just finished examining the Palen sisters.
He wasn't a psychic, and dealing with traces of this kind of mental power wasn't his specialty. Even so, Murphy could tell something was wrong from the girls' unnaturally dilated pupils.
"This doesn't look like an enchantment spell or any other kind of mental control effect. I've seen Triss use Suggestion. Psychics capable of using Charm or Suggestion usually don't leave such obvious flaws behind."
Murphy said solemnly to the Ashen