Less than a foot apart, meditating on the bed that seemed to be the only part of the space remaining stable, Richard and Elowyn continued bonding to strength then their connection. Joined at the hands, fingers interlocked, breathing in-sync, energy resembling the magnetism cycled through them in waves. Elowyn found it very calming, mostly-ministrant to excise the worry occasionally returning to plague her concentration. She found it much harder than expected to let go of the need to strategize exactly how to escape the literally-layered situation that could turn dire quickly; it wasn't that she didn't trust Richard's guidance, but more being unable to shake the feeling that something was...missing. 

The meaning of that emptiness met the calming wave every time it returned to her. The connection between them was delicate enough to notice, and Richard every other breath whispered his mantric phrase. 

"A calm mind is controlled, is freed, is mine."

It grew easier to resist the urge to smirk at the words, knowing it was his constant line of defense against her domineering efforts. Having become a component of what could save them felt like cruel irony, but the more he spoke it, the more she noticed some words were more emphasized than others for her.

"A ***calm*** mind is controlled, is ***freed,*** is mine."

Richard's cadence stretched out "calm" to keep her in the necessary state, as it "freed" her from all her incessant plotting, to focus on the only thing they needed right now. Elowyn still smirked at sensing Richard believing some of her thoughts were "incessant."

His rhythmic breathing stopped abruptly, sensing something from outside the void, opening his eyes to look up from the bed, prompting her to do the same.

"We're moving. It...feels like we're moving together," he informed

"How can you tell?"

"I can sense it somehow from beyond here, a consistent rumbling with minor shifts that could be a car engine revving. But also, our connective energies don't feel stretched. That's about the most educated deduction I can make."

"Can you tell where we're going, or how long we've been here?"

"The 'where' I can't judge. How long is even harder; the displacement of time between here and reality is strangely always in-flux. The disparity could be minutes to seconds, or weeks to minutes. It all depends on-"

"Your state of mind?"

"Our state of mind now, actually."

Elowyn nearly huffed at the vague points that made up what the sanctuary she meant to remodel and only symbolically occupy. She saw a shade of the real sanctuary flash over the background before asking another question.

"Is there supposed to be a limit to how long you can remain this way in real-world time?"

"I've never gone beyond an hour or so, for experimentation purposes."

They both frowned, knowing it could easily exceed an hour of reality before a likely escape was possible.

"Do you know who's around our bodies now?"

"That I also can't tell."

"So when is our great escape really supposed to take place?"

"Right now? At least when we stop moving. I'd rather not have to wake up to jump out of a moving car."

"That's assuming we're not in straight jackets or something imprisoning already."

"I agree with your frustrations, but we should get back to meditating for now, okay?"

Succumbing to the situation, Elowyn closed her eyes, and focused on the energy again.

"A calm mind is controlled, is freed, is mine," he whispered trying to get back into a groove.

The entire phrase just prompted more questions in Elowyn.

"Before you even ask," Richard uttered before Elowyn's lips could move. "There was no advantage to using this on you early on in the brainwashing, you h-at that point, it was better to wait you out."

"Waiting for me to slip up and take advantage?"

"Yes, Elowyn."

"Like the other families would have."

"Yes Elowyn, you're better than them, and you certainly got the best of me recently. Go ahead and feel good about that, but meditate now, questions later."

"Maybe answers to my questions and proper context would help me focus better. And my curiosity won't allow for much concentration with unanswered questions. As long as time is more affordable compared to out there, you might as well give my mind more context," Elowyn reasoned. "I'm not asking you to start from the beginning or-"

Richard couldn't help but rest his head in his hand, trying to mask how irked he was. A slight gasp from Elowyn jolted him back up to notice the background taking specific definition. He gasped as well as the surroundings around the bed frame were all too recognizable. A dusty, warm breeze crossed their bodies as the once-meditative pair, something Richard knew all too well, and hated how chilling it would be accompanied by snow. The breeze nearly pushed a lone, worn figure towards an old, well-maintained Nepalese structure. Elowyn quickly deduced the figure as a younger Richard Thorn, carrying the vitality of a 20 year old in his movements, as well as the inexperience and unassurety of one on his face.

