Misty flew around the dining hall singing to herself while Miranda, Silvia, Eliza, Dominya, and Raven sat together at one of the tables. Raven looked… Disheveled to say the least. She almost wanted to try to heal her, but… As a type of undead, her healing magic would only cause Raven more harm.

Miranda sighed before speaking again. “You really can’t remember what she said in any better detail? Can you try again, please?”

Eliza looked down at the table, “I’m sorry… She said she went outside and got scared, and there was purple stuff, and then some light, and then she kept yelling that she was back.”

Miranda put a hand to her head and sighed. “And Misty doesn’t seem to want to talk about it herself anymore…” Under her breath, Silvia could just barely make out an additional “Why did the dumb one have to get this information…”

“Can you at least answer me why you were carrying a mirror down the stairs?” Miranda asked, narrowing her eyes at Eliza.

“Well…” She said, shifting in her seat uncomfortably, “You know how in like… Movies in this world where you have a mirror and you reflect it and it opens a secret passage?”

“I can’t believe this…” Miranda said, cupping her head with both hands. “Those types of puzzles depend on there being a RAY of light!”

“Oh. Sorry…” Eliza said sheepishly.

“So, the mirror pulled her off balance after Raven glamoured and then ABANDONED her when she thought she heard me coming.” Dominya snapped.

“I am sorry Mistress. I was wrong to do that.” Raven said in a defeated hollow tone.

“That’s right you were!” Dominya growled “I have half a mind to ask the Mistress to ban you from taking slaves for the rest of this game. But… I suppose I can simply re-take you as my slave after each trial to make sure you behave yourself.”

“Well… There’s not much we can do now.” Miranda said, standing up from the table. “Its getting late. Perhaps Misty will be more willing to talk about her experience in the morning.”

The others nodded, and began to stand up… Then Eliza…

“Ow!” She yelped, as she tried to stand, slumping back down onto the chair.

“What’s wrong?!” Silvia asked rushing over to her side. “Are you hurt?”

“S-Sorry…” Eliza said softly, “Maybe its from when I hit the wall?”

Silvia raised her staff and placed a hand on Eliza’s shoulder. She felt the energy around her swirling… It… Wasn’t much. She’d been in places on Earth with less mana than others but… Never had she been somewhere that had so little to work with…

She cast her spell and felt the energy flow from the tip of her staff down to her hand and into Eliza’s body. It… Wouldn’t be enough to fix her completely but… Maybe she could cast it again in the morning to finish the job.

She helped Eliza to her feet and slowly the two women made their way up to the dormitories.

***

Silvia woke with a start. She thought she heard a slamming sound, and looked around the room. Eliza was gone. She really shouldn’t be running around with that injury of hers…

She got up and walked to the door to their shared room, opening it and peaking out. She recognized Eliza’s purple dress in the distance, rounding the corner towards the stairs. What was that girl doing?! She didn’t have time to get dressed, but she grabbed her staff and ran from their room after Eliza.

By the time she got to the second floor, she expected to see nothing. She was too slow to keep up but… Then she spotted Eliza on the far end of the hall. Why was she taking the long way around? That… Mirror was gone too. That must be why… She had to move most of the way down the hall to reach the mirror anyway. So that was the shortest route.

There was no point in her going all the way down the hall though after her. She could get ahead of her by continuing down the stairs right next to her. Quickly, Silvia ran down the staircase to the bottom floor. Once there, everything seemed eerily still and silent.

She slowly walked through the main hall, looking towards the other staircase she expected to see Eliza come down from but… There was nothing. She began to look around the rest of the room. She spotted the mirror leaning against the front of the throne then… A massive new doorway behind it.

Cautiously, Silvia held her staff in front of herself and approached the doorway. Through it was a long hall and… A naked blonde woman standing in a room in the distance. Was that… Eliza? Where was her dress?

Silvia continued down the long hallway, holding the staff close to her body as she walked barefoot along the stone floor. Her clothing didn’t afford her much actual protection, but somehow wearing only her underwear made her feel more vulnerable…

She arrived at the room, but Eliza remained motionless, standing with her back to her and facing towards a table in the middle of the room. “E-Eliza? What’s going on?” Silvia asked timidly before the woman turned towards her, lust in her eyes and a wide smile on her face.

Eliza lurched forward unnaturally… No… Very naturally… Silvia’s experience as a healer told her immediately what this was…

She allowed herself to be grabbed.

In a moment, Eliza’s lips met hers, and she didn’t resist. She didn’t try to escape, all she did was try to hold her. Support her… Eliza’s injury was still there and if she tried to resist, or tried to escape, she might thoughtlessly exacerbate it in the attempt to pursue…

Silvia knew she wasn’t in danger. The villain was allowed only one slave per round, and non-villains were allowed only one slave per day. The only danger here was accidentally harming Eliza… And if she had to stand here and make gentle love to a beautiful young woman to protect her… She would have to make due.

