Title: Her Own Path
Chapter 3
It was a few days of uneventful travel from her family’s compound to the city. Sophia saw plenty of animals, and a few other people on the way, but nothing and no one ever approached her. Probably for the best. She knew some basic survival skills that had proved useful in the past days and nights, but she had no idea what to talk about with the people. This had seemed like such a good plan in concept, but she was quickly realizing how ill prepared she was. Oh well. As long as she was dealing with people, hypnosis was always an option to get her way. Sophia packed up her supplies for her final day of travel.
It wasn’t long until she arrived in the city. Checking her phone, she found that the city was called Auresco. It seemed like a lively place. People were active all over the place, apparently just going about their lives. Sophia wasn’t sure what to expect from her first experience with a city, but this just seemed so… mundane. So normal. Why would her mother keep her away from this? As she got closer to the city center, the buildings got bigger, and she saw more and more people. Sophia had to ask a few people for the exact location of the university, but she found it soon enough. She looked up at the main building of Selarian University.
Sophia walked into the main hall and looked at the people milling around. She scanned the room before seeing the desk for new students to check in. She walked up to it and got in line to wait her turn. The process seemed to be brief, so soon enough it was her turn. The staff instantly recognized her name, but she’d requested that her last name not be publicized, so aside from ing her identity, her last name shouldn’t come up again. She received a key to her dorm, her student ID card, and a pamphlet with some introductory information to get her ready for her first day. After leaving the desk, Sophia decides to check out her dorm first. She leaves the main building and finds her dorm building. Her room is simple enough. Just a bed, desk, and closet. She didn’t have a lot of stuff, so for now, she just threw everything in her closet, and she’d organize it later. Her roommate hadn’t arrived yet, so she had the time to herself for now.
Having nothing better to do, Sophia went outside to try to explore the campus a little bit. Her glimpses of the world and the city had been interesting, and it would be for the best to explore as much as she could. One of the first things that caught her eye was a store selling hypnotic accessories. As a rule, her family frowned upon them, but they would at least be worth checking out. Walking in gave her a sense of familiarity, but was also vastly different from anything she expected. Hypnosis as a concept was of course, familiar to her, but the ways it was being used were entirely new to her. Her mother had significantly downplayed the effectiveness of accessories like spirals and pendants. But some of the demonstration videos showed just how useful they could be. It might be worth some of her time to look into them a little more.
First, she takes a look at the spirals. They seemed very simple in their usage. Simply holding it up and letting it draw the subject’s attention. But just like the pendants, there was a large variety. Black and white, red and purple, and color combination really. And patterns beyond just a simple spiral, but all designed to focus one’s attention on the center of it. It seemed so easy to get lost in it. It seemed like such a useful aid. Sophia had gotten by with just her finger with Angela, but she had to it that it wasn’t especially fascinating or hypnotic. It was just her best option at the time.
Next, she looks at the pendants. So many different kinds. Clear crystal balls, shiny metal trinkets, long colored crystal pillars, and so much more. The only commonality between them all was that they were meant to easily draw and entice one’s attention. There was even a video demonstrating the best way to swing it. Not too close to the subject’s face, and not too wide of an arc. Both common mistakes that made it much more difficult to pull someone down into trance. She picks up one of the samples, a clear crystal ball. It’s tied to the table to discourage thieves, but the string is long enough that she can easily practice swinging it. There’s a nice weight to it, and swinging it isn’t too hard. Sophia’s already low opinion of her mother descended even further. Why would she not take advantage of these tools? Or want her children to.
“Are you interested in that pendant, ma’am?” The voice spoke up behind her.
Sophia jumped slightly and she dropped the pendant. Fortunately, it’s holding case was padded so it didn’t break. She turns around with a sheepish expression to see a salesman giving her an interested look. “Ah… I might be.”
The salesman’s smile widens slightly. “That item is quite popular, especially among beginning hypnotists.”
Sophia gets a bit indignant at this. “Well, I’m hardly a beginner. Although I am just starting at the Selarian University.” She concedes.
