Answers

The second I hear the sound of the shut door I reach into myself and begin to activate some of my perks. My perks, at least those that confer active abilities instead of passive traits, function based on intent.

The central abilities I possess that are useful for this particular moment in time are almost all brand new abilities. Some of the abilities are more intriguing than others, and are not the same sort of explicit superpowers that I possess such as my ability to add people to my telepathic network, but are more unusual things.

I am a hypnotist now. I have yet to use these abilities, and the knowledge that becoming a hypnotist has granted me, but I can certainly begin to use them now… Indeed, the chance to interrogate a captured spy is the perfect chance to train these kinds of abilities. I can extract exactly the sort of information Lady Neptunia needs and wants, and do so without even remotely harming the creature that may or may not be but a boy.

We're dealing with someone who is at least willing to aid and abet shapeshifting spies, I should be open to the idea that the actual foe in our midst is a shapeshifter.

One of my more explicit, and newer, powers is the ability to shapeshift. I utilize this power and as I do I sense my face become… less solid, protean and more like an idea. I reach into myself and scan the memories of the items belonging to the child, Ray. I do not have access to Ray's memories themselves, but I do have access to the memories of the items he has worn, which is enough. I don't need to be able to psychometrically scan Ray himself so long as I can be creative.

In my normal guise as Mateo I am quite something to look at. I have an idol-like level of attractiveness now, and even before I acquired the latest string of attractivity-boosting perks I was handsome. Such a thing is a weakness in true spycraft, even if it can be wielded deftly in the right hands.

I give myself a much more generic face and tap into the memories the boy's clothes have of a mysterious being that in spy novels might be referred to as Ray's "Handler", the person tasked with giving him new missions and also obtaining what information he possesses. When I know what that figure looks like, a generic, human-looking creature, it is easy for me to construct such a face for myself.

I broaden my face, widen my frame, thicken some body parts, and add the trace outlines of scars to some parts of my visible body. As I do this I utilize "Quickchange" to instantly strip myself of my clothes before I make use of another of my new perks; "Magic Hair".

Style warriors possess a litany of unusual abilities. Mid-tier style warriors can do a range of neat things, ranging from simple acts like shapeshifting, to even controlling their hair. Truthfully had I trained one of my culinary warrior abilities I'd be able to use my hair as a limb, or limbs, by now but thanks to "Magic Hair" I can go ahead and do just that anyway, and by fusing the innate skill "Magic Hair" gives me when it comes to controlling my hair with the muscle memory granted to me by "Cloth Combatant" I can easily grow new hair and weave it together to form a facsimile of different sorts of fabric and outfits that can look like whatever I want them to look like.

Over the course of a few seconds my hair grows and weaves itself together to form a replica of fabric, which then comes together to give me a new look. My new generic face is coupled together with a forgettable outfit, giving me a rather nondescript look that I plan to take advantage of.

Wearing a new face, and new clothes, I begin to walk towards the door leading to where Ray is being kept. As I do I allow some of my hypnotist perks to flare to active life within me, and when I reach and open the door Ray turns to look at it as I first step into his line of sight.

The room he is being kept in is small but for someone of his diminutive size it's also fine. There is a small amount of space between the door and the edges of a cell, in which sits a small bed and a desk. Both the bed and the desk faintly radiate magic.

Ray has a confused look on his face and I move right up to him, or as close to him as I can move. The instant that he is close enough to be affected by one of my new hypnotist perks I feel his emotions faintly shift in a fearful direction as he is suddenly acutely aware that he is in the power of a stranger. I want to keep him from knowing what is going on, and keep him from making predictions, which requires confusion on his part.

Fortunately I have the knowledge needed to deeply disorient him. At least, assuming "Predictive", a hypnotist perk I possess, has enough information for me to go off of. If it does I should be able to guess, roughly, how any of my approaches to the child would cause him to react. Time slows and text boxes appear underneath the mer-lad. I take a beat and combine all of the perks I have as I study the different options presented before me.

"Greetings Ray, Water Whisperer." I quietly remark and his eyes widen, as some of the fear he feels melts away. This reaction of his elicits a smile from me, but only internally. His reaction is in-line with the information provided to me by "Predictable" which is fantastic news.

Ray has a title of his own. Hearing it allows him to relax just a touch. This also causes him to think positively of me, viewing me as on his side since I know the title he uses as part of a greeting when interacting with his handler.

"Oh thank goodness. I always suspected I wasn't alone in the palace." He says, breathlessly. I scan his face and his mind as he speaks. His thoughts confirm that his words are true, and this is intriguing but not exactly new information. A palace like this is bound to be rife with spies. I open my mouth to speak and more text boxes appear as time slows to a crawl. I study the options on display, and look for one that would allow me to explain my presence here and justify why the figure who has approached him is not his handler or even one of his people.

