[b]Dolce![/b] "So. That is your answer, is it? " Bella stands up and turns her back to you. She casts a disdainful look at the shadows, and though there is no threat of violence in her posture or her motions, for a moment you feel a pressure around your throat. She opens a door out of nothing, filled with bright light. She dips her head with courtesy and a symphony of bells, and gestures inside. "Very well. I suppose to you I will always seem like an enemy, despite my best efforts. But in the spirit of trust and honesty, let me warn you right now: you are going to wish you had allowed me to waste your time." The light is blinding, too much to make anything out, but you're vaguely aware that the Bella you've been talking to is evaporating. She is gone. The shadows have nothing to say about this; they cannot exist in this much light. The world is nothing but searing white, and then... Roses. A garden full of roses, all in neat rows of red and white, where white-winged butterflies drift lackadaisically from bush to bush. Everything here is leaves and flowers and the overwhelming scent that's so heavy in the air that it sticks to your tongue. Though they must be here, the thorns of these magnificent bushes have been carefully covered up. You are still seated at a table. But this one is lower to the ground, too small for you to sit at comfortably. Around the table with you in little chairs and darling little dresses with more frills and ribbons than sense sit several plush animals. At a quick count, there are two wolves sharing a seat directly next to you. An owl with button eyes that feel like they are watching something outside of the garden entirely to their left. And a lizard of some description, which has evidently seen a lot of love by the number of times it's had to be stitched back together, to your right. At the head of the table opposite from you stands the younger of the two girls you saw outside the maze. Her short hair is all kinds of messy from endless play and she's managed to get dirt on her pretty little white sundress despite being from a world where none seems to exist. Such is the power of youth. Even still, the resemblance between her and Bella is striking. Even the pout on her face calls to mind the flashes of cold fury that appeared on the woman who chased you across the galaxy time and again. "This is stupid. I wanted ta watch a movie with sis," she whines, "But mommy said it was a 'mergency so now I've gotta do my dumb chores." She points a finger at you in accusation. It's all your fault, Dolce. "BANG!" And for exactly five seconds, she replaces your heart with a star. The world does not exist. The garden does not exist. This little girl does not exist. You do not exist, as anything other than fire and screaming without a voice to be heard. Five seconds is a very long time to be a star. But no time at all to be a sheep. The girl watches you twitch and clutch at your chest and breathe to steady yourself and giggles with musical delight at the look your face. "That's for bein' rude an' bringin' coffee to a tea party. Guests are s'posa wait til they get served. And you hafta say 'thank you' and drink it this time, kay? Any more rudeness and I'll feed you to my assassasins. Now get ridda it!" You are suddenly aware of the stuffed animals again, none of which have moved a bare centimeter since you arrived. And yet, their eyes are all turned towards you. A completely empty dress, all black and white and overdone with the ruffles and frills of a child's idea of a maid, picks up a teapot and pours a 'serving' into the little teacups for each of the animals. It hesitates for a moment, but when its mistress nods, it fills your cup too. A glance shows nothing but empty air, but your nose fills with the smell of darjeeling. "Ahem! So. Mommy says that you said I'm not allowed ta exist. She says you think I'm not her dream [i]or[/i] her heart cuz you're a liar and a cheater who got help. She also says you're a meanie face with a big butt. How do you respond to these alligators?" The plushes stare at their teacups and promise death for disobedience. [b]Skotia![/b] Bella Aurelia's hand caresses your chin. A moment of tenderness that she shatters when her thumb slips into your lips and presses down on your tongue. She laughs in that stageplay voice of hers, and tosses her hair back to catch its golden gleam in the light. "You know, when I saw what was happening in my world? I worried about you the most. After all, you're like me: one of Aphrodite's weapons. That's why I came to deal with you myself. Now I see my foolishness. Of course he loves me more than you. Of course you weren't a threat. Of course not! You 'only wanted to be mine'?" Her lips are heavy upon yours. Her tongue is forceful and conquering, and tastes like the ashes of a cigarette. Her fingers grip the hair at the back of your head and pull so hard you feel like your skull is going to tear open. She pulls free and smiles like an oil slick. "Of course you are mine. If you want my love, then have it. Take as much as you like! Take even more than that! In fact..." She plucks Desire free and rams it through your chest. Deeper and deeper it plunges, making sure you feel every last bit of its unclean edge and yet never breaking through to your back. It just sinks into your heart, infinitely deep and infinitely painful. She pushes it deeper still, until her hand is in you as well. Deeper. Deeper. Until she's all the way up to her elbow in your blood and your sacrifice. "There we are. I think it's time we spread this boundless love around a bit. I know that you won't mind any of this. After all, you are [i]mine.