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The entire central chamber of the palace had become the primary chambers of the Jade Harem. It was decorated with silk and satin curtains, while plush cushions littered the floor. Statues of nude women stood in every corner and alcoves, lending a sultry charm to the environment. Incense sweetened the air, as did the scent of beautiful women who lounged and made love in the palace of passion.

In the center of the chamber was a raised platform on which stood six thrones, one for each of the primary masters. Frank, Roric, Zillix, Rajeen, Blackbast and Chandice. They would sit in their thrones to talk and watch the girls make love, often while a girl or two pleasured them.

It was in this environment of love and beauty that Roric, Rajeen, and Chandice sat to discuss Frank's recent tests. Chandice sat beside Roric with a smile on her face as a lovely elven harem girl licked between her legs. It was one of the delights of being a master of the harem, and Chandice savored every moment of it. She stroked the back of the woman's head, caressing behind her ears as that soft tongue did its work, licking her clit hungrily.

“Enjoying yourself?” Rajeen asked as Chandice arched her back.

“More than I can say,” Chandice remarked with a smile. “I never dreamed I would be free to snap my fingers at a girl and demand she lick my pussy.”

“I enjoy that myself,” Rajeen said with a smile as she sat back. “And I am glad you are enjoying your place at our side.”

“Well, I appreciate it,” Chandice replied. “But let's be clear, I am not truly a master. I am only here because my husband is, and the rest of you were generous enough to allow me to sit at his side.”

“You are as welcome here as any of us are,” Rajeen insisted as Chandice moaned. “And I insist you enjoy the girls as much as you want.”

“Oh, I intend to,” Chandice said as she hooked a leg over the arm of her throne to give the woman more access. “I love this.”

“So what do you think we should do about the tests Frank and Blackbast ran?” Roric said as he thought about how the tests run the night before. Frank and Blackbast put Hannah through a battery of sexual encounters testing to see which one earned her the most experience. They proved that significant experience could be gained by the succubi and any girl who was a sex a slave. Now, the decision of what to do with that information was the key matter, and if it was important to level the girls. Surely, it would only help the kingdom if its principal leaders were higher level, especially as they made enemies.

They debated the topic for over an hour while Chandice enjoyed her girl. She dreamed of it being Jaina down on her knees, licking at her pussy like she did that day they started dating. She wondered where the little slut was when in walked Frank, Hannah, Quinny, and Blackbast. Chandice dismissed the girl and sat up straight, smiling as the group giggled about what she had been doing. The trio approached the thrones smiling and joined the conversation with a few kisses before explaining why they had come.

Chandice and Legeis had been working on a machine that blended goblin technomancy with enchanted magic. It was designed to study magical items and effects, learning about their power and how they worked. The first iteration of the machine tended to destroy the items and had even been used to do a cursory scan of Hannah. What they learned from those tests drove Legeis and Chandice to work harder, building a second machine with far more power. It had safeguards built into the design to stabilize the magic at play. Recent testing proved it was far more powerful than the first machine and infinitely more stable.

Now Frank explained that they wanted to run more tests on Hannah’s crown to try and unlock its secrets. They were very focused on learning why the goblin crown had failed to recover Hannah’s memories. They had approached Chandice a little while ago about running the tests, and Chandice asked for more time to get things ready. Now, it was ready, and the group was assembled, so there was no reason to delay what they all wanted to know.

“It’s ready if this is what you want to do,” Chandice said as she locked eyes with Hannah. “I will do everything I can to get answers.”

“I need you to push hard,” Hannah insisted. “We need solid answers, and I am willing to do what it takes to get them.”

“Let’s be careful about this,” Rajeen cautioned. “I feel terrible that I reawakened this desire, and I will lament what I said if this leads to harm.”

“It isn't your fault,” Frank said as he stepped up to pull her into a hug. “We are glad for what you said to her. She was thinking about this in the back of her mind, and she needs to know the truth.”

