Phantom Violet Chapter 5

 CHAPTER 5: WILD GIRLS ALWAYS SHINE

Earlier

Most of the students for the entry-level kids’ karate class had gone home. Naturally, the first to leave were those with parents who were free to attend & watch their lessons; after them were the students whose parents arrived just before the class was finished. Finally were the students who were picked up by one of their designated chaperones, which the Triboro Gym required each student to have for safety & security reasons. Usually, by this point, the children had all left the gym, but this particular evening, two had to wait. One had parents who were coming as quickly as they could but had been caught in a traffic jam. The other had one parent stuck at work and another out of town. Until they were safely on their way home, the rules were that the teacher had to stay with them.

This teacher, known to the students as Meg-sensei, didn’t entirely mind. Making sure her charges were taken care of was important to her, and she felt it’d be irresponsible to drop such a task on one of the high-school-aged senior students. She was willing to wait it out as long as necessary, just as she had done in the past. The two kids were both pretty well-behaved, which helped. Wyatt, a fair-skinned boy with dark brown eyes and auburn hair, was watching a game show on one of the general gym area’s televisions. Meanwhile, Kinsey - a girl with faintly olive skin, black hair, and gray-green eyes - was on her phone, sending text after text to her father. Compared to some of the other students in the class, these two were downright sedate.

A chime sounded from Kinsey’s phone. “Dad said he’s on his way,” she said, holding up her phone for Meg to see.

Meg glanced at the screen, not really reading the text messages. She didn’t like to intrude on other people’s conversations in any manner. “Great! Tell him to be safe and not to rush.”

“Okay,” Kinsey said. “Should I ask him to give Wyatt a ride, too?”

“It’s okay,” Wyatt replied, eyes still on the TV. “They’ll be here soon. That’s just how 130 gets.”

Meg internally sighed in relief. Even if offered out of kindness, the policy was the policy, and she had always felt awkward telling someone that they couldn’t do something out of kindness for arbitrary reasons. She knew, logically, that they really weren’t arbitrary, but she also knew that children didn’t always understand or appreciate why safety measures like this were in place. It was always better when things worked out on their own this way.

She watched Kinsey tap out a reply, then looked at Wyatt with a gentle smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll stick around till they’re here.” “Okay. Probably won’t be that long,” Wyatt said. He suddenly looked away from the TV and gently tapped Meg’s arm. “Meg-sensei? What’s that?” he asked in a low voice.

Meg followed the path of his gaze to the reception desk. The man behind the counter - one of the wrestling class’s students - was trying to explain something to a rather curious looking young woman. She was thin and wiry, with defined muscles & fair-toned skin. A long, thick shock of unkempt auburn hair adorned her head, accented by what appeared to be a headband with authentically bony deer antlers. Her two-piece outfit appeared to be made from equal parts roughly cut tanned hides and patches of woven dead grass; an oddly dainty pair of short fingerless gloves were worn on her hands, while knee-length leggings in the same patchwork of materials covered her lower legs. However, the only sort of footwear she had on were the stirrup straps of her leggings, leaving her feet mostly bare. Her body language was overly forward and playful, with her tilting her head and frequently trying to touch the man at the desk, ignoring his efforts to shoo away her hands. She was something of a spectacle - in a disconcerting way.

“I guess she’s a cosplayer…?” Meg replied uncertainly.

Abruptly, the strange woman snapped her teeth at the receptionist, as if she wanted to bite him. He jumped back with a yelp of shock and started to reach under the desk. Before he could activate the alarm, however, the woman spat an abnormally large glob of viscous liquid at his face; he reeled and cried out in pain as it hit his eyes, staggering & falling to the floor. The few other gym attendees scattered to hide, while Meg tried to block her two students from sight with her body. Unfortunately, the woman quickly spied the trio, and they were too far away from any sort of cover.

With a strange grin on her face, the woman skipped over towards them. As she approached, the lower portion of her long hair started to move & sway independently, revealing it to be a thick vulpine tail. She stood uncomfortably close to Meg, tilting her head unnaturally to the side. Fang-like teeth were visible in her smile, and her inhumanly golden eyes had square pupils more appropriate for a goat.

“I spy with my little eye…,” the woman started to say. She tightly grabbed the collar of Meg’s tee shirt and threw her effortlessly with one hand towards the general equipment area. Her gaze never swayed from the two children, even as Meg’s body collided into a lifting machine. “Bunnies!”

Kinsey dropped her phone and held onto Wyatt, on the verge of tears as she reflexively yelped. He quickly held her in return, unable to do more than stare in horror at the approaching woman. She roughly gripped their exposed arms with her hands, abnormally sharp nails cutting them through their sleeves.

“Ooooh, you’ll do wonderfully! And we’ll have so much fun!” she said in a disturbingly giddy tone.

Before either child could react, she leapt up to the side window; still dangling them in her grasp, she kicked the glass out with a single blow from her bare foot. With that done she disappeared into the night with her prey.

—-----------

Present

One of the few good things about Val’s bizarre physical state was that she was no longer hindered by darkness. While not as defined as an animal’s night vision, she still could see better than average in low light, and despite some limitations, she could make her way through no light with little strain. Combined with her distractingly sharp hearing, it wouldn’t take long for her to locate both who she needed to protect and who she needed to fight. So she trudged towards the pair of footsteps in earshot, waiting for the inevitable meeting.

This didn’t take long. Val slowed her steps as two silhouettes neared; once they saw her, they both froze in place and stared at her. She could help but be slightly confused, as both of these strange children looked vaguely familiar to her. The boy was a little trickier to place, but there was something about him that reminded her of someone else she knew. The girl, however, was immediately recognizable due to her olive-green eyes. Those were Palmer’s eyes - this had to be his daughter. This just made her mission to help them that much more pressing. But regardless of any connections she might have had to them they were still children that were understandably wary of a random stranger in the woods. She had to approach them carefully.

“What’s going on?” Val asked the two kids. “Isn’t it kinda late for you to be ou-”

“We need help!” the girl said in a rushed, harsh whisper. “There’s a weird lady who’s trying to hunt us!”

“Stop it!” the boy hissed at her, his voice also low. “If we say anything, she’ll…”

“So you’re running from a kidnapper?” Val asked. “You want me to help you get to safety?”

“We can’t,” the girl said. “She said she’d go after our parents.”

“She could probably do it, too…,” the boy said.

