"Come on. We don't have much time," said Laurel Elder, walking towards Sabine's cell.

"Stop!" Daphne yelled, still trying to get adjusted to the light. She squinted at her mother and was able to make her out, still in her blue and silver Coven robes, surrounded by a group of similarly dressed men and women. Coven witches. "Stop or I'll scream!" she threatened. It wasn't much, but without her wand, her voice was all she had to fight with.

A fuzzy form rushed out of the small crowd, hands raised. Daphne recognized the natural, curly black hair and full lips even in the blinding light. "Daph, it's okay!" said Rhode, coming forward.

"Rhode?" Daphne asked, backing away. She turned towards her mother again. "You need to explain what's going on!"

"Daphne, honey, we don't have time for—"

"We do if I say we do," said Daphne stubbornly. "Mom, you gave me up. You let them take me and my friends. And now I'm supposed to just believe you changed your mind? How do I know these people aren't just coming to take me away to suck out my magic?"

Daphne's mother glanced nervously over her shoulder. "Honey, please, we don't have time! How about we free your friend and we explain on the way?"

"On the way where?" Daphne asked.

"On the way out of here! We're taking you to an unwarded place, so we can make a portal home," her mother replied. "Daphne, sweetie, you didn't really think I'd leave you here?" she asked with an elegant smile. Daphne stared helplessly at her mother, the hurt and confusion painted plain on her face. Her mother's smile slipped off her face, more fleeting than mercury. "You did, didn't you?" she whispered. "Oh Daphne..."

Daphne's face crumpled as she bit down on her bottom lip. She turned her face away from the group of strangers. "You let them take me away, Mama," she said, angry, scared tears once again blurring her vision. "I thought... I thought you didn't want me anymore."

Laurel ran over to her, blue robes spilling around her like water. She gathered up her weeping daughter in her arms. Daphne leaned in, feeling the comforting weight of her mother's embrace. Daphne couldn't remember the last time she had seen her mother cry, but now she could feel tears trickling through her hair. Laurel kissed the top of Daphne's head and whispered, "My sweetheart. I will never stop wanting you. I will never stop loving you. And I will always come back for you."

With one final, almost crushing squeeze, they broke apart. Laurel smiled, wiped the tears off her face, and pulled out her wand. "Your friend must be wondering what's going on out here," she said, and pointed her wand at the wall. A few seconds and a lot of scraping later, Sabine's cell was open.

"Stop! Don't take me!" she was screaming, lashing out blindly with hands and feet. "Stop!"

"Sabine, it's okay!" Daphne cried, rushing into her cell to help her up. She grabbed her flailing hand and held it tightly. "It's okay! We're safe."

"Daphne?" Sabine asked, squinting. "Is that you?"

"It's me," she replied. "Your eyes will adjust soon. We're leaving."

"Is Rhode here too?" she asked, standing and groping her way to the recently-made door.

"I'm here! We're all here. Daphne's mom came to save us," Rhode answered.

"Daphne's mom? But I thought..."

"So did we!" said Rhode.

Sabine rubbed her eyes. "I'm confused. Could someone please tell me what's happening?"

"I'd like that too, actually," said Daphne, watching her mother out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, but we must hurry," said Laurel. "Put these on," she commanded, tossing each girl a black robe with sparse silver embroidery. "We've had plans like this in place for a long time," she explained as Daphne and her friends slipped on the robes over their grungy clothes. "Not everyone shares the Coven's beliefs, but people who are vocal about it tend to go missing." Laurel deftly pulled the hoods over each of the girls' heads and rushed them down the hallway. "If anyone approaches, look down. And for goodness's sake, Daphne, keep your hair hidden. Bright orange isn't tolerated by conventional witches."

"And you're not conventional witches, Miss Elder?" asked Sabine as they hurried along.

"Call me Laurel, dear," she replied as she hurried down the hall. "And no, we're not. All of us are critical of the Coven's outdated ideas and barbaric methods. We've decided the best use of our efforts didn't lie in openly speaking and then disappearing, but rather forming a group that quietly helps people being treated unfairly by the Coven."

"And we're very careful to keep up the guise of a modest model witch, so we're not suspected," said a man from the back of the hallway.

"And since the Coven doesn't want anyone to know that they make mistakes, almost no one knows about all the people we've broken out of prison!" whispered a woman gleefully. Daphne felt a small shock as she recognized her as Elinor, one of the witches who had welcomed them before they had been imprisoned.

Laurel nodded. "Exactly. We're all dedicated to our cause. Even though I'd hoped never to come back to this place, I decided to make the most of my summons and finally do some good in the world."

Daphne looked at her mother, trying to recognize her sweet mother inside of this determined woman. "When did you become so cool?" she asked under her breath.

Laurel turned and winked at her; Daphne forgot her mother had ears like a bat. "It was your father who was the 'cool' one, actually," she said.

Daphne's eyes grew wide. "Dad? But I thought he left us."

A sad smile touched the corner of Laurel's mouth. "Yes, he left, but not by his choice or mine. You know how we met, yes?" Daphne nodded, remembering her mother's stories of meeting her father in the park near their current house, the same park that she and her friends had practiced in. "I had never talked to a mortal before, and never dreamed they'd be as wonderful as he was. I fell in love with him almost immediately, and against my better judgement."

