Adrien blinked when the door of the kitchen closed. He was puzzled, but did not move from the (now folded and and depressingly strict) sofa. He did not move either when he heard hushed whispers, though he tried to eavesdrop (in vain). When he heard a brief and shrill yelp, however, he tiptoed to the door.
He had to nearly squash his ear against the door to hear what was going on.
Nathalie was talking.
"Just… a second," she was saying, voice strained.
"That's not good," Plagg commented.
Adrien could hear him clearly. The Kwami had to be near the door.
Tikki corrected him.
"On the contrary. That is very good. It's when you don't get that reaction that you should be worried."
"There," Nathalie muttered. Her voice stopped quivering. "There. I'm ready if you are."
"I am," Marinette replied.
Her boyfriend, having crossed the line between curiosity and worry, opened the door. He blanched.
Nathalie had transformed.
The kitchen was filled with butterflies. They were crawling on the walls and furniture, and fluttering around. They were white - he had always imagined they would be black - and quite a bit larger than he remembered the Akuma being.
It's the room , he thought. You're used to seeing only one at a time in larger spaces.
It was uncanny how closely Hawk Moth's outfit resembled Nathalie's usual clothes: transformed, she wore a violet suit and black shoes too. The costume was just as strict: her favorite red turtleneck had been replaced by a lavender shirt with a high collar, but that was about it. The more glaring difference was the hood that covered all of her face but the mouth, that was cut behind her head and let her hair flow freely. Her jacket had a black collar shaped like distorted butterfly wings. She wore black gloves. The Miraculous was pinned to her shirt. But, all things considered, she was recognizable .
Or maybe it's just because you know she has the Miraculous. Marinette looks exactly like herself.
Nathalie recoiled when he walked into the room, then turned to him. For an instant, she looked as if she had seen a ghost, then she calmed down.
"Adrien," she said. "Come in. Marinette and I would like to attempt to heal your injuries."
" What? " he gasped. He whirled to his partner. " WHAT? "
She was going to let herself be Akumatized?
Marinette raised her hands.
"It will be fine. It's how the Butterfly's powers are meant to be used, right? To help people?"
Adrien's stomach lurched. He peeked at Plagg.
"Did Bella agree?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
The black kwami shrugged.
"Then no !" the boy exclaimed. He frowned at Nathalie. "Did you even ask her ? "
He quieted a little when he noticed she was shaking. She tried to compose herself.
"I did not. However, considering her 'hero' was the one who slit your throat and she has been terrorizing Paris for decades, I don't think it's too much to expect her to repair some of the damage she caused."
Marinette was frowning, studying everyone's expressions. As she had not been given an impromptu lecture on Kwami slavery by Alim Kubdel, however, she stopped at observing.
Adrien looked at Plagg again but realized his Kwami did not want to intervene. He would sulk and judge them in silence, but he would not comment.
"Tikki," the blond asked. "What do you think?"
The red Kwami lowered her head.
"I think... " - She took a deep breath. - "It's a good deed. Bella won't like it, and I don't like it, but she will have to be forced to do good for decades to be healed," she murmured, resigned. "She has to be reshaped until she becomes herself again. We might as well start now."
Plagg's eyes were reduced to slits.
"Are you sure? " Adrien insisted, staring hard at Tikki.
"I am sure. As things are now, Bella is not the goddess she is meant to be."
Like Plagg, then?
"Plagg?" the young human insisted, turning to the flying cat.
"What Tikki says."
Adrien frowned but nodded. They knew better, didn't they? That being said, he still had doubts, and he liked the idea even less than Tikki did.
Plagg sighed.
"We have her best interests at heart, kiddo. She's our sister. "
The teenager acquiesced. He sighed.
"Alright."
Nathalie closed her eyes. She was swaying.
" Alright ," she said. Her voice quivered. "Alright."
She cupped both hands. One of the butterflies flew to her and landed on her palms. Marinette took a deep breath, straightened her back, and held a bottle of Betadine up. Her expression traveled back and forth between resolute and anxious.
Nathalie closed her hands over the butterfly. When she released it, it had turned black.
Of course, Marinette was never one to wait passively. She tapped the Akuma with the cork of the Betadine bottle.
Adrien took a step back, hand raised.
"Plagg," he murmured, a 'claws out' on the tip of his tongue.
