Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

you were a tyrant, who enslaved whole peoples and nations, with no regard for their wellbeing. But these were all lies, the Archmage Kamila assured me of that.”

“If I didn’t enslave people, what did I do then?” Ben asked, his curiosity piqued.

Melody arched an eyebrow, slyly. “You always knew how to make others do your bidding without force.”

Well, that was a bit cryptic. He waited for Melody to continue.

“Just as you are about to do with these mountain ogres,” she explained. “You sowed confusion amongst your enemies, and created unity and conviction among your friends. You always knew how to inspire others with the desire to do what you wished them to do.”

Ben thought about what Melody said, and what he was planning to do now with his Drain spell. If he could indeed plant energy in other people, he could manipulate their emotions. He could give them desires they had not had before.

Ben chuckled to himself at that thought. He would be able to pull off Inception. He could make people want to do whatever he wanted them to do, and they would never even know about it. More than that, they’d think it was their idea to begin with.

“This power does sound a lot like slavery, Melody.” He was a modern man, he couldn’t shrug off his entire moral compass so easily.

Melody shook her head, looking puzzled. “It isn’t slavery. These people only do what it is they always secretly wanted to.”

“But I could have given them those desires,” Ben argued. “That’s mind control.” That was some powerful mind control too. If the CIA could have known what he'd be capable of, they’d be green with envy.

“I don’t understand what you are saying, Benjamin. It’s not slavery to do what you wish to do.” Melody flicked a strand of gleaming purple hair out of her face and continued to look at me, slightly puzzled.

“But they wouldn’t want those things if I didn’t give them those desires,” Ben persisted.

Melody laughed, her voice quiet but clear in the still night air, over the dissonant drone of drunken song below. “This is simply a question of semantics. If the people only do what they want to do, then that is freedom enough.”

Ben laughed and scratched his head. This was definitely not a modern world. Still, perhaps this sort of power in the right hands was what was needed to make the world a better place. It was his responsibility to use this power for good, even if he had to make use of some sinister means to achieve it.

“Then let’s get started,” Ben said, the last of his doubts evaporating under the cold light of Melody’s peculiar brand of reason.

Ben knelt beside the mountain ogre and focused on his strands of energy. He held out his open palms, channeling his Drain spell.

For just one more instant, he paused. He glanced behind him, and saw the campfire below, and the three helpless dryads, bound and awaiting their fate.

Ben’s resolve hardened, and he tugged on the mountain ogre’s physical strand, pulling all his energy into his own body. The mountain ogre’s form shriveled up, just as the werebat on the bridge had done earlier. His body became so weak , he couldn’t even make a sound, as the life drained out of him. The metallic sensation of physical strength was strongly noticeable this time.

Ben felt his energy swell into his limbs, augmenting what he had already absorbed from the previous spell. Then he rose to his feet and faced Melody. Time to see if he could in fact infuse this energy into someone else.

“Give me your hands,” Ben said gently but firmly.

Melody placed her soft fingers on his own. Ben looked into her eyes and concentrated, drawing strength from her trusting gaze.

Ben was going in totally blind. He had no idea how to pull off a trick like this one. He gathered the physical energy swirling inside him, and tried to push it back out through his arms again.

At first, it was like passing his fingers through mist, eluding his grasp. Several long minutes passed, as he repeatedly attempted to force the energy to comply with his will, but Melody was patient, and never uttered a sound or allowed any judgement to cloud her face.

At last, Ben gathered enough energy at his fingertips to force it across the divide between them and into Melody’s body. After overcoming the initial resistance, he easily pushed an amount of the strength into Melody’s fingers.

Her eyes widened as she experienced the rush of receiving new energy that was not her own. Then her grip strengthened, and her posture straightened.

Ben also noticed, however, that some of the energy seemed to slip away from his gasp, dissipating in the air around his fingers. Evidently, there would be some attrition when he transferred energy to others. It was not as efficient as when he absorbed it directly himself.

Ben tried several more times, giving Melody a little more strength, and finding it easier every time to manipulate the transfer. But he also needed to be able to do this at range.

“Stay where you are,” he said to Melody, and he took several paces backward. Then he focused on the power inside him and tried directing it toward Melody.

Her strands lit up, just as they would if he were going to sap her energy. Ben gathered the physical strength in his arms and pushed it out across that same link. Again, there was resistance at first, but then the green strand flowed across the divide between them with the same ease that it had previously flowed toward them.

The energy stretched out toward Melody and entered her body. Her eyes widened with surprise as she felt the energy entering her. He noticed that some of the power was again lost, as it trailed off into the air, but enough of it was still able to make the transition. At last, he felt confident that he could do this in the heat of battle