the point of no return

Annalis’e nodded in understanding. “Trust is a commodity that is earned. I get it. We know this better than most. But you have nothing to fear from me or anyone else here. I hope that, in time, you’ll see that.”  Annalis’e walked around the stone and started for the grand staircase at the end of the north hall. She didn’t make it far before she sat down on the steps. “Orlain is a woman. Like you. Her role in this is as large as the gains every woman stands to see when a poisonous regime that crushes them is toppled. What separates you from her is merely her station, and whose to say that she’ll even want it by the time a whole society is suddenly remade by unseen forces? Whose to say that there will be an empire at all by the end of it?

“I would be remiss,” she continued, “to say that a title like ‘Queen,’ ‘Duchess,’ or ‘Empress,’ is a popular pivot point upon which we’ve learned flip regimes, but this is different. Vermilion knows Orlain, I would go as far as say there is a particular parental fondness between the two of them. Hinging a regime on one person is morally questionable enough, even without adding the part about people from one world interfering with the politics of another, but when the person in mind knows the Shadow doing the hinging, the person deserves the right to choose who she wants to be in the better world we are supposedly helping create.”

Vermilion’s heart skipped a beat. Annalis’e called her a “Shadow.” She wondered if it was a mistake, a slip of the tongue…? It was the first ounce of acceptance the Shadows offered her.  She wondered if, perhaps, there were like minded people who’d welcome her with open arms after this was done. She wondered…

…what would Paris think of all this?

“It’s impossible to say right now,” Annalis’e concluded. “We can topple the whole thing and call it day, but that would create a power vacuum causing more suffering. But luckily, the one thing Vermilion and I have both proven: Beatrix is notoriously easy to infiltrate. We’ll need more eyes than just Vermilion’s in that palace, and we need more eyes than mine in the common crowd. More importantly, the figurehead needs to decide where she herself fits. Otherwise the work is hollow and hypocritical and we’ve succeeded in trading one lifeless government body for another.”

Annalis’e stood to her feet. “But we should shelve this for now. We’ll be meeting  tomorrow morning to decide what to do next. I’m certain your voice will have significant weight in that discussion. But for now, I’m going to recommend solid food and bedrest. You’ve been through a lot in the past few hours.” Annalis’e turned and and walked toward the grand double doors that led to Midnight Palace. Besides, Saga’s back in the palace kitchen, and no one is better than her. And someone here owes her an apology.”

Vermilion froze in place.

Ella looked at Vermillion closely. She was a child, or near as one that it made no difference. Had she passed this person in the street she would not have noticed anything distinctive about her. But Ella kept looking as Annalis’e spoke. There was something there that apparently all the training in the world couldnt conceal. It was need. Perhaps it was hunger. 

The Dagal woman took a deep breath (which had the contradictory effect of making her head spin a bit) and sat down on the broad steps. She steepled her fingers, elbows resting on her knees as she tried to absorb all the information. 

“So.” She replied at some length. “To put it simply, you already have access to the palace, you have the means to crumble the whole thing. But you want Orlain to be active in this process, for her to have a say.” Ella sighed. “I have to be honest, as much as I can try to empathise with Orlain, to me she is still just another cog in a brutal aristocracy. I've no idea what her desires might be.”

Annalis’e scoffed. “Where do I even begin...” A welcoming hand ushered Ella further into Lux Hall where the cross-shaped halls intersected. At the center of it was an open courtyard, with a skyward view of the mouth of the remaining cave. At the hall’s heart was a massive stone, left in middle where it crashed down after being blasted from the roof cavemouth in lieu of fresh air and some sunshine from the outside. Rather than dispose of it, everyone gathered around it and climbed it for fun. It was a meeting place for many-- LuxHeart, they called it. The name stuck the instant someone spoke it.

“I could regurgitate the mission statement,” Annalis’e shrugged. “Go on and on about the liberty and protection of the people around the globe...but those words were written by hypocrites, and they betrays the blood on our hands and dirt in our nails. Plus, I doubt you’d believe me. So I’ll spare you the dogma and say this: I’ve always believed that power is best when it is used to help those who have none.”

