Elaine woke slowly, her head throbbing, something sticky in her hairline. A sharp stone dug into her cheek as she stayed sprawled out on the floor, trying to blink the sparkles out of her eyes. When she finally did manage to sit up, she discovered heavy chains on her wrists, manacling her to the wall. "What—what's going on?" she asked tiredly, rubbing her forehead.

"I think we're prisoners." Elaine turned her head, but couldn't see beyond the stone wall keeping her cell apart from the others. She recognized the voice, though. "Are you alright, Elaine?"

"I'm fine, Daren," she said. "Little bit of blood, but I'm alright. What about you?"

"Same," Daren answered. Elaine heard the clanking of chains, and she went to the bars of her cell. Daren was pressing as close to the bars of his prison to see her. "I don't think we're where we were before."

"Where are we?" Elaine asked, looking around. If she didn't know any better, she'd say they were in some sort of a castle. An evil castle, judging from the black stones that made up the walls. There weren't even any windows to indicate what time it was.

Daren shrugged, looking miserable. His face was filthy, he had blood mattered in his curly blond hair, and dark circles under his stunning golden eyes. His normally-small nose seemed more crooked than it had been before, and there were small flecks of blood under it. "A fortress, probably. There are many abandoned fortresses around Vordelle after the first war against the demons. Almost nobody thinks about them anymore."

"Except, of course, if you're an evil dark wizard looking for somewhere to store two prisoners," Elaine said with a sigh.

"Unless you're that," Daren agreed, leaning back and sighing. "Why do you suppose they took you? I thought we decided Elsa wasn't a part of the Lightshield."

"She's not, otherwise they wouldn't need us," Elaine confirmed. "So they must want Elsa for something else?"

Daren shrugged. "Who knows? I can't look into the minds of mad men, unfortunately."

"Do you really think I'm mad?" The voice came from the shadows of the hallway, and Elaine jumped nearly a mile into the air as Damian stepped from the shadows, throwing back the cowl of his cloak as he did so. "I would be offended, if it wasn't a mere teenage prince telling me that."

Daren glanced at Elaine before turning his eyes back to Damian. "What do you want from us?" he demanded angrily. "We have nothing for you!"

"On the contrary." Damian smirked. "You two are the keys to something I consider very important to me—revenge."

"Revenge?" Daren again looked at Elaine, who simply shrugged in bemusement. "Revenge on who?"

"The two girls who conspired against me, and tricked me," he answered angrily, in a dangerous tone. "And now I hold the keys to make them both pay for that."

"You leave my sister alone!" Daren and Elaine yelled at the same time.

Damian laughed loudly, snapping his fingers loudly. Guards poured in from either side of the hall, opening Elaine's cell, unlocking her manacles from the wall, and dragging her forward. Daren hit the bars of his cell with his chains, fruitlessly trying to escape. There was no point in trying, she knew that. He would never break through the bars.

Daren stepped back, meeting Elaine's eyes with horror in his face. She tried to give him a reassuring look as they practically picked her up and carried her off with them, through the winding halls of the fortress. Elaine gave up trying to figure out where they were going and what was going on as they pulled her around. Damian led the way, occasionally glancing back and giving her a sneering smile.

Elaine bit down on her lip as they pulled her around, before they finally arrived in what seemed to be some form of a throne room. The stone throne was draped in red fabric, and Elaine saw the now-bloodied fragments of the Lightshield in a pile next to it. The guards pulled Elaine forward and forced her to kneel as Damian swept himself over to the throne and sat down, looking at her.

Elaine was careful to not meet his eyes, but also to not bow her head. There was no sign of subservience in her expression. She would not allow him to break her. "Why have you brought me here?" she asked after a few seconds of silence.

"To show you the fate that awaits you," Damian answered. "What will happen to you, before the eyes of your sister. Bring him forward!" he added.

The guards dragged forward a whimpering young man, round, crying in desperation. "Lord—Lord Damian, please!" he begged.