Richard almost winced, watching his past self stumble through all his juvenile fumbles, starting with pounding the door hard instead of a gentle knock that would gain entry It ended up being the first lesson he was to learn - the soft approach elicits strong results. Hours of banging desperately against the door gave him nothing; only when they were weak enough to resemble gentle knocks did the door come gently ajar for him.

Several wise monks awaited him in a strange hall, with taller, bulkier ones waiting nearby, probably serving as temple guardians. Elowyn felt the younger version dehydration, and noticed it made present-Richard's throat dry as well, as pleas of being taken on as a pupil weakly rang through the halls. The wise men said nothing, silently considering turning him away, when he collapsed.

"What a first impression you made," Elowyn couldn't help but say, surprised her words echoed in the hall, but didn't register to any past figures. Richard was surprised as well.

"They can't hear us?" Elowyn whispered.

"I don't think we can affect past projections in our heads," Richard made an educated guess, unaware that such internal memories could be so vivid. 

"Nice to know you were so driven in your youth as well," she spoke, watching the scene shift from the temple hall to his small quarters, where young Richard was up, reading something intently. Elowyn curiously tested their uncharted waters and stepped away from the bed and up to a studious pre-Quant, waving her hands in front of him, whispering in his ear to see if anything effected the background manifestation. 

Actual Richard ignored the tingling in his ear based off what had to be vicarious want and went into deep consideration himself. The effort it took to create his original bunker spanned long months, working off his memories of often visiting the Library of Congress to create a smaller replica. Never before had he seen or even heard of visions shading his internal architecture with so little effort. Even Elowyn's impressive bid on it probably took time to establish. Richard wondered if he underestimated the evolution of control of his own mind, or...

"How typical," Elowyn sat next to young-Richard on his bench, reading the contents of the book in his hand, fighting back a scornful feeling. "Westerner travels to the far east acquiring specialized skills to bring a reckoning back to their native West," Elowyn laughed aloud to herself. Richard kept his laughter inside at how his origins literally resembled old comics and detective stories.

"You must've been some kind of novelty here, or even a celebrity."

Shifts began again to young-Richard studying alone, dining alone, meditating and training alone while others formed small cliques away from him, making their quiet comments. Only occasionally having misgivings about his treatment, he was mostly fine with having only the attention of the instructing elders.

"Not nearly, I wasn't the first white man, or first eventual government agent, to be accepted into their teachings."

"Don't all Quants require the same skillset?"

"Not all. The job is still mainly a highly-specialized numbers game. But the Soombakiya became a requirement once someone from the West could teach it regularly."

"Is that right, Professor Thorn?" she laughed lightly. 

"It would've had to be that way. My tenure at the temple may have soured them on Westerners going forward. Several monks only celebrated my premature departure, based on a bothering affect that rubbed even the ones that liked me the wrong way."

"Obstinate," Elowyn guessed.

"Too smart for my own good, too inquisitive and ready to push the envelope."

She looked upon most of the temple interiors with wonder, and longing, if present-Richard sensed correctly. "We could've been kindred spirits had I been there too. Both striving through infamy," Elowyn freely smirked.

Richard rolled his eyes, focusing hard on the next shifting. 

"Infamy doesn't last long here. I was adept at things they never expected me to learn. Most never expected me to be fit enough for janitorial work there, they got scared when I was mastering techniques at speeds unheard of. Granted most of them were lifers there, so they had no reason to speed things up."

"But you did?" Elowyn turned to see a montage of sessions of him and other practitioners, competing palms pressed against one another, fingertips held at rivaling temples, all exercises to see whom would fall first. One-by-one, Richard did them all in, young and old, novices and masters, and the crowd always grumbling in disbelief, while his masters bore looks of tepid veneration. Pride set in for how it was known she took him years later when he had grown much more proficient.

"Oddly enough, no. I was in no rush either. I didn't expect to spend my whole life there, maybe a decade. I certainly didn't expect to out-learn everyone in half that."

"What triggered your expulsion?"

