Alex shot awake, staring everywhere, before darkness clouded her vision, and her movements became sluggish, even lifting a finger proving to be a problem. Every day when she awoke, it was the same story, and though she hated the dreams, it was nice to be herself in them. She stared at the towering shelves all around her, knowing she was expected to cast the darkest of spells from them, for Rayleigh and Diaspro, but for the first time, she felt resistance. She felt as though parts of herself was slipping back into her, and concentrating deeply, she felt some of the weight inside her alleviate, and she was able to flex her hand easily.

Had it been the dream? Alex felt stronger than ever before, more aware of her surroundings than she had been in months. How long had she been under the enchantment? How had it even happened? Alex struggled for the answers, but all she succeeded in doing was imitating the feeling of someone taking an axe and trying to chop a head in two. Clutching her ringing ears, Alex stood, feeling pounds lighter, staring around the room with new eyes. The enchantment was still there, she recognised, but, she recognised too, she could fight it. Hearing footsteps in the hall, Alex hastily plonked herself on the bench she'd been forced to sleep on, and fought to get the misty quality back to her eyes, the slowness to her movements.

"Alex-andreia!" Diaspro's voice trilled from the outer chamber.

Alex gave up pretending, and simply rested her head on the table, hoping to avoid their eyes for as long as possible. It had been so long since she'd had an inkling of herself, the new freedom was intoxicating. Despite logically knowing she could not force her way past her sister and her father, the temptation almost overwhelmed her. Fighting her inner desire to refuse them the next spell, the next kingdom they wanted her to plague with disease, the next epidemic they wanted her to conjure... fighting that urge, she squirmed on the hard bench a little, waiting for her tormentors to reappear. How long had she been enchanted?

More than a year, she was certain. She all too bitterly recalled the wine she had drank at that faithful grand party, the wine that had been spiked by her cousin. Her power had been completely in Rayleigh and Diaspro's grasp. Now, as time passed, and, it seemed, the more of the dark magic she learned, the easier resisting them became. But she was still much too weak, and drained from months of starvation and suffering. Also, it would be lying to say that the volume of dark spells she now had filed away in memory didn't scare the living daylights out of her.

Before her incarceration, she'd been an avid reader. Not a tome in the grand library of the Nightsherian castle had been left unexamined, and there was not a day that went by that Alex was ungrateful of this. Even in the enchanted state, she was able to see through her drugged eyes the most potently dark spells, and avoid the ones that would ultimately kill her. But each bullet she dodged was getting harder and harder to see. Alex suspected, in the moment of lucidity, that her captors were deliberately piling on the most dangerous of the books. That did not bode well.

In these few moments of lucidity, granted to her from the dream of the girl with the falcon, Alex began formulating a kill code. She would have had to have been blind not to recognise the girl as a demon's daughter. It was difficult for Alex to process that any demon at all could be on her side, but she was at her limit. Years of being forced to kill, injure and weaken the lesser people of the realm had stretched her strength very thin. She needed something to fight for.

Diaspro's footsteps were nearing. Alex drew in a breath deeply, trying to think of the dream, to placate the anger churning deeply within her. Even if she tried to fight, she would not be able to make it out of the castle, and she knew this. Born and raised here, she knew as well as anyone else that the Nightsherian stronghold, or dungeon, was magically and physically impenetrable. It would be a suicide mission to try to fight her way out. There were too many factors, too many unknowns. Although the idea of the shock that would disfigure her cousin's forever made up face was appealing, Alex had not spent that many years under the table to waste her efforts in a futile attempt. No, when she broke out, she would do it in style.

"Rise and shine!"

Forcing herself to be still, Alex gritted her teeth against Diaspro's honey-sweet words. The girl always overdid everything. Even as children, Alex had suspected something off about Diaspro. No one else ever had though. Diaspro was always the most helpful, the kindest, the sweetest... to them, she was an angel. To Alex, she was the devil incarnate. It suddenly occurred to Alex that she had not a clue as to how to act around her captors now. Should she attempt to act as though the spell still affected her, or should she drop the pretences?

"I said, get up!"