"You failed me, Baron Oswald," Damian answered, reclining on his throne. "And you plotted to betray me. I can honestly say that there is no reason for me to have mercy on you."

"I served you loyally!" Oswald cried. "I never gave you any reason to be unsatisfied with me!"

"I believe I just stated the reasons why I was unsatisfied," Damian said without pity. "And now, you are to be an example. At least now you can make yourself useful to me." Stepping forward, the dark wizard slapped his hands out to the sides, and two long, black whips formed from his palms. Slowly, he approached the sobbing Baron.

Elaine struggled against her captors angrily. "Don't do this, you monster! He's one of your own!"

"Not anymore," Damian replied, having the man turned so his back was to Damian. Once it was, he raised the whips and started relentlessly beating Oswald, even as the man's high-pitched shrieks cut through the air. Elaine squeezed her eyes shut, but she couldn't clamp her hands over her ears, no matter how much she wanted to.

It was some time before the beatings finished. By that time, Oswald's screams had died down into whimpers, and the air smelled strongly of blood. Elaine stared at Damian as the black whips disappeared from his hands, and he smiled condescendingly at her. "Soon, you'll be in his place," he said with a laugh. "And won't that be fun, little Silvereye?"

Elaine said nothing, too busy watching Oswald being shoved aside. Blood was everywhere; he seemed to be barely clinging to life. And whimpering pathetically. Elaine wanted to do something, to soothe him or something, but she was held firmly by the arms.

"Nothing to say?" Damian asked curiously.

Elaine looked at him, and shook her head. What could she possibly say after what she had just seen? The utter cruelty and lack of mercy? What could she possibly say to Daren when he asked her why Damian had taken her?

She had little time to think of it. The guards grabbed her arms, dragged her to her feet, and pulled her from the throne room, Damian obviously bored with her. The last she saw of Damian was him contemptuously kicking Oswald's unconscious form across the floor.

. . . . . . . . . .

Elsa had returned to the others, told them that Apollo's condition was not harmful, and immediately gone to sleep. Her knuckles were bleeding from where she had punched Cora, but the satisfaction of the hit was greater than the pain. She fell asleep within seconds, soothed by the silence of the town.

She woke abruptly to someone examining her injured knuckles. It was still dark, and it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness and realize Apollo was the one who was looking at her carefully. "Apollo?" she whispered, sitting up. "Are you alright—"

He wasn't even looking at her when she spoke. "You're hurt, he was trying to kill you," he said, sounding vaguely like he was rambling. "This is all my fault ..."

"Apollo, no," Elsa said, trying to pull her wrist away. "I punched Cora, this wasn't your fault. Honest. I'm fine!"

Apollo didn't answer. He cradled her hand in his and put his fingers on her knuckles. She hissed, trying to jerk her hand away, right up until a soft glow lit up the alley. Elsa watched silently as Apollo healed the injured knuckles, his eyes seemingly miles away. Once he'd finished, he didn't pull away, but kept looking at her like she was still mortally wounded or something. "I should have done something to prevent this ..."

"Apollo, listen to me," Elsa said. "I'm not hurt. I'm fine. My knuckles were bruised from punching Cora, that's all. Literally. I'm fine. What are you seeing? Why do you think I'm hurt?"

Apollo didn't seem to even recognize the fact that she'd spoken. Instead, he cradled her hand in his, visibly shaking. Every time he touched her, his hand glowed, like he was still trying to heal her, when there was absolutely nothing to heal. "Apollo—"

The healer continued to look her over, touching her neck, then her back. Each touch was gentle, non-invasive, yet it still managed to completely creep Elsa out. She didn't like that he kept treating her as if she was dying. "Apollo, for heaven's sake, get away from me!" She shoved at him, pushing him away.

By this time, the others were awake as well. Gerald and Morgan watched with concern, but only Juliette came over to them, gently taking Apollo's arm and pulling him back. "You did it," she said quietly. "You saved her life. She's alright now, you did well."

