When Sidonia first took me and Ashlynde from our beds that night…I thought we were both going to be executed. I didn’t resist, figuring I’d put Alisson in hot water if I did. The inquisitors sedated me, and before I knew it, I was bound, gagged, and blindfolded.

  Then, the strumming started. It was like somebody was banging on my skull with a hammer, over and over, day in, day out. I could barely keep myself together at some points. It all just became one haze, one blur, until I lost myself.

  I awoke ungagged and unbound in the darkness. I thought at first that Alisson had come to save me, but that turned out to be false. I was all alone, and I had nothing to my name, nothing to make light of the void that I had woken up in. I wandered there until I ran into walls, and realized that I was in one big hallway, made of stone. I followed the walls for what could’ve been hours before I heard the first stampede.

  In the distance, I heard the thundering footsteps of a great many beings, all running down the hallway, toward me. I luckily found an inlet in the wall, and squeezed myself into it, just before the stampede got closer. It was there in that inlet that I saw the first glimpse of Alisson in what had felt like months.

  There was a terminal, emitting a dull glow, which pictured an unstable vision, my vision; it was a window to the outside. When I looked, I saw Alisson being beaten by his older sister, and made to stare at me. When I saw his face, the way he looked at me with tears in his eyes, I couldn’t stop myself from breaking into tears too. I wanted to keep watching, like a kid looking out the window at an oncoming storm, but the terminal dulled, and its light faded.

  I would have to look elsewhere to find more glimpses of the outside world.

  Thus I shuffled between the dark, winding halls, finding sometimes brief glimpses of the outside. I found Alisson to be staring back at me most of the time, with differing expressions. As time progressed, I saw his eyes dull in their light, until there was nothing but a cold glare that accompanied his steeled coat.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  There were things that happened to me too. I felt things growing out of me, ontop of my head. Ears. Not just my normal Nekomata ears, but all kinds of ears. Bunny ears, horse ears, wolf ears, you name it. It felt horrific each time one set of appendages replaced the last, growing up and forcing me to halt my wanderings, to sit in a corner and endure the pain. But I kept moving. I had hope. I had hope that I’d see you again.

  Fidelity. This is fidelity.

  …

  Alisson hugged her tightly while he heard her recount her side of life over the past couple months. He would’ve guessed that Celis would be completely unconscious during the whole affair, but no, she had been locked in a jail of Sidonia’s creation, forced to watch the outside world from windows.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t save you sooner.” Alisson muttered, caressing her head.

  “It’s my fault I got caught anyway…” She rubbed her eyes of liquid.

  Alisson shook his head. “No. It was all my miscalculation. I should’ve never given you that task alone.”

  Celis giggled to herself. “Have faith in me, Alisson. I screwed up.” Her expression drained and she averted her eyes with an off-putting little smile. “…I won’t screw up again.”

  Alisson held her more tightly. “I hope you’ll never have to put that to test.”

  The two remained on the floor of the room entangled with one another for a long while.

  “So who’s Firo?”

  Alisson smiled. “One step at a time. You should eat and get some sleep first.”

  Soon, Celis was out cold on a comfy bed with a full stomach. Alisson stared out the window to the suite, finding the moon shining across him. He looked down into the hairclip, and the cross, that he gripped between his fingers.

  His hairclip was dented and discolored from battle. He hadn’t given it much care lately. He moved his bangs out of his eyes and pinned them up with the clip. It just felt right.

  Several dozen thoughts were swirling through his mind. About Sidonia, about his plans for Irine, and about the fact that he gave Sidonia, perhaps the strongest magician in the world, one of the keys to the control room of magic. He would have to tell Celis what became of her apprentice. No doubt she would beat herself up about it.

  But when he looked at Celis’s sleeping face, his fears evaporated. He just needed to keep moving forward.

  He donned the cross around his neck, and joined Celis in bed.

  ***