Elowyn smiled at the shift of a quiet order that raised their voices over a claim young-Richard was making. The angriest of them paced the hall while the Western pupil sat quietly, almost in meditation. When the angry monk decided to approach him, something changed in the expression of both of them, and pupil and monk staring at one another fell to the floor, looking more than blank or unfocused. Oddly enough, they looked out of body when Elowyn knew from experience they were in-body. 

"They said you...you shouldn't do Myatrika?"

"***Couldn't*** do it, to which my response was...doing it, to my loudest detractor. They were so convinced that they didn't even tell me the name for it; I had to come up with a name for it, after being excused."  

"Comical how an adept rule-breaker found his calling in law enforcement."

"Under different circumstances, it would be a sick kind of comical how a woman feeling trapped is getting her freedom enslaving others."

The background deftly returned to the library bunker, as Elowyn turned to glare at Richard.

***

In the parking lot of the Four Seasons, an SUV pulled towards the entrance. At 2 am, the bellhop on shift sometimes saw some unusual things, including powerful or recognizable figures stumbling out of their cars drunk or unseemly, all things that swore every bellhop to professional secrecy. It struck that bellhop in a different way for a young beauty to emerge from the car, and focus her attention totally on him. A middle-aged man speaking to a woman at least 10 years his junior that wasn't intoxicated seemed all too strange. It was as strange as her explanation on numbers, the way her fingers played with singular or groups of pearls, the way their soft collision isolated everything but her voice...the last thought he had of strangeness was how hers made everything seemed normal.

It was normal to help her lead the car to the service entrance in the rear, out of sight. It was normal to find out for her  what room a prominent figure was in. And it was second nature for him to call the room number in case dangerous or desperate-looking men appeared that night. After their normal exchange, the bellhop forgot what transpired, with an embedded trigger planted in case
remembering under certain circumstances who made things rationally normal to him.

With the SUV parked in the service, Hypatia led Junior and the hypnotized guard, each carrying Elowyn and Richard, up to one of the suites of the 25th floor. Softly knocking on the door, Hypatia awaited a young woman who greatly resembled her exact look, down to the hair style. 

"Yes?" the young woman yawned.

"Good evening Athena; would you mind letting us in?"

The strange question made the Greek heiress more awake, wondering why sleepy-looking people were carrying unconscious people behind her look alike.

Hypatia sighed, almost forgetting Athena's imbedded trigger. "Pearls before wine." 

The strange phrase struck her to silence, enough for Hypatia to easily push her way into the room, making her focus on the pearl bracelet while the Richard and Elowyn were placed on the bed.

Keeping a party animal like Athena Alexiou in her suite for the duration of her American pilgrimage wasn't easy, but necessary for the ruse Hypatia needed; the Parnassus family would've wanted to deal with a family member directly rather than an assigned inspector. And the family surely would silently thank her for keeping their daughter safe, even pacified away from home. She would need to get in-touch with them soon to appraise them of the situation, once things were settled as far as their suite.

With Athena as cooperative as the men, she helped in bringing three movable chairs into the bedroom where Hypatia had them sit and deepened each of their trances to keep them cooperative. After things seemed settled, Hypatia took the deepest breath she had in a long while, staring at the comatose bodies on the bed, wondering what was going on inside, hoping it wouldn't be long before they woke up.

Just as she thought about getting a quick shower, the guard's phone rang in his pocket. His trance was deep enough to ignore any sound but her pearls or voice, but she still decided to answer it, knowing who was on the other end.

"Baltimore Holiday Inn, how may I direct your call?" she chirped into the phone in her American accent.

"You little bitch. Where-" Cameron began a tirade.

"I'm sorry, we have no guest here by that name sir, unless you like to make a reservation."

"The Alexiou woman better be safe for your sake."

"You mean ***your*** sake Cameron, and yours too Senior, if this is a conference call. How do you think her family will take to being a permanent missing person on your watch?"

"Look Matron, or whoever you're supposed to be, let my son, Athena, my wife, and the Quant go, and you get to walk away without us pursuing you. Considering all the trouble you've caused recently, that's more than a fair deal," Tennyson Sr spoke up.

"The way your wife and certain listeners on this call saw you balk on deals tonight, I'm filled with a strange apprehension to believe any of that," she switched to her Greek accent to chide them.