Magic washed over his partner and left her dressed in a regular, bland nurse uniform. She did not even wear that little hat with a red cross, just a blue vest, white pants and white sneakers. She would have looked perfectly normal if her hands had not been shining white. As for the antiseptic bottle, it had grown two times its initial size, turned golden, and white sparkles were erupting out of it.
"Marinette?" Adrien called, just as a concerned Tikki darted to her chosen. "Are you alright?"
His girlfriend's eyes had glazed over. A glowing butterfly outline had appeared in front of her face.
She didn't answer.
"Marinette?" Tikki insisted.
The young designer jerked up.
"Wow. Okay, wow." - She looked down at her hands and outfit. - "Uh. Oh. That's… It works , I guess. No villain name either?"
"I don't do puns," Nathalie retorted. "Let's give your powers a try?"
Marinette the nurse whirled to Adrien. She tried to spin the bottle in her hand like she did her yoyo, with questionable results. Golden liquid sprayed all over the room, shining bright for an instant before vanishing. Plagg and Nathalie winced. Tikki bit her lower lip, resigned. Marinette cleared her throat and blushed.
"Hem. Sorry. So. Adrien, can you raise your head?"
He nodded (grimacing when his cut stung) then lifted his chin (grimacing again when the wound reopened). His girlfriend breathed in, leaned closer, then sprayed some of her magical disinfectant over the cut. Once again, the liquid shone bright (he had to close his eyes, and the light was still intense enough to see it as a pink glow passing through his skin). Warmth spread from his throat to his nose and clavicles.
Then it all faded.
He blinked and patted his throat. He felt no pain. More importantly, he felt no scar.
"It worked?"
Plagg zipped to him, landing on his shoulder.
"It did better than work. It looks like you were never injured."
"Bella's powers are limitless when properly channeled," Tikki chimed in.
Though she was talking to them all, she was observing Nathalie. Adrien peeked at the woman and paled a little. There was something wrong. Though she was holding herself straight, with her hands behind her back and the cane that had to be her weapon in her hands, it looked like she was shivering.
Noticing that she was being watched, she pretended to feel comfortable. She smiled.
"Good job, Marinette. Let's see if your powers are as effective on his leg?"
Adrien's partner nodded. So did he. Then Nathalie decided to take what had been a perfectly normal (if weird as hell) moment and to make it the most embarrassing point of Adrien's life.
"Don't worry," she added. "I won't look."
And she walked to the window, turning her back to them.
Adrien, who had worn swimsuits often enough, who had actually modeled swimsuits and who, as a matter of fact, was a model used to being dressed and undressed by total strangers, turned beet red at the idea of being seen in his underwear by his girlfriend.
Marinette blushed so hard smoke could have come out of her ears.
They stood there, flustered and paralysed, for an eternity, then Plagg whacked Adrien's ear. Four minutes later, the mortified teenager was putting his pants back on over the baby-smooth skin of his thighs. There was not a trace left of the hole teleporting through a table had gouged in his skin. There was not a trace left of his pride either.
"Thank you," he mumbled. "Now…"
Nathalie let out a sigh so loud everyone turned to her. She ignored them and reached for the electrum box that was still laying on the table. She tore the brooch away from her collar.
The butterflies scattered. Bella's pink shape spiraled in the air at breakneck speed. The Kwami barely had a second to yell a 'don't you dare -' before Nathalie shoved the Miraculous into the golden box and slammed it shut.
Bella and her butterflies vanished. Marinette's transformation reverted, leaving her standing there with a perfectly normal bottle of Betadine. Plagg and Tikki tensed.
Nathalie sat down and leaned back on her chair, skin clammy.
The first to talk was Marinette, when she should by all means have been too confused to form a coherent sentence. Most Akuma victims forgot everything when they were freed. Adrien's memories had done their best to run away from him the moment he had turned back from 'Chakuma' into himself. But, clearly, the way Nathalie used the Butterfly Miraculous did not cause as strong an impact as Hawk Moth's attacks.
"I know Bella is… corrupted," Marinette said, concerned, "but isn't this a bit extreme?"
Nathalie's hands clenched on the electrum box.
"No."
Plagg and his sister exchanged a look. They didn't voice their objections. Were they even able to? Adrien was starting to doubt that.
"Please let her out," the teenager asked Nathalie. "I know Bella is not the most pleasant company, but it's… You shouldn't keep her trapped like that. There's very little trouble she can cause even if you let her fly around. She can't go far from her Miraculous, she can't steal it from its holder..."