"She's alright?" Apollo asked, sounding vaguely pathetic. "She'll survive?"

"Yes, she'll be alright," Juliette said, as if she was speaking to an injured child. "You did well."

Apollo allowed Juliette to lead him away, and she laid him ever-so gently against the wall. After a few seconds, he drifted off to sleep again, looking peaceful. A few minutes later, Juliette returned to the others after making sure he was asleep. "What in the world is going on?" she said at last.

"Cora said he'd be alright," Elsa protested, looking at her newly-healed knuckles. "But now I'm not so sure."

"Neither am I," Juliette admitted.

Morgan rocked on his heels anxiously. "What if there's something permanently wrong with him? What if he never wakes up from whatever's bothering him?"

"Then ye'll have a crazy man for a cousin," Gerald put in.

"You—" Morgan glared at Gerald, flames suddenly licking on his fingers. Red crept in at the edges of the green of his eyes.

"That's enough!" Elsa said, stepping between them. "We'll figure this out. If he still wakes up and is acting weirdly, then we'll figure it out, alright? We're not going anywhere until he recovers anyway."

"Fair enough," Morgan said, calming down slightly. At the very least, his eyes returned to their normal color and the flames died down from his fingers. However, he still watched his cousin with obvious concern and glared ferociously at Gerald.

Their morning was spent in an awkward silence. Nobody really spoke to anybody, and what was worse was that Elsa kept seeing Gerald sneaking worried glances in her direction. Apollo never stirred, instead remaining fast asleep, as if nothing had ever bothered him. Morgan never strayed far from his side.

As the morning wore on, Juliette decided to go and fetch some food. After warning the others to stay put, she went off on her own, and Elsa sat down at the far end of the alley, as far from Apollo as she could get. Whether she admitted it or not, being woken up by him before dawn, with him believing that she was dying from something, had rattled her greatly.

Not long after she sat apart from Morgan and Apollo, Gerald limped over to her and sat down. Elsa looked at his lame leg for a moment before directing her gaze elsewhere. She knew Apollo's healing, a result of his unstable powers after being saved by the Lightshield, had healed it incorrectly. Elsa also knew Gerald's leg would never recover. Some small part of her pitied him for that. Especially for a man whose entire life was dedicated to the art of fighting.

But most of her was just mildly annoyed that he'd come over when she really just wanted to be alone. Narrowing her eyes at him, she leaned back. "What are you doing?"

"Sitting next to ye," Gerald answered. "Be that a crime?"

"It depends," Elsa retorted, not willing to let him get away with such a flippant response. "Why are you sitting next to me?"

Gerald shrugged, looking as if he really missed his leather coat as he rubbed the white sleeves of his shirt. "Ye looked lonely?"

"Well, I'm not." Elsa crossed her arms. "Not for your company, anyway. If you were Elaine, then maybe."

"If ye be lonely for someone's company, ye be lonely," Gerald answered, not put-off. "There be no two ways 'round it, ye know."

"Oh, shush," Elsa said, not knowing how to refute his statement. So instead, she curled her knees up and very pointedly didn't look at him.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then Elsa caught him looking at her with that look again—the look like she was already in her grave. At that, she lost all self-control. "Would you please stop staring at me?" she said. "It's making me feel as if you're already planning my funeral or something."

"I ain't!" Gerald protested, but his voice was lacking in any sort of jocular nature. "I just be thinking, is all."

"Thinking about what?" Elsa asked carefully.

Gerald shrugged, a tiny, unhappy movement of his shoulders. "Ye."

"Me?"

At Elsa's incredulous look, Gerald shrugged again. "I just—ye ain't worried, 'bout what Apollo were talking about?" he asked at last. "Not even a bit?"

"Of course I'm worried," Elsa snapped. "I'm not an idiot, you know. Apollo suddenly gets visions of the future? Yes, I'm worried. But maybe not for the reason you think I am."

"Ye think he be mistaking ye for Elaine?"