“If the woman in the crown is somehow blocking your memory return,” Chandice surmised. “I can’t guarantee we will be able to prove that, but we should learn something.”

“Something is better than nothing,” Hannah said as Blackbast took her hand. “How soon can we begin?”

“Right now,” Chandice smiled and looked to Roric. “If that’s alright with you.”

“By all means,” Roric said with a wave. “If we are going to do this, there is no point in delaying.”

Chandice saw the happy bounce in Hannah's eyes as she suggested they find the others. Roric took Chandice by the hand and stood up to begin the journey to the hidden lair of the goblin. The first machine had been built in Legeis's workshop, and it was a large crude device. While it served its purpose, it wasn't magical and lacked a great deal of focus. Chandice had an enchanting lab in her treehouse, where Hannah's crown had been tested the first time. Now that room and the goblin machine had been combined, turned into one highly tuned magical instrument.

Breanne and Umtha were already in the harem and readily agreed to join. Gisley, Jaina, and Evalynn were off galavanting, most likely having sex with strange men in the forest. They were left to play as the group headed through a magical door, passing through the jade temple and into Hannah's hidden mountain-face home. The entrance to Legeis's lair was hidden inside the mountain, and Chandice knew the way well. She had spent hours down here now, helping to enchant and tune the carefully crafted magical devices that made up the second machine.

Deep in the lower tunnels, they entered a wonderland of metal and blinking lights. It looked more like the set of a steampunk movie with thick, chunky cables, oddly shaped dials, and steam hissing from pipes.

Goblin engineers hurried about, working on various projects in a dozen side chambers. Everywhere, there was activity and the sounds of goblins hammering away as they crafted new equipment.

Hannah pointed into a room, asking about a strange eight-legged machine with a seat like a cockpit. Frank answered that it was spider mount Legeis had been working on for the goblins, but it wasn’t ready yet. Umtha complained that he was taking too long to finish it and that he had too many projects going on at once.

Chandice understood that to be more than true, as she had been helping the goblin with several of them. It was one thing to build a goblin machine out of base metals like iron or bronze. But it was another thing altogether to have those parts enchanted so that they did their various tasks better. Chandice even enchanted some parts to mimic mechanical motion, allowing for some devices to be simplified. Several of those parts were being used to make the spider walkers work, and the results so far were promising.

One room held racks of shining weapons with mechanical parts like pistons and power cables. Hannah asked what they did, and Frank answered again, explaining that they delivered extra damage from various types. It could be force, lightning, or even fiery explosions based on the weapon and the power source. Legeis had been perfecting several types to use with his war suit so that he had a great deal more stopping power.

Everywhere Hannah looked, she saw something that amazed her. She nearly stumbled when they passed the room that held Legeis's armor, only to see two different suits in various stages of construction beside it.

“He’s building more?” Hannah asked in surprise.

“Just prototypes,” Chandice replied. “He said you did something to the original suite to bring it to life. I am helping him try to magically enchant the new suits so they don't require such drastic measures.” By drastic measure, Chandice meant using a kingdom heart to tear an NPC spirit from the void and bind it to the suite. It effectively turned the suite into a golem with no real mind of its own. All it knew was how to interpret commands given to it by controls placed in a cockpit where its head should be. It left Legeis exposed, and the armor's movements were always delayed a fraction of a second.

The new suits were more directly controlled by Legeis, who would wear a harness inside the shell. The harness would allow him freedom of movement while the armor copied his actions. Here, he would be much safer and able to react quickly to a changing battlefield. Chandice wished Hannah could see the blueprints for one of Legeis’s proposed projects. She only knew it by the title on the blueprints that hung in a side room, but the name Titan 40k evoked a sense of power. It was a flight of pure fantasy that boggled her imagination the first time she grasped the true scale of the device.

They passed a heavy metal door labeled ammunition that was guarded by two of the human-sized goblins with heavy metal plates augmented by mechanical parts. They stood like imposing sentinels, denying access to a room full of explosives.