"There are many fish in this colony. They each have their own roles to play in our ecosystem, and sometimes they don't need to swim together. That is only sometimes, though. Times are changing, and doing so fast." I explain, enigmatically. The boy relaxes further, picking up on the meanings of my layered remarks.

I sense the activation of some distinct perks in my possession. Very notably I can faintly sense the effects of "Mental Gravity", my ultimate likeability perk, and I can feel how it mixes with the boosted version of "Simply Mesmerizing" that is now fully alive and active within me. The perks are synergistically working to make the boy like and trust me faster than he'd otherwise like me, which is vital to being speedy in this context.

My plan here is actually pretty simple: I want to hypnotize Ray. When I fully hypnotize him I don't want a part of his mind to try to resist, since I don't particularly want to harm the child. I could use a range of things to go ahead and force him into an induction, but if I do so and he is fighting it I could damage his sense of self and harm his brain. Thankfully, "Simply Mesmerizing" is already hard at work and will go ahead and reduce both his desire and his ability to meaningfully fight his way out of an induction when I inflict it on him.

"Simply Mesmerizing" is a ludicrously powerful perk. This hypnotist perk is the strongest perk in the origin and has two stages. I can use it in either stage or in both stages with ease. In its lesser stage the perk allows me to passively prime someone to fall into an entranced state simply by interacting with them, automatically and subtly moving and conditioning me so that my mere presence is enough to make someone susceptible to any of a number of induction techniques that I know. In its more active, dangerous state, the perk makes me so entrancing that being physically close to me is enough to subtly and passively turn people into my slaves… At the moment I am using both stages of the perk. I can feel its effects on Ray.

"I see… It is true that I do not normally swim with others." He remarks, lightly, relaxing. At this point I have allowed him to relax enough, and I go ahead and use another of the hypnotic perks I possess: "Pride Before The Fall". This perk allows me to project an aura that can inflict one of two states on those I target with it, and both states are valuable to hypnotists.

The perk's aura can manifest and allow those in range, that I target, to feel as though they are in total control of a situation. This level of overconfidence can be dangerous and it can lead to someone letting their guard down and lowering their defenses. Alternatively when I am in a position of power over someone I can use this perk to render that person hyper aware of the power I hold over them and force them to feel their vulnerability. With a burst of intent I make Ray hyper aware of his powerlessness, and this sensation hits the child like a truck.

I sense him working to keep his emotional mask on, and to regain his composure, but I don't plan to give him the chance to regain full control of his emotions. Time slows and my intentions to speak cause more text boxes to appear. I study each of the text boxes and form predictions about what the boy will say, more or less, if asked any of the questions in them. Picking one is a bit difficult, but I ultimately pick the box that will keep the boy thinking and prevent him from relaxing.

"Your sudden need to swim with others is a… complication. We need to know what you've divulged." I remark, darkly. This remark surprises him and I see panic fill his eyes.

"I haven't revealed anything! I haven't even spoken since I was detained." He says, panickedly. I don't quite feel bad about this, but I don't love it either. The boy is a useful asset to someone, but to call him a true spy is a bit of an exaggeration. Still, his words aren't a lie.

I'm slowly guiding him to think of certain things and allow me to search through his thoughts without delving into his brain and any sort of mental defenses he may possess. By coaxing thoughts to the surface of his mind I can see them as readily as I can see the cell he is in, thanks to my telepathy. If he were lying he'd surely be remembering what he's told someone, and instead all I'm seeing in his mind are memories of him sitting here, alone. I nod, lightly, at the child and smile appreciatively.

"That's excellent news. What a fine show of trust this has been… Now I think it's time that you begin to remember." I exclaim, my voice taking on a gentle, relaxing tone. This causes the child to look at me curiously. I frown when our eyes meet.

"I'm so disappointed you've forgotten so completely, but I suppose that is a sign of how effective my powers are." I tell the child, before reactivating "Glamour", the perk that allows me to shapeshift and morph my face so that it is a replica of the figure who works as Ray's handler. The boy's eyes become so wide it's like looking at an elegant dinner plate. I can audibly hear the hammering of his heart.

"Now it is time that you remember why I brought you here, little one." I utter, emphasizing the importance of "Remembering" what I'm about to tell him. The word primes his brain, and seeing the trusted face of his handler encourages him to accept what I'm about to say.

"You were brought here to serve and to spy." I state, the words a statement of fact that already works in line with what he knows. He doesn't disagree with them, though he doesn't know what I'm about to say next.

"The thing is, you were brought here to serve me." I say, a gentle smile on his face I say something, the first thing, that he doesn't know how to accept. Before he can say something, when the words are still on the tip of his tongue, I cut him off. 

