"Who are you?" Isabella stared at the woman in front of her with a powerful gaze.
The woman smiled softly, her fire blue eyes returning a softer but still equally powerful gaze as she replied, "You know me, sweet one, though you may not realize it." She suddenly looked away. "After all, it's been so many years." The mysterious woman's voice began to fade as she began to wander away from Isabella. "How many years has it been…? Seventeen, no, eighteen…?" Darkness began to surround her as she moved farther away.
Isabella ran after the woman. There was something strangely familiar about her, something on the subconscious level. "Wait! Please, tell me who are!" she called. As she ran she tried desperately to place the woman. She didn't remember anyone with soft brown hair like that, but the face, especially the woman's eyes, seemed to strike a deep familiarity.
Strangely, the woman kept just out of Isabella's reach. It was like chasing a ghost. "Remember, dear one, remember." She glanced back at Isabella, her eyes now reflecting years of loneliness and worry in shimmering blue. "Please remember. It saddens me that you cannot, but I will always remember you, my beautiful one." Darkness completely engulfed the woman, leaving Isabella in pitch black.
The girl stopped and looked around before crying in anguish into the empty blackness. "Who are you?!" Sobbing softly, Isabella fell to her knees. This had been her third encounter with the mysterious woman, but she still couldn't figure out who she was.
Isabella awoke slightly disoriented in the hospital room. It was a stiflingly cold room, but Isabella found that she had been covered with extra blankets. She turned her head but, feeling a throbbing and piercing pain down to the center of her forehead, stopped with a wince and looked around using only her eyes.
There wasn't much to be seen. It was a simple hospital room with off-white linoleum, walls and ceiling. On one of the walls was a painting of three kittens in a basket. Isabella followed with her eyes the tube going into her arm up to the IV at the left of her bed, and then proceeded to follow the various sensors and their wires up to a machine at the right of her bed displaying her current vital signs. Her eyes then wandered to the brightly colored flower arrangement on the small table also to the right of the bed. A small glimmer then caught the girl's eyes, and almost unconsciously she reached for the other object on the table…
A sharp electronic shriek broke Isabella from her half-trance. One of the sensors had come loose from her skin, resulting in the vital monitor's noisy protest. As Isabella stared blankly, not unlike a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar, a nurse hurried into the room to see the cause of the disturbance.
The nurse stopped for a moment, seeming slightly surprised, when she saw that Isabella was awake. The continued shrieking, however, reminded her why she had come into the room, so she briskly when to the noisy machine and pressed a few buttons, muting the alarm. "There," the nurse said, her gentle voice washing over Isabella with a strange familiarity, "we can clearly see that you haven't flatlined." The nurse shook her head slightly, her mellow brown hair silently shifting on her shoulders. "These machines are so touchy. One movement and the alarms go blaring off." Her attention turned to the girl in the bed. "So, how are you feeling? You've been out for a few days. With that crack in your head, I honestly figured you'd be out a little longer, pardon my saying that."
"That's quite alright." Isabella knew the nurse meant no harm by what she said. "I'm feeling fine, other than I can't move my head much without feeling a lot of pain."
"You received a minor concussion…" The nurse's words weaved in and out of audibility as Isabella's thoughts wandered. A few days… Wait, where am I? What happened? How did I end up here? Why…
"Isabella?"
The girl blinked and jerked slightly from her detached state. "Uh?" Was all she could muster for a moment before her mind stopped reeling. A dull realization hit her. "Wait, how do you know my name?" Misguided wariness came over her as the question repeated in her thoughts as her mind began to reel again.
"It's alright, Isabella. Father Nightroad told me everything." The nurse's eyes flickered and her voice blended with an almost motherly concern. "This is a special church-reserved segment of the hospital. All the staff members here are church workers…"
Father Nightroad… Isabella's hearing began to fade again. Her body convulsed at the lightning-flash memory and trembled at the dissolving darkness that overtook her days ago. In a violent spasm she fell off the bed before blackness swallowed up her sight. In her withering consciousness she faintly heard another voice in the room. "Magnolia, what happened?" A gentle, familiar voice. Father Nightroad… Magnolia?.. The nurse? No… I've heard that name before, seen that face... Where…
"Magnolia, what happened?" Abel had just walked into the room when Isabella was having a spasm. He stood dumbfounded for a moment before helping Magnolia lift the unconscious girl back onto the bed. Isabella's body wasn't heavy; it was just the fact that she was limp and attached to so many devices that made the task slightly difficult, although half of the sensors had been ripped off during her seizure.
