Keayalnea felt her back slam against a wall she couldn't even see. Everything was white white white white white…..

She crumpled to the floor and, slapping herself in the face, forced herself to stand, far too slow to block the curse that flipped her sideways several times, blood pouring down her face from her nose and mouth, her teeth stained a hideous red.

"ENOUGH!" the roar came, and all the sudden, Keayalnea found herself sitting in a kitchen chair at home, wounds bandaged, the warm kitchen light glowing and the tea kettle whistling shrilly.

She looked around to find a graceful woman pulling the kettle off the stove, pouring two cups, adding the bags and spoons. She sat one before Keayalnea, smiling lightly at her. "Drink it, you'll feel better. Sugar? Of course. Two lumps, the way you like it."

"I'd prefer coffee."
"And I can't stand the smell of it."

"And who the fuck are you to pull me out of wherever the hell I was to take me into my own house and boss me around?!" Keayalnea roared, patience having run out.

"Drink your tea," the visitor sat in the chair across from her. "She would have killed you for your display, and I am not ready to see you dead yet. She isn't either. But she can't admit her own truths. It's why she's such a pain in the ass."

"The Sphynx?"

"My sister," the woman sipped her tea, "is one of those rare and exceedingly testy individuals that you wish, after the fact, you had never known existed."

"I don't understand." Keayalnea stared into her mug for a moment, before gulping down most of the contents.

"No, of course you wouldn't." She gulped another swig of tea, and glanced at Keayalnea thoughtfully. "The funny thing about the truth is that you can't explain it, as it is different to every soul, and no true solitary truth exists about anything. What you need now is not truth," she sipped her tea again as Keayalnea's head shot up. "You need knowledge."

"And that's where you come in?" Keayalnea resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"I worked forever on that riddle. It was fucking brilliant," she hissed, leaning forward and revealing canines much like those of a cat. "And here comes along this smartass sunova bitch to tear it all away from me. My best was nowhere near good enough. There's a truth for you." She leaned back in the chair, smirking. "It took him four days, but he got it. I was so embarrassed. Shamed- I couldn't face my siblings again, my mother, so…"

"I know the story, Sphinx."

"Do you?" she quizzed Keayalnea with her eyes. "The rock I landed on split me in half. My consciousness suddenly split, and I was facing this woman, this cold hearted bloodthirsty bitch who was hellbent to know something true. Something real. She thinks the truth is real." She laughed halfheartedly. "It took me forever to realize that she was once who I was. I think she cursed Oedipus. I'm not sure."

"Then what are you?"

"I am the goddess of a religion followed with more vigor than any other, which has no name." She turned to face the wall. "If knowledge is power, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, then I shall never be forgiven for the things I have done."

"The split was truth and knowledge?"

"Exactly," the Sphinx whirled to lean over the table, her face inches from Keayalnea's. "And the sad part is that you do not even fully understand the difference."

"No, I don't," she replied, unfazed.

"When Heracles severed the Hydra's heads, he completely ignored them, and they sunk into the bowels of the earth, and sprung up, a sevenday and six nights later, decaying, soulless, bodiless, and robed only in thick black canvas shrouding. You call them dementors. They are all that remain of my sister."

"Horseshit."

"No, knowledge. Truth, because it is fact. Echidna and Typhon had six children- the Nemean Lion, Cerberus, Ladon, Chimera, Hydra, and myself. When the Sphinx cast herself from the rocks, the Sphynx was created. When the Hydra lost her heads, the dementors came to be. The Sphynx had a daughter, and I raised her. Her name was Theisla Nahei."

Keayalnea stared at her, stunned.

"I know you want me to tell you it's not true, but it is a fact, and you cannot deny it."

"Then it's truth."

"No," the Sphinx smiled slightly, shaking her head. "The truth is that you will give your life freely to save Severus Snape's."

"You don't know me well," Keayalnea's face hardened instantly.

"Quite the contrary," the Sphinx's smile broadened. "It's true, and you know it's true, but you cannot admit it even to yourself. The truth comes to us at great cost, whereas knowledge is free- it is the use of it that we pay for."

Keayalnea nodded, understanding. "So it costs you nothing to know how I like my tea-"

"And that you like coffee better."

"So how can you pay for the use of that knowledge?"

"Simple things. The fact that I knew how you liked your tea put you more on the defensive against me than any aspect of my appearance, or anything that I have told you today. Had I misjudged you, you would have either cowed fully or risen against me violently."

"Like you said, knowledge is power."

"And you will need every bit of it you can get your hands on. It will come down to that, you know."
"What?"

"Raw power. And there is a strength in the truth, as there is a strength in knowledge, as there is a strength in things that I have yet to fully understand. You will be forced to decide what you stand for, and what, specifically, you will draw your power from."

"Why does it matter?"

"You'll have no choice over whether he lives or dies, Keayalnea. Trust me there. Your only choice will be whether you stand there or take action."

"He is not dying while there is breath in my body."

"Then the decision has been made."

"What decision?"

"One that you will never understand, until he does the same for you. It is an unthinking reaction. Emotion, if you will."

She looked up suddenly, as if hearing a bad omen. "I'll be brief, my time here is up. Firstly, Keayalnea Nikonde, you need bow to the power of no being for the rest of your life- even the strongest iron breaks. This last thing is most important, and dare you not forget it."

"All right."

"She will never show you mercy, when you meet. And she is nothing you can imagine. But she is also nothing you cannot overpower."

With that, Keayalnea was alone in her kitchen.