She pointed upward at the girl making a mad climb to the top of the stone. Dirty blond hair, stained shirt, tattered cargo pants and combat boots laced with pride over her ankle. She raced friends who sought to beat her record for fastest climb. “She’s one of our youngest. The two of you are dissimilar in almost every regard, but in a very important way...you both are similar: you both have no love for the status quo. As a young girl, her head was always in the clouds, and at the very beginning, she had a father who broke the rules to give her wings. She’s been a pilot ever since. But she, like everyone else here, knows that she could have been anchored to the ground if she was born in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or with the wrong skin color. The biggest difference between you and her is circumstance. In this case, circumstances of birth. She was born to a family who loved her. You were born to a family who loved status. That difference is in the circumstances of birth, and it will keep people like you for truly living. Not your talent, not your actions, not your hopes and dreams, but a part of you that you have no control of.

Vermilion stood a few paces behind, letting the words swirl pleasantly about her ears.

“But that’s merely what we believe. Its not what we do. What I do. That is...complicated to explain.” Annalis’e reached for Vermilion, offering her to stand beside her, “If I told you that Vermilion, even in her absence, is the only thing keeping the status quo from killing Orlain, could you truly believe me?”

Ella turned to look at the stone and the young woman who was climbing it. She moved with such unconcernedness. The Dagal woman found herself, for a moment, unable to stop staring. The other woman moved rapidly, assuredly, with a carefree certainty that the summit of her climb was easily within her reach. Even this incredibly simple action was baffling to Ella, and suddenly by contrast she realised how caged she had been even on a microscopic level; how she had been instructed to move, to speak, to hold herself. How she had absorbed those lessons unquestioningly because she had never had another option. She blinked and in her minds eye saw Eden there instead. Then she was gone.

When Vermillion spoke Ella stood silent for a little longer than was comfortable. Abruptly she turned away, moving the few paces across the hall to lay her hand on the enormous boulder. It was solid and real, a reassurance she was desperately in need of.

She turned back and walked toward her two rescuers, hands tucked purposefully in the pockets of her trousers, back straight, long hair flowing down and around her face in a way that framed her with confidence.

      “Yes.” She said simply, at length. “I believe you. I believe both of you, all of you-” She gestured back toward the hall and the stone where the blonde woman was climbing, where their welcome party had just departed and where a tall, dark haired woman busied along the corridor looking thoroughly distracted before disappearing into a doorway. “- Are very powerful.” Her eyeline moved more pointedly to Vermillion. “I could believe you have that ability.” It shifted back to Annalis’e.

      “What I cant yet be totally comfortable of is your purpose, please do not misunderstand me.” She took a hand out of her pocket and raised it a moment defensively. “I will never be able to thank you enough. I’m grateful. In fact I think your intentions are probably good. But you must understand...” Her eyes glazed a moment with a far off look. Behind it she saw years of blood.

      “I have seen power used too poorly, too often, to be...easy in it’s presence. I’m afraid of you. If you do really want to help me, help the people I care about, you might have to forgive me for that. At least for a while.”

From the corner of her eye, she could see Vermilion checking for the validation Annalis’e felt in the moment. She was right. It was no less of a heavy burden than the rest of the duties she had, or the responsibilities that she assigned to herself. But it was rare to receive the clear, instant sign that Ella gave her, a sign that she was doing the right thing.

There were no words she could offer in the moment. All she could do is offer a nod of understanding, and hope that what she did next lived up to the hopes Ella placed squarely upon her shoulders. She carried it with determination, up the ramp and into the crate. Into the dark.

The ramp hinged up and sealed the box shut. All was silent, save for the shuffling of Vermilion’s dress as she gave her body something to do to distract herself from the nausea she anticipated.

After awhile… nothing. And then…

Vibrations and tones rang over and over from Annalis’e’s phone, slotted in the side compartment of her bag. Having been useless on a distant world, it came alive with undelivered messages, emails and other notifications as it came in contact with her home network for the first time in a little less than a week. Vermilion cleared her throat, trying and failing to swallow. She knew before the ramp lowered itself again that Dagilach was behind her.