Val watched the two for a moment. Far in the distance, she could hear voices calling names; at least one search party was looking for them. Both of the children had been crying, and they weren’t even wondering why she was even in the woods. They were just that desperate to see someone else who could help them. Even if she lost another fight with the Traitors, or had them escape again, she had to hold whichever one was responsible off for a while. So long as the search party could find the kids and get away safely while she contained the threat, everything would be fine. It was her duty to make sure of this, no matter what she had to do to herself.

“Oh bunnnnniessssss…,” a woman’s sing-song voice cried from the distance. “Where are you hiiiiiiidiiiiiing…?”

“That’s her!” the boy said in a panicked tone.

“It’s okay,” Val said, not sure if she sounded firm enough to be reassuring. “There’s a bunch of people looking for you, so you hide and wait till they’re close. I’ll hold her off.”

“Are you sure?” the girl said. “She’s really scary…”

Val nodded. “Trust me, I can take her. Get out of sight and wait till you hear the people looking for you. You gotta hurry.”

For a moment, the two children looked at her skeptically. That was to be expected, but right now, Val’s priority was to protect them, not to explain herself. Once they hear their captor’s laughter nearby, however, they both dashed over to a natural ditch and ducked out of sight. Val nodded at them and then turned towards the approaching silhouette. Judging from her movements, she was actually skipping.

Huh. No wonder Hydrangea’s friend was freaking out, Val mused. She’s enjoying this a bit too much. Welp, time to try and fix that.

Val put her hands in her front pants pockets and waited. As the figure approached, the familiar pain that stemmed from the presence of the Aegror grew within her; aside from a furrowed brow, she deliberately tried to hide her discomfort, both as a battle tactic and to reassure the children if they saw her. Finally, the figure halted directly in front of her. Even without the pain, Val would have known that she had to be one of the Traitors, with her outlandish attire and mishmash of animal features. The name she had heard from her… incident with Hydrangea popped into her head - Juniper. That had to be the name of her opponent.

The figure - Juniper - stared at Val with gleaming caprine eyes for a moment. Val stared back calmly, her expression consciously blank. Juniper abruptly moved to her left to pass, only for Val to nimbly & swiftly block her. She then feinted to the right, only for Val to block her again with the speed of a single step. Third, fourth, fifth attempts - all stopped by Val refusing to let her slip by, her face still calmly blank. Instead of a sixth attempt, Juniper leaned in close to Val, almost touching her, striking a curious posture.

“Ahh… you want to play, too?” Juniper asked in a playful tone. “You can help me find some little bunnies…”

“Nah, I’m good,” Val responded.

“You know they’re nearby, don’t you? I can smell they’re close…” Juniper audibly sniffed a couple of times. “But you smell like wet dirt.”

“Well, you smell like wet dog,” Val said. “I think we’re even.”

“You’re not allowed to steal my prey…”

“Don’t wanna. But I don’t want you here, either. So go chase some pigeons and get outta my woods.”

“Ooohhh…,” Juniper whispered in a moment of realization. She grinned, her fangs visible. “You’re the weed they’re so scared of, aren’t you?” Val remained silent. “I bet if I bring you and the bunnies, I’ll be the new favorite…”

Wordlessly, Juniper plunged her right hand towards Val’s neck. The already claw-like nails had instantly grown to inhuman length & thickness; they stabbed directly into her throat, effortlessly piercing veins & bone. Val staggered from the impact, yet her face remained calm even as blood began to trail from the corner of her mouth. Juniper’s grin faltered as she pulled her hand free. Her confusion only increased as Val remained upright & unreactive, ignorant to the rush of blood flowing from her deep wounds. She gently placed a hand on Juniper’s shoulder, stared at her directly in the eye, and spoke.

“Viola Sororia.”

—-------------

“Kinsey!” “Wyatt!” “Kinsey!” “Wyatt!”

The voices of the various search parties echoed through the wooded area, clusters of four or five in brightly colored safety vests simultaneously searching for clues and calling the missing children’s names. Seth’s team happened to include both Jon and Palmer, so his plan’s concession was allowed to be done with minimal complaint. In one hand, he held a flashlight that he used to view any potential evidence that the children had been there; in the other, he had the handle to Owen’s cat carrier. Aside from the occasional baleful meow, the cat had little reaction to the surroundings. This was a tad discouraging, since Seth was certain that he would react differently if Val was in the area. He kept waiting for some change in the cat’s behavior, a different pitch or a shift of body in the crate, yet there was nothing. But Seth still devoted his immediate energy to the search - after all, Val was in far better shape to fend for herself than two endangered children.

“Kinsey!” Jon’s voice called out from slightly ahead of Seth and Palmer. He had done the most to keep up with the police office assigned to their group. “Wyatt!”

“Kinsey!” Palmer yelled, his tone shaky. “C’mon, kiddo, say something!” He waited a beat, hearing nothing but the calls of the others searching. He rested his head against the thick trunk of an oak tree and sighed. “I can’t believe this…”

Seth walked over to Palmer, placed Owen’s crate onto the ground, and patted the man on the shoulder. This was a situation where he knew nothing he could say would possibly help; at best, the wrong words would upset the anxious father even more, while at worst, they could inspire false optimism. Sometimes, the best help he could provide was to be a sounding board for someone else’s frustrations.

“I shoulda told her to up to Newark with her mom,” Palmer said. “But she loved that class so much, she didn’t wanna miss it…” He covered his eyes with his hand to massage them, his voice indicating that he was on the verge of tears. “We gotta find them…”

“Seth!” Jon’s voice cried from a short distance. “Seth, get over here!” He waved his flashlight as a location indicator.

Seth looked at Palmer and nodded as a gesture of reassurance. If Jon was reacting that strongly, that meant he had found something useful - and that it probably wasn’t distressing. He lifted the cat carrier, ignoring the disgruntled mew from within it, and hurried alongside Palmer to Jon’s location. Once they reached him and saw his discovery, both froze.

A near-circle of trees had been toppled; judging from their positioning, they had fallen like dominos, each felling the next in rotation. Freshly exposed roots from several had churned up the layers of naturally formed compost that had once blanketed the forest floor. Nearest to the tree that seemed to start this reaction was a large bough, itself almost as thick & wide as some of the younger trees in the area. Holes that appeared to mimic a human grip were bored into the thicker end, a cluster of them for each hand; some of its thinner end had been snapped off against the first fallen tree. The shape of the damage was simply too deliberate to have occurred naturally, and the winds recently had been nowhere near strong enough to uproot so many trees.

Before either of the two men could speak, Owen let out a piercing yowl from within the carrier. He started trying to paw at or jar the door despite its swaying, an action that usually froze him in place. This reaction cemented the only possible cause in Seth’s mind. This was something Val had done. He had no idea why she had done this, but she was the sole explanation for it upon sight of the grip holes in the bough.

