Within a minute, the proditors were before the very person they’d only heard about and never wanted to meet. Their empress’s scowl had some of them fidgeting when she uttered, “The fact that any of you tried to run is deeply, deeply insulting.” She entered their minds all at once, took out the most fearful thing in their mental archive and manipulated them to see it in its full force for a moment before the proditors each paled, shuddered, and - one by one - they dropped unconscious.

Lucy turned back to her hostages, she questioned, “The thugs - where are they running to?”

“Six miles north, Your Majesty,” they...