"Forget. Forget the many faces I have worn around you, and focus on me. Who am I? My first identity, the first time we interacted, what was it?" I ask, causing him to recall something very intriguing.

He no longer mentally visualizes the city or any specific person. The picture in his mind is of the dark depths of the ocean, much, much deeper than this city. And dark. Jet black. I can feel him swimming deeper and deeper into the lightless depths of a trench. So deep that in time all he knows is darkness, before he suddenly spots a faint light in the distance.

I get to experience the memory before he says it. I feel his exertions as he swims deeper and deeper, racing towards the tiny light. I sense his desire to touch the light, to bask in its warm glow. A part of me knows what this is, recognizes the lure of the anglerfish and the curiosity its bioluminescence incites.

My heart begins to race in time with the boy's own when he remembers finally reaching the light. He grins at it, at me even, and I have to consciously work to not smile. In his memories the boy relaxes for a split second before something swims into the radius of the light, something enormous and something unnatural.

The anglerfish equivalent of a merman reveals itself with a cruel grin. The boy gazes at it in confusion in his memories, but when, in the present, he speaks he is not confused.

"Aquanos. Aquanos the Fallen." The boy mutters, before gazing at me with a look of haunted adoration. His memories fizzle out and become distorted from here, but the conviction with which he speaks is intriguing not only to me but also to Lady Neptunia. The lady has been on the other side of the door for some time but has managed not to react until just now.

The mermaid gasps in confusion and awe when she hears the name. There is a mythic quality to the reverence with which Ray said the name that fills me with a sense of dread. I sigh and smile, acting my ass off, as I look at Ray.

"Yes, tis I, the mighty, the fallen… the forgotten. But not all have forgotten me. Some feel my tenebrous influence even now. You have served me well, but now it is time for you to converse with my ally, another who feels the dark swell deep in her heart. Lady Neptunia herself." I remark, allowing my voice to deepen as I speak, infusing almost a musical quality to it. I am strongly feeling the influence of "Improvisation", one of my new bardic perks, and it is definitely working with my other charisma and speech based perks to save me in this moment. My order confuses the lad, but I silence him with a look.

"Do you not think it strange that you were detained and then not spoken to for hours? That you were not even… bothered, for hours? Have you not swam by here before? Have you not heard the screams? Why do you believe you'd be spared?" I ask, an effective line of questions that cause the boy to freeze as he considers whether or not there are any meaningful alternative answers to my questions that do not tie Lady Neptunia into an alliance with this strange, fallen figure. Before he can truly react, Lady Neptunia herself steps into the room and gives him a cool look. He glances at her and as he does I lightly snap my fingers, which unfocus him.

"Ray, listen to me." I begin, relaxing as I opt to cause the boy to fully fall under my influence. These words seem to cause him to relax and turn to me with a dull expression on his face. I can tell that he is under my thumb, and I internally catch my breath. It seems that this is well and truly my victory.

"When I next snap my fingers you will listen to my companion and answer all of her questions truthfully, as though I myself were asking them. When she is done asking you questions I will snap my fingers again and you will fall asleep for three hours. When you wake up from that brief nap you will not remember this conversation, or even that you were detained at all." I remark, emphasizing the specific order of events by connecting them with the same word. I pause for a second and then snap my fingers, and the boy smiles at Lady Neptunia and I.

For the next four and a half hours, Lady Neptunia grills the boy. She relentlessly digs into every facet of his life, from his time before he came to serve her, to the activities in the name of Aquanos. It is fairly boring, but the thoroughness of it all is impressive.

Until now I've had the impression that Lady Neptunia was only good at the social side of politics. She's certainly had her fair share of suitors and she's managed to leverage that quite effectively. Watching her relentlessly grill the child shifts my impression of her, it seems that she is an effective intelligence individual, someone well-suited to acting on what knowledge her own spies and servants gather for her.

Eventually the mermaid is satisfied with what she knows and tells me to go ahead and let the boy go. I snap my fingers and watch confusion fill Ray's face before he slumps over, unconscious. Lady Neptunia looks at me, smiles sadly, and then orders her servants to return Ray to his chambers, clothes and all. When her servants leave us, other than a few guards who remain to watch over us, the mermaid sighs in frustration. I undo my disguise and use "Quickchange" to reequip my previous outfit.

"Do you know who Aquanos is?" She asks, and I shake my head. She lets out a sound vaguely like a laugh, but there is no joy in it.

"Aquanos is a… Well, he's mostly a bedtime story now. Or at least I thought he was. In the primordial past there were nebulous, amorphous beings who supposedly formed in the blackest pits of the deepest trenches. He was the greatest of them all and he was the source of the first light to ever break the darkness. They say it clung to him, somehow." The mermaid explains. If he actually is some sort of humanoid anglerfish, like how he appeared to Ray, then that makes sense.

