IN THE PAST:
"Samantha," or Adamantha Snark, as she would become known, practically skipped down the hallway, the left half of the spectacles clutched in her finger extensions, trailing a bit behind her. The whole stupid-girl speech had been a diversion, to buy time and all while she grabbed it. In case you hadn't already guessed. But since you're probably waaaay smarter than Mindy, that's totally a possibility. It still hadn't occurred to her that Mantha had taken them! Of course, Mantha didn't know that, she figured Mindy (whose name, in reality, she didn't know) would be somewhere behind her, which was why she kept glancing over her shoulder. Which is why she ran straight into Olivena, lost her balance, and fell face-first onto the cold tile floor. Ouch. She felt the spectacle-half sliding out of her grip, and used the very tips of her finger extensions to fling it down the hall. It went much farther than she'd anticipated.
"Hello, Alia," Lily-liver smirked, letting the needles of poison slide out from under her fingernails, and standing over her victim, all smiles.
*******
Anna and Effie pressed against the wall as they heard the sounds of violence from a neighboring corridor.
"There's a trap on the wall," Anna hissed. "I'm going to disable it, and when I say go, we run past that corridor and hope no one sees us. Do it quietly."
Eff nodded, and she turned to the wall and began fiddling with a wire that stuck out, while her apprentice's mind wandered."
There was a sharp clattering noise; both Effie and Anna jumped, the latter believing she'd caused it by doing something incorrect and making the trap activate somehow. Effie, on the other hand, saw the small metal and glass object that slid out of the noisy corridor and into the hall in which she was standing, a few feet ahead.
"Got it," Anna whispered. "Ready...? Run!"
They dashed past the corridor, Effie stopping for a moment to pick up the left half of the spectacles, before joining her mentor as they reached the end of the hallway and flung the exterior doors open, heading out into fresh air once more.
You will see though your own eyes, so much more... Secrets, you want to know secrets, don't you?
Effie winced and did her best to close her mind off and block out the tantalizing whispers.
******
IN PRESENT TIME:
Anna nodded as Effie finished explaining. "So you want to stop your apprentice from dying?"
"Fabi's not my apprentice. She trained mostly solo, I can't tell if she trusts everyone or no one, but for the most part she never had a teacher. She kinda picked up a bit from a lot of us, though, and she's not half bad at the whole spying thing. Anyway, she's not my apprentice, and I don't know if I can really count her as a friend, considering the fact that I tried to kill her. Well, not me me, but y'know. Effie pointed at her head, the voices of Mevolent and the dead psychic strangely silent. So the stone circle actually worked. Cool.
"I see," Anna's voice was a pitch lower than usual, as if she were trying not to burst out into anger. She noticed Effie looking at her and frowned. "Mind control is the lowest magical discipline I can think of."
"Yeah," agreed Effie. "Sure right."
Anna considered for a moment. "But before, though, it wasn't mind control. Your head was still your own." Effie blinked like a fish. She knew, of course she did. Play the fool for as long as possible.
"I told you, Mevolent is in my head and then I resisted and--"
"Effie," Anna shook her head. "You're not stupid. Did you really think I didn't know?"
Her eyes gleamed, opening doors to her anger and pain. Effie winced and took a step back, only to bump into the invisible wall behind her. The stone circle Anna had led her to wasn't just a safe place to talk, it was a trap.
Anna stepped outside of the circle easily, nodding at Eff as she went. "I'm going to help your friend. You say she has head injuries?" Eff nodded wordlessly. "Well, I can un-hit her on the head, and deal with that, at least partially. If it's as you say, though, Ember Silver will probably kill her anyway. If that happens, it isn't my problem. I'm just helping you this once, okay? Once, and it's more than you deserve." Again, Effie nodded. Anna wondered if she was being hard on her, but shoved the thought aside. Eff had betrayed her, let her down, there was no reason to help. It was possible, after all these years in the shadows, that Anna Zinaida could still be considered something of a good person.Or just wishful thinking.
[AT THIS POINT IN TIME IS WHERE THE NIGHTMARE CHAPTER GOES. ANNA UN-HITTING HER ON THE HEAD CAUSED FABI TO REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS, AND SINCE I BELIEVE EMBER IS WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER AND PROBABLY DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS, IT PROBABLY JUST WOKE HER UP AND SHE STILL HAS A REALLY BAD HEAD INJURY. THEN AGAIN, WHATEVER EMBER SAYS IS WHAT IT IS, SO YEAH.]
[SORRY ABOUT THE ALIA BIT... I KNOW MY CHARACTERS ALL HAVE LOTS OF NAMES, BUT ADAMANTHA ISN'T ADAMANTHA YET, SO OLIVENA CAN'T REALLY CALL HER THAT.]
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