They were keeping her in a room that looked like it had once been a room for a holy person. Proof of the sort of place that she was in was evident by the partially rotted wooden cross on the wall behind the bed.

Netta raised her knees up to her chest, glancing blindly down on the badly kept bed she sat on. She could not calm the uncomfortable throbbing in her head, courtesy the binding enchantment that they had tacked on her. She might have passed out, but when Netta re-opened her eyes, she stared at the cracks in the bare wall just to the left of the door. Her gaze settled on the door and a surge of anger burned, unexpected, through her.

They rarely came, it seemed, but she could hardly feel the passing of time any longer. The only steady company that she seemed to get, from time to time, were the wraiths of her two dead Sisters.  They were kept in place only by the enchantment that her living Sisters had placed on her.

If Netta had to guess, she would say that her Sisters wanted the distinction of being able to kill her themselves.   And, judging by how they continued to feed her, they wanted her healthy enough to withstand torture for some length of time prior to whatever they had planned for her.

The door opened, and Netta fought to pretend that she was not shocked by it.  Out, with the soundproof spell broken that had cloaked Netta's cell in deathly silence by the opening of the door, she could hear a woman's voice yelling down the hallway.

"Make sure that you scrub her behind her filthy ears - she probably smells like a rat that's gone through diapers!"

Closing the door behind her, Netta saw that out of all of her estranged Sisters that she had already become well re-acquainted with, she was gazing at the shy Erwinnia. Her Sister, it seemed, had been tasked with a bucket of water, a bar of soap and a thin-looking towel.

When she made eye contact with Netta, the woman jumped, nearly sending the contents of her arms flying. Blond, dark-eyed and matching Netta most closely in her body type with the soft layer of pudge around her hips and stomach, the woman was slightly taller than Netta. In truth, to Netta this woman looked the most like her, although they shared no actual blood.

Netta looked at her Sister, recalling how she had been able to get out of the woman some information. Through the woman, she learned the fate of Ashwood.

My chain - they have my chain, and with it, they keep him from me.

Netta felt her mouth moving, the question leaving her. "Have they found the people that I was with?"

Erwinnia gave her a look that plainly read her displeasure at being questioned. Still, similarly to Netta, her mouth seemed to be moving of its own volition. "I really shouldn't be talking to you anymore -"

"Then tell me why everyone's doing this - acting this way to me."

Netta had dropped her legs onto the bed as she, desperately, beseeched her Sister. She managed to push her anger away.  "Why - why did all of this need to happen?"

Somewhere beyond the door she could not break the barrier on, the remaining members of her old Coven were planning - something.  And it drove Netta to madness to think of how helpless she was about it.

About how surely the Witches of Coven Gardenia were in danger.

Erwinnia looked down at her bucket, and, sighing, said, "You know what you did, Netta. There's no forgiving murder."

"Murder?" The word came out from between Netta's teeth, hissed. "It was self defense each time!"

Erwinnia clenched her eyes closed, a pained look on her face. "Stop it, don't make me say it."

"I think I deserve to know what I stand accused of, Winnie!" It took all that was in Netta to not leap off of the bed, to throttle the truth out of her weak Sister.

Taking a step back as though she had been hit, Erwinnia said, "We know it was you who killed Hera."

"What?" Netta thought that in that moment that she might go crazy. She was shocked as she heard her own voice as though it were on autopilot, sounding almost devoid of emotion. "What?"

"Netta, you don't need to say anything. It's going to be over tonight, anyway, and then that'll be that -"

"I didn't kill her," Netta heard herself declaring, yelling. "why would I do that?!"

Erwinnia looked up at her, the pained look on her face growing. "You're becoming hysterical -"

"I'm not hysterical, I'm fucking pissed off!"

"Uh, okay, wow." Erwinnia swallowed nervously, biting her lip. She looked all over the room, as though lost. Finally, she said, "I have to make sure that you're washed up for tonight. There's no point to any of this, it's not like I can make any sort of decision anyway. Anyway, it seems to me that even you would have to admit that you gaining that Familiar is suspect - Its strength is abnormal. And it's bonded to that artifact you wore - and you're bonded to it as well. It would have to take - a lot of power - to entice something like that to want to bond with someone..." She trailed off and sighed deeply. "I was really hoping that we could get this over quickly, to tell the truth."

Netta leaped off of the bed finally, unsure if she wanted to shake the hell out of her Sister or strangle her.

Erwinnia gave up the ghost of trying to act as though everything was normal, dropping what she was carrying on the floor. The metal of the bucket making loud clang on the stone ground.

Netta, trying to master the squall of her anger, said, "What would I want with Hera dead for? If I was planning on killing that - that old bitch, then don't you think that I would have at least, I don't know, fled the country after the fact?"