"It's not a good idea," she replied, her tone collected and indifferent, just as if she had been at work and trying to convince him to endure yet another activity his father had come up with. "The whole reason we got into this mess is because that Kwami drove a teenage boy insane. I am not letting her anywhere near you."
"We got into this mess because Bella wants to be free ," Adrien corrected. "The Kwami are prisoners ." - He heard Tikki gasp and turned to her. - "You are, aren't you? Spirits bound to a piece of jewelry and turned into slaves?"
Plagg hissed. Tikki opened and closed her mouth. Marinette had blanched and raised her hands to her earrings, that she was brushing with trembling fingers.
Nathalie breathed in and leaned forward, looking at Tikki.
"Is that true?"
The red Kwami fidgeted.
"It's complicated," she replied, trying to sound non-committal and failing.
"It's true," Adrien insisted. "And the reason Hawk Moth wanted the Miraculous was so they could break Bella's ."
"What?" Plagg and Tikki gasped.
From the looks on their faces, the prospect of a broken Miraculous was terrifying.
"That's what Kubdel told me," the young hero continued. "That some of the Kwami wanted freedom, like Bella, and that he wanted to give it to her."
"Nonononono," Tikki squeaked. "That's not…"
Adrien frowned.
"It wouldn't free her?" he asked, wondering if he had been lied to again .
"It has never been done before," the red Kwami replied. "I don't know! Though, the most probable outcome… It would. In a manner of speaking. "
Those words sank in.
He felt the blood leave his face.
"Nathalie," he exclaimed, whirling to her. "You can't keep her trapped. It's just cruel ."
The woman's first reaction was a wince. She ran her hands over her face then raked them through her hair. Then she exploded.
"I am not releasing the insane goddess," she snapped, face twisted in fury. "I have enough on my plate with one crazy human . Bella is not. My. PROBLEM. " - She stood. - "When that older Miraculous holder everyone keeps talking about finally shows up, I will gladly hand the damn brooch over. He'll be free to do whatever he wants with it and I will return to my normal life! In the meantime, Bella will stay in the box. Am I making myself clear ?"
You hardly ever saw her angry, and Adrien hated to fight with about everyone who was not a supervillain. He took a step back. A second later, he took a step forward.
"It's not your choice ! Nathalie, she's a living, sentient being! You can't just confine-"
" I don't CARE! Do you hear me? I. Don't. Care! You can pull at my heartstrings all you want, there's nothing there . Drop it!"
That outburst left the room eerily silent. Nathalie composed herself in a split-second, giving them no time to recover.
"Miss Dupain-Cheng," she said. "Thank you for your help, it was greatly appreciated. That being said, it's getting late. You should go home."
Marinette blinked, threw Adrien a deer-in-headlights look, then ran to the window. She transformed halfway to it and jumped out as Ladybug. Her partner stared at the window, stunned. He idly registered a hissing noise near to him, but only realized it was coming from Plagg when the Kwami jumped off his shoulder and flew out of the room.
He looked at Nathalie, pale.
"It is really late," she told him, her facade perfectly in place. "I'll be going to bed. So should you."
Still firmly holding the electrum box, she vanished into her bedroom.
###
Ladybug still remembered the words Chat Noir had used to describe his family, an eternity before. They had been discussing Gabriel Agreste - before she had known Chat was Adrien - and he had said… he had said 'my whole family is like that'.
It was.
She had dared to think Nathalie was making efforts, and that maybe the woman could protect Adrien, but birds of a feather flocked together and Nathalie was mister Agreste's girlfriend. There was a reason Marinette had never liked her, and it was not just that strange scarf incident.
The teenager had still thought things were going better for Adrien. He had been so enthusiastic about his new bedroom, and TV, and games. It looked like he was getting closer to his father's assistant.
So much for that.
Hanging upside-down from the roof, she lowered herself to Adrien's window, waited for him to walk in, then knocked. He did not smile. He did not even brighten up. He merely walked to the window and opened it.
"Hi there," she said. "Have you ever seen the full moon from the top of the Eiffel Tower?"
That got a chuckle out of him. He grabbed her by the back of the head and stole a kiss.
"Yes. I mean no!" he exclaimed, quoting his own reaction at her first invitation to watch celestial bodies from the top of architectural landmarks.
She laughed.
"Guess I'm going to have to carry you there, damsel-in-distress style, then. I don't see Plagg anywhere and I wouldn't want you to miss the sight."
"He's sulking somewhere," Adrien explained.
"I'm right here," Plagg commented from the inside of a discarded cardboard box, before peeking out.