"She could be in Damian's hands as we speak," Elsa said. "He could be torturing her now. That could be what Apollo's seeing. Not the future, but what's happening now."

"I should think he knows ye well enough to know the difference between ye and yer sister," Gerald pointed out.

Elsa heaved a sigh. "Don't be like the rational part of my mind, Gerald. Let me worry over my sister like I have every single day of our lives."

Gerald scrutinized her. "Ain't ye never had nobody else but her?" he asked with extremely improper grammar.

Elsa blanched briefly before looking away. She picked at the bottom of her dress, hoping Juliette would get them more appropriate clothes for adventuring. Their clothes had not been with the rest of their belongings. "It hasn't just been her," she admitted. "As you well know."

"Do I?"

"A person loving only one other person in her whole life is highly unlikely," Elsa said. "As you well know."

Gerald shrugged again. "Aye, maybe a bit. Who were it?"

"Isn't that a bit private?" Elsa answered, frowning.

"Ye were basically inviting me to ask ye more," Gerald said, not put-off by her tone or expression in the slightest. "Ye going to tell me?"

Elsa mirrored his shrug, wondering why he even wanted to know. It wasn't like it would be particularly interesting to him. Part of her really didn't want to tell him either. After all, she had only given a vague summary to Morgan ...

"It was a while ago. I was probably about fifteen or so. It had been just me and Elaine for a while, and we were happy. Living on the streets, but happy." Elsa started picking at the bottom of her dress again, slowly tearing at the hem. "And it was alright, for us. But some weren't quite so lucky to be blessed with the gifts of theft as we were. There was a boy, one day, who was robbing someone I planned to rob. Long story short, his knife was dull, his wits were slow, and the merchant caught him. I stepped in and saved the boy, feeling bad for him, and brought him back to our den. Where we stayed," she added in explanation.

"I know what a den be, love," Gerald said.

Elsa fidgeted. "Of course you do. I'm sorry. Anyway, we took him in, decided to teach him. I think we worked together for months, through some ... some tough times for me. But in the end, it didn't matter. I loved him as my own family and he disappeared. Worse, he disappeared and sent a mercenary after us, to capture us both."

"That be rotten," Gerald said, in all seriousness.

Elsa shrugged. "I never heard from or saw him again. He betrayed me without any regrets, after everything that I did for him. He tried to get me and my sister killed. And I learned a valuable lesson that day as well. I cannot trust anyone outside of my sister."

"Ye don't trust us?"

"No." Elsa slid her knees to her chest. "Particularly not you. You and Cliff are too similar. You both flout the rules, and you both—treat me the same way."

"If I treated ye differently, ye would like me better?" Gerald asked cautiously.

Elsa shrugged. "It's not a matter of fondness, you know. I've just ... hardened my heart against anyone. And nobody's going to break through that stone, especially not you."

Gerald snorted at her words. "Thanks a lot."

Elsa shrugged. "You wanted the truth," she said. "You got it. Don't blame me for that."

"Aye, suppose ye be right," Gerald said. "Why d'ye think me and this Cliff bloke be similar, though?"

"Because you are," Elsa retorted. "You were both always giving me odd compliments, patronizing me ... yet he was less secure than you are. Not as arrogant."

"Ye think I be arrogant?" Gerald looked a little insulted.

"You don't think you are?" Elsa said. "Don't make me laugh. And besides, you don't care about anything. Everything you do is for yourself."

Gerald now examined her seriously, as if he was vaguely disappointed. "Is that really all ye think of me? That I be in this only for meself?"

"Well, aren't you?" Elsa retorted. "You only came to help us when the demons marked your neck. When you knew that you would die if the demons were released. That's the only reason you're here! If your own neck wasn't at risk, you wouldn't be here. And don't bother denying that, I know it's true."

"Do ye?" Gerald answered, with a strangely calm voice. "Be that what ye think? Did ye forget that I saved ye from those hands before I were marked?"

"You stole Daren's horse," Elsa reminded him.