Quinny commented on how near the place was, and Breanne countered that it was disturbing. She was troubled that a human mind, with its knowledge of weapons and warfare from their world, was teaching the goblins how to recreate it. Frank pointed out that while Legeis had access to what could be called gunpowder, it wasn't truly the same. It could recreate some of what they might think of as firearms, but they were crude and difficult to refine into advanced weapons. Breanne took a little comfort from that but quickly frowned as they passed a room where what looked like a cannon stood.

The hall ended at a metal door of thick plates illuminated by bright lights. Two clockwork goblins stood before the door, holding long poles that ended in powered points. Quinny laughed that Legeis had robots while the others looked up to see a series of bold yellow letters painted on the door. It read GMIAMM and was illuminated by a spotlight. Hannah asked what that meant, so Chandice offered to show them. She strode up to the door and touched it before speaking a secret word.

“Wedding present,” Chandice said with a smile and stepped back.

Suddenly, the floor vibrated as a sound like clinking metal echoed from someplace above. The door shuddered, then slowly rose into the ceiling, revealing the room beyond. Mouths dropped open as Chandice swept her arm, inviting them to enter the most amazing room of them all.

“This is it,” Chandice said with a smile. “The goblin magic identification and manipulation machine.”

“Ha, that's why it's called GMIAMM,” Quinny laughed as the group stepped into the room, awestruck by what they saw.

A machine of metal and magic rose from the floor to dominate the center of the room. It was a round platform with red lights sunk into the floor to create a pentagram-like pattern. A white circle of light that softly pulsed marked the center of the platform. There were curved arms that formed rings around the platform, like bars to a very large bird cage. The arms were covered in cables and magical symbols made from techno-magical lights.

The arms would sit motionless for a minute, then suddenly move, swinging around the platform as blue lights pulsed. Then they would stop, and a magical symbol would appear in the air like some kind of florescent hologram. They would sit still for a moment and then turn again, this time creating a different symbol in red.

Thick metal cables ran across the floor to a bank of metal canisters over ten feet tall. These had dials and a bank of lights flickering to show their current power level. There were additional poles arrayed around the platform that occasionally flared with a soft hum and then died away just as quickly. Six goblins in goggles stood behind thick glass as they studied a bank of monitors.

Breanne asked what they were looking at as the air in the room pulsed with a power that could be felt. Roric compared it to Frankenstein's lair, while Rajeen said the sight was disturbing. She joined Chandice just outside the cage of arms to point at a row of magical symbols.

“What are these for?” Rajeen asked as she scrutinized the pattern.

“It's a circle of confinement,” Chandice replied. “If, for any reason, a magical item we are testing summons something, it will be trapped inside the circle.”

“Is that a danger?” Rajeen pressed as she looked unhappy with what was in the room.

“A lot of magical items summon things,” Chandice said. “It’s smart to have a way to contain them if it happens by accident.”

“I thought you said this thing was safe,” Rajeen countered. “I don’t want to hear that there can be accidents.”

“I can’t promise it will be absolutely safe,” Chandice countered. “All I can say is that it is much better than the previous machine and hasn’t had a major failure in the last twenty tests.”

Rajeen looked to Roric and Frank, who shared a look between them. Frank sighed and said they had to press ahead if they were going to help Hannah. It seemed to be an end to the conversation until a short goblin in thick goggles walked in and lifted them from his eyes.

“Are you guys sure you want to do this?” Legeis asked as he stood before the assembled group.

“We were just discussing that,” Rajeen replied. “If we damage the crown, we may never learn anything about it.”

“If we don't try, then Hannah has to spend the rest of her life wondering if she's being manipulated,” Blackbast replied. “We have to try something.”

“We need some answers,” Frank replied. “And we need to know why Hannah did not get her memories back when she put on the goblin crown.”

“Sheesh, I feel like we are tampering with something some powerful people don't want tampered with,” Legeis argued. “You saw what happened last time.”

“We have all debated this in great detail,” Rajeen interjected. “We are willing to accept the risks for her sake.”