The salesman nods cooly. “Of course, ma’am. I did not mean to imply anything about you. But if you’re just starting at the university, having a simple accessory like this going in may be useful. I believe they do give you some to use in class for certain exercises, but having your own will allow you to use it any time you want to practice.”
Sophia considers this. As experienced as she was, using a tool like this was still new to her. So it would be worth it to get as much experience as she can. “Okay, how much?”
The salesman names a price higher than she would have expected. He gives an apologetic look in response to her shocked expression. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m afraid we can’t go lower on this item. The materials are unique, as are many of our products. They allow for mana to be infused into it without damaging its integrity. And I’m afraid this increases the price significantly.”
Sophia is taken aback by the high price. It’s not that she didn’t have the money. The money she’d had Angela transfer to her covered her tuition and gave her a healthy amount to cover any expenses she ran into, and still had plenty left over. And if she ever ran out, she might be able to ask Angela to send her more. But that wasn’t really the point. She picked up the pendant again, considering it. She wasn’t sure how much of the salesman’s words to believe. The pendant did seem nice enough, but surely it wasn’t enough to justify that price. Of course, the was always another option. Sophia looks around the shop, seeing there’s no one else in the store right now. She holds up the pendant and starts swinging it. “You say the materials of this pendant are what make it so expensive?”
The salesman nods. “That’s correct ma’am. We can assure the quality and effectiveness of these materials.”
“Right, right. But what about these materials makes it so effective as a hypnotic tool?” Sophia asks, pitching her voice to be calm and soothing.
The salesman’s eyes flick to the swinging pendant. “The materials ensure it’s easy to focus on and draw the subject’s attention.”
Sophia nods. “That’s exactly right. So easy, so simple to watch. As it swings. Back and forth. Back and forth. This pendant must be quite hypnotic to be sold at such a high price.” Sophia’s tone was a bit aloof, partly to hide her intentions, but also because she wasn’t fully focused on her induction. It was a process she knew well at this point.
“Yes indeed, it’s quite hypnotic. Extensive testing has been done,” His eyes still follow the pendant as it swings.
“But can you prove that claim? How can you prove the effectiveness? I don’t think I’m fully convinced about it.” Sophia continues soothingly.
“Our store is held in quite high regard. We only permit the best in our stock.” The salesman says a bit defensively.
“Well, then it wouldn’t be a problem to give me a demonstration right now,” Sophia says smiling slyly, confident in her induction.
“And how would I demonstrate it’s ability?” The salesman’s voice sounds a little spacey now.
“Well, you can start by just watching this pretty pendant. Watching as it sways in a nice arc. Materials of such high quality must make it quite captivating.” Sophia keeps her voice steady.
“But of course. All our accessories are as captivating and hypnotic as possible…” His voice seems to trail off a little.
“That’s right, so you must know exactly how hypnotic it is. Exactly how easily it can pull you down. How it can make your mind fade away,” Sophia continues calmly, still swinging the pendant.
The salesman’s eyes keep following the pendant for a moment before he closes them. Sophia stops her induction, mostly out of surprise. She hadn’t expected him to drop just like that. Just a moment later, he chuckles softly and reaches out to pull the pendant out of her grasp. Sophia is just giving him a shocked expression and offers no resistance to this. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m afraid it’s not as effective as that. If it was, we’d be charging much more for it. And not have it left out in the open like this. Now, I’m afraid I must ask you to leave. Attempting to hypnotize the employees is against store policy.” He says all this with a charming smile, but his tone is sharp.
Sophia just stands there, shocked at this turn of events. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she didn’t expect him to completely resist it so easily. She collects herself as best she can, mumbles a weak apology, and walks out of the store in shame. That was so embarrassing. Thank god no one else had been around to see that. Why hadn’t that worked? Something like that would have dropped the servants instantly.
