Disclaimer: insert standard intellectual property disclaimer here *wink*


PRINCESS

THE CELL

The bed was soft and warm, but Siris could not feel herself sleeping. She felt nervous; the perfect plan that they had hatched back in Thierry's mansion lay in ruins. Their new plan would split the two of them up and put them both in danger of exposure. Siris was startled out of her reverie by a knock at the door.

"Are you decent?" enquired a disembodied voice. Siris got out of the bed, she was still dressed in the clothes she wore the day before.

"Yes," Siris said as she worked on unlatching the locks. She was on the last one when the handle depressed itself and Anaru insinuated himself into the room. He was holding a leash, and the lamb on the other side was still standing in the hallway outside. Anaru beamed at her. He held out the leash for her to take and went into the hallway to coax the anxious creature into the room.

"Room service," Anaru said as he slipped outside and shut the door gently behind him.

Siris stroked the creature and peered into its frightened mind through its black eyes. She could see that it recognised her as a predator right away. She smoothed over its apprehension and kneeled down next to the creature; she was hungry after all. Once she had taken her fill, she allowed Anaru back into the room to carry the exhausted creature away. Before the door closed behind him, Anaru turned back to Siris.

"You have an audience with Scarlett this morning; someone will come and fetch you."

Siris briefly wondered if she should retort, after all she was not a dumb animal that needed to be 'fetched for' when their attention was required. She was a sentient being of supra natural tendency. But a glimpse of Anaru's smirk just as the latch found its place assured her that he did not mean it in a trite manner.

For a moment after he left, Siris thought that perhaps their plan had more of a chance of success if they could convince Anaru to help them rescue the girls. Siris kept it in her mind to tell Mallory when she met with him later in on the day.

Sriis was still standing by the door wondering what her meeting with Scarlett would be about when another knock returned her mind to the present. She opened the door. Mallory stood calmly on the other side.

"You've got a meeting with Scarlett. She wants me in attendance. Don't say anything about the Harmans," he muttered so that only she could hear. Siris glared at him. There was something she still didn't like about him at all. But she still followed him out into the corridors, and they walked side by side.

"Have you had breakfast yet?" he enquired after a little while. Siris nodded her assent. "Scarlett needs to be convinced that when the time comes, you will be willing to stand up for the witches of Circle Midnight, so you had best not say anything to dissuade her of that notion," he paused, "Are we clear?" Siris nodded again, although what she really wanted to do was throttle him.

They had been over what Scarlett would be expecting and wanting numerous times at the Circle Daybreak safe house and yet he continued to believe that she was daft enough to forget all of it for fear of one audience member. She sniffed at him.

"I'm just looking out for you."

"You're looking out for you," she emphasised the last word, "don't deny it, no one can trust you to keep their back, unless their purposes are matched with yours."

They walked on in silence until they reached Scarlett's opulent receiving room.

Scarlett was already there and she magnanimously waved them into seats close to her. Mallory was seated to her direct right and Siris was in front of her. If felt like an interrogation, no matter how Scarlett had dressed the room.

"Tell me about when you came from," she began. It was clear that formality would not be the purpose of their meeting. So Siris talked. She spoke of the division of the witches and vampires, and her inability to decide whom to fight. She told her of the challenge which she had faced, Maya on one side and Helewise on the other. Two powerful factions that were all but wiping each other out of existence, and all over nothing. She told Scarlett about the decision to split the clan and of her hesitation over her decision of where to go.

Then she started to embellish her story. She talked about the kindness of Maya and her decision to negotiate safe passage for Siris. Then she talked about her ideas about the power of the witches; surely they had to be the more powerful race if they were able to manipulate the very essence of nature itself.

She stopped when she could see the satisfaction in Scarlett's eyes.

"Will you fight for us, Siris Fern?"

"I will be there when the time comes," Siris bowed her head, hoping that her vague answer would be enough to satisfy Scarlett. She felt one of Scarlett's soft fingers tipping her chin up, so once again she was looking into her eyes.

"Look at me, there is no need to defer your eyes," the air of a smile graced her lips and Siris found that she smiled back too. "Now come, I have something to show you."

Scarlett took Siris by the hand and guided her out of the room, Mallory followed after them and several of Scarlett's attaché broke away from their positions against the wall to follow along behind them. Siris made sure to memorise every turn that they took and every feature that might later be out of place. They descended in an elevator and when they got out they started walking again, twisting and turning through the subterranean level of Scarlett's building.

They stopped at a door. Scarlett called one of the followers, who retrieved a key from his vest pocket. As he was unlocking the door, Scarlett turned to Siris and an eerie smile lingered over her features.

"You'll be excited about what I'm going to show you. It's what I do to traitors," Siris pretended to look a little bit shocked and bewildered. "I personally don't think that you will end up here, but I want you to trust me, if you discover anybody who behaves in a contrary fashion, I will do my best to put them here for you."

The door unlocked and the party entered the room, they were met with the sight of bars and the sounds of quiet breathing. As they walked past, Siris could see several occupants behind each set of bars, sleeping.

They stopped at the very last cell, Scarlett waited until Siris had taken a look inside.

"These three girls are my latest acquisition. The dark haired one is a Harman," Siris looked at her inquisitively. "A descendant of Helewise Hearthwoman. Her and her little buddies thought that they could betray me to them. We caught them while they were escaping one night, so naive," Scarlett laughed and Siris forced herself to smile.

"Why are they twitching?" the girls were breathing deeply as if in sleep, but their faces were momentarily twitching and cringing.

"Nightmares," Scarlett said matter of fact-ly. "Well, I couldn't just leave them here to sleep peacefully. What they did to me warranted a more severe punishment." Siris nodded.

They stood in front of the bars for several more moments before Scarlett turned to leave. Once again she took Siris' hand in hers and led her all the way back to the receiving room, where she let go of her hand to sit down. Before Siris and Mallory could sit, she turned to Mallory.

"Give her the upstairs tour," she said, smiling politely. Mallory nodded and indicated for Siris to follow him. "I'll see you both at dinner."


Will Siris and Mallory be able to get the girls out from under Scarlett's nose, or will they end up trapped in her demented nightmare realm?

A/N: I promise, stuff starts getting more serious in the next chapter...