“Alright, Legeis replied as he turned to regard Hannah. “What test do you want to run first? A crown scan or a scan of your strange polymorph?”

Chandice turned in surprise as Legeis suggested they use the machine to scan Hannah instead of the crown. Hannah even admitted that she had forgotten about the polymorph and suggested that they should look at that first. Chandice could hear the hesitancy in Hannah's voice and went to her side to assure her it was much safer now. It would also be a good test to prove to the others how reliable it was. It would also be a good way to calibrate the machine and get a solid reading later. Maybe there was some connection between Hannah and the crown that would be revealed.

She instructed Hannah to remove all her magical items and cancel any buffs she had going. Quinny sighed as it meant her succubus form would fail and return her to being a zombie. Breanne reminded her it was only for the tests and gave the poor woman a swat on the rear. Quinny laughed and told Breanne to watch it as they escalated their play.

“Girls,” Blackbast cautioned to bring the unruly girls in line.

Chandice enjoyed the little display as Hannah reached up and removed her devil crown. Instantly, she changed into the beautiful blond woman that Chandice loved. The two blonds were reunited with a kiss as the succubus girls changed back to their normal appearances. She then showed Hannah where to put the magical items in a cage that shielded them from the tests. Hannah deposited the items on a table inside and then walked with Chandice to the platform, where she was told to stand on the white dot in the middle.

“Nervous?” Chandice asked as she guided Hannah in place.

“Very,” Hannah said with a nervous smile. “But do me a favor, do whatever it takes to get answers this time.”

“Whatever it takes?” Chandice clarified as she considered that if things went wrong, the worst that could happen was Hannah would die. Hannah nodded and made her promise that she would go as far as she could.

“Alright,” Chandice said as she held Hannah’s hands. “But I don’t want my wedding present damaged.”

“Just make sure we get something,” Hannah said as Chandice departed.

Rajeen asked what the white area was for, so Chandice explained it was an enchanting table. She described how it was nested inside the machine so she could use it as a magical amplifier. It would allow them more focus as they ran the tests and even to manipulate some of the magic. Legeis commented that it worked well but suggested the rest of them move behind a wall of safety glass.

You are not instilling me with confidence,” Hannah called as they hurried behind the glass. Chandice and Legeis went to a nearby control panel where three other goblins were carefully monitoring some screens. They were crude devices that blinked with colored lights or showed simple graphs to indicate information. Only the screen before Legeis had text in a crude font that was easy to read. It showed information about what was in the center of the platform and what level of power it was reading.

“Last chance to turn back,” Legeis said as he put his goggles back on.

“Not a chance,” Chandice replied as she looked through the glass at Hannah. “She made me promise to get results.”

“We never tested it on a living person,” Legeis cautioned. “It should work the same, but it might not.”

“We are pressing ahead,” Chandice insisted as her stomach turned flip-flops. She desperately wanted to get an answer, but not at the cost of hurting the woman she loved. She tried to hide her nervous tone as she told Legeis to begin.

“Alright, let's power it up,” Legeis said over a speaker, then barked in goblin, telling all the engineers to leave the room or get behind shielding. Engineers scurried to safety as a slow, steady hum filled the air, and glowing symbols appeared on the floor around Hannah.

“We are going to do some simple detect magic spells,” Chandice said over the same microphone. “If we don't get good results, we will power it up and suppress the magic and run the tests again to see if we get more.

“Alright,” Hannah called back as she twitched in the center of the platform. Chandice reminded her to try and stand still, then nodded to Legeis, who threw a lever and put one of the arms in motion. It spun around Hannah in a complete circle and then locked into place with a thunk as a red symbol encased Hannah.

Chandice studied the screen with Legeis to see it detected two magic signatures. One was the polymorph they already knew about, but the other was simply listed as suppression.

“What does that mean?” Legeis asked as he tapped the screen.

“I don't know,” Chandice replied. “But I suspect it's hiding something.”

