Mindy Almaz: Isn't Someone Missing Me?

IN THE PAST:

Mindy lifted the monocle out of its case and examined it, trying to remember what she was supposed to do with it. She had to give it something, didn’t she? Something to identify its target… She retrieved the knife from the floor, where she’d been stupid enough to drop it, and let a drop of Effie’s blood fall onto the lens.

********

A world of power at your disposal, my dear. The ability to see it all, truths, lies, the future, secrets. You know what you want, come to us, come to see.

The voice came only from her left ear, and she whirled, but still it came from her left. She spun, trying to make it fade, go away, and finally it did, only to echo in her mind. “Truth, lies, secrets, everything.”

“Effie, is everything okay?” Effie shook herself back into something resembling reality and saw, through all the spinning, her mentor’s concerned face.

“Yeah… I’m a bit dizzy.”

“Effie, you just spun in circles for nearly two minutes, you are going to be dizzy.” Anna clearly didn’t believe that Eff had done it out of randomness, but what? Was she supposed to say that a weird voice had been trying to get her to take over the world with her left ear? It sounded absurd. Her mom must have been right, Effie was crazy, she thought bitterly.

********

Mindy shook the monocle, then looked through it again. It still wasn’t showing her Effie’s current location.

“What are you doing with that?” a voice asked from the doorway. “It’s useless without the other half.”

Mindy jumped, and turned to see a girl of about twelve or so with a brown ponytail and irritating freckles. She smirked, like she knew better. She obviously didn’t. Mindy smirked harder.

“It’s called a monocle. That’s ‘mono’ as in one, nitwit, and it's obviously broken."

"If my wits are nit, yours are not. That isn't a monocle, not-wit, it's half of a pair of spectacles. The monocle's kept in the other room, and if Serpine knew he had both spectacle halves, that'd be there, too. Or not, maybe he'd be using them for something," she cocked her head slightly. "You never can tell with Serpine."

"What do you know about Serpine?"
The girl shrugged "Same as everyone. He used to be Mevolent's general, has a back up plan, and of course, this secret cache of unauthorized magical items."
"Everyone knows that?" Mindy asked skeptically, setting the monocle--spectacle-half, whatever on the table behind her and turning to block it from the girl's view.
"Well, no, not everyone. Obviously I do, though, and so do you, or you wouldn't be here, but presumably you already know that you know, and since I wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't know, so you already know that, too, and that, and there's really no point in me continuing this long speech, because it's probably boring you, am I right?"
"Yeah," Mindy said, anything to make her leave.
"'Kay then, I'll go, sorry to bother you. Continue using the wrong magical eyewear!"
The irritating brat turned to go, finally, but Mindy's spy side couldn't help asking, "Who are you?" to see what the girl would say.
"I don't have a taken name yet," the girl mused, "and I know better than to tell you my given one. I suppose you can call me Samantha, I like the sound of that."
"I won't be needing to call you anything," Mindy muttered. "With any luck, I'll never be running into you again."
After scowling and mentally complaining for nearly a minute, she remembered the task at hand and turned back to the monocle.
It was gone.

(It's been quiet lately...how is everyone? [hugs])