It was her lack of experience. She knew it. She cursed her mother and her overly restrictive practices for what felt like the millionth time. The servants had given her a false sense of security and made her think it would be much easier. Hell, even Angela had been easy to pull down. Although she had been in a more agreeable state of mind, Sophia itted to herself. It wouldn’t be a problem if she’d had any practice with even a neutral subject. She needed to figure out how to slip in past resistance. The salesman didn’t show any exertion at all, it must have been laughably easy to resit her attempt. Sophia slowly made her way across campus, lost in her thoughts. She wouldn’t have hope against a truly resistant subject.
What was all that training even for if it was useless against a subject who would put up even marginal resistance? Was this really all her family’s accomplishments amounted to? Techniques that were essentially useless outside a highly controlled setting? Sophia had some serious studying to do if she wanted to be effective in any realistic setting. She wondered what she needed to improve. Hypnosis was second nature to her at this point, but that was a bit of a double edged sword at this point. She could pull people down very quickly without thinking about it too much, but as just demonstrated, it was quite easy to resist.
Although, in a sense, this was a good thing. Yes, it severely damaged her confidence, but that was false confidence built on techniques that were not viable to use in the real world. Still, it was a shock to her system to have her ill-preparedness thrust in her face like that. Sophia would have to take some time to recover from that. Nothing in her training had remotely prepared her for it. But how to fix that gap? Her classes would surely help with that, but Sophia wanted to explore the possibilities on her own.
Sophia made her way back to her dorm. When she enters, she’s so lost in her own thoughts that it takes her a few seconds to realize she’s not alone in her room. She looks up with a start to see another girl sitting on the opposite bed. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t notice you there.” Sophia gives her a small wave.
The girl returns the wave. “It’s fine. You seemed really focused on something. I’m Skye. Guess I’ll be your roommate this year.”
Sophia pushes herself up to sit on the edge of her bed, facing Skye. “Yeah, I was. Nothing important though. I’m Sophia”
Skye gives her a winning smile. “It’s nice to meet you. So what are you studying?”
Sophia returns her smile. “Hypnosis. What about you?”
“Ah, the same for me. It’s kind of exciting, isn’t it? Getting to go to a whole school about hypnosis,” Skye says eagerly.
Sophia hadn’t really thought about it, but for someone who hadn’t grown up with hypnosis as a constant in their lives, this university must be a whole new world to them. In a different way than it was for Sophia. “Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool.” Sophia’s voice was a bit distant at this point, as she was still lost in thought about her recent failure.
“I know we just met,” Skye kept talking, seemingly lost in her own enthusiasm. “But I think it would be neat if we could practice on each other. Not right away or anything, but when he have homework, or something, however that’s going to work.”
Normally, Sophia would have jumped at this offer. She wasn’t so sure about letting Skye try to hypnotize her, but an open offer to let her hypnotize her roommate would be a great boon. But now, she just mumbled out a vague “Maybe we could do that.” That salesman’s easy resistance had struck her on a deeper level than she’d realized. Maybe she wasn’t as good as she’d thought. She was effective in the closed environment of her family, but no one she’d hypnotized there had ever resisted her.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to study hypnosis in a formal setting.” Sophia continued. “I can’t wait for classes to start.”
“Yeah, looking forward to it.” Sophia’s voice was still distant as she considered her own problems.
Seeing that Sophia isn’t matching her energy, Skye shrugs. “Well, I’m here if you want to talk.” She gets off her bed and starts unpacking some of her stuff.
Sophia nodded absently as she lay back on her bed, still lost in thought. She was trying to figure out how to close her knowledge gaps. She didn’t even know enough to know where to start. Her current style would be a useful foundation, but she needed something more. Some way to draw her subject’s attention more effectively. A proper accessory would help, but she clearly needed something more than that. Maybe she could look into a covert induction. She had no idea where to start though. It was an aspect of hypnosis that her training had never even mentioned. But if she could successfully hide her hypnosis attempt from her subject, that would improve her chances of it working by a lot. More research would be needed, but it was probably for the best for her to wait to see what her classes would be teaching her before trying again. Sophia was missing something, and hopefully her studying an classes could help her find it.