A sharp shove from Diaspro sent Alex tumbling to the ground from the bench. Out of reflex, she almost leapt to her feet, intent on smacking some sense into her sorry excuse of a cousin. Tapping into hidden reserves of patience she had never been aware she had, Alex lifted her head, sluggishly, and looked up at Diaspro. Well, she certainly missed the ability to only see Diaspro as a blur. Blue eyes flecked with malice bored into her own.

"Get up and get down to the library. Rayleigh wants to see you. Hurry up. We don't have all day."

The command was accompanied by a sharp little kick to Alex's back. Standing, Alex stared into her cousin's eyes, hoping her expression was not too defiant, not too calculating, not too triumphant. Let Diaspro have her laugh. Let Rayleigh have his moment of joy. When it was Alex's turn to roll the dice, she strongly expected neither of them would find anything remotely funny.

Rayleigh had always been a fan of theatrics. The library was the best place for his stage, Alex admitted grudgingly, but whether he realised this or he chose this place to get under her skin was another unknown to her. The tome that was open on the desk before him caught Alex's eye. A slight widening of her eyes was all that she allowed herself. More pieces of her kill code began to fall into place.

"Hello...daughter."

Ah, so even after he had drugged and controlled her, Rayleigh still acknowledged her, Alex thought furiously. Forcing her face into a placid expression, she regarded the man she had grown to hate. To her relief, she looked nothing like him... well at least, not since the last time she had seen herself in a mirror. The ebony tresses that cascaded to her waist and the icy blue eyes she possessed were testament to the statement. Rayleigh had auburn hair, cropped short, and what some might have called sea-green eyes. Alex had always disagreed with the statement. The sea was ever-changing, in a constant battle between ebb and flow, never predictable. Rayleigh was entirely predictable. If a person looked at him the wrong way, the person would be added to his hit list. It was quite as simple as that. While Alex had never personally intervened between her father's disputes, her anger towards the matter skyrocketed the minute she had been made her father's thug.

"Rayleigh," she greeted.

"We need you to read this and figure out the spell," Diaspro cut in, pushing herself centre stage as per usual.

Alex's eyes flickered to the tome again, unbelieving the shift in the tides. Her absurd plan banking on luck might have had divine guidance on its side. She skimmed the open pages, almost unable to hide her giddiness. She could be free, and able to exact her revenge for the past several years. All it would take was some rewiring of the wording of the spell, a bit of housekeeping here and there... but other than that, most of the plan had been already spelled out for her. She fought her instinctive notion of suspicion that the pieces were falling into play too easily. She reminded herself that they had no idea she was no longer under their control. And the longer they remained clueless, the better.

As Alex lit the last candle, she kept a solemn countenance. It took every bit of control in her to not jump up and down in triumph. If she succeeded, no when she succeeded, there would be chaos and terror running abundant throughout the Nightsherian realm. Only a year of her being her family's pawn, and the kingdom had become the most feared in the world. No one wanted to get on Rayleigh's bad side. In a fanciful moment, Alex likened herself to a vengeful angel. Not only was she helping herself, she was giving the world a chance to repay Rayleigh and Diaspro exactly what they deserved.

On the other side of the spectrum, if everything went as planned, she would have no control over the ending of the situation. The mayhem that would undoubtedly abound very nearly pleased her. It was a necessary evil, a means to an end, she told herself, whenever the twinges of doubt threading her mind threatened to reverberate into her soul. Alex was playing with bigger leagues than she had ever encompassed, and she ignored the rational part of her brain that was screaming, 'reckless', at her. Sometimes, she told herself, being irrational and foolish was the way to get a person out of a situation extreme caution had caused. She refused to consider the thought that she was high on her newfound freedom. Pushing that reason to the back of her mind did wonders to alleviating her guilt.

The scariest thought was that if Alex had but known what she was orchestrating and guiding into place... for the first time she would have shut down her mind. Stopped thinking. Because the repercussions of that single action... the possibilities and the unknowns and the what-ifs... it would have finally been too much for her to process. 

(Hello again! What do you think? This is basically the explanation to the girl who was mentioned to the beginning of the dream in chapter one... Thana wasn't mentioned in this chapter but, everything Alex does and will do will affect Thana, directly and through ripple effect. Please comment and tell me what you think so far of this! It's still developing, but the characters are starting to take shape and the stem of the plot is growing taller... I hope any and all of you readers enjoyed this, and please, please, comment and tell me what you think! I would really love to know your thoughts!...-  Amaris)