As the crate reopened, she recognized the growing Lux Hall in an instant: the sunlight through the vast open skylight stung her eyes, but the sound of the far side of the mountain welcomed her home with open arms. But the ramp touched down on an unfamiliar platform at the end of another side of Lux, which opened into the inner cavern of the mountain and overlooked a ravine. Caution markings were painted around the box, and a glass barrier separated the crate from the rest of what looked like Lux’s newly constructed west corridor. Unfamiliar too, was the sound of Unity’s voice over the intercom: “Unscheduled Connection complete.” Guards with weapons trained on the three immediately lowered them as Annalis’e stepped out. “Stand down,” a voice over the radio said, “Unscheduled arrival. The Director is now Palace-side.” Annalis’e took her phone from her bag before a Shadow came to whisk away the bag. “Welcome home, Director.”

“You’re early!” Cyanne rushed to open the glass barricade, welcoming the travel party into the Lux Hall, albeit informally. She made her way to the crate. “I would have been here to welcome you home.” Her fingers went to work, checking Annalis’e pulse, checking for bruises. ‘Was everything smooth?”

Annalis’e smiled, waving away Cyanne’s constant prodding. “We’re fine,” she replied warmly. However, poor Vermilion rushed from the opening and doubled over, hurling into ravine. “More or less,” Annalis’e chuckled. “I see you had the crate moved ?”

“Yea,” Cyanne replied. “I figured if you’d be using it regularly, it needed it’s own designated space outside the lab. East and West hall are brand new, so picking one of them made sense. And the west had an open, defensible space to make an arrival platform. Plus the space makes it easier to study and integrate.” As Annalis’e turned back to the crate to offer Ella a hand, Cyanne finally gave notice to the third arrival.   “A local?”

“Yea…there was a development…it’s complicated.”

Cyanne shook her head, with a warm smile of knowing approval. “No. No its not. We’ll get her settled in, and I’ll call Paris and Eleanor, we’ll set a meeting time where we discuss what you’ve found and decide if this idea Mors De Lumine bullshit that Delun cobbled together can actually do some good. That about it?”

Annalis’e scoffed. “Yea. Yea it is.”

“Ok then. I’ll leave you too it. I’ll call Nora and Paris have them Palace-side by morning. I’ll let Molly know you’re back, too.” Cyanne turned and marched. It was great to see how much Cyanne had grown from an insubordinate reconditioning brat into the confident tech-savy Shadow she was now.

Vermilion returned. Green in the face. Silent, aside for her heavy breathing.

The commotion at platform finally died down. The guards returned to their stations, and Annalis’e didn’t even notice the arrival alarm until it was silenced. All that remained was the continued chatter of Shadows going back to work, and the distant waterfall. Annalis’e could finally give Ella the attention she no doubt needed. “Ok….now you can ask questions. I’m sure you have more than a few.”

The door of the crate hinged upward, clanked and bolted resolutely into position. Darkness folded around the three with a terrible absoluteness, darker than the inside of a cave. Ella had to work very hard to hold herself still, to not run and bang desperately on the door.

She shut her eyes tightly and waited. Surely something would happen; a jolt, a feeling of movement or acceleration. Anything. After all a person could not take a single step across a threshold without feeling their foot set down on the other side. She waited. 

Beeps and notification tones rang out within the metal box. Ella’s eyes popped open panicked, glancing around and just catching sight of an illuminated phone screen, her expression pulling into one of confusion.

      “Wait, what...Did it not work?”

The door swung downward, and Ella Ardente looked out into an expansive stone hall. For a horrible moment her brain lurched to the conclusion that she’d been taken to the palace, that it was all over...But no. The air smelled and sounded like rushing water, and there were other people here. Guards but also other women, one of them rushing forward to greet her escort with familiarity and kindness. Ella stepped slowly down the ramp, holding onto Annalis’e like an anchor, casting her gaze about in a stunned way. 