"For an excuse for having saved ye!" Gerald said, as if he was going to snap. "Don't ye get it? Why I be doing this? Do ye really think that I be only doing this for meself?"

Elsa looked at him angrily. "Then why are you doing this, Hunt?"

Gerald stood up stubbornly. "If ye don't understand, then why waste me breath explaining?" he retorted. "Ye go ahead and blind yerself. Thinking that ye be all high-and-mighty. Be honest with me. If Elaine weren't at risk, ye wouldn't be fighting neither."

Elsa clenched her fists. "Get away from me."

"Are ye really any less selfish than ye've pinned on me?" Gerald insisted.

"I said, get away!" she yelled.

Finally, he limped off, to the end of the alleyway, where he sat down, slumped over, and stared out onto the street. Elsa laid down, curling up as best she could. Having had her sleeping interrupted by Apollo, she intended to regain it, and huffed. How dare he claim to understand her? How dare he accuse her of being selfish? Everything she did was for Elaine, not for herself.

She fell asleep angry at Gerald.

. . . . . . . . . .

Elaine had been returned to her cell, and she had given Daren a short explanation of what Damian had done to her. Neither of them had said anything more after that, instead just curling up in a small ball, close to the bars separating them. They had fallen asleep that way.

At some point, Elaine heard another sound that roused her from her sleep. Raising her head, she looked around, a bit confused at first as to where they were. Once she finally figured it out, she sat up all the way, rubbing her face with her manacled hands. At the small clanking sounds her chains made, Daren likewise woke, sitting up and looking at her. "Sleep well?" he asked in a dazed sort of tone.

"It's not the first time I've slept on the ground, so better than expected," Elaine answered, reaching through the bars. Daren took her hand gently, offering her more reassurance than any words could have given. "But I think somebody's coming."

Daren tensed, his fingers closing tightly over hers. She maintained silence, biting down on her lip as the footsteps got louder. More guards. Were they coming for her or him this time? She remained tensed and watching, nervously.

The footsteps got closer, and from the shadows around them, several soldiers emerged. Each was armed only with a sword and wore the black surcoats of Damian's normal soldiers. Behind them, they were accompanied by Set, another of Damian's dark wizard allies. The man smiled at Elaine, which was enough to send shivers through her. Even more so when the soldiers unlocked her cell and once more dragged her out.

Daren watched silently, probably aware by now that there was nothing he could do to prevent them. That did not stop him from giving them glares of death, as if warning them off from laying a hand on Elaine.

Set ignored the glare and reached over, touching Elaine's chin. "I'm glad to see you alive and well," he said. "It grieved me greatly to think that you were dead. Such beautiful eyes should not have been closed before their time, wouldn't you agree, Prince?"

Daren watched Set with a hostile look, but nodded slowly. "I do agree, Set. Which surprises me greatly. Why do you care?"

"I care immensely," Set answered innocently. "Elsa did not tell you? That I offered to spare Elaine's life, and Elsa refused me?"

Elaine stared at Set, her eyes widening. "You—she did what?" she said, unable to really say anything at all.

"You didn't know, then?" Set's eyes widened dramatically. "Oh, what a pity. Secret seems to be out, isn't it? Oh well. Shall we go, Elaine?"

Elaine resisted him. "Go where? Let me go!"

"Don't be like that," Set scolded her, pulling her along. "One of our other guests wants to see you, you know. She's very ... interested in you."

Elaine didn't exactly want to know what that meant. She tried to tug her arm out of Set's grasp, but the man maintained it firmly. "Come now, dear, it's only a friendly visit," he scolded her gently. "Nothing's going to happen to you. And I'm much nicer than Damian, wouldn't you say?"

"Except he probably told you to do this," Elaine parried.

"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean something horrible is going to happen because of it," Set said. "Really, you wound me, dear Elaine. I won't do anything to you, I promise. You can trust me."