"No deals tonight, girlie. Just stay on the run so we can keep hunting you. Don't delude yourself with ideas of leniency."

"And I wouldn't delude yourself into believing this will go how you want it to."

Hypatia left her cryptic threat hang in the air, ending the call before another threatening word could be spoken.

The likelihood of them being found would be extremely low if not for their determination of fixing a situation they would totally be accountable for. But that small chance still kept the young hypnotist in a state of constant unease. Hypatia wondered if choosing a side as clearly as to escape with them, technically kidnapping them, was the soundest tactic; catching them all by surprise at the estate could have been the quickest means of suppressing the threat, but she had no idea how the other heads of families and representatives would act, or who would support the Lion Tamer over the Lioness Parnassus.

Walking over to the bed, Hypatia checked vitals, finding the expected pace of someone that out of it. Opening Elowyn's lids to check his pupils, she sighed heavily. Doing the same to Richard, she gave Vector a firm slap across his face. 

"You really need to wake up soon," Hypatia uttered. 

Determined to be productive with her time instead of panicking for however long the wait was to be, she quickly got Junior's attention, and started whispering commands that would make him submissively horny for her, deferring to every suggestion directed at pleasing his lover. He grew hard just from the sound of her voice, until he strained in his pants; grateful moans filled the room as she lowered her pants and undergarments in one fluid motion, climbing on top to fucking him hard. 

Traces of pheromones lingered on him, which only heightened the sensations as pleasure was open-ended with his instruction, and all he wanted at that moment was to please her. Everything felt amazing to Junior, but one missing element made him whine, communicating to Hypatia what he wanted. She smirked, happy to hear he'd become sensitive to its absence. Her hands soon found their way to his head, with sound of the pearls of her bracelet colliding completing the enthralling composition. She came hard twice on his engorged cock, before slipping out of him, timing the clicking pearls to the edge of his orgasm.

"Proper Parnassus."

A silent scream left his mouth, head barely thrashing as Hypatia gripped his hair. Separate floodgates opened, running parallel, further cementing changes in the mind and body as Junior came off his high, falling into the persona resembling him, soon to replace what was. Getting his breathing under control, his head was tilted back to stare up at Hypatia, and the former playboy's selfish heart melted in a liquid mass of infatuation. 

"Hi," he said sweetly, almost meekly.

"Hi back," she leaned down to kiss him, lips leading his in a way he was slowly coming to love. Conditioning continued to turn seductive habits into simpering ones, putting the idea of other women (and other thoughts) out of his mind with mind-blowing sex, leaving a properly-humbled and grateful man in his wake.

She broke the kiss to let them breathe after a while, him noticing they weren't at his home anymore.

"Change of scenery?"

"We had to run away from home for a little bit."

"Are you okay," concern laced a voice that used to be constantly nonchalant.

"We're fine, for now. There are some men chasing us, but I don't expect them to find us soon; it might be easier to keep you this way for now while w-"

"Is Cameron Donatell chasing us?"

"Yes, why?"

"We need to go," he got up to zip up his own pants, helping Hypatia to put hers back on.

"He won't know where to find us."

"He will if he put a tracker in my phone."

"W-why would he do that?"

"Because I'm his secret contact inside the Parnassus family; he would do that, even with people he trusted when profit is at stake."

As if on cue, the hotel room phone rang to confirm Junior's fear.

Hypatia picked it up to speak to a bellhop sounding confused as to why he called; Hypatia's voice cut through the confusion and confirmed that several hurried men from an SUV had just arrived. 

"Shit," the hypnotist uttered before hanging up. 

Ordering the hypnotized to pick up the still-comatose on the bed, she picked up the phone to call hotel security, hoping to slow Tennyson Sr. and Cameron down as Hypatia would try to escape.

***

"As much as I continue to enjoy being revered or deified by you," Elowyn continued to argue in her favor, missing flashes of coerced worship behind her form that caught Richard off-guard. "I've never tried to be a candidate for sainthood. Living the life I've wanted is virtuous enough, especially when everyone around you won't let you have any semblance of it."

"Privilege always seems to warp one's sense of 'options.'"

"You would assume I had privilege to assert. Means, but not privilege. As a Yearwood, when your clothes, friends, schools and suitors are hand-picked for you without consult or consent, should I have been privileged to receive something I never wanted?"