Taking her first breath was even more proof that Dagilach was lightyears behind her; her head spun momentarily with the excess oxygen in the air. It would take a few days to adjust. 

“I...” She faltered at the offer for a moment. There were so many questions, enough to take weeks to answer. But looking about at the grand architecture and the hangar and the people busying around with purpose Ella’s eyes swung back to Annalis’e. She looked at her with a wary wonder.

He removed his hand from her skin with a practiced ease, the way a person might who bred especially venomous snakes. She didn’t necessarily *want* to kill him at this juncture in their interaction, but she absolutely could. Despite the legends, Hannibal had no real supernatural gifts. All he had was his will and an utter lack of human scruples, but so did she.

“I’ve been shown *polite* Dagliach. I’ve seen its treatment of women and their role in society mirror my home world. I would like to see Dagliach’s grubbier side. Yes, I can move people in the courts, and from the top down, but I think you have a unique perspective. In gratitude, I want to help you achieve your goals and then show you Earth in much the same way I’ve been shown your planet. No fanfare, no circuses, just a tiger in the grass among sheep.

Ella paused with her hand on her coffee cup. Earth. Earth sounded awfully appealing. She couldnt bear to go through another ordeal like this morning just to keep throwing the dogs off her scent. It was getting harder, but Earth...They’d have to work very hard to extradite her from another solar system. 

She took a small sip then set the cup down, fixing the strange doctor with a searching look. 

      “As fascinating a proposal as it is, you must understand my position. You are currently, to all intents and purposes, a part of the system you claim to criticize...However.” Her leather gloved fingers laced together with a light creak.

      “If you were to demonstrate your intentions to me, perhaps we could build some trust. So I tell you what...” 

She leant forward over the table and spoke quietly. “That woman who’s head we both saw this morning? Her brother in law, Georges Ira, the brother of the man she murdered is holding an intimate party at his penthouse in the centre of the city this evening. Just a quiet gathering of five close friends. I’ve secured myself an invitation. I don't expect it to be too excessive, but there will be drinking. Something is going to happen to Georges tonight. Something...Permanent. If you were to accompany me and demonstrate your willingness, you will have yourself a partnership.”

//Hello there anon and thank you for the question!

My URL is taken from the lyrics of Arsonist's Lullaby by Hozier, some of the characters have been replaced:

As everyone piled in, the first hints of flame peaked beneath the closed hood. Time was up. Vermilion took her phone from her pocket at sent a message ahead: Unscheduled departure request, 3 passengers, Imminent arrival. Royal Exec.  The message back was nearly instantaneous: Confirmed.

The road ahead was clear. The car pulled out of the tunnel and back into the rescinding sunlight, chasing the rising twin moons until it led them south, out of city limits. A winding trail guided the car to a dirt road that was not on any map. Vermilion knew it well–a chauffer escorted her out on it in the Empress’s vain attempt to send her home for her own safety. But the loyal were truly stubborn. Eventually, Annalis’e herself was brought into the city on that very road, and she had been back and forth on it in her very brief study of the world. Vermilion couldn’t speculate what Annalis’e would bring back the next time she took the road.

If anything.

As the car traveled, the road became uneven and trees grew thick and crowded until what was left of the sun vanished beyond the canopy. In an instant, it all dissipated as the car pulled into a vast clearing, where a hangar sat pronounced in the center. On sight, guards opened the doors without question, and kept their eyes on the road as the car passed. Only when the hangar doors were sealed behind them did Vermilion and Annalis’e exit the vehicle. Annalis’e hurried to gather her things, but not so desperate enough to not open the door for Ella on the way to the trunk.

Vermilion made her way to the black crate in the center. She had to steel her nerves, even though (statistically) there was nothing to worry about. It didn’t change the fact that she was nauseous each time. But the chance to see Lux Hall again, perhaps the first time as a welcomed ally, motivated her forward to the technician.

“We’re ready.”

The technician nodded, and went to work in silence. The crate’s door opened to welcome them.