"He was a pioneer, an inventor. He created and created, and his inventions supposedly lured the first humans to the ocean. He even created the city, at least according to our founding myths. One day the other primeval inhabitants of the deepest trenches grew tired of his activities and decided to do something about it. It seems that they worked together, and possibly had others helping them, and they struck him down." She remarks, sadly.

"The reason more superstitious and theologically knowledgeable people believe the deepest trenches are cold is because they say that his massive, bloated corpse blocks off the vents that should warm and even illuminate parts of the trenches. They also say that such trenches were the results, and scars, of whatever the primordial trench-monsters did to kill him in the first place." Neptunia says, educating me with a look of deep sadness on her face.

"For millennia there have been conspiracists who have warned that a being like Aquanos is not so easily, or directly, slain. They have whispered that his forces and influence remain active in the seas. Now I know that there is some truth to those rumors, though whether it actually is Aquannos or someone mighty and clever enough to use the fallen aquatic inventor's name as a rallying cry remains to be seen. Especially since in the myths he was more complex than the creature that Ray described. Though I suppose his defeat may have embittered him." The mermaid mutters, those last few words directed at herself rather than me. She suddenly looks at me and frowns.

"Your actions here have made a gigantic difference and revealed… something. I'm not sure what, exactly, but it's still something. You deserve to be rewarded for your actions. I was going to give you the portable stage but now such an action seems almost like a slap in the face in the wake of the conspiracy you've unearthed." Lady Neptunia states. She gets up and beckons that I do the same.

In minutes we have begun to move, and Lady Neptunia reveals what she had initially planned. She hoped to introduce me to more people, and she actually does just this for the next hour before warning me to leave tonight. I am introduced to minor nobles in her faction, people she trusts and likes, and I am eager to make their acquaintances. 

I meet well over a dozen different upperclass aquatic individuals before my departure. When I leave the palace, and am leaving the city, another pair of escorts armed with the stage, and the mannequins meets me at the edge of the city and take me home over the course of another long journey. During this time they inform me that the princess has given me two items once lost in the ocean that she has never needed: alchemical artifacts with curious traits. They never explain what the things can do, and when I reach the surface I am still unsure of what they can do.

My dolls and animal friends are waiting for me on the shore of the beach, and when I reach them I am quickly hugged by my first friends and most loyal companions. I laugh in delight when I feel the intense amount of affection that my friends show me, even as I tell them that there is a lot they need to know.

For the remainder of the day I explain to everyone what has happened while I was in the world beneath the waves. I tell them about Ray, Lady Neptunia, and the cryptic figure known as "Aquanos the Fallen", as well as show off my newest items when we arrive safely at home.

I make everyone dinner in the wake of all of this, while informing them of my decision to prepare us to go and try and save Titania. No one has any real problems with us going after her and the necromancer, especially since going after the necromancer might well result in us finding Amy. What I don't expect is how long it takes us to find a meaningful lead in the direction of the abducted lieutenant.

A few days pass where all we do is make items and work on improving the estate. I fuse the stage item with the Traveler's Dream, to make things more convenient for me. On the fifth day I actually go and visit the observatory. I am delighted when nothing unexpected happens and I just get to spend some time with the living computer. Still, I am disappointed that I don't have any real leads as far as how to track down the necromancer and Titania go.

A few days turn into a week. I head to Oceanos and trade with the amazons for a few days, and I get to show some of my new stuff. I even learn where some amazon villages are located, and I spend another week traveling to the villages, all for the sake of eventually becoming a true bard. I sell all sorts of wares to them, and regale them with tales of my adventures. We finally return home after traveling to the third village we were told of by Ophelia.

Another two weeks pass, and I realize that during this whole time I've not actually had any more weird dreams. It's almost unnerving to not have any weird dreams given how often they've dominated my sleeping hours before now.

I settle into an odd routine. Most days I work on creating items using the supplies my golems gather for a few hours, so I always have wares to sell and so I can gain valuable crafting experience. I feed my servants and myself, and then I practice using my odder skills like taming or alchemy. There are some days where I create more golems and have them work on assorted projects, even going as far as having them create houses.

I go to Oceanos once or twice a month and trade. I also visit the observatory once a week, and I pray daily to Lady Neptunia. Eventually this last achievement earns me a capstone clergy perk known as "Living Saint" which bolsters both my own pious abilities and also causes me to be a much more helpful worshiper in how much divine energy I supply those I worship with.

Four and a half months after I first woke up in the dollmaker's lab I get a message from the scout golem I made that she has located something of interest many, many miles away from Oceanos and the estate: a ruined settlement now inhabited by collaborative undead. I know what this. It is a lead on the necromancer and Titania.