“Easy, kitty, easy,” Seth said as he placed the carrier on the forest floor.

“What the hell is this…?” Palmer muttered. “You don’t think the kids were caught up in all this…”

Seth carefully unlatched the cage door, struggling to hear over Owen’s almost-shouted meows. “No, but he’s telling me Val was,” he replied. “So she’s probably in these woods, and if so, she’s gonna be on alert for them, too.”

“You really think so?”

“She had every reason not to spend those last few months in ‘99 doing her rounds but she did, cuz she takes her job very seriously.” He reached into the carrier and pulled out Owen, holding him cautiously at arm’s length under his front legs. The cat stared at him, his ears turned so as to resemble an owl’s feather horns & his tail curled into a spiral against his back leg. “Owen, you listen carefully,” Seth said firmly. “I need you to go find Val and stay with her when you do. You do that and I’ll give you shrimp once everything’s done. Got it?” Owen responded with a single long, low meow. Seth lowered him to the ground. “Good. Get going.”

Owen turned away from the group. He sniffed at the air for a moment, then took a few tentative steps away into the wreckage; he then pawed lightly at the dirt before looking into the distance. With a garbled sound that sounded more like a bird’s warble than anything expected from a cat, he ran into the darkness. Seth calmly pulled out his phone and activated the tracking app. A blue dot showed just how quickly the cat was moving but remained steadily in view.

“Huh. He’s pretty fast,” Seth said mostly to himself.

A few moments passed awkwardly in silence. Finally, Palmer approached Seth and tapped him lightly on the arm to get his attention. “Now, you’re sure that Val would help the kids if she found them?”

Seth looked at him blankly, trying to mask his surprise. This wasn’t the right time to respond how he initially would, to defensively demand why Palmer would ever vocalize such a sentiment. Now was not the time to argue with a worried parent who probably wasn’t thinking straight; instead, Seth had to humor him and reassure him. This was not the place for an interrogation.

“Yeah,” Seth said firmly, nodding slightly. “She takes her job pre-”

A blinding flash of faintly lavender light burst to life far in the distance. Despite the woods and space, it was still strong enough to demand the group’s attention. And it was also in the general direction that Owen had been heading.

“That’s her,” Seth said. “I’m going ahead!” he shouted to the group before running as best he could in the cover & debris.

“Wait a sec-!” Palmer said. He almost immediately took off in a dash to follow Seth, both leaving the rest of their confused party behind without a second thought.

—-----------

Almost immediately after she had transformed, Val felt Juniper slap away her hand. The bestial girl had jumped backwards, a snarl on her face and making a sound similar to a small dog growling. She struggled to keep a calm expression; her plan to throw off her new opponent with a show of durability had worked, but gloating about this success would only undermine it. Val smoothly summoned her bow to her left hand and stepped towards Juniper. Each step closer garnered a hiss from her opponent.

“Look, you’re probably not the negotiating type, right?” Val asked as she walked. “So how ‘bout you ju-”

“Cockroach!” Juniper abruptly shouted, before hissing again. She lowered her stance and fanned out her taloned fingers as she continued to back away.

“Huh?”

“You! You’re a cockroach!” Juniper angrily - or maybe fearfully - declared. “You should be dead!”

“You’re not wrong,” Val said. “But the only reason I’m not is cuz of you guys. So why don’t you stop this, and we can both relax?”

Juniper lunged at Val’s throat again, but this time, she was swatted away with a swing of the bow. As she stood up, Val fired a shorter warning shot by her face, grazing the tip of her nose. Val then summoned multiple arrows and notched them in a row, spaced by her fingers & pointed firmly at her foe.

“Don’t make me do this, Juniper,” Val said in a stern tone. She wanted to sound intimidating, but she also desperately hoped that this fight wouldn’t escalate. It was already bad enough that the children she was protecting had probably seen that stunt with the throat. If they saw her using lethal force, they were liable to see her as a threat no different from their abductor. And Val herself had never wanted to be one of those super-powered characters who wantonly killed, either, simply as a matter of principle. Even if all she did was temporarily scare Juniper away, she could still at least get her targets to safety. That was the best-case scenario; the worst case was another ambush and another act of desperation.

Juniper hissed at Val again and charged towards her, seemingly unfazed by the arrows. By the time Val could have reacted, she was too close to hit without causing a mortal wound. Val dissolved her weapons and dodged to the side, letting her opponent slide past her; as she did, she grabbed one of Juniper’s bony antlers and pulled firmly. No matter what, she had to keep her from getting too far away - or too close to the children. The animalistic woman dug her claws into Val’s arms, but she only tightened her grip in the antler.

“I don’t hunt roaches!” Juniper snapped as she struggled. Enough distance was between the two that Val could dodge any attempts at kicks or strikes, even if her forearms had almost been shredded in the process. “I want my prey!”

“Too bad!” Val yelled back. “Your prey’s gone - you only have me!”

She stepped heavily and swung Juniper away from the children’s direction with all of her strength. She had expected to simply pull her, but instead, Juniper had been thrown off of her feet and into the air. An audible crack was heard as the weight of her opponent suddenly lightened. Val stared in shock at the now detached antler in her hands, its former owner now several feet away on the cluttered forest floor. Not entirely sure what to do, she hooked it onto the belt of her skirt underneath her jacket and quickly rearmed herself.

Juniper crawled to her knees before she numbly touched her head. As she patted the space where her antler used to be, her expression shifted from confusion to horror to fury. She glared at Val with a snarl, flecks of inhuman froth along her mouth and slowly rose to her feet. She broke into a mad dash directly towards Val with an unnatural nonverbal shriek.

What the hell?! Val thought. Why is she acting like this? … I don’t remember any crazy beast girls… Did the Aegror mess with her head or something?...Doesn’t matter, gotta stop this now…

Val held her bow across her body as if it were a shield, despite how thin it might have been. In her right hand, she summoned a thicker energy arrow and readied it as if it were a dagger. When Juniper charged her, she simultaneously held her back with the bow while fending off her claws with swipes of the arrow. Slash, parry, slash, parry, slash, parry… The movements became almost automatic to Val, but she couldn’t let her focus waiver. This opponent was little better than a wild animal or a Seeded Beast, and she was visibly getting more upset with each countered attack. At any moment, she could try some new desperate act, and Val had to be ready to counter whatever that may be.

