It turned out mind reading worked on the basis that each thought someone had formed a minuscule, imperfect rune-- basically unless you could read them on sight, no amount of magic would help. Mind Magic on the whole seemed to be on a similar level of complexity as enchanting, only, you know, on the fly. It was the jazz of enchanting, or something. Sure, there were some basic things one could do, it looked like -- runes to inflame or reduce emotions and sensations -- but there was no way a crash course on it was going to give me much useful.

I closed my eyes and relaxed for a few moments, wrapping an arm around Wren to keep her cuddled close to my side.

I awoke to the sound of talking.

Valentine was back, her eyes red, and she was blinking back tears. "I'm sorry, I'm under direct orders not to tell you." She smiled a little. "Neither of you would be able to help, anyway."

I sat up, blinking, "...did someone die?"

Valentine looked away. "...no. Just... don't ask questions, okay?"

I stared up at her for a long moment, and then an idea sparked in my mind. "Come over here and hold your hands out."

Val blinked, but obediently did so, and I took hold of both of her wrists. She smiled through her tears, bemused. "Is this some sort of wrestling hold you've been studying? I don't think it's a very good one."

"No. Look into my eyes. I can tell by pulse and people's eyes and other signs if they're lying or not." This was of course, an outright lie-- I had read how lie detectors work, and according to what I had read, if you can make the subject believe they work, you can play into their insecurities and make them nervous, so their pulse actually does increase when they lie, making it readable. So all I had to do is the same thing here, and... it could actually be an excellent way to test if people were lying in this world, as long as they played along.

So if people believed it, it wasn't a lie, I guess?

Val pulled her hands back-- she wasn't playing along. "Look, I'd like to tell you, but... yeah. If you knew, you'd just make the situation worse. Sorry."

She sat down on the side of the bed and stroked my forehead gently, sniffling.

Wren, by my side but propped up on her elbow, now, stared up at her. "Someone's getting executed."

Val sighed. "...Probably, yeah. I'm not letting either of you out of this room."

I tried to struggle up, but was held down by the light pressure of Val's hand on my forehead--- I still hadn't recovered much physical strength. "We can't just... what if they're innocent!?"

"She's confessed, Sasha. She started to go over exactly how she had betrayed the Princess before I left to come back here, too."

"Why would she...? Who confessed? Kalei? Ava?"

"...Velt."

I stared up at Valentine in shock. The kind, warm girl who had welcomed me here? Who had pressed her boob against my arm? Who had said this harem could become my home? "Velt!?"

"She assigned herself to watch over everyone new coming in... and apparently that was because she was keeping tabs on them for Princess Adeline. She passed a message outside that helped you get ambushed... There's no way our Princess is just going to forgive her for that."

"I'll forgive her! It was me who was in danger, right? Let me go!"

"I can't, Sasha. And it wasn't just you she endangered."

I glared up at her. "You're killing her by not letting me act, you coward!"

Valentine stared down at me. "I genuinely don't think you being there would make any difference."

"I... I don't think she's a bad person! She must've had her reasons!"

"She probably did," said Wren, "but that doesn't change the fact that she's a traitor."

"If the circumstances are extenuating enough, our Princess might forgive her." Val sounded extremely doubtful about this.

"So we're just going to let her die!?"

"Tell me what your plan is, Sasha. Are you going to go beat up Princess and whoever stands in your way?"

I fell silent. I didn't have the strength for that normally, much less now. "I... I don't know." Fuck, now I was crying.

Wren was the only one not crying now... well, she didn't know Velt as well.

"Zince will be by later. If they need someone to question her, or to question Kalei and Ava, you might have a shot with that lie detection of yours. But... getting more involved will probably just hurt you more."

"I'm not scared of being hurt, it's just... I hate being powerless. I want to save her."

"Even if you had the power to do that with your other body, do you think it would be a good idea?"

"I..." I put my hands together and closed my eyes, praying to a god I didn't even believe in.

"...what are you doing, Mistress Sasha?" Wren sounded a bit confused.

"Praying to some god or goddess to intervene on her behalf."

"...pretty sure the gods are all dead."

"Yeah, and I don't really believe in the ones in the world I come from. I just... need to pretend to believe I'm doing something, okay? So it feels like I'm doing my best rather than just waiting for Velt to get executed." I started sobbing again. "I'd pray to Princess Asperia if she could hear me."

Neither my Princess nor any other gods heard my prayers-- or if they did, they didn't answer them.

Val softly said the trial of hands had ended, and that Velt was dead.

"...fuck. Why couldn't our Princess just...."

Val stroked my cheek. "Well, she left it up to the harem-- people decided she couldn't be trusted anymore. That's what the trial of hands is."

I nodded slowly, sniffling a little... I was mostly cried and prayed out, and just felt kind of dead and hopeless inside. "...I suppose that makes sense."

Valentine nodded, snuggling me into her lap. "If she actually wanted Velt dead for sure, she would've just executed her personally-- she could hardly offer to give a disloyal slave to someone else, she couldn't release her, and her dying later because someone thinks she makes the harem unsafe would've just led to more internal strife... this was the best path she had."

"I wonder why Velt just... sacrificed her life like that."

Wren stared off into space. "Well, either she was feeling guilty about what she had done to you, setting you up for getting kidnapped or killed... or she's protecting someone else. Trying to take the blame for Kalei or Ava. Or both."

Valentine made a soft rumbly "hmmm" that resonated through her body and into mine. "Yeah, I'm guessing neither of them will get released immediately. She said she acted on her own, and gave the method that people got in and out of the harem... so at least that security hole is patched up."

"Maybe she hoped people would have a little more mercy for her."

"...maybe," Valentine responded. "She was always an optimist, or so it seemed. She said she passed along information to them because she got information back, and was hoping it'd be enough to protect everyone... but when her information put you in danger, she felt she had gone too far. Well, knowing about the breach in our defenses is a big deal, I guess."

I ran my hands over my arms and legs-- it didn't do much for all the fatigue that had accumulated, but it did at least fix the small tears I had made in my muscles... wait, could healing magic be used for strength training? It'd probably be bad for your body in the long run, though....

I shook my head and stood up a little shakily. "I'm going to pull myself together and go talk to our Princess. I... I don't want anyone else dying."

Wren furrowed her brow. "Maybe you should wait on that. Odds are, they've both been told Velt was given a trial but is dead, and aren't being actively tortured while that's given a chance to sink in."

"And," added Valentine, "Everything I've heard about Princess says you don't want to go and bother her right after she had to kill one of her girls-- even if she didn't do it personally. She's probably an emotional mess right now."

"She could've just acted differently!" I buried my head in Valentine's chest. Because of slavery and her position, I wasn't really sure there was anything else she could've done. Sold her off to the general populace, perhaps. Imprisoned her for the rest of her life... unless she could change the mind of her harem that Velt had apparently betrayed hundreds of times, there wasn't really anything she could do.

A trial of hands... it must've been a majority vote that Velt died.

More of my "sister slaves" in the harem than not had voted for Velt's death.

It all made sense, and it all made me sick.

This, as Velt had said, was my home now.