"Is it forbidden for a witch and mortal to fall in love?" asked Sabine.

"Not forbidden expressly, but nearly impossible, since the witch must always keep their magic a secret. Only after being with Nicholas for three years and pregnant with his child did I tell him that I had magic."

"And he left us," Daphne recalled.

"No. I only told you that because I thought the real story would be more difficult. To my surprise, Nicholas wasn't afraid that we were breaking ancient laws. He didn't think my being a witch made me any less human, or any less worthy of his love. I remember how excited he was at the prospect of having a witch child," she said, beaming at Daphne.

"So what happened?" Daphne asked.

Laurel's happy expression faded into one of sorrow. "The Coven found us out, of course. They took us in the middle of the night, dragged us to trial. Poor Nicholas was terrified. He had only known magic through me, and had never seen the terrible things one could do with it." She stepped out in front to look around a corner, but Daphne thought she might just be trying to hide her face. "We were found guilty, of course. Since I was pregnant with a child more than likely to be born with magic, I was spared. But Nicholas..."

"He had his memories erased," said one woman sadly. "Just like Lucy did."

"Just like James."

"Or my husband."

"My brother had his wand snapped for using magic to save a girl's life."

"I just disagree that mortals should be segregated from witches," Elinor shrugged. "It makes more sense for them to fight Reliqua, anyway, since they won't make more."

"And that's why we're breaking you out of this place," Laurel finished. "Besides, I would be a terrible mother if I let my own daughter's wand be destroyed. And on that note..." she pulled a familiar white object out of one of her trailing sleeves. "I think this belongs to you?"

"My wand!" Daphne cried, gratefully taking her treasured possession from her mother. She stroked the bleached wood tenderly. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome, honey," she said, smiling fondly at her, a smile that slipped when she heard voices from down the hallway. "Keep it out; you may need to use it."

Almost immediately, the dynamic of the group shifted. The air itself seemed to tense as wands subtly slid into hands. "Get behind us," one man murmured to Daphne and her friends. "Keep your hoods up." They obeyed, sinking behind the mass of dark-robed witches.

Footsteps echoed coldly on the stones. From between the wall of protective witches, Daphne got a glimpse of what was going on; three figures with robes richly spangled with silver were approaching them. Several of the witches in front of them bowed and Daphne did likewise, turning her eyes towards the floor and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. This proved difficult, since the long, pinkish-orange side pieces of her bangs slipped out from under her hood. She gasped and tucked them back in surreptitiously before anyone could notice.

She breathed a sigh of relief and stood upright again... only to have her hood fall back upon her shoulders. Her colorful bob was exposed plain as day, and in this darkly-lit corridor, it seemed to glow. Around her, she felt the group catch its breath as the three higher-up witches turned towards her

"That's an interesting hair color," remarked one witch as she stared at Daphne.

"An experiment gone wrong," replied Laurel. Daphne could see the tension behind her grin as she tried to find a way out of it.

"Apparently," she said snidely.

"It almost looks like that Elder girl's hair," said her companion. Daphne's hand clenched around her wand as comprehension dawned on his face. "Hey, Marianne... is that..?"

Without warning, an explosion of light filled the corridor, knocking everyone a few steps backwards. "Go!" screamed Laurel, her shining wand held aloft like a beacon. "Run!"

Still stunned, Daphne could do nothing but obey. She turned and stumbled on the hem of her long cloak before dashing down the hall, the sounds of confusion echoing behind her. Rhode and Sabine were by her side, both of them throwing glances over their shoulders. "Where do we go?" Sabine hissed.

"I don't know!" Daphne wailed. She had been relying on her mother and the renegade witches to guide her. Without them, she was lost.

A flurry of footsteps sounded behind them. Daphne pulled out her wand and stepped in front of her friends, ready to fight, but it was only Laurel and a few of her compatriots, looking out-of-breath but fierce. A long, deep cut marred Laurel's ebony cheek. "We don't have much time," she said, her words low and clipped. "They'll be coming for us any second." With a graceful swish of her wand through the air, Laurel conjured the swirling, glowing mass that Daphne knew as a portal. "This will take you home, but you can't stay there for long. I'm sure they'll look for you there, if you haven't already."

"Come on then!" she cried, but her mother stayed put, shaking her head. "Daphne, portals weaken the boundaries of space. If we don't stop them, Coven witches will be right on your heels. We're staying here."

"But—"

"Don't you argue with me!" she said, regal as an empress. "Take this," she said, holding out an unfamiliar piece of wood. A wand. "We took it from one of the people we were fighting. It might come in useful."

"Mama, I—"

Shouts rang out down the hall. "Don't you fret, honey. I know you'll see me again. Now go!"

She felt a sharp push on the small of her back as her mother shoved her forward into the portal, followed by Rhode and Sabine. Before all faded to sickening light, she was able to turn to get one last glimpse of her mother in the halls of the Coven. Her wand was raised like a sword and her hair swung out behind her. She looked like a warrior—at least, until a pulse of light hit her in the chest and she crumpled like paper.

"Mama!" she screamed, her voice drowned out by the rushing roar of the portal.

Daphne saw her fall, saw her wand roll out of her hand.

Then she saw nothing as the white overtook her eyes.