"Well then," Adrien said. "Guess I'll carry myself there, damsel-in-distress style. Claws out!"
His costume and trademark grin appeared in a burst of magic and, not a second later, he had jumped out of the window and grabbed Ladybug by the waist on the way out. They raced to the Eiffel Tower, with the odd attempt at carrying the other like a Disney princess, to finally perch themselves at the top of the tower and stare at the night sky.
"Are you alright?" Ladybug asked after twenty minutes of silence.
One more minute went by.
"I'll be fine," Chat Noir replied. "I'm used to it."
"You shouldn't be! That was not normal , Adrien!"
He didn't answer, so she breathed in and went on.
"Normal families don't treat each other like that. They don't hurt each other like that. That kind of anger..."
"I know."
Marinette found herself at a loss for words.
"Normal families don't handle supervillains, kidnappings and deities either," Adrien muttered. "I'm willing to make allowances for that."
"Maybe you shouldn't," she pointed out. "Maybe you've made enough allowances already. They are adults. They know better."
"I'm done making them for my father. Nathalie… You know, Nathalie doesn't get angry. I don't think I have ever seen her like that. Sure, she's cold, she's not the nicest person, but… she doesn't like to have feelings. It's not like my dad, who doesn't like to be weak . Anger is fine with him, he uses it as a weapon. I think Nathalie just wants… Well. Her password is 'literally'."
His partner blinked.
"Sancoeur," Chat explained. "Heartless. Literally Heartless."
No heartstrings to tug at.
Marinette shuddered.
"I don't get it. Who would want to be empty?" she murmured. She shook her head. "Do you have someone else you could stay with? Relatives? Family friends?"
"No. My grandparents all died before I was born, my parents did not have siblings… I get the feeling if I have a godmother, she'll turn out to be Anne-Laure... "
Ladybug hesitated.
"I could ask my parents."
Chat merely smiled and shook his head.
"I'm fine where I am. For what it's worth, Nathalie does love me."
Marinette wanted to scream. That's not the point!
"You can't keep excusing the-"
Chat removed his ring and rolled it between his fingers as he untransformed.
"I'm holding one miracle," he told her. "I don't expect more. I can't expect the people around me to magically become someone they are not. My family is never going to turn into yours. And I'm definitely going to stop being too forgiving, I promise. But if they really try, I can appreciate that, can't I? That's the important thing."
Plagg landed on his knees, frowning.
Marinette mulled over that.
"I don't know," she ended up admitting. "I think you should talk to my parents. Seriously ," she exclaimed when he raised his eyebrows. "They could help. I think you could use an outside perspective. And they're good people."
"I'll consider it," Adrien lied. She could hear it in his voice.
Why are we heroes if we can't help the people we care about the most? she wondered.
"What about miss Bustier?" she insisted.
He kissed her temple.
"I'm fine. Don't worry."
She opened her mouth to protest, but he pressed his fingers to her lips to silence her.
"I am done with my father," he said. "I don't know if I will forgive him and I'm not sure I can . And I love him, and I get that he has issues, and I hope he will get better… But right now, I don't want to be anywhere near him, and I don't have to. That's…" - He breathed in. Plagg jumped from his knees to his shoulder. - "And Nathalie… She's really doing all of this out of the kindness of the heart she says she doesn't have. My father fired her. I'm not even sure they are together anymore. She didn't have to get involved. And anyway this whole week… this whole summer has been crazy and maybe I'll wait for things to settle down before passing judgement. And maybe I really shouldn't have pushed this particular issue at that very moment, because it doesn't look like transforming into Hawkie feels that great."
Plagg scoffed.
"I will ask again tomorrow!" Adrien exclaimed, trying to look at the black cat on his shoulder. He winced and pulled his head back. "I'm not going to keep Bella locked in a box , no matter what she did. It's not her fault she was corrupted, is it?"
Marinette reverted her own transformation. She had so many questions about all of this. Dark gods, corruption, enslaved Kwami… Tikki would likely be more straightforward about it than her brother. Pale red light flickered over the young heroine, washing her costume away while Tikki twirled into the air.
"She's not," Plagg replied, shrugging. "You humans are the sum of what you learn. We are the sum of our holders. We were born little more than concepts and everything else we are now trickled down to us from our heroes' hearts. We have little choice in the matter."
Marinette turned to Tikki, who had landed on a metalling beam and was listening to Plagg with a somber expression.
