“I’m a moron, huh?”

Redana’s voice is shaky, but there’s a triumph to it. The triumph of a winning move in the strategy exercises she had back home[1]. That should be just the warning Bella needs, but the princess is one step ahead already. Did you think she would just curl up like a frightened chick and wait for your claws, Praetor? She’s irrepressible.

Turn, Bella. See Redana silhouetted against the doorway. Realize that she picked her way through your trail of destruction to loop back. She might be reckless and silly and a bad friend, no, not a friend, your prey, your enemy, but she is glowing with triumph and does that door lock from the outside?

“Then how dumb are [i]you?[/i]” Redana says, and slams the door shut[3]. There’s a bar on the other side which she sets in place, and then she stumbles back, trembling from the adrenaline. She got out. There’s something else that’s a problem, but she can handle that when she gets to it. She did it. She stopped Bella. She didn’t let Bella win and take her and hurt her. She didn’t let Bella win. She didn’t prove Bella right.

Which means Bella’s wrong, and she doesn’t have to worry that Bella might be right.

[Redana rolls a [b]7[/b] to Overcome, very very temporarily. This also heals her Blood stat.]

***

[1]: But this time, there’s no best friend leaning over the table and asking, always so curious, how it worked, what Dany’s plan was, oops, sorry, of course you’re not supposed to reveal your secrets in the middle of a match! That whole time, lying[2].

[2]: it hurts. so don’t think about it, Dany.

[3]: It’s as dark in there as in the inside of a box. Or so we must imagine.