Annalis’e had only traveled back and forth a handful of times. Seeing the door open this time filled her with relief, but also with a sense of obligation. She had seen the injustice Vermilion had hoped she would, and though she was able to easily flee home…she couldn’t leave it be. Only in those whirlwind of feelings did Annalis’e truly understand why Vermilion asked her here in the first place.

Turning to the girl under her protection, Annalis’e braced Ella’s shoulders and turned her until she faced north. It was impossible to see it through the hundreds of trees, but the city was on the other side.

“I know I’ve asked you to take a lot on faith, but in the end, it’s your decision to come with us. Last chance to wave goodbye. Or to turn back. But for however little my word means to you, I can guarantee that no one will find you where we are going. I can also guarantee that this goodbye is only temporary.”

She released Ella’s shoulders and started for the crate. “Whatever you decide, either way…I’ll understand.”

The city gave way to trees. Ella leant up and all but pressed her face to the glass. She had been allowed a few escorted to visits to the great lakes, and her family owned a grand garden, but an actual forest? That was a more unusual sight in Ella’s world. To be truly parted from the inorganic, and as she often imagined it, parasitic capital of Sonedisi. It was a wonder to her, and she felt in that moment that had she simply decided it maybe, just maybe...She could have slipped away in the night and escaped after all. Before any of this.

But unfortunately, she had to climb out of the car. When she did, what stood before her almost couldnt have caused more emotional whiplash; It was a Supo hangar. Her hand went up to steady herself on the door.

Ella suddenly remembered sitting in the drawing room with Gopal while he tried to draw out the theoretical principles of how the thing worked, his hand working with the careful and elegant precision of a draftsman on the tablet. She had frowned at the diagrams.

“But, if a crate is displaced, where does it go?”

“They don't get displaced, if they did it would be less than a one in a million chance...”

“But if it did?”

Gopal was a person of great patience, and he sat thoughtfully for a moment before responding.

“Theoretically, you could vanish from the universe, or perhaps be transposed into a completely different one.”

Ella had raised her eyebrows. “I appreciate the explanation Gopal but I don't think I’ve ever been gladder to be a mechanic, rather than a physicist.”

The black mouth of the crate opened like a void. It took no effort for Annalis’e to turn her away, back toward the lights of the city. Ella felt herself perched on a terrible fulcrum; on one side was a concrete, unshifting world of unremitting cruelty...And on the other was an unknown void that may just represent salvation, but so much faith and bravery was required.

She breathed deeply and closed her eyes. She could still smell the forest, still feel Annalis’e’s hands firmly on her shoulders. Ella turned to look hard at her escort, she looked different now. She wasn't just an agent, she was something else altogether.

“I’m not a religious person. Not the old gods, or the new. I never had much use for it, I never understood it. I always looked at the world exactly on the terms of what I could see and touch. But right now...” Her gaze drifted a moment to the crate, then back again. “...I understand the need of faith.” Again that slightly bemused laugh. “And Lords help me, I could almost believe that one of the heavenly host finally decided to show up...” Her expression softened. “...And if that’s true I’ll give them credit, because it was in no way I could have anticipated.”

Ella turned away from her world, all the while promising herself that this was just one step in a chain. But Lords, what a step.

As the engine began to smoke, Vermilion slammed the hood shut. The melted, mutilated ruin the vehicle stood to become would throw most investigators off the trail for a day. Maybe two. By the time they found out that there was no corpse in the wreckage, the path of Ella Ardente would be erased.

“Any why would they be inappropriate?” she mused. “I’m just a person. My job does not make me superior to you in anyway. And I never gave much credit to my station for anything other than convenience.” She took Ella’s hand in a gentle shake and laid her other hand atop. “My name is Vermilion. The pleasure is all mine.” Releasing Ella’s hand. she moved to her own vehicle. Small, darkened windows, the unmistakable insignia of the Emperor on the hood. People would see it and give it a wide berth as it passed rather than question who was in it, or where it was going. There was no place safer on the planet for Ella to hide for the next few minutes.  “Help yourself to any seat. Will be heading to a private hangar outside the city, after which we will...well... it’s not my place to reveal what my collaborator has decided--”

“I wouldn’t talk about it here. Annalis’e disappeared into the small room and exited with a duffle bag, which she threw into the car’s trunk. “We complete the vanishing act, and once we are at Moonlight Palace, we will discuss everything. Not before.” Annalis’e offered Vermilion more than just a passing glance. It lingered, oozing with reluctant trust and laced with more than a few warnings. Vermilion replied with an uneasy smile, and a grateful nod.  