Having no idea what a younger Elowyn was supposed to look like, shades of her face appeared on young women of different ages, all standing unhappily at attention, awaiting orders from her parents. It was painfully hard to note how Ella might look like that if she was aware and following orders.

"But you wanted to be a Quant?"

"I wanted to be Vector, or what Vector is that makes the name infamous, with that clever defining of 'math' and 'magnetism'. One of the few times I went past petty rebelliousness and broke away from the affluent conditioning." 

The same young Elowyn that grew taller, never evolving beyond standing at attention, somehow stepped away, walking away from her family and home, running to make her own life.

"Applied for government work that Quants get, to no avail; not that I wasn't qualified, but the Yearwoods had connections to make sure that that such a career path wasn't an option."

Richard knew the exact building, the layout of the office where she would've applied. It was where he found Ella who became Subprime. It was where he sat after leaving the temple, ready to start a career he became renowned for. It was where he watched the background changed to show collegiate-Elowyn sitting down for her interview, a controlled smile failing to mask an eagerness that made both Richard and the normally-staunch interviewer wince. Elowyn must've been an exceptional student and applicant, cultivated to be the former for someone's trophy wife. But Richard knew even at the level of applicancy, the process could be influenced.

Richard and Elowyn both watched the light leave her eager face, having an easier time holding in her disappointment; he almost hated how she must've had more experience in that regard. Present-Elowyn did the same, ever used to disappointment, staring at him with unmasked disdain.

"And I'm very familiar that temple you spoke of; researching what makes a stellar Quant led me to it, up to the entrance since they wouldn't allow me past it."

A determined young-Elowyn making the same harsh trek he did, knowing no amount of soft knocking would get her over the threshold. Even if she were told that she sought an order strictly-comprised of men, Richard actually felt sorry for her, knowing she would have to return the same long way she came to survive. Completing her life up to the present, young-Elowyn returned to her standing at attention, this time wearing a wedding dress, standing next to a younger Tennyson Sr., in a cathedral where everyone was smiles but her.

"Would you still like to talk to me about privilege?" Her scornful tone hit him harder than expected, but he still used reasoning to fight back.

"You could've found happiness elsewhere; you didn't have to be a Quant of all things. How did you even come across Quant powers?"

"Blame the one investigating the Yearwoods many years ago, even before your time," a smile crept onto Elowyn's face almost instantly.

"What?"

"Yes, as it happens, you weren't nearly my first run-in with Quants. I was a precocious ten years old when the first came to investigate my family. I couldn't care less how much the family saved cleverly evading a stricter wealth tax, or that a special auditor had come to investigate. But hearing whispers in the hallways I ran across that this man had rumored mind-control capabilities that frightened even the likes of my father and what Quants are supposed to be, I constantly followed our 'welcomed auditor around.'"

Richard couldn't imagine a child tailing him as he did his job, but Elowyn made it easy to see with how jubilantly she described it.

"I spied him around every corner I could, watching him investigate, ask questions, and strangely shake a lot of hands. Hearing recognizable voices turn oddly lost and agreeable, knowing that was the power of Quants...it explained so much why my overbearing father never wanted to be alone around him. Can you imagine how formative it is to introduce that to someone whom feels constant powerlessness?"

Shades of the young-Elowyn reappeared again in the background, but now she was smiling, capturing fleeting moments of imagining wielding mystical control beyond mere hypnotism. Watching that smile grow more wicked past her college years stirred memories of what she had done.

"But how did you come to possess it when the other opportunities were not available to you?"

"Ingenuity is the mother of necessity. Short of finding someone and hiring them to teach me what they know, especially hard for someone bearing the names Yearwood or Parnassus, the easiest way to find a Quant is to have them come to you. My third attempt at Quantitative power came well-after I was married off to Parnassus's, hiding in plain sight as a seemingly-unconcerned trophy wife. Replicating my father's financial issues as a Parnassus was child's play, with all the illegal activities they were already connected to, particularly barbiturates. With enough time and research, I had a powerful concoction ready to chemically make someone agreeable and suggestible, well before the Quant ever showed. Once he did, and consumed gradually more and more doses in his daily coffee's, he was quite...amenable to having part of his duties teaching me his skills, deputizing and training me in case he would need help with his work."

