“Friends?” Faira squeaked. [i]“Friends?”[/i] You don’t [i]befriend[/i] zombies!” If she had any doubt there was some relation, regardless of how small, between the two Mariannes, they all but dissolved.

Her eyes widened as one of the undead caught sight of them and charged forward. Instinctively, she summoned flames around her, but thought better of using them. Zombies were bad enough without them being on fire.

“Sever the heads!” Faira shouted at Conna’Cel as she reached for Little Ann protectively, wishing she had a weapon of some sort of her own. [i]And I doubt they like music,[/i] she added as her mental inventory check came up with only the flute still in her makeshift pocket.

As a couple of them neared her, their pace freakishly fast, she raised her free hand and summoned a dark shadow that expanded a good distance over the floor. The momentary sense of excitement buzzed through Faira as the two zombies fell into the dark hole, but it did not last long. She screamed and her powers took hold, turning her into a dark mass as the zombies stumbled from the shadows nearby, neither worse for wear save for a touch of disorientation.