From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 528 Messenger
"Excuse my bluntness, Lord Doom..." Elaine, the captured leader of the Githyanki, had learned to be respectful. No matter how backward the race standing on the ground was in the eyes of the Githyanki, she had to admit that the man before her had repeatedly thwarted her queen.

Sect Leader Elaine did not consider herself superior to Queen Vairakis. Her reason for staying in the enemy's stronghold and teaching them psychic powers was to secure allies for her queen. If a potential alliance were to break down due to her attitude, she believed she wouldn't have many days left to live.

“I can sense your potential power, but you seem to be trying to manipulate it, which is wrong.” A gentle wave of psionic energy emanated from the brow of the sect leader, Elaine. The weapons strapped to the wooden dummies in the room floated up and began to fight each other.

Ivy lowered her fingers from her temple and said, "I'd like to hear more."

“Psionic energy comes from the mind and spirit; it is the outward expression of thought and consciousness.” Sect Master Elaine controlled the wooden sword and returned it to the dummy. “Although it looks similar to arcane magic in its manifestation, it is fundamentally different.”

“If the real world is a magnificent tapestry, everyone can appreciate its wondrous and varied scenery. But only highly skilled psionic users can discern the threads and fibers of this tapestry, because we observe reality not only with our naked eyes, but also with our minds and spirits.” The light and shadow in the room began to fluctuate, as if a filter had been added to the real world. Ivy’s arcane vision found it difficult to distinguish magical auras as usual, and he knew very well that this was interference from psionic energy.

“Using psychic energy as a needle, I manipulate the threads of the real world to weave a landscape that belongs only to me.” Elaine’s voice began to grow hoarse. Refracting light by altering the curvature of space was no easy task for her. She could open portals to the astral plane with psychic energy, but bending light passing through space into the shape she desired was like embroidering on a needle’s tip—it required many times more willpower and concentration.

“What you need is not manipulation, Lord Doom.” The nascent flower pattern crumbled, but the poignant scene woven from light and shadow remained deeply etched in Ivy’s mind. “It is interpretation…”

Ivy slowly closed his eyes, carefully recalling the scene when he practiced Occlumency and Legilimency.

Thoughts and memories are not books; it's impossible to flip through a person's mind like turning the pages of a book. However, thoughts leave traces, and by skillfully interpreting these traces, one can understand what's happening in a person's mind.

Mind control involves interpreting the traces left by the brain during activity, while mind control involves hiding and disguising these traces as much as possible, so that opponents attempting to read minds gain nothing, or even receive false information.

Recalling the words of the sect leader Elaine, Ivy gradually gained a new understanding.

Psychic power seems to be the opposite; it is not about interpreting or disguising the traces of thought, but rather about amplifying them, leaving marks on the real world, and allowing these marks to form a painting, a book, or an interpretation of the self.

However, this does not mean that only "self-interpretation" can be used to use psychic power. Occlumency and Legilimency are both ways of using psychic power, and they can indeed be continuously enhanced through learning and practice.

Legilimency might be more of a general explanation of psychic abilities, because it can be a talent that wizards can master; some people are born with the ability to read the emotions and thoughts of others.

While psionic and magical abilities are indeed fundamentally different, they alter the real world in similar ways, and Ivy doesn't believe he can't master a specific psionic skill through learning and imitation.

If Sect Leader Elaine believes that the improvement of psionic users can only be achieved through the discovery and activation of their own talents, then it only proves that her understanding of psionic energy is too one-sided.

Ivy stretched out his palm, and arcs of electricity caused by psionic fluctuations began to leap between his five slender and powerful fingers. He abandoned his usual practice of calling upon the power of the atmosphere and instead used his mind to leave marks in the air, creating a voltage difference to make the arcs appear.

A dark red bolt of lightning suddenly pierced the air, burning the wooden dummy facing Ivy into a charred mess.

"This is truly... amazing..." Sect Leader Elaine exclaimed in genuine amazement as she looked at Ivy's achievement. "I've never seen a beginner achieve this before..."