Which was why Val just managed to dodger her head when Juniper wretched up a foul green bile with a gurgled hiss. The quick movement meant that Val was only painfully blinded in one eye; unfortunately, it was still enough of a jolt to break her concentration. A hard blow struck the side of her face that was still sizzling underneath the layer of caustic saliva. Before she hit the ground, she grabbed onto Juniper’s tail, digging her fingers into the thick fur until she could grip its bony base. Using her weight from the fall, Val pulled Juniper back until both were toppled onto the ground.

Almost immediately, Juniper spun around and gave Val a swift kick in the head. Val’s grip defiantly tightened. Another kick. Another. And another. Val clenched her fists around the tail until her knuckles started to sting. At least one of the kicks had knocked out a tooth and cut off air to one side of her nose. But so long as the children were there, she could ignore any injuries and focus on their safety. Their barely audible movements in their hiding spot reassured her. She had to end this fight - the right way.

“That’s… enough…,” Val muttered. A familiar warmth overtook the pain in her hands; usually, she only felt it when she summoned her weapons, but now it was simply part of her. “Violet… Voltage… Short…”

A jolt of electricity shot through Val’s hands and through Juniper’s body. It felt weaker to Val than any attack she had ever done, barely above the sensation of generating her energy arrows. But she was used to that sensation. Juniper clearly wasn’t. Her entire body froze & convulsed as the electricity raced up her vertebrae. This only lasted a few seconds before she fell still to the ground in an awkward heap. Val cautiously sat and leaned over her, warily putting two fingers against the side of her foe’s neck. There was still a pulse, and she was still breathing. This would give her just enough time to get the kids to safety.

Val pushed herself to stand up and slowly stepped towards the ditch; she kept an eye fixed on her fallen opponent, ready for any signs of revival or indications that one of her colleagues was coming.

“You two okay?” Val asked. There was a slight rustling behind her but no replies. Her stomach churned. Had she been too focused on the fight? “Kids? You still there?” she asked, growing a little worried.

“Is she gone?” the boy asked quietly.

Val exhaled deeply in relief. “Yeah… she’s out cold, but I don’t exactly have handcuffs, so I gotta get you back to town right away,” she explained. She reached out towards them with her left hand, still watching Juniper for any signs of recovery. From the darker areas of the woods, she could hear running footsteps and rescuers calling names; their steady approach made it clear that they must have heard the ruckus. On one hand, that would make handing the children off to safety easier, but on the other, if Juniper woke up when they were close…

“Do you hear that?” the girl whispered to the boy. “I think I hear my dad…”

Val stifled a sigh. She couldn’t afford to guard a crowd of people from a dangerous foe who could awake at any moment. She could definitely hear people approaching rapidly, and at least one voice was fairly familiar. If she just knew whether Juniper would stay unconscious, then she could easily reunite everyone and explain the situation. But Val knew better than to take that risk. The Traitors were all stronger than her, and she had little faith in her own relatively weak powers to truly incapacitate them except for a lucky temporary stun. For all she knew, Juniper could simply be playing possum, waiting for the opportunity to strike. The frustrating indecision had left Val paralyzed, doing little more than silently guarding the two children.

The feeling of something soft and furry brushing against her calves snapped her out of her paralysis. Val looked down and jolted slightly in surprise. Owen was here, nuzzling her legs and occasionally looking expectantly at her. Aside from a bright pink collar, he looked no different from when she had last seen him. She bent over and picked up, able to feel his loud purring.

“What’re you doing here?”

—----------

Running while monitoring the signal wasn’t easy, but so far Seth had managed with a minimal number of stumbles. He was just barely ahead of Palmer, and he wanted to maintain the lead. He was still the Foundation guy; it was his responsibility to be the first on the scene, no matter the risk. And there was probably risk - they had both heard sounds of a struggle. If it wasn’t for the tracker on Owen’s collar reading a pulse, he’d be more worried. Hopefully that was a good indicator.

It wasn’t long before Seth reached the scene. Val was standing in the trees, transformed and cradling her cat. Two unfamiliar children were sticking pretty closely to her, while a third figure was in a heap by Val’s feet. She looked up at him with a surprised expression, then took on a more serious - and anxious - one. She rushed over to him, cat still in her arms, and started to speak in a hushed, rushed tone. To his surprise, she almost seemed… scared.

“Seth, glad you’re here, but I need you to take the kids and Owen and get out of here,” Val said. “I don’t know how long she’ll be out, and I don’t wanna scare the kids more.” She kept glancing at the person lying on the ground. “They’ve seen enough.”

“Kinsey?! You over here?!” Palmer yelled as he rushed up to Seth’s side. He stopped to catch his breath, clearly exhausted from both panic and the impromptu sprint. Val’s expression became more worried.

“Dad!” the little girl shouted, a wide smile on her face. She grabbed the boy’s hand and started to run with him towards the two men.

“Aah!”

The boy suddenly stumbled, a hand cinched around his ankle. The third figure grasped it as a strange, almost growling sound started to be audible despite still being face down against the ground. Before Seth could react, he found Owen shoved into his arms. Val had rushed over to stomp wildly on the figure’s wrist, continuing even after her opponent had released the boy. Seth pulled him to safety, along with Palmer’s daughter, awkwardly holding Val’s cat in one arm while futilely shielding the others with his free one.

“We gotta find one of the cops,” Seth said to Palmer. He tried to signal with his eyes towards the path they had taken. C’mon, man, get outta here already… get the kids to safety… He couldn’t betray any sort of anxieties at this time; he had to be the capable, collected representative of the Lambert Foundation, even if he desperately wanted to lead the escape.

Also, he wasn’t about to let Val run away again. The woman she had previously subdued now furiously biting into Val’s calf, an inhuman froth mixing with the blood. Val was trying to punch her assailant’s head, but she was visibly paler, her breathing rough and a thick sweat covering her face. She looked up at the group between blows with a pained, desperate aura.

“Go… go!” Val shouted at them, clearly struggling to get enough air to raise her voice.

Seth looked at Palmer and nodded. Palmer hastily nodded back; he took each of the children by the hand and ran back towards the body of the forest. Only once Seth was sure that they were a safe distance away did he act. He started to release his grip on Owen, expecting to get his hands free to aid Val. However, before he could lower the cat to the ground, Owen sprung off of Seth’s body with a strong kick of his back legs and rushed towards the struggle.

Within seconds, Owen was clamped onto the woman’s bare foot with his fangs. He kicked with his back feet again, this time using his claws along with his strength. The woman finally stopped her bestial attack on Val, blood and frothy saliva covering her chin. She hissed as she looked at the cat with what appeared to be irritation. Instead of kicking him, a mass of fur that was close to her legs started to flail. As it moved, what looked like quills started to become visible, each long enough to gravely injure the attacking cat.