"How does that work ?" the girl asked, her worry seeping into her voice. "What are Kwami? Are you really prisoners? "
She had never seen Tikki so distinctly uncomfortable. Plagg was curled up with his ears flattened on his head. He shook his head. His sister shook her own.
"We were… ideas," she explained. "Just intangible, living representations of a concept. I was Luck, Plagg was Misfortune, and our brothers and sisters need more than one word to be described." - She collected herself, looking up at Marinette with the utmost seriousness. - "A long, long time ago, humanity was going through a dark time. The humans were facing magical enemies. Demons, dragons, gods … They needed to defend themselves, so they found a way to steal magic from the sky. They captured us and they bound us to jewels, so we could be used as allies to fight evil. Now, the process was all very complicated and I don't know all the details of it, but the most important point was that, before binding us to the Miraculous , they needed to make us at least partly corporeal."
Marinette frowned.
Tikki took a quick peek at Adrien then went on.
"Before binding us to something physical, they needed to bind us to something magical. Think of it as some sort of ethereal clay we were fused with."
"And by that she means 'animal souls'," Adrien cut in.
The two Kwami turned to him in horror. Marinette blanched, looking at them for confirmation. From their aghast expressions, it was clear her partner was right.
" What did Kubdel tell you?" Plagg asked, voice low and menacing.
"He told me that you were all trapped in a magical box," Adrien replied, sullen. "That you were all trying to escape, and that you couldn't be used like that, so that there was a horrible ritual 'involving fire and animal souls', all of that so you could be merged with the Miraculous and exploited."
"I'M GOING TO STRANGLE BELLA!" the black Kwami yelled, while Tikki floated back, shell-shocked.
"Oh, that's not good," she murmured. "That's not good at all. No one is supposed to know that part. What was Bella thinking ? We are going to have to figure it how much Kubdel knows of the specifics, and if he told someone else about it! It's-"
"Tikki," Marinette exclaimed.
Her Kwami whirled to her.
"Mister Kubdel will be questioned anyway, about many things. We will pay him a visit. But I have a question. An important question." - She braced herself. - "Do you want to be freed?"
Tikki stared at her, bewildered.
Her chosen went on.
"Bella wants to break out of her Miraculous no matter what it will do to her. Obviously , the Miraculous are prisons. So do you want to be freed? Can we help the two of you?"
"I don't want out!" Tikki protested. "The Miraculous are important! I am happy to help fight evil! We are making the word a better place! And I am not your prisoner. You are not my jailor. You are my friend ."
"What about you, Plagg?" Adrien asked.
"I think you are making mountains out of molehills. I assure you humans invented chains well before they figured magic out. They had slaves before they had writing. You have squishy bodies of water and meat that can be transported against your will. You can be coerced and used too. We are all bound to something."
His chosen gestured in frustration.
"It doesn't make the way you were treated any fairer."
"But whatever was done to us was only a symptom of a larger problem," Plagg retorted, rolling his eyes. "We are ancient, Adrien. We lived long enough to have seen Caesar conquer half a continent and sell entire populations into slavery. Fifty-thousand people at a time, just sold . And we are now closer to Caesar's time than Caesar's time was to our birth. Can you imagine how primitive and different the world was back then? You are making yourself sick worrying about concerns that we no longer have ."
"What about how Tikki has to steal your ring from the other Miraculous holders so you can pick your own heroes?" Adrien insisted. "What about the seals? How is that fair?"
The more Marinette heard, the more horrified she was. She picked Tikki up between her cupped hands and pulled her close to her, wishing the Kwami was larger so she could be hugged. Tikki nuzzled against her cheek then flew to Adrien.
"It was not the heroes who decided to keep Plagg under watch," she explained. "It was us . His siblings. We took that decision because it was warranted and while I don't think it is still necessary, the others are not convinced yet . We are vulnerable ," she explained. "We are vulnerable and we have to be cautious about the way our powers are used. You can't really measure how much we can be changed by external influences unless you have seen the before and the after, but Bella… Bella used to be eager to help. She was overjoyed to be given missions, she loved everything about what we do. She was sweeter than I am."
"But then her powers were used for evil," Marinette finished.
Plagg yawned.
"Pretty much. Turns out there's a problem with using what's basically a magical sponge to bind spirits," he drawled. "The animal souls held us in alright, but they can absorb a great many nastier things on top of that. And, guess what, they do. "
"Nastier things that come from us, " Adrien commented. "Why didn't you warn us?"