"Thank you." Ivy didn't become arrogant because of such success. For a legendary spellcaster like him, psionic energy was just a power that required special focus. It was no more noble than the other magic or abilities he had already mastered, so there was no need to show any more outward emotions.

However, the effort paid off, and the difficulty of using psionic energy was overcome, which greatly boosted Ivy's spirits.

“That’s enough for today.” Ivy nodded to the sect leader Elaine, then looked at Leezel, who was squatting on the ground inspecting the wooden dummy. “Your turn, Leezel. I look forward to seeing the day when you apply more psionic skills in actual combat.”

“Hmm…I will.” Leezel rose from the ground, her ever-present silver armor reflecting the light just like her confidence.

However, in the eyes of the sect leader Elaine, the professor's progress in developing psychic abilities was far behind that of the outsider Ivy.

Ivy pushed open the door and left. He really wanted to find a secluded place to open the Grimoire of Destruction and check out his newly acquired abilities.

He set up a private chamber called the Four Rings Duncan's Chamber in his study, which could block the prying eyes of prophetic spells. Only by opening the Grimoire of Destruction there could he feel at ease.

However, as he passed through the lobby on the first floor, he saw the adventurers returning from their trip. They were Will and Asdalon, who had gone to the Steel Guardian Factory to gather intelligence, along with their bodyguard Karak.

The trio also brought back another person, the bard Varo, who had left with the archmage Elminster.

"Oh!" Varo looked disheveled, his feathered hat flattened, but upon seeing Ivy, he immediately displayed the essential qualities of a bard. "Great adventurers conquered the darkness of the Tower of the Moonrise and banished the vampire lord of the shadowy mansion of Baldur's Gate! I regret not witnessing the whole thing. Great poems never adhere to clichéd openings! Come, my friend, tell me about your thrilling adventures and your utterly wicked enemies! Of course... if you could have some red wine to soothe your throat and some delicious food to fill your stomach, I would absolutely not refuse."

After obtaining the Almanac of Karthus, Ivy encountered Elminster, who had suddenly appeared, in the guild hall. So it wasn't surprising that he would see Varo, who had disappeared with him, inside Baldur's Gate. However, he had something more on his mind: "What did he mean by 'cliché opening remarks'?"

“What? Oh, it must have been tied to the flatbed cart along with the smoke barrels.” Will rubbed the communication stone in his right eye. Ivy had sealed the stone's ability to transmit messages to Mizora, but having such a large stone in his eye socket was definitely uncomfortable. “Yeah.” Asdallen glanced at Karak with feigned disdain. “If those smoke barrels had been any more powerful, they might have blown down the gates of the Steel Guardian Foundry. Thanks to dear Karak and that unfortunate bard, we almost got specific information about the factory. Now, Gotash will definitely double down on the patrols around the factory!”

“Hey! You’re being too harsh! Varo is a friend, I can’t just watch him get blown to bits!” Karak said, disgruntled.

“Of course I know!” Asdell rolled his eyes even more. “And I remember warning you to control your temper when you’re standing next to the smoke canisters, and what happened? You set one thug on fire, threw him at another, and even lit the smoke fuses under their feet! What were you thinking?”

"I didn't think about anything... otherwise I wouldn't have..." Karak flashed two rows of bright white teeth and gave the vampire clone a good-buddy punch, making him stagger. "Anyway, no one got hurt, so it's a good outcome!"

“But we haven’t gotten any of the information Ivy wanted!” Asdalon grimaced and rubbed his shoulder.

"Never mind. Varo doesn't look too good. Let's take him to get something to eat first. As for the information about the Steel Guardian Factory, I can send another druid who can transform into a small creature to handle it." Ivy waved his hand. He was in a good mood after just gaining a new ability and wasn't going to worry about this small gain or loss.

"What's wrong, Will? Are your eyes bothering you?" Will rubbed his eyes more frequently. Ivy had already advised him to remove the communication stone, but he refused because of the magic contract. "Your magic contract with Mizora doesn't have much time left. Do you need me to help you get a new eye?"

