Theories

After Sania answered the four people before her, they started to glance at each other with smiles of relief. It made her remember that when she saw them entering in the room, they'd seemed to be worried about something and the discussion which followed was so awkward and confusing for her that she couldn't help but staying quiet in her corner.

Since she was tired of trying to figure out everything by herself, Sania preferred to ask directly, " first of all, why would you expect me to forget about you? And secondly, why does Nelson apologize like that as if he had tried to kill you ".

When she saw the faces of her friends changing into expressions she couldn't understand it made her worry, she turned her head to Nelson, " wait, did you try to kill them? " she asked him insistently.

Nelson lowered his sight and slowly bowed his head showing, without saying a word, that he was guilty. " Why?! Are you crazy?! " she shouted in shock.

Jamal frowned a little while thinking that something was odd, he approached her slowly and with a soft voice, he asked, " what are the latest souvenirs do you have from these past events? "

" huh? "

" Sania, what is your latest souvenir? " he repeated.

" What are you talking about? My latest souvenir... it's when we finally arrived at our last destination, " her voice became lower and as she was speaking her tone became more and more uncertain, "...we met Konny, the leader of the city army, and then we... then I... I... ". Suddenly, as she tried to concentrate and remember, flashes started to bomb her mind while her ears were buzzing, many images of mysterious situations that happened to her were overwhelming her mind, so many that they gave her a headache. Her face tightened, she grabbed her head while moaning slightly in pain.

" Are you okay? " Nelson rapidly inquired, he told her worriedly, " don't push yourself too hard ".

Sania heard his voice despite the buzzing sound which was bothering her ears, she listened to him and took her time to calm herself. She slowly raised her head and stared at the little crowd around her, " what the hell happened to me? " she asked them with tiredness in her voice.

They all glanced at Jamal to ask him silently if it was whether a good idea to tell her.

The latter, finally talked after a short while, " I will tell you but first promise me that you won't freak out and won't start blaming yourself or anyone else " he furtively glanced at Nelson before he added, " it's something that no one could have expected or fought against so easily ".

Sania wanted to tell him to stop taking such a dramatic tone and speak up already but she abstained herself, thinking it was not the moment to play it rough and that she needed to keep a proper attitude. She nodded at him while promising him to stay cool.

Jamal sighed but as he was about to talk Nelson stopped him. " Let me do it please," he said while raising a hand before Jamal, " I have more details... moreover, I think it is my responsibility to do it ".

Jamal stared at him for a moment, and seeing how much he was insistent and determined he thought that he just couldn't turn him down, he crossed his arms and nodded before telling him to go ahead.

And so Nelson started telling her but also to all the people around the whole story from the moment they met with Konny until then. He didn't omit a single event, even those things he had done and was so ashamed of. Around him, people noticed how bad he was feeling but no one dared try stopping him and taking him into pity. Sometimes Jamal and Pam would intervene to give some comments or clarifications and eventually letting Nelson and Sania know about the other people who lost their memories after getting freed from Konny's control.

It took almost one hour to tell everything and Sania and the latter remained silent during the whole time, listening carefully to everything they had to say, and even when they finished, she didn't reply immediately but stayed quiet for some more minutes.

" Hey, are you okay? How do you feel? " Volga asked her to break the silence, worried that she might take it too into the heart.

" How do I feel? " she repeated, and with an ironic tone, she continued, " I just learned that for these two last days I have been the puppet of a crazy woman whom we initially thought we came to help, I betrayed you and even tried to kill you. And as if it was not enough during that whole time while trying to replace the love of her life who dumped her, she used me as her sex doll before sending me to serve as his sex doll by the way, " she finished while pointing to Nelson.

The latter had his eyes keep staring at the ground since he stopped talking as he couldn't face anyone. Hearing her comment on him made him bite his lower lip while clenching his fists hopelessly.

" Well, I think we will leave you alone for a moment, the time for you to assimilate all those things, " Jamal proposed after another short moment of silence. " You must be exhausted, I know it has been a very awful experience... for both of you, " he completed after a short moment of hesitation, " I will not pretend that I understand what you are feeling right now so I will just tell you once again that you don't have to feel responsible for anything and that we are here for you to help you go through that ".

He glanced at the three women beside him before he started walking toward the door, and naturally, they soon followed him.

One by one they were leaving the room, Nelson was the last person to approach the door but before he could step outside Sania called him out to wait.

The man had his hand slightly shaking while holding the handle of the door. He slowly turned around and saw her sitting on the bed, her back leaning on the wall while bringing her knees to her chest. She seemed to have left a place next to her especially for him.

Though she didn't add anything he understood what she wanted. He closed the door behind him and walked forward to go sitting on the place she had left next to her.

