Eager to begin, Marquesa puts Her glass down, focuses Her attention completely on Her prey, and begins to send him telepathic commands.   “BECOME DROWSY!…RELAX!!…REST!…SLEEP!”  These thought messages, short and sweet, sound like something from Hypnotism Made E-Z — comic book hypnosis — but in Her earlier ‘laboratory trials’, short-and-sweet seemed to outperform long-and-involved messages.  At first, Her quarry seems oblivious to the thoughts She sends his way, but She’s not easily deterred.  Besides, She tells Herself, the night is still young.

She knows this is much like fishing — sometimes it takes a while before you get that first bite.  Minute after minute, eyes and mind focused on Her prey and concentrating intently, She continues on.  Once again, as though he senses Her energy, senses Her closeness, he looks back again in Her direction.  Owing to Her darkened corner, He doesn’t register Her presence, but the fact that he looks around suggests to Her that he’s still alert, so if he’s responding to Her commands as She’d hoped, it’s not apparent.  Realizing something is amiss, She stops and realizes She needs to regroup.  “Grasshopper!” She thinks, “You have yet much to learn before you attain true Mastery. Time to start over.  Back to basics…”