Present-Elowyn stood before a lesser known Quant in the background, the days passing with each sip of coffee he took. In trying to understand how any Quant could be so incompetent as to miss it, his form stood in-place of the thirsty investigative auditor. The evolution of his face growing blanker, obliviously-consuming his coffee on autopilot while Elowyn's smile evolved to a nakedly-evil one....Richard tried not to think that hard about it.

"I picked up on the Soombakiya quickly, employing it on him to cement the influence I want, and acquired some other smaller skills that proved not nearly as useful. Fairly unschooled Quant that he was, biggest contribution, of course, was pointing me in the direction of the most powerful one, the one I now possess."

***

"25th floor," Cameron stated, the tracking program on his phone leading Tennyson and a few more of his soldiers to Hypatia as the elevator swiftly climbed the building.

"You track all your men this diligently?" Tennyson Sr. asked, spared specific details.

"It pays to be thorough," Cameron didn't bother looking up from his phone to confirm or deny anything.

A sharp sound on his phone indicated the phone had drastically changed position, to the ground level. 

"How are they on the ground so fast?" Tennyson asked, ready to stop the elevator car.

"They dropped the phone from the window, trying to trick us. No need to deviate," Cameron informed them.

As they arrived on the 25th floor, down the hall Cameron's group found two burly guards waiting to meet them at the other end. 

"Sirs, you need to come with us now please."

Cameron sighed, exasperated; his men took that as a sign to take care of the annoyance ahead, but a gesture from him made them stand down.

"Tennyson, your Doll?"

Cameron and his men cleared the way for Delphine to step out in-front, innocently beginning to spray a fresh application of the strongest batch of  pheromones on herself, and in the direction of their targets.

"Gentlemen, can you help us," a timid voice belied assertive footsteps. The hotel's security almost recoiled back as the first waft of the strong scent hit them, then their senses pulled them forward towards Delphine who immediately invaded their personal space.

"We need your help. You want to help us. You're supposed to help us. It's your job, it's your duty. Start helping us...by listening carefully." 

The murmured authority Delphine's voice pleased Tennyson Sr. to no end, waiting for Elowyn to take her Delphine's place for once in serving the master of their house. The security guards quickly became reduced to deep breaths, relaxed muscles, and receptive thinking. Tennyson explained the situation to them as the size of their search party grew.

"Damn, I should've taken Delphine with me," Hypatia cursed herself from a room adjacent to where Athena Alexiou stayed. Before either group arrived on their floor, Hypatia quickly woke one of Athena's neighbors, and inserted herself into their room and their minds, insisting on  a deeper sleep than before her group arrived.

Their temporary haven was quiet, almost pitch black if not for outside light pouring in the room. Elowyn and Richard remained cradled in strong, manipulated arms, not willing to commit to this place and be cornered if Hypatia could help it. While she waited, she took her time to observe both of them. Their inner emotions light rose to the surface in minuscule displays. Training under Dr. Thorn, she was made to assist even in observing the extent and details. She was made to observe the effects of this kind of mind-melding and learned to pick out subtle ticks that meant a great deal inside their minds. The smile Elowyn began to bore on the outside world meant she was probably being manipulated, and didn't even know it.

As desperate as Hypatia was for Quantitative assistance, between them, she would have preferred Elowyn, for several reasons including tactical. Hypatia knew better than anyone how far Richard would go, what he might sacrifice to regain his sense of self if it ever lost. And since no one has ever taken it to Elowyn's degree, he was willing to wait until they were all in mortal peril until he regained full control, no matter what sense of self-piousness typically guided him otherwise. 

Calming herself, Hypatia looked down at her hand, wondering if it was worth the gambit of trying to manifest the Soombakiya Richard and Elowyn had mastered before her. For her, it would take concentration she possibly couldn't afford, and energy she might need to save in case things went south in a hurry. Half-expecting Cameron's forces to do a thorough sweep of the suites on their floor, Hypatia had to wait to see what came first between someone waking up, or someone finding their hiding place.