Vermilion pulled open the driver side door and climbed inside. “I believe once you see the hangar....you’ll start putting the dots together.”

With a hand resting on Ella’s back, Annalis’e began to usher her to the car, just as her own began to catch fire. “Come,” calmly, she urged. “Safety is 20 minutes away.”

She began to muse that there was nothing for Ella here, now...but Annalis’e swallowed the words. She knew better.  She saw worse regimes toppled than this one...

The right team and a gentle push was all Beatrix needed.

Ella reciprocated the handshake, a little taken aback (but not unpleasantly so) at Vermilion’s candour. “Just like the swans you see migrating over the North City in winter.” She observed quietly. It was an unusual, poignant name to Ella’s ear.

It had been only a brief interaction so far but there was a definite tension of some kind between the two agents. Ella could not pinpoint what it was. Perhaps it was simply the intensity of the situation, and as she considered this the words ‘Moonlight Palace’ found her ear. She thought carefully but couldnt remember hearing of such a place. Maybe it was in the South City. An idea that seemed to gain some weight when Vermillion mentioned the hangar, air was the best way to get to the other end of the continent. Though increasingly travel became limited. Ella had heard at least fourth hand that the natives of the South City had taken part in a major uprising to prevent the construction of nuclear facilities along the border.

She clicked the lap belt into place. Being conveyed by Royal vehicle was a surreal thing. She couldnt help but wonder who else might have sat where she sat now. Had the Empress occupied this seat? From the window of the back seat she watched her brother’s car begin smoke and smoulder. It’s absence would be noted but hopefully the action of taking it would be placed squarely at Ella’s feet. 

//Hello there anon and thank you for the question!

The initial prompt for Ella and her world actually came from just one music video, Magnets.

Much of Ella's look and styling was influenced by this, along with her fascination with fire.

As for the world itself much more of that is my own creation, apart from a couple of details that you can see here in one of the opening shots of the video:

The first thing to point out are the two moons you can see. I named these Yaruna and Hartaich and you can read about them here. Before the more modern religion was established the moons were central to religious belief.

As I say in my bio, Ella is loosely based on the music video magnets by Lorde and Disclosure. All of it really, the character, the look, the fact that there are two moons in the sky.

This was actually before I knew that much about Lorde at all. I was just struck by this visual, and when I looked into it I found a bunch of outlets quoting this from an interview with Lorde about the video:

"The most important detail is the girlfriend's black eye, when she's by the window," Lorde wrote.

"Watch with that moment in mind. That's the point the whole video hinges on ... takes it from being 'an affair narrative' to being 'shitty domestic abuser dude's girlfriend hired miss ella the hit girl to 'seduce' him then take him the f*** out'."

There was little more that Annalis’e could do the make what was about to happen any smoother. Her mind raced significant faster than the car, which carefully rolled down the tunnel towards a lone spotlight shining on a single door. Her nose was filled with warm rot, emanating from the sewer system.

For all their righteousness, the collective shit of Dagilach still stank.

Once they were close enough, she could see it–a black car, hiding on the other side of the spotlight. Even in the distance, even in the dark, she could see Vermilion’s pale blue eyes staring her down. Once they reached the light, the car stopped, and Annalis’e climbed out of the driver side door…all but bracing for the inevitable “I told you so.”

Vermilion met Annalis’e with caution. There was still much she had to convince the director of: that Dagliach–this world lightyears away–deserved intervention., that her friend, a figurehead with no real power, deserved to be spared from tyrants who wielded far too much.

