[i]"What do you think, Bella? Are you any good at pretending to be sick? Do you need me to poison you? Because I could... Bella? Bella! Can you... Bella? Are you listening?"

Despite her very best efforts, she was. Bella stood with prim and proper posture, as rigidly as she could get away with while still being able to reach the next in a seemingly endless pile of freshly washed white sheets. She set herself to the task of smoothing out the next one across her table so she could begin ironing and folding it, a supremely difficult task that took every ounce of a Servitor's concentration to get right. Her golden eyes burned with focus. Her lips stayed set in a very careful, placid smile that betrayed no interest in the conversation, or any emotion other than satisfaction with her lot in life, as was proper for an Imperial Pet. Her arms moved in swift and practiced patterns as she fought the last remaining wrinkles the way a phalanx might fight a band of [s]heroic[/s] pirates.

But her damn... AHEM. Her gosh darned ears! They gave the game away! She couldn't keep them from perking up at the sound of Mynx's voice, and even worse, she felt the little traitors wiggle and bend toward her friend, and now no amount of diligent ironing would be enough to pretend she was too involved in her work to hear anything. There was an edge to her voice that caught Bella off guard. Mynx was a creature of total confidence, that tinge of nervousness didn't belong in her scheming. Unless that was part of the trick?

She stepped away from the laundry so she could look up. Mynx's scales rippled across her face as she hid behind her tented hands. Her eyes looked deadly serious, which had to mean she was smiling like an idiot where Bella couldn't see. But the thing that really got her tail all bushed up was the fact that Mynx had her attention and wasn't doing anything with it except... waiting. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Her lips curved into a tiny scowl, which she quickly forced back off her face before anybody could punish her for it. She ran her fingers over the smoothness of the sheet, and made to fold it.

"Hmph. Troublemaker."

"I knew you'd understand! Dany's actually starting to catch on to some of the usual tricks, and I just don't see how I'm going to pull this off by myself this time! Oh thank you Bella, thank you thank you thank you!"

"H-hey I didn't say I'd!" Bella squeaked as she fussed the wrinkles out of her skirt and apron.

"Oh good point, maybe this [b]would[/b] work better if we mussed your clothes up a little bit. You're good with a sewing needle, right? So you wouldn't get too mad if we maybe cut that little skirt of yours up? Just a teeny bit?" 

Mynxed hopped down from her perch on the shelf. She wasn't bothering to hide her grin anymore. She advanced with bouncy steps while Bella retreated, clutching her apron like a shield. She fought as hard as she could, but she was losing the war. She couldn't keep the smile on her face from melting into a picture of flustered horror. She couldn't keep the rose from creeping onto her cheeks, when everybody knew that roses were only meant for Empresses. She swiped at Mynx, who caught her by the wrist with a soft smile.

"Wh-wh-what does any of this have to do with?? A-and I didn't agree to!"

"Right, so if you can't fake it, I'd better give you a light dose. When Dany hears you, or better yet sees you, she'll find you all faint and weak..."

"M-Mynx, what?"

"...and then right when she's thinking it a trick I'll make sure she sees [b]me[/b]..."

"Mynx, please!"

"...So then she'll know it's real, or well, not really real, but for our Princess what's the difference, right? And she'll run up to you and..."

"MYNX! Stop!"

All at once the energy in the room popped. Mynx blinked with obvious confusion, in that slow and incredibly off-putting way of hers, and tilted her head.

"Why Bella, what's the matter?"

"I... I will not," it took all of Bella's willpower not to show her teeth. A Lady was polite. Demure. Unassuming. She took tiny little breaths in and out of her nose, "Be part of such, such... silliness! Leave me out of it! Please!"

"But Bella! Sweetie!" Mynx's face was a mask. An enigma, even. The glitter in her eyes could have been malicious amusement as easily as it might have been determination, "This is for you! I'm just helping you get what you want!"

Bella froze. She swallowed nervously, fumbling for her voice. It was a long and awkward moment full of heat and fidgeting before she found it again.

"What I... want?" she winced at the way her voice cracked.

"Well of course! It's obvious to anybody with eyeballs that you're completely nuts for her, but we'll never get the Princess to figure out how much she likes you back without a little mmmphrble!"

Zeus herself could not have spotted Bella take the pillow up from under the laundry pile even if she'd been watching the conversation with her full interest. But if she had, she'd certainly be proud of how much like a thunderbolt she'd managed to throw it. The second strike was even deadlier, and the third was certainly overkill, but the sound of her flustered squeaking was still being drowned out by merciless giggles, which meant the meteoric rain of sleep aids couldn't stop until the traitor had been well and thoroughly murdered for her crimes.[/i]

***

Bella's head is stuck inside a clamp. Every bit of blood that squeezes past her skull crushes her with blinding pain. Light exists only as a sense of nausea, and sound for dizziness. Her lips are dry and cracked when she opens them to yell at... whoever the fuck this is, but the pounding against her brain steals her thoughts from her before she can turn them into venom. She could be birthing a new goddess from her temple right now, and not even notice the difference. Her scowl is [i]filled[/i] with teeth.

Every breath she is tainted by the overwhelming smell of mint plastered over faint traces of rot. Onion. Garlic. Vinnegar. All swim in the stinging ocean of sugar-soaked mint. This is the monster come to kill her: a sweaty sack of who crams her face full of candies to hide the fact she couldn't be bothered to pick her lunch out of her teeth or wash herself clean after. Disgusting. 

The growl in her throat feels drowned out by the one in her stomach. It makes her skin crawl to think this puffed up suit full of death and bad ideas is sparking her appetite, but she also hadn't eaten once in the entire span of her journey, which for all she knew could have taken years. Even the muscles she's certain still work like they should feel heavy and devoid of power. She moves to lift her arm, and it's like trying to carry the sky on her back. Every inch takes a mile's worth of effort and then some.

That doesn't stop her from grabbing Thellis Thist by the collar. That doesn't stop her from yanking her close so that the Azurite had nothing to look at but the dead, red gleam of her Auspex, or her neat and glistening teeth if she was cowardly enough to try. 

"The fuck're you trying to do to... me..."

The weight on her neck is unbearable. It presses down against her spine and pulls what little energy she's got left out of her body. Her face goes slack. Her claws clench blindly. She pulls herself free from the wreck, just to tumble onto the grimy, scuffed up floor with a lazy, exhausted flop. Her ears droop uselessly against her still screaming skull as her tail flops dully alongside her. She is vaguely aware that her eyes are closing. 

And she sleeps, for the first time since Apollo woke her. And this time he lets her.