“Did you find anything?” Frank asked as the two studied the screen.

“Two spells,” Chandice said excitedly. “The polymorph and some kind of suppression magic.”

“What does that mean?” Hannah asked as she watched the ring spin around her again.

“We have no idea,” Legeis replied. “Just hang in there, kid. We are going to try to get more.”

Chandice watched Hannah through the glass as Legeis set another arm in motion. It spun a magical spell around Hannah, casting the detect magic at a higher level. It produced a complex pattern of lines and symbols as it tried to discover more.

“Anything more?” Chandice asked as she studied the array of data.

“Nothing we didn’t already know,” Legeis replied.

“Use the magic inhibitor,” Chandice said. “See if we can disrupt this suppression effect.”

“You got it,” Legeis said and grabbed a dial, slowly turning it up. A circle of blue lines floated in the air as a dispel magic effect was created, and Hannah suddenly twitched.

A red light appeared on the control panel as the white dot below Hannah glowed to match it. A beeping alarm began to blare as Legeis looked up in alarm.

“Feedback,” Legeis called. “It’s fighting the inhibitor.”

Hannah asked what that meant as Legeis threw levers in rapid succession. There was a flurry of activity as goblins ran to other stations, pulling levers and barking out that they were ready.

“I hope I am not making a mistake,” Chandice said as she locked eyes with Hannah to see the woman nod. “Turn on the antimagic field.”

“We may be pushing too hard,” Legeis cautioned.

“Just turn it on and slowly dial it up,” Chandice insisted, and he shook his head before pushing a button. The metal pillars around the platform began to hum, increasing in intensity until it hurt. “How high is it now?” she asked when the noise was uncomfortably loud.

“Sixty percent power and nothing,” Legeis said. “It’s still trying to resist the detection.”

“Go to eighty,” Chandice demanded as she slammed her fist on the table. Whatever this was, it was extremely powerful and fighting the machine. That meant that somebody knew Hannah might try to dispel the effect one day and wove an enchantment to fight it. The machine could only go so far, but there were other tricks they could use to attack the enchantment. Chandice closed her eyes and silently prayed before giving the next command. “Use the dust of disenchanting to contain the field.”

“We are going all out, I see,” Legeis sighed and pushed a button. Chandice saw carefully crafted nozzles spray a cloud of fine dust into the air around Hannah. It was a magical concoction that suppressed magic temporarily and was often used in powerful enchanting. She hoped it would act as a second attack on whatever was protecting Hannah and maybe give them a few seconds to study it.

Hannah was unnerved by the sudden blast of chromatic dust and asked if she was safe. The metal arms were all in motion, magical symbols pulsing as the pillars began to look blurry from their vibration.

“Answer her,” Frank insisted as he grew nervous. “Is she safe?”

“She's fine,” Chandice said while grateful Legeis had on his goggles so she couldn't see his eyes rolling. She explained the machine was designed to protect the object in the middle while the arms outside cast the techno-magical spells. So long as Hannah didn't move much, she was perfectly safe, though she admitted the experience was likely unpleasant.

The metal arms now spun at dizzying speeds as Chandice ordered Legeis to up the power in two percent increments while carefully monitoring the data. She felt the pressure as all eyes looked to her for assurance that Hannah was alright. She felt the guilt of Hannah making her promise to get more data as the screen showed nothing new.

“The antimagic field is holding,” Legeis said. “But the feedback is getting worse. There is more power in that circle than we are putting into it. I have no idea what will happen if it keeps growing.”

“I am not comfortable with this,” Rajeen said as the room began to vibrate. “I had no idea it would be so traumatic. Please call this off.” Roric turned to Frank, insisting it was his call as Blackbast took Frank by the arm. Frank looked strained as he, too, knew they needed to get answers for Hannah's sake. Chandice could tell he was torn by what was happening and struggling to keep a level head. They all watched as Hannah floated into the air, her feet a few inches from the red enchanting table as she threw her head back.