Erwinnia swallowed and seemed to be on the verge of trying to pick up what she had dropped, crouching low to the ground before stilling. She spoke, her voice low, staring down at the ground so that the short tendrils of her almost honey-colored hair fell over her face. "...Like I said, none that much matters now. We're - they're going to make a sacrifice of you tonight. They thought that you could use a wash before you died." Erwinnia looked up at her and gave Netta an almost apologetic look. "Guh, if you would like me to, I can assist you with bathing -"

Netta looked at her shy Sister and remembered all too clearly the memories of the Rituals that Hera ordered. Unable to stop herself, she looked up at her Sister until Erwinnia made eye contact with her. "You always watched while they did the Punishment."

Erwinnina shifted uneasily and her lips seemed to twitch as she seemed at a loss for what to do with them. "I didn't like hurting anyone."

"That didn't make you stop them."

Erwinnia looked away, walking out of the room on quiet feet, closing the door behind her.'

Some time later, Netta was woken from the fitful nap that she had grudgingly taken. It was a sleep fraught with images of Ashwood, Ophelia and even Jaste crying out to her in pain. Even in her dream she thought that she could hear the sound of the door slamming open in her cell.

Sitting up in her bed, she was surprised by the sight of her older blood sister, Saorise. Standing, resplendent in clothes that looked like they had to have been made specially for her, Sia looked like a vision cut and place into the desolate cell.   For a moment, as Netta struggled to overcome her shock at seeing the one Sister who had not yet made a re-appearance, Sia walked in and looked around the room for a moment before her gaze settled on her younger sister.

"How are we holding up, Nettles?" The smile that spread on her rose-colored lips looked hooked.  Cruel.

Anger, residual, perhaps, from her dream, spilled out of Netta. "Well, considering the fact that I was jumped by your goons, then told that apparently I'm the person that you've pegged as Mother's murderer." Netta felt surprise at her own words, the venom that seeped through every word.  Would she have had the strength to say such a thing to this woman, only a month back?

Was this Ash's influence of her, her biting sarcasm and cold resolve?

Sia crossed her arms, her smile ripping its way further up her exquisite cheeks. "Ooh, fire. I wasn't expecting that - I thought I did a pretty good job of stomping that out when you were still a runt." She paused, sighed, then looked at Netta with what could be warmth in her eyes. "But I apologize, Nettles."

"What are you apologizing for?"

Sia walked the distance between her and Netta on the bed and bent down as though she were speaking to a child. As she walked closely, Netta smelled as the pungent scent of a fungal mildew of the cell was replaced by the too-clean, corrosive scent of her sister's thick, heavy perfume.  She - slowly - placed her hand on either side of Netta as she sat on the bed and leaned in.  

She stared at Netta, as though waiting for some sign.  

Netta flinched, shuddered, unconsciously moving back.

Sia's smile seemed to widen.  She said, "I'm sorry to insinuate that you aren't a runt any longer." She stepped back, began to rub her hands together as though she had just touched something foul.  "Now, some would argue that it's better to get things over with as quickly as possible, but... I think that I would like to sleep the jet lag off before we gut you, bleed you dry." Sia raised a hand to her mouth and yawned. "I'm sorry that they couldn't find better accommodations for you, Nettles - even if you're next to useless, you're still one of Mother's own brood, and you did deserve better than this dank cell. It's fitting though, if you think about it."

Sia leaned in close once more, her eyes dancing with a feral flame underneath her curling eyelashes and her perfectly trimmed eyebrows. The smell of her expensive perfume seemed to wrap around Netta's throat like hands, engulfing her lungs and squeezing her throat closed. "Doesn't this remind you somewhat of being Grounded? A small box, buried in the earth - I'm sure this all feels just like coming to your true home."

With a chuckle that she bit back, Sia stood up and seemed to busy herself with plucking dust off of her red coat before she looked down at Netta. "I bet you wish you wish that you hadn't said anything about us."

As she walked away, Netta called out, "Why does everyone think I killed Hera?"

Sia paused, turning on her heel to look at Netta. "Because we told them so. The rest'll believe anything that me and Beryl tell them to."

The sound of the door creaking alerted both Witches, for the first time, to the presence of Erwinnia. The Witch looked at them with wide eyes, her gaze almost childlike in her perennially eighteen-year old features, holding what looked like Netta's dinner in her hands.

How long had the Witch been there, eavesdropping?

After a long pause, Sia looked at the intruder and asked, "Do we have a problem?" Her voice was soft, sounding like satin rubbing over metal.

Erwinnia shook her head violently. Sia turned to look at Netta, her mouth cocked so that the red of her lips looked like a crooked cut across the perfect, pale shape of her face.

She said, "Your execution is scheduled for tomorrow, love. I wouldn't be late for it, myself. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

As Sia walked out of the room, Netta searched for Erwinnia and saw that the Witch had disappeared, leaving a tray with a bell jar-shaped lid and a glass of water on the ground next to the door.