To be honest, Elaine trusted him just a tiny bit more than she trusted Damian, and there wasn't really a whole lot she could do anyway. So in the end, she heaved a sigh and followed along behind him. Only once did she look back, to see Daren watching her, his face concerned and pale. She did her best to smile at him before they went around the corner.

Instead of angling up like last time, Set took her the opposite direction, and the dungeons seemed to go further and further down. It gave Elaine the uncomfortable sensation that they would get buried alive. Her footsteps lagged a bit, but Set didn't hesitate. He just kept plowing forward, leaving the soldiers behind.

The tunnel got darker, the flames on Set's fingertips being wildly thrown around the corridor, creating eerie shadows all along the path. At the same time, his grip on her arm started to get tighter, not in a threatening manner, but almost ... in nervousness? Who exactly was he taking Elaine to see? And why was "she" imprisoned so far down?

She didn't ask. She had a feeling Set would either not answer her seriously, or would just ignore her. There wasn't much about him that she got very comforting feelings from. Even if he was preferable to Damian.

Finally, Elaine saw the light from more torches before them. She glanced at Set and saw his face pale as he let the flames on his hand fizzle out. "Come with me," he said. "But don't get too close."

Elaine followed Set, a little bit behind him, just as they came to a room that seemed to have been hollowed out into a wide circle. Several torches were hooked onto the stone walls, keeping the whole room illuminated.

In the center of the room, surrounded by a circle dug into the stone, was a hag. There was no kinder way to describe her, because it was the only accurate thought Elaine could apply to her. Her wrinkles seemed to melt into each other, covering her entire ancient face. Hunched over, covered with a black cloak, her hands curled and covered in veins, the old woman would normally have gotten Elaine's pity from her obvious misery.

However, when the woman's blind indigo eyes found Elaine, a shiver ran through the small thief. It was as if the hag was looking right through her. When Elaine glanced over at Set, the dark wizard motioned for her to go forward.

A little uncertainly, Elaine forced herself to take a few steps forward, until she was just outside of the ring. Her chains clinking against each other were the only sounds in the entire room, aside from the crackling of the torches. The old woman still stared in Elaine's direction. "You were brought to me, little Silvereye," she said after a long moment of silence between them. "Do you understand why you have been brought before me?"

"I assume because you wanted to see me," Elaine answered after a pause. "Am I right?"

The old woman chortled. "Sassy child, aren't you? You don't waste any time in getting to the point. Yes, I wanted to see you."

Elaine waited. When it became apparent that the woman wasn't going to say anything, she dared to keep going. "Was there any reason why you find me interesting? I'm nobody, in the scheme of things."

"Is that really what you think of yourself?" the old woman asked. "That you're a nobody? Even an old blind woman such as myself knows that's not true."

Elaine eyed the woman suspiciously. "You're not just an old blind woman," she said. "There's a reason you want me here, and there's a reason you're all the way down here. I seriously doubt that you're Damian's mother or grandmother or something. You're a prisoner like me, aren't you?"

"I'm a prisoner," the woman admitted. "But not like you."

Elaine went a tiny bit closer. "Why has he imprisoned you here?"

The old woman sighed. "He wants my power, little one," she said quietly. "I can see the future. And he envies that."

Elaine shifted uncomfortably. "So you must have seen something in my future, right? That's why you wanted me here?"

"You are a smart one, aren't you?" the old hag said, cackling. "Terribly so."

Elaine wasn't exactly sure if that was a compliment or not, and chose not to speak. She crossed her arms and looked at the woman with an expression that, if she had been seeing it from the hag's point of view, would have struck her as immensely similar to Elsa's normal look. It seemed to amuse the hag. "It seems twins have more in common than just their appearance," she croaked out.

Elaine averted her eyes uncomfortably. "Could we get this over with?" she requested. "There's someone waiting for me."

The old woman adopted an annoyingly knowing expression. "Your little prince friend?" she guessed. "He seems fond of you ... wouldn't you agree?"

Elaine shifted from foot to foot. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said. "You don't know me at all."