“Don’t you even…,” Val said between hoarse breaths. She manifested her bow and unceremoniously smashed it over the animal woman’s head. One, two, three… after a fourth blow, the woman was unconscious again.

Val shakily leaned over, gesturing to check for a pulse. However, she instead collapsed alongside her foe; her appearance returned to that of her normal self, and Owen ran over to butt at her face with his forehead. Seth hurried to pull her to a safe distance, alarmed at just how still she had gone. It’s fine, it’s fine, she’s gonna be fine…, he mentally told himself. She’s come back from worse, she’ll be fine… He needed to repeat these reassurances on a loop; otherwise, he would have to admit to himself that Val felt pretty… dead.

“Mr. Newman!” Jon’s voice called from just out of Seth’s sight. “Get clear!”

An air gun sound popped from the same direction, and a small projectile fired from it, landing on the unconscious attacker. As soon as it hit her, a bubble of barely visible energy - constructed out of a series of hexagons akin to a geodesic dome - formed around her. It was probably the first time Seth had seen the shielding technology used in the field; he could only hope that it could contain the animal woman if she awakened.

“The generator has a heavy-duty tranquilizer in it,” Jon explained as he knelt down to where Seth was still cradling Val. “We should be safe.” He glanced at Val and went a shade paler. “Is she… okay?”

Seth took a deep breath. “She’ll be okay,” he finally said, starting to lightly tap her face. “She’s come back from worse.” C’mon, Val…

After a long tense silence, Val coughed, then gasped, then coughed some more. The color gradually returned to her skin; the deep wound on her leg from the bite had started to rapidly heal as well, having already shrunk in size. The burn mark that had rendered her left eye shut & useless was gone. As the coughing gave way to regular breathing, Val opened her eyes. Seth released an audible sigh of relief.

“Ow…,” Val muttered. “Shrew venom really sucks…”

Seth numbly blurted out the first response that sprang to mind. “How’d you know it’s shrew venom?” he asked.

“Cuz she can only do mammals,” Val said as she slowly sat up under her own power. “Plus, y’know… shrew… insult…”

“Ah…,” Seth responded. “Well, the important thing is, you’re okay.” He turned to look at Jone, who was deliberately watching the energy barrier around the woman. Is he trying not to look at Val…? he thought. On a certain level, Seth understood - it would be unnerving for anyone to see what they thought was a dead body spring back to life. The manner in which Val did so was especially unnatural, so he could see where someone would try to avoid it. However, it still struck him as rude, in a way he couldn’t clearly articulate. The least he could do is ask how she’s doing… “Hey, Jon?”

“... Yeah?” Jon replied uncertainly.

“Did you call for transit?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, they should be here soon,” Jon said. “I’m just making sure she stays out till we’re back.”

“Where’re the kids?” Val asked.

“Allan said that Palmer got a hold of the cops, and they went back to the rendezvous point, so they’re okay,” Jon replied.

Val sighed. “Good…” She glanced down at Owen, who had been seated quietly by her side. She reached over and gave him a pet. “I guess there’s no hiding from you, mister.” She sighed again, this time more heavily, and looked at Seth. “I guess I have to go back to being a zoo exhibit, huh?”

Seth smiled weakly and shook his head. “Just for one night,” he replied. “Any longer, and I’ll sic your cat on ‘em. You’re coming home properly after all this.”

Val smiled and laughed slightly. Yet, despite his best efforts, Seth couldn’t tell if it was out of relief, resignation, or plain old disbelief.

—--------

Yep, just as I thought… here again…, Val mused as she finished brushing her hair.

As good as it felt to get a shower and change into clothes that were mercifully free of blood, she really didn’t want to return to her Foundation suite. But she knew better than to trust Seth’s bosses would just let her leave without yet another pointless examination or an attempt at interrogation. There was probably some truth in Seth’s offer to take her home; the clothes that the Foundation had provided had been packed into boxes, along with most of the personal effects she had been given. She had to hand it to them - they worked pretty quickly while she was gone.

“Waaaaaooooo…,” Owen sadly meowed. He sat forlornly on the disassembled ruins of his cat tower. Val sighed and walked over to pet him.

“Don’t worry, once we get home, I’ll put it back together,” she told him as she stroked his head. “You’ll have a proper view, too, not… this.”

She gestured vaguely towards the window and the indoor garden just beyond it. After her night in the forest, among the dried leaves and barren trees just starting to revive from winter, it felt even more artificial. Unnatural. Even if every plant within it was a real, thriving plant, they were still kept in a state of permanent bloom; nothing even close to a sudden downpour or an unexpected wind storm had ever touched them. For some reason she couldn’t place, it made Val feel almost disgusted by its artificiality. She shook her head as she looked away from the window and placed her hairbrush back into one of the open boxes.

*Knockknockknock*

Val walked slowly over to the intercom by the door. As far as she knew, she wasn’t scheduled for any visit from staff, and Seth wasn’t due to stop by until later in the day. She peeked at the crack between the floor & the door; the shadows on a single pair of feet were visible. Cautiously, she pushed the ‘talk’ button.

“Who is it?” she asked politely.

“My name’s Jon,” the voice of the visitor said through the crackley speaker. I was helping your brother last night. Can I come in?”

Val thought for a brief moment. Her memories of the trip from the forest were hazy after she had recovered from the venom. There had been someone with Seth, but they had deliberately been avoiding her. Not that they could be blamed for it - she was technically an undead creature, after all. It was a tad embarrassing, maybe a little insulting, but that reaction was completely understandable. She shrugged, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

The relative youth of her visitor startled her. She was used to seeing older people around Seth’s age, but Jon looked closer to her own. He held out his hand for her to shake it and smiled meekly behind frameless rectangular glasses. Almost out of habit, Val shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you, Jon,” Val said.

“Nice to meet you, too, Miss Pollard,” he replied.

“Just Val is fine,” she said as she stepped aside from the doorway, inviting him to enter. She steered him towards the sofa, leading him past the small stack of boxes. “So… why are you stopping by?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after last night,” Jon said as he sat onto the sofa. Val sat in one of the chairs; for some reason, sharing a sofa with a relative stranger felt… odd to her.

“I’m okay, just got cleaned up,” Val answered as she sat. “Kinda looked like I was in a hardcore match there.” She laughed slightly.

