The clatter of the chains on Lexa's wrist as she yanked them, the murmurs of the two rebels outside in the hallway. The prickle of the frigid air on her skin. A stale smell, like old mold and ancient books.

The after effects of the Mortolo Hebalia were ramming into her hard. Her senses had become frayed on the edges, and everything around her was a distorted, jumbled mess of sound, smell and touch.

She rested her head against the wall with eyes squeezed shut, as if only she could block out her massive migraine like she could the light. But it was to no avail. The rebels, after her awakening, had began to argue outside her reach of legible hearing, but those whispers still drove into her head like nails.

She almost yelled at them to shut up. Almost. Of course, that would not fit the persona of an innocent princess, no matter how much her mind throbbed.

And it certainly didn't help that Lexa felt a tug at the edges of her brain suddenly, one of an emotion that was not her own.

You're mad, she thought, letting the words roll around in her head for him to hear.

Silence. For moments, only the sound of those intelligible murmurs were all she heard.

She prodded at that orb of power she could feel worming around in her brain, the odd sort of pressure that could only mean that there was another in her brain, someone not of her own. I'm assuming this new leash of power is doing you well?

Still silence.

Eventually Bennie relented, the sound of his sigh finally sounding in her head. The way it echoed, it brought her back to that white world, the one where those echoes had reigned and her life had almost fallen out of her fingers. Just as well as I'm sure being held captive is doing you.

Bennie was angered. Even from only his tone, she could tell that much.

I've got it under control.

He scoffed. Is being knocked out by Mortolo Hebalia what you call "under control?"

The mistake had been accounted for. What I've come here to do has not been jeopardized by a stupid herb.

It's an idiotic i—

As footsteps sounded against the stone, Lexa shoved Bennie out of her mind mid sentence. She wondered if she could have done that, if distance was not the factor keeping them apart. She doubted it. Maybe not before, but now that he was a high sorcerer? Not a chance.

The girl- Amika, that was her name- stalked into the shadows, once again with the boy called Cooper on her trails. He leaned up against the door frame, lurking at the edges of her migraine controlled vision.

Already Lexa could tell that when it came to scowls, this girl could give her a run for her money. For Amika's were powerful, deadly looks. It was a glare that could tear anyone apart in seconds, one that perhaps the girl thought would work on Lexa.

She smiled in the face of that glare, an innocent expression that seemed to shift the entirety of the room shades lighter.

Lexa flicked her gaze over Amika, analyzing the worn down rags she wore to the fringed ends of her dark braid.

"It's nice to see that you've finally come to chat. I must say that you look quite stunning in that..." she trailed off momentarily, letting the judgment settle in, "garment."

Amika didn't even twitch. "Enough with that. Tell us why you came here. Surely a princess of your standing wouldn't want to be associated with vermin like us."

Right to business then. Perfect. Lexa did not care for small talk much.

Her smile dropped into something much more serious, but still Lexa kept that innocent aura around her. "I want to help you."

From the shadows, Coopers laugh bounded through the room. "That's rich. What could you possibly stand to gain from helping us, your fiancée's sworn enemies? You do realize that we're rebels, right? We're not your tea party that just happens to be on the wrong side of Thorto."

"I am aware of that. It's just—," she forced her voice to crack, evading their eyesights as she spoke. Feigned emotions bubbled up at the surface of her appearance, detailed to her shaking hands to the crystal drops lining her eyes. "It's just that I care. For the people, but mostly for my own country. We are not so far from the same, after all. Catala poses a major threat to not only its own citizens, but also to my people, to my nation. One day, the marriage alliance will not be enough from preventing our kingdoms from clashing, and there is no day I fear more than that one. Because I know that on that day, Wallachian will fall. Catala is far too powerful. It needs to be brought down."

Cooper, out of the two of them, seemed the most moved. "I'm so-,"

Amika, however, cut him off. "I find this hard to believe. Even if this is true about your nation, how do we know that this won't come to stab us in the back? That you won't end up being a traitor?"

Adelaide shook her head. "I'm afraid I don't have the precise answer for that. You will have to trust me. After all, didn't I come to this place out of my own free will? Isn't that a sign enough?"

She remained as unmovable as a boulder. "You could be a spy."

"Sending an untrained princess as a spy? There are much easier tactics to take down a group."

"But how? How do you want to help? You must have something on your mind, considering that you traveled all the way here."

Lexa was not quite ready to reveal her motives. She needed there full trust first, undying love for the princess that would help them overthrow a kingdom. "A plan is something I have in mind. But for now I will aid in whatever I can."

Amika's scowl only grew, as if Lexa's words were the water to her seeds. "Tell me the plan now."

Lexa would not budge. "Not yet."

Amika walked over to the door way, speaking as her feet carried her there. "Well, then. If that's the case, I'm sure that there's a Wallachian here that would you would be happy to talk to."

A figure strided into the room, and Lexa was taken away with shock.

Lexa, when she was fourteen and her plans were still young upon being brought into this world, had desired desperately for them to come to be. She had found time to be her greatest enemy, for she would have to wait. Two years, it had seemed to be such a long time for her to twiddle her fingers, for her to fill her days with only studying and spying.

She had been a maid then, but she never did any of the work unless it benefitted her needs. A legion of loyal spineless girls fixed that problem for her. She supposed that the maids were this way because of exposure to what could possibly traumatic upbringings, but it mattered little. All she cared of was what they would have done for her.

After all, isn't that really what people were for? Weren't they all, in a sense, only the value of what they could offer those higher then them?

And it was because of that — the placement of her being— that she knew simply being a maid was not enough. And that's why she would have to wait. Sure, maybe she could have overtaken many other woman of the palace. She had overheard of the bastard princess, and her place in the prince's life. But that would not do. It would not hold.

The glory of Adelaide was that she was new. Fresh. When she arrived from Walachia two years later with an engagement ring doting her finger, not a single soul of the palace knew her. Only reputations of innocence and beauty followed her trail, and even that was not enough for any kind of questioning on Lexa's part once she overtook the princess. Reputations, in all of Lexa's experience, failed to live up to the entirety of the truth. Thankfully, she was not the only one to notice that.

She never did worry much of Adelaide's court. She had accounted for each of them, making sure that the few questioners- like Lissa- were sent away. Never to be seen of or heard of again.

She should have killed the girl when she had the chance.

Because here she was. Lissa, the girl who had cried over a pathetic dress. Lissa, who was supposed to have been married off months ago.

Lissa, who by the appearance of it, was now a part of a secret rebel organization.

She was wearing a glare, one to rival Amika's own. She appeared so different then the Lissa who had been one of the court, with made ringlet curls and silk wear. Here she was just another piece of dirt, ready to be stepped on.

"Tell me, Adelaide." Lissa demanded, "why are you really here?"

So much for intrigue, then. She had planned on waiting to reveal her motives, or at least the ones she could admit. She had planned on time, that long lost enemy of hers.

But Lissa did not fall into her plans. She was not supposed to be here, helping a rebel group. It was not an expected outcome, and never could have been. How did the girl arrive in this group? And why would she want to?

Oh well. Routes change, but that did not mean that Lexa could not find her ultimate destination.

The next words of hers flew off of her younger like butter.

"Because you're going to help me assassinate the king."

Nice cliffhanger, huh? I know.... I'm pretty evil. But if you're looking for something to read in the meantime, go check out my new fantasy adventure, "Turtle Island"!