"Don't I?" the old woman questioned, her tone getting more unkind. "I know that you and your sister are close, almost inseparable. Only one thing ever threatened the relationship between the two of you. Just ... one ... thing."

That froze Elaine in her tracks. A glance at Set showed the man's immense interest in the conversation. She couldn't reveal too much. "You don't know what you're talking about."

The old woman cackled again. "Don't I? You didn't trust him. He began to replace you in Elsa's heart. And all too soon, you were able to prove that Cliff could not be trusted. By then, it was too late."

Set glanced at Elaine again, but she forced her expression to remain neutral. Even when the ugly past was being dug up, right before her eyes, by someone she didn't even know. "We argued, yes. But Cliff never threatened to tear us apart. We were a team, that was all."

"That is all?" That caused the old woman to double over and laugh, wheezing, for several minutes. When she finally recovered, she charged as close to Elaine as she could get, an invisible forcefield between them. Still, they were so close, their noses were almost touching. "A team that was tearing apart at the seams. A team that would have lost its third member, when Elsa and Cliff finally revealed that they were prepared to marry once they were old enough."

Elaine paled significantly. "You're a liar."

"Everything I've said has been true thus far," the woman retorted. "Why would I lie now?"

And that was the crux of the matter. This old hag, that Elaine had never seen before, and didn't even honestly know what she was, had dug out the secrets of the Silvereyes' pasts. It didn't exactly make Elaine very happy that the old woman had wanted to see her, as she was beginning to doubt that she was the harmless old woman Elaine had first thought her to be. "Why do you want to see me?" Elaine asked abruptly.

The woman raised her eyebrows thoughtfully. "Why indeed ... such an impudent little child you are. Don't you know how to respect your elders?"

"Respect is earned," Elaine said. "You're here for a reason. If even Damian thinks you're dangerous, than I do not respect you."

"Power should always be respected, if not feared," the hag said. "If you have no respect, you are either foolish or utterly brave."

Elaine shrugged. "My sister is the brave one. I just want to survive."

"We'll see about that," the hag said. "I saw you. A life hangs in the balance because of you. And because of that, Vordelle will either rise or fall by your hand, Elaine Silvereye. Because of your actions, your world could be destroyed."

Elaine tensed, but she didn't let it show on her face. There was no point in showing it. No point in letting the hag know that she had scored a point. "And why should I believe you? How do I know you're not just trying to scare me? Maybe you can see into my past, but how do I know that you can see into my future?"

"You don't," the old woman answered. "But there's nothing you can do about it regardless. So why should I care whether you believe me or not?"

Elaine raised her chin. "You seem desperate for attention. You want something from me, I know it. You want me to let you out, don't you? You think that I'll break you out of there to change the prophecy you gave for my future."

The old woman smirked. "Your sister's life could be the one hanging in the balance, Elaine."

Elaine froze for a brief moment. "You monster!" she snapped, and unthinkingly stepped into the circle to punch the hag.

Several things happened at once. Set exclaimed, "Silvereye, no!" just as the old woman grabbed Elaine's wrist, twisting it away from her. Elaine cried out in pain as her skin began to dissolve in the hag's grasp. Struggle though she did, Elaine could only scream as her skin seemed to disintegrate into sand, slowly disappearing.

In a matter of seconds, Elaine had been thoroughly dissolved, her sandy remains blowing apart in the room until it was like she'd never been there at all. Set stared at where the thief had been for a moment before he turned on the seer. "That wasn't the deal," he said.

The seer shrugged. "That doesn't matter," she said. "I have done what I intended. The brat spoke back to me. She deserved what she got."

"Deserved to die? Aren't you worried about changing the future?" Set questioned.

"Changing the future? It remains unchanged," the seer replied. "With or without that girl."

"You wanted to use her to escape," Set accused her.

"Perhaps. But she refused me, and as such, she deserved to die," the hag answered. "And die she did. A pity. She had such potential. Now begone." She waved her wrinkled hands at Set, and wouldn't say another word to him.

"