•••

" What do you think about that? " Pam asked Jamal once they left the room, " have your doubts been confirmed? "

" It seems that the control Konny had on her was not deep enough to make her lose the totality of her memory, " he simply replied without making any conclusion.

" You're right. We all noticed that once you asked her to give you her latest souvenir, she had almost an immediate reaction, looking like her memories tried to come at her automatically, " Carla pointed out before she added " but why that? "

" It would be logical to say that one loses a certain part of the memory depending on how long that someone has been mind-controlled, " Volga suggested but she immediately shook her head, " but it wouldn't be right since we know that Sania and Nelson got caught by the power of Konny almost in the same period ".

Everyone became silent while thinking about what she said, " maybe it's not about the duration of the mind control but rather its intensity, " Jamal said, making the women around him turning their heads to stare at him, curious to hear him developing his point, " in fact, Volga's suggestion is not totally wrong but only if we look at it in the perspective that the mind control may get stronger as the time passes but that wouldn't remove the possibility that the mind control may become stronger without the need of a long interval of time, " he paused to see if they could get his point so far.

" In my previous hypothesis, I have said that Konny has most probably made use of her sex-appeal to tease and increase the sexual desires of the majority people in order to control them after, but sexual desires are not enough to transform everyone into a perfectly obedient slave especially if those people are women like Sania, " after that the people around him started to understand what he meant.

" You want to say she didn't use the attraction Sania had for her to control her? " Pam suggested, uncertain.

" Better to generalize and say that Konny didn't especially use the same desire to seize everyone in her control, " Volga corrected Carla before she said to Jamal, " but we already knew that since you have shown us the example that she most likely used Nelson's desire to save Sania to control him ".

" Exactly " he enthusiastically replied, " I wanted to point the fact that maybe there is more than one factor which intervenes in the intensity of the mind control in someone ".

" If I understand you well... " Carla began to list with her fingers " those factors may be the desire of the person, how long that person has been under the influence of Konny's power and... "

" And the person on himself or herself " Volga completed " is it right? "

" That's right " Jamal nodded, " those people we have just saved have been controlled by Konny for such a very long time so Konny had all time to train them in a way that they couldn't possibly disobey to any of her order. When we look at Nelson's case, she immediately used his desire to protect Sania which seemed obviously the strongest in her eyes, but in his heart, there were still some strong desires which spared him to completely submit to her... for example, his desire to protect Carla and keep his promise or to care of his men and lead them and so on ".

Hearing that his affection for her was still strong despite the power of Konny made Carla smile uncontrollably.

" What about the woman, Sania? " Pam came again.

" Since we have left Palet, thanks to Carla, we noticed from her a change of behavior that she wasn't fine emotionally, which means that when we arrive here, Konny surely noticed that she had weak defenses against her powers, and thus she wisely made used of that occasion to catch her, " Jamal responded.

" But if we follow your logic, in that case since she had been mentally weaker than others, her mind control should have consequently been stronger, thus, she should have lost all her memories like the others and yet, it's actually not the case, " the young woman objected.

" That would have been the case if we weren't considering the third factor, Sania herself, " Jamal lifted his finger and responded, " her emotional state was probably in a mess but her mind was still well operational, that's why I think her mind control was not total ".

" So the conclusion of all that discussion is what? " Volga asked as the ambiance was about to become silent again.

" The conclusion is that we were not capable to bring back the memories of all those people, and they most likely never recover them " Jamal responded with a dramatic tone, before he added, more cheerfully, " but I'm confident that our comrades from the union of armies of the previous cities will eventually recover. Give them one day or two ".

" I'm a little worried about her mental condition, though, " Volga suddenly confessed her thoughts about Sania after a short moment of silence, " it's not easy to recover after being abused like that ".

Everyone stayed quiet, agreeing with her.

Jamal took a glance at the door of the room they were a few times ago, " Well, Nelson stayed to take care of her, so I'm sure they will be fine, not forgetting that Sania is quite strong mentally, so there is no need to worry that much ". He looked at them and with an enthusiastic tone he proposed, " instead of staying here depressing, I suggest to get down and prepare to move ".

" Wait... where are you going? " Pam asked a little worried. " Don't worry, I just wanted to keep my promise, we shall return to Konny HQ there we will find the food and all the other stuff you may need to organize the celebration of your army's victory, " Jamal replied while making a gesture to reassure her.

" Celebration? " she repeated while tilting slightly the head as if it was the first time she was hearing that word.

" Yes, the members of your army have worked hard they need a reward, moreover, we can make use of that occasion to help your ancient colleagues and the other people, who have just been freed from Konny's powers, to get along with each other, and also for your army to get used of the actual situation and if possible turn the page ".