Alina is crying.

Her face is pressed hard against the ground, which is the only reason the dark chamber isn't full of the sounds of her little whimpers and moans. The rest of her writhes and twists like a serpent, or one of the many tentacles swarming about the room just beyond the relative safety of the entrance. Her arms twist at unnatural angles. They rise up behind her back, then one whips forward and hits her in the head while the other flails about off to the side. Her legs thrash this way and that, sometimes together, sometimes apart. Her glass boots beat out a staccato on the dull floor. 

When her head turns, she sucks in air like she thinks she's dying. In out, in out, in out, inout inout inout inoutinoutinoutinoutinout. Then her neck cranes and her face rolls back onto the ground and she falls back into quiet sobbing. Her entire body is drenched in sweat. Her lavender hair is turned a much deeper shade of purple, and it clings to her face and her neck in clumps or messy strands. Her skirt is stuck to her legs so badly it may as well be painted on. When she finally manages to roll on her back, the silks don't shift at all. 

Tears stream down her cheeks to her lips, which curl into a wide, manic smile. 

Then she stands, all at once. Her legs tense and her back arches, and then she lifts up onto her feet as though pulled up on puppet strings. One hand reaches up to squeeze her forehead. She takes a shaky step forward, and then quickly takes it back. She takes another breath, in, out. In. Out. In... Out.

She turns. Her eyes fall on Adila. Green retreats deep into the back of them. 

All of a sudden, it's like her feet grew wings. All of her shakiness melts into nothing, and she crosses the space between them like it was never there in the first place. On her head, Gold glints dully, almost as if it was apologizing. The rest of her colors don't seem to have that problem. Red light twists about her arm like ribbons. The sound of glove striking scales echoes sharply across the clock chamber, above all the other commotion. 

"How could you?!" she shrieks, voice hysterical, "After everything we've been through together! We made a promise to help each other, didn't we? Didn't we?! And now you're just... now you..!"

Alina shakes up and down her entire body. She stares up into Adila's golden eyes while hurt and confusion swirl across her face, and her ragged breathing finishes her sentence for her.