…but most of all, Vermilion had to convince Annalis’e that she was an asset to her, but also a human being capable of empathy. That she deserved to live.

Vermilion didn’t need to see the passenger in the car. Word traveled fast–rumors about Ella’s stunt was already idle chit-chat in other houses as well as the palace. She had personally seen courtiers shake their head, scoff, and declare “She’s as good as doomed,” before moving on to whatever else they were doing. And now here Annalis’e was, attempting to whisk a complete stranger away from harm.

“You understand now,” Vermilion pleaded, “right?”

“Not now.” Annalis’e hurried to the door, taking an old-fashioned key from behind a loose brick, and turning the lock. She swung the door open: a small room, abandoned by the advancement and eventual self-management of infrastructure, turned into a small hide away. She never had the chance to use it. She collected a few articles of folded clothing and handed them to Vermilion. “Just get us back. We’ll all discuss, as a unit, this evening. We’ll be back this time tomorrow to start the real work.”

It was more than Vermilion could have asked for. An affirmation, an invitation as an equal, and a possibility that she’d finally get to meet the closest thing she had to a mother. But most importantly–it meant she had a real shot at saving a friend.

She buried her relief, her catharsis, and focused on the present. Orlain wouldn’t miss her for a day–Vermilion came and went as she pleased most days. After years of working and deflecting every thing that came to harm her, she was confident that the Empress knew she was always protected. Perhaps even moreso now.

She carried the stack of clothes to the passenger side, opening the door. “ You have five minutes to get dressed and raid the fridge. Join us when you’re ready.” Vermilion worked with all the urgency she had. Instead of waiting for a response, she moved to the front of the car and opened the hood, and began pulling at hoses and wires. After a moment, the engine ran hot. It would melt the other components before long.

Vermilion peered at Ella through the driver side window. “Hurry.”

The car swept along with little but the sound of the tires on the road. It was always ironic to Ella; she was an autodidact, she had trained herself in mechanics, if need be she could probably fix most any problem with the electrical engine. But she had never been allowed to drive. The last light of the day was truly fading, they were probably looking for her by now. She felt a stab of terror for Eden and her brother, if anyone decided they'd been involved in her disappearance they'd be treated harshly to say the least.

They dove below ground and the service lights in the tunnel strobed then plunged into black. Ella peered out curiously. She'd never been to such a place. The smell was something. Everything in her world had been pungently fragrant. Something about the sheer stench of it felt more real than anything that had transpired so far that evening.

Ella had expected Annalis’e’s contact to be a man, but they couldn't have been more different. The person the woman with the hair pin walked to meet was a girl, and a young girl. Ella couldnt quite guess her age, but surely she was no older than seventeen? Maybe younger. She nodded, unsure what to say as the clothes were presented to her. She watched the young woman go about carefully rewiring under the hood order to facilitate the car’s destruction. She felt a strange pang of envy. She would have known how to do it, and even though Gopal had supplied her with all manner of models and parts and diagrams she’d never laid hands on the inside of an actual vehicle.

The clothes were simple but functional, black, they didn't fit too badly. Completely without regard Ella stepped out of the car and started peeling her clothes off down to the underwear. This was not a statement against modesty, nor any sort of exhibitionism; Dagal ladies had no doors on their bedrooms, they were attended in intimate ways at all times by maids and family members. Ella had never known what physical privacy was, so it did not occur to her now.

Glinting like blood the necklace still lay on the passenger seat. She picked it up and caressed the cool stones. Part of her did not want to part with it, but to keep it would have been madness. Moving to the front of the car she dropped the precious thing in the small gap directly next to the battery. When the whole thing caught fire it would be about as well destroyed as it could be.

The door which had been revealed leaked pale light into the dark tunnel. As she approached, Ella’s fingers attacked the ribbons which held her hair tightly braided in place. It took a moment but eventually her thick locks sprung free and she blinked a little in the light of the hidden room. She had no stomach for food, but gladly took some water from the fridge and drained half the bottle in one go.

She sighed deeply and set the bottle down, turning to her two new companions.