"I've been saved by you kind adventurers so many times, but I haven't received a single thing in return. If Elminster knew, he'd laugh at me!" Varo pulled a fake eye from his pouch and held it up in his hand. "This! Consider it your reward! It's said to be able to detect invisibility; I was originally planning to use it myself!"

Ivy examined it in her hand. Behind the spherical prosthetic eye were three brass components for connecting to the optic nerve. The finely crafted artificial lens did indeed have micro-engraved runes that could detect invisibility.

“A very sophisticated gadget.” Ivy summoned a ball of pure water to wash the fake eye provided by Varo, then floated it in front of Will. “I’ll be quick; you won’t feel any pain.”

“Okay…” Will squeezed out a few tears and forced his right eye, which was feeling a strong foreign body sensation, open wide. “Maybe it really is time to say goodbye to the past.”

Because the communication stone prosthetic eye and Will's eye socket were not physically connected, Ivy only needed to apply a little pressure to his eyelids with the Mage's Hand to squeeze the communication stone prosthetic eye, which was stained with a little blood, out of its eye socket like squeezing a grape.

"There's a little mucus and a tiny bit of blood; it's probably a ruptured capillary." Ivy maneuvered the artificial eye with the communication stone to the side, then took out a few needles and pierced Will's dark eye sockets. "The optic nerve wound has completely healed. To make this artificial magic eye work, it must be linked to your brain. There might be a little stimulation, but I promise it won't last long..."

Before Will could even tilt his head back to dodge the silver needles, Ivy had already inserted the cleaned prosthetic eye into his eye socket.

“Healed completely,” Ivy read, pointing to his eye socket.

A tingling sensation came over him, and Will blinked hard, only to be pleasantly surprised to find that his vision, which had been missing half of his vision, had returned to normal.

"It's amazing!" Will exclaimed. "It's as if I've never been blind!"

"Hey! Look at Will's old eye, it looks like it's on fire!" Karak exclaimed, as a strong smell of sulfur filled the palace hall.

Ivy had already removed the spell that kept the teleportation stone levitating, but the red-hot stone showed no sign of falling to the ground.

The black, oil-like liquid sprayed outwards from the sound transmission stone's fake eye, quickly forming a circular hole. The female Cambion, wrapped in wings, stretched out her graceful, demonic limbs and stood in the center of the hall.

“Mizora!” Karak gritted his teeth and uttered the name of the Lord of the Will Demon Cult.

“It’s so good to see you, dear Karak.” Mizora casually puffed out her chest, revealing most of it, and waved to Karak with a flirtatious smile. “But I’m not here for idle chatter today.”

"Our contract is over! Mizora!" Will warned, suppressing his anger. "No one in this palace will believe your venomous tongue!"

“Oh—” Mizora clutched her chest, like an innocent woman hurt by a heartless man, “Given all the happy times we’ve had together, these words really hurt me. You know, Will, my darling, I’ve never lied about our relationship.”

“I’ve had enough, Mizora!” Will interrupted her impatiently. “What exactly do you want?”

"Getting straight to the point? You're really in a hurry." The playfulness on Mizora's face vanished. She looked at the magical light emanating from Ivy's palm and said quickly and clearly, "I have no doubt that your magic can completely destroy me, but Grand Duchess Zariel of Avernus has cast a special protective spell on me. Now is a critical time for Baldur's Gate. You certainly wouldn't be thinking of fighting on two fronts, would you? Especially against the most valiant and skilled demon duke in the Nine Hells?"

"Then state your purpose." Ivy raised her chin. Unlike a true demon, Campion, as a half-demon, cannot be reborn in hell; once dead, he is dead.

“Alright.” Mizora reached into a tear in her clothes and pulled out an envelope bearing the Baldur's Gate emblem. “I’m here to provide intelligence about the Netherstone of Gothash and the safety of my father, Duke Werner. What could be more direct than witnessing it all firsthand?”

(End of this chapter)