[/i]" With a deep and throaty growl, she grabs hold of your heart and wrenches her arm back out. But she does not hold a heart. Rather, a doorknob. She pulls further and further, harder and harder, stretching a shadow until it can no longer call itself a man. Only then does she twist the knob and open. With a self satisfied nod, she steps through the blood soaked portal, pulling it shut behind her and dragging the contents with her into nothing. The room she leaves is empty, but for two rotting halves of a mask. [b]Redana![/b] Bella leans in close enough to let you smell the champagne on her breath as she presses the pill between your willing lips. And then-- Fingers. Crushing against your jaw, tilting your head upward and forcing your mouth open with tight, insistent points of pressure. You feel her bones press against your own teeth. You feel her claw tips sink [i]just[/i] into your skin. Only enough to draw little dribbles of blood and pain. Enough to make it painful and cruel, but no further. She upends her flute into your mouth. Something to wash down your medicine. She is not careful or particular about where she pours; as happy to splash it down your neck and across your chest as she is to see it choke you. Only after you start to cough and gag uncontrollably does she throw you aside. You feel the pill working its magic. Ruinous hurt gives way to the wet relief of submission, and then to tingling warmth, and then to... strength? The Praetorian Bellas lift their spears away from you, no longer needing to support your weight. One brings you a mirror, to show what has become of you. And you are... [i]you.[/i]. Healed. Fixed. Restored to the same pointless strength and vigor as you had when you decided to fight this army in the first place. "Always looking for the easy out, aren't you Princess?" Her voice is the same even keeled and boring tone that most all the Bellas speak with in this place. But her eyes have shrunk to furious slits. She can't even manage a sneer, not with her lips pressed so tight against each other in cold contempt. The shadow that crosses her face is pure terror. This is disgust. Absolute and unyielding disgust. She steps backwards, and a circle of heat lances once again hems you in. "This does not stop. I will put you back together as many times as I want. And you will suffer until I am satisfied. You will [i]fight[/i] until I am satisfied. Unless?" She snaps her fingers, and the guards are replaced with a roomful of terrified maids, who have no more desire to fight than you do. But they have no say in the matter. But they raise their clenched fists toward you regardless. To let you leave is to have to endure a palace without you. And they do not believe in a better life. "Maybe you will find this more to your tastes." [b]Ember![/b] No Plover head flies at you in the darkness. No claws rake across your back. You are not kicked or tripped or suplexed through an errant piece of furniture that you cannot see. You have stood up. The fight does not continue. "There is no way out from where you are," Bella's voice echoes from above you, "And no point in you continuing." Darkness, darkness, darkness. "Just give up. For your own good, Ember. Give up." [b]Dany![/b] The pull on your arm is strong, but gentle. There is no pain in this insistence, and the howl of the monster is, for the moment, distant. Through the darkness, you smell flowers. This is a garden full of peonies, in brilliant pinks and purples and only a few soft white petals to be seen. Everywhere is the glittering light of evertorches and the soft chiming of harps that play from somewhere out of sight. Bella smiles at you. She is the spitting image of the girl you plucked out of that box one faithful day, after Nero told you that you'd done well enough on your tests to earn a Friend. Her dress is a beautiful pink, red, and white affair with flared skirts tastefully accented by ribbons around the hem and a particularly large one tied around her waist. Her long, blue-black hair is sweetly braided in a pair of pigtails dotted through with musical bells. Bella Meowmeow looks around for a moment. And then she relaxes with a sigh. "I'm so glad you don't want to kill her. I'm so, so glad." And she wraps her arms around you in a hug. "I know she's very scary, and I'm not saying she isn't dangerous, but you have to understand Dany. She's--" The music stops. In its place, the sound of a door, the splitting of flesh, and the snapping of ribs. Bella Aurelia steps forth, and stares in surprise at what she sees. "And what are you doing outside of the maze, little one? This is not where I meant to put you. Go on, back where you came from. There is no need for [i]you[/i] in my plans, I have children enough." Bella Meowmeow steps in front of you, and shakes her head. "No, you can't. It's not safe for her there, not with Tredecima about." "That is not possible, little fool. I sealed that one away myself." "I'm telling you she's loose! She's loose and she's gonna kill Dany so don't go trying to stuff her back there. What's the difference if she just stays here instead? It's not like anything changes in your stupid plan!" Bella Aurelia laughs. She plucks the sword named Desire from the earth where she'd been resting on its hilt and hefts the unclean blade onto her shoulder. With her other hand, she plucks a mess of Shadow from her pocket. In no time at all, she twists the writing mass into a new shape, more pleasing to her designs. "Well. If it is a [i]monster[/i] you children must hide from then why did you not say so? In you go, ungrateful beasts. Into this Box with you. Stay there, and stay out of my way." Bella Meowmeow quails at the sight. She clutches at your arm, Dany, but she does not move from in front of you.