"Because it takes acts of great evil to corrupt us," Tikki replied. She stared Plagg down. "And I do berate Marinette when she uses her powers with less than honorable intentions, but I guess someone takes a more liberal approach."
The black Kwami scoffed.
"Hey! I berated him when he told that one lie to that one man that one time! I think!"
His sister puffed her cheeks and frowned some more.
"Maybe," Plagg muttered.
She kept staring.
"ALRIGHT, I DIDN'T!" he yelled. "Who cares? Weren't we discussing serious things? "
The red Kwami grumbled.
"Day-to-day mischief does not really impact us," she explained, looking at Adrien. "We had no reason to warn the two of you because you are kind-hearted. There is no evil in you. When I said 'acts of great evil', I didn't mean pettiness or jealousy or the odd stolen phone." - Marinette blushed. - "Bella was corrupted by murder . So was Waspp. And I don't mean the simple act of killing people, because we were given to soldiers before, we fought in wars, our heroes did what they had to. I mean taking a life out of hatred or for pleasure. It's the intent that taints us, the desire to inflict pain and cause irreversible destruction. That is what taints us."
"Tainting isn't the right word," Plagg commented. "What it actually does is carve parts of us away to make place for that darkness. So when Bella's chosen went ahead and slaughtered his family, her conscience was cut clean out."
"She might be a monster now but she had no say in it," Tikki concluded. "And she cannot understand that she is one. As far as she is concerned, she isn't doing anything wrong. She cannot be reasoned with, she cannot be shown the errors of her ways, because you cannot appeal to feelings that do not exist."
Marinette pursed her lips.
"So what we..." - She went silent when she noticed the look on Adrien's face, or absence thereof. He had paled and tensed, and was lost in thought. - "Adrien?"
He blinked, startled.
"So what we can do for her - the only thing we can do to help her - is give her to someone who will balance the corruption with goodness," he said. "Even if she fights against it."
Tikki acquiesced.
"The Bella I knew would not want to be the creature she is now. We have to help her become herself again. And I know the way to do it does not feel right, but there's no other choice. Sometimes, you have to hurt the ones you love, for their own good."
Adrien stared right at her, maybe through her.
"What about the box?" he asked. "That's too much, isn't it?"
Tikki shifted and shrunk away, uneasy. She mulled over the question. Her eyes darted to Plagg, who was observing her reaction. She looked away. The more time passed, the clearer it became that she did not have an answer.
"Nathalie is afraid and I think she might be overreacting," she ended up replying, "but that's only human. Bella will get over it."
Adrien breathed in, smiled, then stood.
"I'll discuss this with Nathalie, if it's alright with you." - He said that, but didn't give Tikki a second to answer. - "Plagg! Claws out!"
###
Nathalie was not surprised to find the apartment empty when she walked out of her bedroom, not fifteen minutes after locking herself into it. She had not expected Ladybug to leave, not really. The girl was a young dragon who would protect Adrien to her last fiery breath. Of course, she would have stayed.
An empty apartment was just fine.
She carried Bella's box to the bathroom, turned the shower on, then curled up under the burning water in the hope it would wash everything she was away.
Not that it worked.
Was there even a point to taking Adrien away from his father if she replaced Gabriel's abuse by more of the same? She would shut the boy out too. What little warmth she had to give burned out in a matter of minutes. She was as suited for this as salt was to soothing wounds. All the presents and toys she could smother Adrien with would not change that.
If there had been anyone else to turn to, she would have thrown Adrien at them and bolted.
There was no one else.
She stayed under the water until the heat of the water became unbearable. She dried her reddish skin, wiped the remnants of makeup from her face, brushed her hair. She dressed herself rather than changing into pyjamas. After that, she returned to her bedroom with the golden box, sat on her bed, and freed Bella.
The pink Kwami burst out of the box as soon as it opened, shoving the lid out of her way. The brooch fell into Nathalie's hand, and she closed her fist around it.
Bella stilled in front of her, hovering just out of arm's reach, just high enough to force Nathalie to look up at her.
A moment went by. The goddess studied her face.
"What do you want?" she asked.
There was no point pretending she had not been summoned out of need. Even if Bella had not been some kind of empath, it was clear enough that Nathalie would never have let her out of her prison if she had not needed to do so. The Kwami was not stupid.
There is nothing you can gain from talking to the devil, Nathalie told herself.
But she had a question she needed an answer to. And, for the first time ever, she wanted that answer to be 'yes'.
"Is Alice alive?" she asked.
###