“What is happening?” Rajeen demanded as she turned to Legeis and Chandice.

“The feedback just keeps rising to match our power output,” Legeis said as he had to grab a clipboard before the vibration toppled it from the workstation. “She's so heavily warded it's impossible to gauge how high we need to go.”

“Push higher!” Chandice shouted as fear gripped her heart. She wanted to ask Hannah to forgive her for what she was about to say. “Go past the safe margins.”

“This is a mistake,” Legeis grumbled but turned the dial, and red lights went on all over the control panel.

“What are you doing?” Frank asked as the entire group became alarmed. “Don't hurt her.”

“She's fine,” Chandice argued as she studied a panel of almost static lines. The room began to shake so violently that they had to hold on to something as Hannah floated higher, her skin glowing with blue light.

“Her essence,” Quinny cried as the room filled with brilliant light.

“Hannah!” Rajeen yelled. “Hannah, are you alright?”

“It feels weird!” Hannah cried back. “But I think I am fine.”

“Ninety-eight percent,” Legeis cried. “It's matching us still.”

“Push to one hundred and twenty,” Chandice said as she worried she was going too far.

“We will burn out the batteries,” Legeis argued.

“Just do it,” Chandice snapped and ran from behind the glass to stand before Hannah as she began to glow brightly. She looked at the woman who was blazing like a blue star, magical power flowing from within as if she were magic itself.

“Hannah?” Chandice said softly as the woman looked down on her and smiled.

“One hundred and five,” Legeis said as he wiped his forehead. “One hundred and ten.”

“Stop it,” Frank said as he finally broke. “Whatever you're doing is hurting her.”

“Just a little more,” Chandice cried as Hannah was suddenly encased in a blue bubble that resembled glass. It crawled with magical symbols that kept changing at an alarming pace as she began to scream from inside.

Chandice went to reach for the woman, but the spinning arms would have crushed her. The scream was drowned out by the antimagic pillars straining to contain the power growing inside.

“One hundred and eighteen!” Legeis shouted as a brilliant light filled the room, and there was a sound like breaking glass. The bubble around Hannah exploded as magical power swirled in a storm around her. It hit the antimagic shell and was contained, but Hannah now glowed with a brilliant white light.

Chandice fell back with an arm over her face to protect it, but when she looked up, all she could see was a goddess of pure magic. She looked to Legeis for answers, and he stood on his chair with his goggles up.

“The barrier is gone!” Legeis cried. “I am getting solid data!”

“It’s working?” Roric said in a shaking voice.

“It's working!” Legeis said. “Spell Polymorh other. Cast level five hundred and forty-five, target Hathlisora, shape Human female. Spell focus figurine of imprisonment.”

“Wow!” Quinny cried.

“Oh, the poor thing,” Breanne said as she choked up.

“It’s a long chain of appearance data after that,” Legeis said as he studied the monitor. “We can sort through that later to see if anything important is in it, but I am getting another spell.”

Five hundred and forty-five?” Chandice said in shock. “Is anybody even that high of a level?” She was staggered by the idea that anyone of that power level existed and, if they did, that they took an interest in seeing Hannah suffer. If that number had been a shock, the next nearly caused her to faint from disbelief as Legeis called out the results.

“The other spell is divine banishment, cast level six hundred and two, target Hathlisora spell focus eye of Hexorus. Banishment target Abbadon,” Legeis read off.

Chandice was stunned to hear this one was even higher. It wasn't even one of the spells they had originally detected, and it certainly shouldn't have lingered. A spell like banishment was a cast once-and-done spell, so why was she still under the effect of it?

Frank called out that he couldn't believe this was working, and there was a sense of relief. Chandice wanted to share it, but she gazed at the blazing blue woman and worried she was somehow harming her. How could she be certain of how any of this magic worked? What if there were other magical safeguards in place to prevent tampering with them like this? More importantly, where was the suppression spell originally detected?