It wasn’t the first time Silvia had made love to a fellow harem member. In fact, the Leader occasionally did corrupt her and make her seduce women who hadn’t yet joined the harem… This was, however, the first time she’d done it with someone of her own volition… Or as close to her own volition as she could get these days…

They held each other close, and their tongues danced around each other as Silvia ran her hands carefully up and down Eliza’s back. Feeling the length of her spine and trying to diagnose the injury by touch alone. Somewhere along her lower spine, she felt some heat… Some mild swelling…

If it was a knot, she may be able to massage it away while they embraced each other… But if It was a fracture… Only magic could fix it. Her staff had fallen to the floor when Eliza grabbed her, so she couldn’t do anything about it now…

“Silvia? You’re the villain this time?!” Anne’s voice called out. She didn’t sound upset or accusatory, just… Amused? “That’s such bad luck! This would have been a cool one.”

Silvia wanted to answer, but with Eliza’s tongue in her mouth… She couldn’t exactly speak… She wasn’t sure if she would hurt Eliza if she pulled away either…

“Do you need a minute?” Anne asked, “We can wait outside if you want to finish up with her. It’s the least we-”

“If she’s caught, she’s caught!” Dominya’s voice growled “Lets separate them now.”

Silvia turned her head, pulling out of the kiss to speak “Be gentle, please!” She gasped, “Eliza’s still hurt, we don’t want to make it worse!”

“Enslaving someone while they are injured and under your care… I would have expected better from you.” Miranda’s voice spoke. Openly, it sounded disappointed over THIS situation. But… To Silvia…

She felt a pang of guilt… She had enslaved Miranda the night before to force her to get some rest… Apparently the detective figured it out and was… Holding a grudge. She couldn’t exactly blame Miranda for that and this… This looked really bad…

She sighed “Please… I can explain… Just… Please be careful not to hurt her…”

***

Silvia sat in the corner of the room while the rest of the team investigated. She was the primary suspect, and… Well… Only suspect really. The weird thing was… Even though she was caught red handed, she wanted to deny it still.

Anne wasn’t sure what she was planning. Did Silvia really think she could come up with an argument that was interesting enough to waste the Leader’s time, or was she just a sore loser? She supposed it didn’t matter that much in the end.

They had found Eliza’s dress in the middle of the hallway. Discarded where the… “crime” had happened. They found the enslavement tool along with them too.

It was a slightly damp rag hidden in the folds of the dress. They probably wouldn’t have ever found it without Miranda’s detective skills. Of course, Miranda, Olivia and herself knew what it had to be. Enchanted Chloroform. Rather than causing the victim to pass out, it simply melted their mind as they breathed it in. They had to explain the concept to the others, though… Holi became an expert on the topic in a matter of seconds after they told her what it was called.

Having the whole internet accessible in your head… She wasn’t sure if that was something to be jealous of or feel sorry for… The number of times she regretted looking something up on the internet was too great to count…

The group looked around the room, trying to find anything of importance to the case, but it seemed like they had just been making out in here for who knows how long. The whole “crime” took place in the hallway it seemed.

“Hey. Someone take a look at this.” Miranda’s voice spoke. Anne looked over to the table where Miranda was examining some documents.

“Is it a clue?” Anne asked curiously, leaning over Miranda’s shoulder to get a better look.

“In a way.” She said. “Listen to this…”

She shuffled the papers and began to read aloud, “The nightmares have been growing worse. A white face with jet black eyes… Most of our soldiers report seeing it. Morale is low. I tried to ask my Queen for answers but she’s been growing evasive. She spends most of her time now in the mana generation chamber...”

“There are a lot of documents here.” Miranda said “But it seems most of them are reports from the soldiers detailing the nightmares. This one sums it up most concisely.”

“Oh, wow!” Anne said, “Leader really went all out making up a whole story for us to follow! I wonder what happened next!”

Miranda looked over at Anne, and she seemed… Annoyed? There was a long pause before she spoke. “I suppose we’ll find out more in the next secret room. Now… Lets get Eliza and the suspect out of here. I think we’ve found all we can.”

The group gathered back together, and Anne put a hand gently around Eliza’s back and gripped her in a half hug. Slowly she lead Eliza down the hall, trying to support her while they walked. She’d been injured more than a few times herself, so she knew what it was like…

Silvia may have been the healer in the group but… Dominya insisted they no longer interact with each other. Kind of unfortunate their healer got picked to be the villain, really. After seeing Silvia revive Miranda earlier, she thought the game would be a lot safer with her around.

They managed to get through the hallway without anything going wrong, though they were lagging behind the rest of the group. They were apparently heading up to the dining hall to wait for Mistress’s trial announcement. Anne was just walking around the front of the throne when something startled her.

It was Eliza’s voice. “Hey! Hey wait!”

Anne looked at Eliza but she seemed to be completely blank still. That was weird.

“HEY!!! DOWN HERE!!!” Eliza’s voice called out again. Anne looked down, and she saw the mirror. She could see herself in the reflection, and leaning against her was Eliza… Except… Instead of the blank expression the real Eliza had, this Eliza was looking directly at her with full lucidity.

“Uhm… Hello?” Anne said, feeling a bit weird about this…

“You need to listen to me!” Mirror Eliza said, urgency still hanging in her voice “I heard everything, and it wasn’t Silvia!”