Jon let out a single awkward laugh. Either he didn’t get the joke or just didn’t like it; both were equally plausible to Val. She nervously coughed to clear her throat.

“How is everyone?” Val asked, wanting to know as much as wanting to change the subject. “Are the kids okay?”

“They’re not hurt,” Jon began. “But they’re gonna need to give statements with their parents, and we’re arranging for free counseling with Dr. Loebs.”

“So long as they’re safe.” Val paused. “How about Juniper?”

“The kidnapper?”

Val nodded.

“She’s in special containment. Once Mr. Newman is done resting, he’s going to interrogate her. I’ll probably be going as a backup.”

“I wanna go, too,” Val said firmly. “They’re my opponents.”

“I thought you might.” Jon smiled and adjusted his glasses. “Allan said not to involve you, but if I was in your place, I’d want to be there. I might let you take my place.”

“Do you… work here?” Val asked.

“Kind of. I live in the suite down the other end.”

Oh. Val thought back to her first night in the suite. Jon must have been the person the staffers had referred to as “Allan’s son.” Once again, her paranoia about the place spiked. But it could be rude of her to say that she had overheard that - at minimum. She decided that it would be best to wait for anything Jon said to determine if she should address this matter.

“I help out where needed,” Jon continued. “Like, before I was needed for the search, I was helping pack up your stuff. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh, no, of course not,” Val said. So long as you didn’t do anything weird with it… “Thanks.”

A pause.

“So… is that why you came by?” Val asked.

Jon shook his head. “No, I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” he said. “Last night was… intense, and I think I missed the worst of it.”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Val said with a shrug. “So long as Palmer and the kids were okay. Was anyone else hurt?”

“A couple of people at the gym were hurt, including the kids’ karate teacher,” Jon replied. “But we’re helping treat them, too, and they should be okay soon.”

“That’s good. That’s all that matters.”

An electronic chime sounded, and Jon looked at the blocky watch on his wrist. That had to be yet another weird device Val had missed in her time away. Unfortunately, the grimace on Jon’s face as he looked at it told her that now wasn’t the best time to ask for details about it. He tapped the face of it to silence it and sighed.

“Sorry, that’s Allan,” he said, his tone slightly weary. “I gotta go. Thanks for letting me stop by.”

“No problem,” Val said as she stood up with him. “Thanks for checking in on me.”

Val walked with Jon to the door, giving him a friendly wave before he turned and walked down the hall. As she closed the door, she sighed. Every visit back to this facility just left her with more questions, yet somehow, the prospective answers made her feel more uneasy than the uncertainty. Maybe once she was back in her family home, it would be safe to ask Seth about her father’s old job or why Jon had to live here instead of with his supposed father. But first, she had to talk to Juniper.

Not once in her time away had Val any other girls - allies or traitors - that acted like a feral beast. Even during the worst fights with the Twelve Traitors, what she had seen of Juniper was just a girl who could mimic mammals. She had worn the bastardized version of their uniforms that all the Traitors had worn at that time, and she had acted like a human being. No hissing or growling, no skipping after “prey,” none of those strange affectations. She definitely hadn’t had antlers or a tail, either. Had she been driven mad by the Aegror’s influence? Or was something or someone controlling her? Val sat down on the sofa and leaned over the back, staring up at the ceiling. Once Seth was here, she could ask Juniper herself. However, she couldn’t say that she was too optimistic about getting answers.

—----------------

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Seth asked as he walked alongside Val down one of the sub-basement hallways. “Maybe it’d be better for you to rest until we’re done.”

Val shook her head. In her arms, she held Owen, his rear legs dangling in the air. “I wanna do this,” she said firmly. “If she’s gonna answer us, I wanna be there to hear it.”

He arched one eyebrow slightly. It had struck Seth as strange that Val had requested to involve herself in the case, especially given her previous suspicions about the Foundation. And when Jon suddenly had to beg off accompanying him to do some sort of vague “job for Allan,” he had lost any real ability to refuse Val’s inclusion. Maybe it was a good thing she was being proactive…? Still, the risks to her welfare were too much for him to feel terribly comfortable about allowing this.

“Fair enough. Just keep in mind anything you ask goes in the official report.” Seth paused. “Why’d you bring your cat?”

“Moral support,” Val replied.

“I see.”

The rest of the walk was quiet, aside from the echoing footsteps in the unadorned hallway and the familiar drone of the neon lights dotting the ceiling. The Foundation sub-basements were reserved for special containment; the only time Seth had seen them was on his orientation tour, and at that point, they had been empty. Even now, this was the first time that he could remember them being used. Most of what this branch did was usually not so hazardous that they’d be necessary. As much as he was trying to keep a sturdy professional head on himself, Seth had to admit that the barren facility was making his blood run cold. No wonder she brought her kitty…

Finally, they approached the door. Unlike the other closed doors, this one had a conspicuous red light above its frame. Seth went to lift the key card on his lanyard to the small panel by the door but stopped when he caught a glimpse of Val out of the corner of his eye. Her expression looked almost pained, and she had shifted her hold on Owen to cradle & more easily pet him. He dropped the card and put a hand on her shoulder.

“You okay?” Seth asked quietly.

“I’m fine,” Val said, her voice failing to hide that she wasn’t. “I just get, like, alert pains when I’m close to them. They’re not as bad now…”

“You don’t have to do this if it’s gonna hurt you.”

“No, I want some answers, too.” Val adjusted Owen in her arms as he rested his front feet on her shoulder. She took a deep breath. “Besides, you even know her name?”

“Well…,” Seth said, genuinely trying to remember. He came up blank but decided to take what he felt was an educated guess. “I think it was… Foxy… something.”

“Juniper,” Val said. “I don’t know her full new Traitor title, but she’s still Juniper. C’mon, let’s get this done.”

“Alright,” Seth said as he touched his key card to the reader panel, which beeped in response.

Beyond the door was a small viewing area, adorned only with several security cameras and a flat pleather bench. A glass barrier with rows of air holes and a faintly blue tint cordoned off the room just past the seating area; Juniper sat on a small cot on the other side of the glass, still dressed in her new “uniform.” The only indication that she had been in any sort of fight was a bandage on the ankle that Owen had attacked and the stub of one of her antlers poking through her hair. As soon as she saw Seth & Val enter, she stood up and walked as close as she could to the glass, her head tilting in curiosity as she smiled a mirthless smile. The entry door closed with an audibly heavy impact.

“Hiiiii, cockroach,” Juniper said in a bit of a sing-song tone. Her eyes lit up as she spotted Owen. “Did you bring me a snack?”