“Wait, theirs a third spell,” Legeis said as he scratched his ear. “Total mind wipe, level nine hundred and twenty-two. Target Hathlisora status permanent.”

Chandice staggered as they found a second previously undetected spell, and now they knew why Hannah couldn't remember. Total mind wipe wasn't a spell she was familiar with, but the name of the spell was all the answer she needed. That it had been cast by somebody so high was neigh unbelievable, but where was the suppression spell?

“Anything else?” Chandice asked as she hovered just outside the spinning rings, gazing in wonder at the woman inside.

“Yeah,” Legeis said as he lifted his goggles. “But you aren’t going to like it.”

“What?” Chandice demanded as Legeis shook his head.

“That spell we broke to get the data,” Legeis said. “It was called sphere of suppression. I don't even know where to begin with this data. It looks like the spell was cast at over level one thousand in power. All I can get is the name and level. Everything else is too powerful for us to see.”

“Over a thousand?” Chandice gasped in shock. “How can that be?”

“I don't know,” Legeis replied. “I didn't think we could even read anything over a couple hundred.”

“Can we please get her out of this now?” Blackbast begged as the stunned room tried to recover.

Chandice nodded as her mind cleared and instructed Legeis to bring her down slowly. She didn't want there to be side effects of peeling away the layers and having them suddenly come crashing in. He nodded and began adjusting dials as he pulled levers, and the power was scaled back.

Goblin engineers ran about in a panic as cables and batteries began to smolder, no longer able to maintain the demand put on them. They pulled cables as Legeis tried to reroute, doing his best to bring Hannah down slowly. As soon as it dropped just a little, the blue bubble that was probably the suppression spell reformed and vanished.

Hannah floated like a feather on a summer's breeze, her feet returning to the platform as her arms lowered. Her skin returned to its normal color, and she wobbled for a moment as the power continued to wind down. It took a full minute to bring it all to a stop, leaving Hannah standing in the middle looking no worse for wear.

“That thing got loud,” she said while rubbing her ears.

Frank and the others ran down to greet her as she stepped out of the center and made her way across the platform. He asked if she was alright, and Hannah insisted she was fine before asking if she looked otherwise. Blackbast insisted she had, even pointing out they had heard Hannah scream. Then she turned an angry glare on Chandice and insisted the woman had taken it too far. Chandice defended her choices and insisted they needed the data if Hannah was going to have peace. Hannah asked if they had learned anything, which made the gathered players gasp.

“You mean you didn’t hear all that?” Breanne asked as she struggled to calm herself.

“All I could hear was that terrible thing buzzing so loudly it drowned everything out,” Hannah replied before looking behind her to the wall. “Is that thing on fire?”

“It's spent,” Legeis grumbled. “I will need a week to fix this before we can test the magical items.”

“I broke it by standing in it?” Hannah asked in alarm as Frank released her from his hug.

“Don't worry about that,” Chandice said as she took Hannah's hands. “Love, we got through the protections, and we know everything. We know what spells are cast on you, what level they were cast at, and some of the items used as part of the spell.” She was delighted to be able to tell Hannah that the risk had been worth it. She then thought of how sensitive what they learned was and suggested they go to a more secure location to discuss it. For all she knew, there had been a magical safeguard in place to alert somebody if Hannah's curses had been tampered with. They could be listening right now, so she felt some security was in order and recommended Gwen’s protected rooms for the discussion.

Hannah and Frank shared a tender chat as she asked if something had gone wrong. He assured her things were fine and urged her to gather her magical items so they could go. Quinny and Umtha were at her side, asking if she was in pain. Hannah looked confused, but Chandice didn't have time to consider it as an argument broke out.

“This wasn’t worth the risk,” Rajeen insisted. “I heard that girl scream even if she doesn’t remember it.”

“I heard it too,” Blackbast said as they walked ahead of the others. “But she seems fine now.”

“I will never forgive myself,” Rajeen lamented. “I should never have said such things to her.”