"I'm not sure," Magnolia replied as they finished settling Isabella back on the bed, "She was conscious and seemed to be doing fine when I came in to check one of the sensors. We were even talking, although she zoned out a couple times. Then she just suddenly started having a seizure." She shook her head. "Perhaps she has more than a minor concussion."
The priest sighed. "Well, I suppose this means I'll have to hold off questioning for a while." He was worried for Isabella, while at the same time relieved he didn't have to subject her to interrogation for the time being.
"You don't really want to question her, do you, Father Nightroad?"
"Eh?" Abel looked puzzled by Magnolia's question.
"You don't want to have to question her or treat her like a criminal." The previously energetic and positive nurse suddenly seemed to take on a dragging weariness. She glanced for a moment at the guards just outside the door.
"I don't understand, Magnolia."
Magnolia heaved a strangely heavy sigh. "Abel, stop playing dumb. You know that I can know your every thought, and right now your thoughts are focusing on finding Isabella an escape into normal society." A fire flickered in her blue eyes, and Abel lowered his head in defeat. "Do you really think it would work, though? She was practically raised by the Orden, so there's no guarantee she'd be able to function in a regular society without reverting back to her old ways. And even if she didn't, wouldn't the Orden be after her, either to take her back or to kill her?"
Abel lowered his head further. Magnolia was absolutely right. There would be no possible way for Isabella to have a normal life. The priest glanced at the unconscious girl, watching her chest rise and fall. In any scenario he could think of, the Orden would have their dirty hands on her somehow. There was practically nothing he could do for her. Still, he wanted to try…
Heavy footsteps interrupted Abel's thoughts. Father Tres entered the room and looked at Magnolia with his usual deadpan expression. "Status report. What is Isabella Fae von Kampfer's current condition?"
Magnolia glanced at Isabella for a moment before answering, "She's been recovering at a normal rate, but she just had a seizure not too long ago." She shook her head. "I'm not sure when she'll be completely stable. It all depends on the extent of her concussion, and whether or not she continues to have seizures."
"Acknowledged." Tres's expression didn't change as he turned to Abel. "Father Nightroad, the Duchess of Milan requests that you finish your report of the incident immediately."
Abel simply nodded as he answered, "Understood, Tres." His drifting gaze slowly wandered back to the still unconscious Isabella; he didn't even notice Tres leave the room.
After a few seconds, Abel blinked, realizing he was staring. He turned his head and said to Magnolia, in a slightly rushed tone, "Well, I suppose I should go finish that report like Tres said." He grinned almost nervously as he stepped towards the door. Just as he had stepped outside, the silver-haired priest stuck his head back in the doorway. "Oh, and I'll probably come by again tomorrow."
"Abel," Magnolia mildly scolded him with a laugh, "quit stalling! You said you were going to go finish your report. So go do it already!" She smiled as the priest quickly shut his mouth and took off.
The smile slowly faded from Magnolia's face as she turned back towards the bed and the unconscious patient in it. She busied herself with reaffixing the sensors that had come off during Isabella's seizure. As she was making sure the IV was still properly inserted, a tiny glint drew her attention to the obsidian cross and gold chain lying on the bedside table.
Magnolia stopped what she was doing and lightly ran a finger over the cross. No, it's not possible… On the cross she could feel most obviously the residual energy of the girl lying unaware in bed, but that wasn't what bothered her. Very faintly, almost undetectable, she could still feel a small trace of her own energy. Even fainter still… Him.
"Well now, Isaak… You seem plenty cheerful now. There must be new developments." Dietrich glanced across the room to Kampfer. Indeed, the magician had an oddly warm expression on his face as he came to where Dietrich was seated.
"You are correct, Puppetmaster," came Kampfer's response. He tossed a bloodied pair of gloves on the table. Their delicate sizing and embroidered pentagrams distinctly identified their owner. "The dead do not purposefully drop their belongings."
"True. So then, where do you think our naughty little Trickster disappeared to?" Dietrich didn't seem impressed.
"She's probably being patched up somewhere." Wizard frowned as he pressed his cigarillo into the ashtray. "That high-voltage attack may have done a number to her thought process…"
"Oh come now. You know as well as I do that she's well known for her questionable means of doing things. Her title didn't come without reason."
"Ah, you're right," Kampfer's expression brightened again, "I'm not too worried, either way."
"Well, I'm not so carefree. You do realize that if this is one of her crazy schemes, it could easily go awry."
"'Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.' –Goethe."
Dietrich tilted his head to the side, still not seeming satisfied with the answers he was getting. "So it still doesn't bother you that you could possibly lose her permanently this time?"
The magician only shrugged, his expression becoming more sober. "It was her choice. Whatever happens to her now is what she brought upon herself. If she's inviting her death, so be it."