Owen looked at Juniper, turned his ears until they were mostly flat, and let out a loud hiss with his teeth bared. Val gave him a pet along his side and set him down on the bench. She then stood in front of it besides Seth, blocking the cat from view as he jumped down to hide under the bench..

Juniper pouted. “Aww… you’re so greedy,” she said.

Seth mustered up his sterned expression and stared at Juniper. “We’re here to ask you a few questions. Failure to comply may result in further interrogation.” She completely ignored him, instead getting as close to the glass as she could directly in front of Val.

“Why are you here?” Val asked bluntly. Her demeanor initially surprised Seth, but eventually it clicked as they waited in silence for an answer. Val was mad, she was trying to hide it, and the playful swaying of the uncooperative captive couldn’t be helping. “Well?”

“I told you, I needed to make an offering,” Juniper finally replied. “The little bunnies are the best. They’re fun to hunt, and cuz of how many others’ll be upset about them, I get even more favor.”

“So you’ve done this before…,” Val said, a heavy tone in her voice.

“Noooo, but I bet that would happen.”

Val exhaled a sharp, short breath and closed her eyes. If she couldn’t show her anger, she definitely couldn’t show relief. She opened her eyes and stared at Juniper again. “I thought the Aegror was dead,” she said.

“Naaah, you only hurt the Great Aegror,” Juniper countered. “We serve as Its shield, since It helped us become our truest selves. We need to give It offerings to show how happy we are and make It feel better.” She tilted her head oddly again and flashed a leering, unnerving grin at Val. “It’s not something a cockroach would understand.”

Seth rested a hand on Val’s shoulder. She was so tense that he wondered if she had frozen in place. Don’t let her get to you…, he thought, even though he knew full well that Val couldn’t hear him.

Val patted Seth’s hand, not breaking her rigid demeanor. “So that’s your ‘truest self,’ huh?” she said. “You let the Aegror turn you into a wild animal.”

“Yoouuuu let the Atrium turn you into a cockroach,” Juniper replied.

“And yet, even as a cockroach, I’m still more human than you,” Val said with a slightly bitter laugh.

Juniper let out a ‘hmmph.’ “I’m bored now. You’re boring. You won’t even let me play with that,” she sulked as she gestured at Owen. Another hiss emanated from under the bench. “You have anything fun to say, cockroach?”

“No, but I’m sure Seth does,” Val said as she sat down on the bench. She positioned herself so that her legs continued to obscure Owen from view.

“Yeah,” Seth said, still doing his best to look cool-headed and professional. “Miss Juniper, it’d be in your best interest to cooperate.” She moved slightly to stand across from him and touched the tip of her nose to the glass. “How many other locations are you and your partners attacking?”

“We wanted to go to lots of new places,” Juniper began, “buuuut every time we left the Great Aegror’s nest, we kept landing here. So we have to make due with this place.” Puffs of fog appeared on the glass as she spoke.

Behind him, Val made a quiet sound between a ‘hmmph’ and ‘huh’. Seth perked up slightly - did Val know something about this situation? He’d ask her elsewhere; it might be something she was concealing for a good reason.

“So how many of you are there?” Seth asked.

“Welllll… I’m with the scouting group, and we work with Dahlia,” Juniper said. “But there’s, like, soooooo many of us.”

“Please,” Val snorted. “There’s twelve of you. That’s not ‘lots.’ ‘Lots’ is how many of us you killed!” She stood up and stepped towards the glass.

Instinctively, Seth raised his arm to hold her back. Val stopped, patted his arm, and returned to the bench. On the other side of the glass, he heard clapping and laughter. Juniper was suddenly giddy, jumping in place with excitement.

“Oooh, finally, fun!” she giggled.

“Right, that’s enough,” Seth said as sternly as possible. “Maybe once the reality of this situation sinks in, you’ll talk properly.” He turned to Val and tapped her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Val nodded and sighed. She carefully picked Owen up in her arms and walked towards the door. Once again, Seth couldn’t help but notice how tired she looked. He shouldn’t have let her join him; even if it did give him a slight idea of why Val was reluctant to talk, her outburst had shown that this was still too much to handle at this time. Knowing that he’d need to note her reaction in the case file made him slightly sick. Whatever she had been through, it had to have been rough.

“Byeeee,” Juniper called in a sing-song, holding the note until the door’s closing mercifully muffled it.

The walk back to the elevator was silent. Seth didn’t want to say anything, fearing he’d only upset Val more. It wasn’t until they were on the elevator, its doors closed, that the silence was broken.

“... I’m sorry,” Val whispered, gently petting her cat. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s fine,” Seth said. “You didn’t do anything wrong. She was just annoying you.”

“Can we talk more in my room? I have some questions.”

“Sure.”

—-----------------

“So you think that’s why they’re here?” Seth asked Vasl as the two sat at her dinette set, mugs of hot tea on the table.

“Yeah…,” Val replied. “I don’t know how far it goes, but it’s definitely here. I thought it could only exist in the Atrium.”

Val had explained her discovery of the Murasilva, along with its purpose. She also shared her theory on how it existed to contain the threat to her immediate area. As much as she wanted to conceal it, she was unable to hide just how guilty the situation had left her. Just by being here, she was endangering the people that she was tasked with protecting; however, no one else could fight the Traitors, and odds are that if she went somewhere else, the Murasilva would travel with her. She had only shared her theory, however, since her feelings were her own problem. She wasn’t about to keep dumping everything on Seth.

“Well, at least we shouldn’t have to worry about a wider threat, but it sucks that we’ll always be on alert,” Seth said. He took a sip of his tea, unbothered by the heat. “Obviously, you have some history with them…”

Val sighed and nodded. “I don’t wanna go into details, but I’ll give some info. We called them the Twelve Traitors. They were other girls in the Phantom Garden who gave their Atrium Seeds to the Aegror in exchange for their lives. And the Aegror thrives on death - that’s why it sent the Seeded Beasts. So of course the Traitors repaid the favor by killing us.”

Seth took a deep breath and exhaled sharply through his teeth.

“You probably need to report that, but I, uh… don’t wanna go into specifics,” Val said. She took a deep breath of the tea’s steam, enjoying its soothing minty scent.

“No, I understand,” Seth said quietly. “I told them to give you all the time you need.”

“Thanks.” Val paused and took a sip of tea; she had to calm a bit before she started addressing her next concern. “So… the guy helping you stopped by earlier,” she began. “Said his name’s Jon…”

“Oh, yeah?” Seth responded. He’s a good kid. What did he want?”