“You were trying to give her peace,” Roric sighed as he put an arm around her. “I doubt your words changed anything that she wasn't already considering. At worst, all you did was encourage her to act sooner.”

“What if she’s been harmed in some way we don’t yet recognize?” Rajeen asked. “What if this comes back to haunt us?”

“She's fine,” Chandice said as she joined the group. “And I know you all disagree with how far I took this, but Hannah made me promise to push as far as I could. I wanted to stop too, but I saw her nod at me to go on.” She felt twisted in knots as the other masters nodded, understanding the position Chandice must have been put in.

They continued a soft discussion until they reached Gwen's castle and entered the heavily shielded rooms where supposedly nobody could spy on them. Gwen was asked to join the discussion and was briefed on what happened by Chandice. Hannah and Gwen were shocked to hear what level the spells had been cast at. Gwen went so far as to insist their little machine would not have broken such a spell.

“She has a point,” Roric said. “Could that have been a safeguard?”

“I guess it could have been,” Chandice admitted with a shrug. “But when that bubble broke, we started getting real data that had solid information.”

Frank asked how high that machine could go, and Chandice explained that with the power boosted to dangerous levels, they could perhaps breach a level two hundred spells. Gwen laughed at the idea that they could even scratch the spell they claimed to have broken and that the data they got must have been false.

Chandice didn't know how to explain it or the strange feedback that seemed to be flowing from Hannah. It was then that Quinny shed some light on the topic as she pointed to her open character sheet to suggest it might have been a little higher.

Breanne asked what she was talking about, and Quinny pointed to something on her sheet. Chandice was intrigued when Breanne said she was right and looked up in surprise.

“Our essence pool is drained to about fifty percent,” Quinny said as she turned her sheet around for the others to see. “See, we share the pool with Hannah, and it's depleted. She must have somehow been boosting your spell with her own power while inside the machine.”

“What? That's ridiculous,” Hannah protested. “I didn't have my ring on, so I would be unconscious right now.”

“That’s why she was glowing blue,” Frank said.

“And floating in the air,” Quinny added. “She was somehow channeling her power into the machine’s effects.”

“Obviously, that can't be the case,” Rajeen said. “Hannah was not the machine's power source.”

“Don’t be so hasty to say that,” Chandice corrected. “Hannah was standing on an enchanting table of significant power. It’s how we get the system to work in the first place. I effectively start enchanting the item in the center, opening the lines of magic so the machine can read them. Maybe by being the target of an open channel of enchanting magic, she was able to conduct some of her power back to the machine.”

“So I was using essence to boast your level two hundred spell to something higher?” Hannah asked.

“Something much higher,” Chandice replied. “High enough to peel away a level thousand spell temporarily.”

Gwen grew angry and demanded to know why she hadn't been told they were going to do this. She cited that Hannah was her daughter and she should have been told she was in danger. Chandice felt responsible, but thankfully, Frank took charge and explained it happened at the spur of the moment, and they never expected there to be any danger. He insisted it was supposed to be a mundane test to give them only basic information.

Chandice added that she had only pushed it so far because Hannah had insisted. She dreaded the whole thing and needed some time to recover and go over the information. That seemed to placate Gwen, who sighed and let the matter drop. She asked them what they planned to do now, and Chandice said the machine had to be repaired. When it was ready, they would scan the crown as originally planned to see what they could learn.

It ended the discussion as Gwen insisted she wanted to be informed of anything they discovered. Chandice felt exhausted as the meeting ended, but her day was far from over. She needed to get back and go over the data with Legeis to see if they could find more answers. It had been a momentous day full of surprises, but all Chandice really wanted was to take Hannah in her arms and love her. As if in answer to her plea, Hannah came to her side and took her into a hug.

“You look exhausted from worry,” Hannah said as she held Chandice tight. “I feel exhausted, too. Why don't we go someplace quiet? I could use a lie-down.”

Chandice smiled as Hannah led her away to look for someplace to snuggle. Those answers could wait for tomorrow as right now; she needed to know Hannah's love.