“Oh, just checking on me, giving me an update… Is what I’ve heard correct? That he’s Allan's son?”

“Oh. Well, it’s a little more complicated than that, but Allan did adopt him.”

“So why isn’t he allowed to leave?”

Seth sighed. “Long story short, Jon is a living time anomaly. We’ve never witnessed a live person as one, and everything about this world suggests that he shouldn’t exist. I think Allan just wants to protect him because of that.” He paused and sipped his tea. “I think he’s being overprotective, but since he already lost his birth son, I get why he would.”

“That’s just sad for both of them…” Val started into her ebbing mug of tea. There was indeed a longer story behind all of what Seth had said, and this clearly wasn’t the time to interrogate it. “Everyone’s got something here, huh?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Seth placed his mug on the table, the sound indicating that it was empty. “So, are you ready to move back home?”

“Definitely, especially if it means Owen gets his cat tree back. He’s still sulking.” Val glanced over to the pile of cat tower components; Owen continued to loaf on it, staring at the two humans in silent protest. “Seth, can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Can you just… let me know when you’re meeting with someone?” Val asked. “I won’t get involved, but I just wanna know. I feel like everyone here keeps hiding stuff from me.”

Seth paused for a moment, failing to hide a surprised expression. After a moment, he closed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah, I get that. I’ll keep you in the loop,” he said. “They usually pop up on the fly, but I’ll let you know. I have an appointment next week with someone here who knew Jenn, actually.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but… uh… judging from her comments, I don’t think they were friends.”

“Hmm…,” Val said as she nodded very slightly. Now wasn’t the time to say anything. “Well, good luck with it, and if she wants to meet me sometime, I’d be open to it.”

“How about Palmer and his family?” Seth asked.

The feeling of guilt returned, and Val shook her head firmly. C’mon, Seth, I just endangered his daughter… “Nah, not yet. Just… not yet.”

“Fair enough. Should probably wait a little bit after last night.” He paused. “I’ll let you know how the meeting with both of the kids’ families goes. That’s where I’m off to next.”

“Oh.” Val finished her last sip of tea with a rough gulp. “Could you tell them that I’m sorry?” He looked at her with confusion. “That they had to see all that? And that I wasn’t there to stop it? Cuz I should’ve been-”

“Val,” Seth said firmly as he stood up from his chair. “Don’t blame yourself for this. Blame whatever it is that the Traitors answer to. If you weren’t here, we’d all be sitting ducks.”

“It’s kinda hard not to think it’s on me,” Val replied. “Are you gonna tell them everything?”

“Foundation policy is telling people what they need to know, and that’s at each agent’s discretion.” He walked over to Val, put a hand on her shoulder, and bent over just enough to be close to eye level with her. “So don’t worry about it and don’t blame yourself.” He patted her shoulder a couple of times, then stood up again. “Once I’m done, I’ll be back to help load up your stuff for home. You just relax a bit.”

“I’ll try,” Val replied. She walked Seth to the door and stood by it until she was sure that he had boarded the elevator.

As she flopped onto the sofa, her thoughts started to whirl. Had she really been sent back just to fight the Traitors? Had they been active prior to her return, or had they simply reawakened in response to her? The only creature that could provide a definitive answer was the Atrium; even then, even if she could find a way back there, it’s not like it could speak to her to explain itself. Part of her wanted to experiment - to sprint away as fast and as far as she could, just to see if the Murasilva would follow her and funnel her enemies there instead. But even if she set up somewhere removed from everything, they’d still cause horrible destruction and suffering. The Aegror never cared if what it was fed was human, so long as it died in fear.

A soft thud on her stomach pulled Val out of her own mind. Owen had hopped up and started to knead at her with his front paws. She gently petted him as she sighed.

“At least you’ll never be mad at me, right?” Val said. Owen spun around and curled up in a purring ball on top of her lap. “I don’t care what Seth says, I know they’re all pissed at me. But I guess that’s just part of the job…”

—---------------

“So… the people aiding Violet caught Feral Juniper,” Dahlia calmly stated, seated in her usual perch. Despite her even tone, her brow was furrowed in irritation. “What do we plan to do about it?”

“I suggest… nothing,” Peony said. “She got herself into this, she can get herself out.”

“Honestly, I’m amazed she took off on her own,” Hydrangea said. “Of course, I’ll be fine with whatever you decide, Dahlia.” She flashed an awkward smile at her leader.

“Yes, Juniper did take actual initiative…,” Dahlia said. She rested her chin in her hand again in thought. “And her offering was actually going to be a good one… But I am so tired of bailing out my underlings…”

“Uh, we’re not your ‘underlings’,” Peony said curtly. “We’re your teammates. Just cuz you're the strategist doesn’t make you the boss.”

“I answer directly to Rose Macabre, and Rose answers directly to the Great Aegror,” Dahlia coolly responded. “Do you answer to Rose? Have you even seen her?”

Peony opened her mouth as if to speak but stopped herself. She ‘hmmph’d and crossed her arms under her capelet, turning her gaze away from Dahlia.

“Exactly. Thank you,” Dahlia said. “I’d be far more effective at my duties if I was allowed to plan a strategy that wasn’t ‘save my subordinates from an undead nuisance’ for a change. Luckily for you, one of our sisters has given us a gift.”

After an elaborate flourish of her hands, the shadow lantern appeared in front of Dahlia. She reached into the swirling mass of darkness at its center and pulled out a small object, holding it delicately between her fingertips. It was a small orb, no larger than a marble; even without moving, it internally shifted through an array of warm bright colors. Gracefully, Dahlia rolled the orb into the palm of her hand and held it out just enough for the others to see.

“A trophy from the fight against Phantom Zinnia,” Dahlia said. “I trust it will be used well, Peony…?”

Both startled. Peony dropped her arms and looked at Dahlia in surprise. “Why are you giving this to me?” she asked suspiciously.

Hydrangea stepped ahead of her, an expression of mild panic on her face. “Please, Dahlia, let me do this,” she pleaded. “I need to make up for the forest-”

“Yes, you do,” Dahlia said. “And you can do that eventually. But right now, I think Peony needs to do some actual work.” She wordlessly gripped the orb in her fist, then threw it in Peony’s direction. Peony caught it and held it cupped in her palms, still looking at Dahlia with wary confusion. “Whether you use it to rescue Juniper or remove her, I don’t care. Just make sure to use it well. Do not waste this.”

Peony took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled loudly. She tucked the orb under her capelet, then bowed. Her posture was slightly stiffer than usual.

“I won’t, I promise,” she firmly declared.