It had taken some effort but the witch had finally agreed to have someone look over her while she rested for the night at least, to make sure that all would be well with the limitations her injuries had imposed on her.
Blondie contemplated Mira's sleeping form, the reporter found it odd to discover that the witch had been sleeping on a rolled out thin futon on her dorm balcony all this time and not in her assigned bed, that the witch complained that her bed was too soft, like she was laying on a marshmallow and was half afraid that she'd be swallowed up in the mattress.
Which was very odd because Blondie knew her mattresses and Mira's mattress was actually quite firm.
The blonde managed to convince the redhead to set up on the floor inside the dorm (it was a chilly day that was threatening to rain and no matter how much witches tended to adore the rain Blondie was certain that cold and moisture was not contusive for proper healing of open wounds), and once the witch was asleep Blondie found herself wandering around the near Spartan room.
Mira had always been an odd card, but in a good way as far as Blondie could tell, with her foreign mannerisms and her sharp intelligence she was a very capable girl and Blondie had little doubt that anything Mira chose to do in the future she'd work hard and achieve mastery of it.
But there was something more… witchy about Mira, it was more than just the fact that she was a witch, it was that she showed off that she was a witch more than the others at the school did, like she was not afraid of the strange looks she'd get from saying words like; "so mote it be" or "as is the will of the wyrdes", or when she openly took out her ball of twine and created intricate knot-work talismans during free time in class that she would later charge with magic after school on the student recreational lawns.
Blondie had always known that there was a nervousness in the hearts of the maidens and the princes of the school when it came to the villains practicing spells openly where somebody could potentially be hit by a curse, but it wasn't until Mira, a witch without a destiny, came around that people started to grow this awareness that… it wasn't just villains that they were nervous of, it was all witches and perhaps even all of the magic users in the school that they were weary of.
Which had shamed many, including Blondie, when the witch would look up and ask in a very innocently pointed way why so many people were so edgy over her making a good health charm for a wrinkly old crone back in her home village who had terrible arthritis in all of her joints, her mind flittering around cloud nine (whatever that was) so much that she couldn't take care of herself, near all her vision gone, and all of her teeth completely gone.
Blondie was starting to suspect that this wrinkly old crone never existed, what with the way she caught Mira snickering under her breath when all the nervous onlookers hung their heads in shame at their automatic assumption that just because she was a witch and being raised by a mirror meant that she was up to evil tricks, however the point wasn't that Mira was probably tricking them all with the crone sob story, the point was that she was a witch, and she liked being a witch out in the open because to hex with unspoken human prejudices, and that was just it; she knew that there was a prejudice, could probably feel it all around her every second of every day, so instead of politely acting human like all the other magic-users tended to do, she was daring some idiot human to come up to her and say something, voice their racism.
Nobody did, as far as Blondie knew, all the humans knew about the witch-hunts and the horrible things that their very ancestors did, sometimes to their own children born with magic, all in the name of racial purity… they held no right to start screaming every time she'd cast a magic circle on the student recreational lawns and openly charge the charms she made in class free time, she knew it, they all knew it, and so they all were left to wallow in their human guilt.
Which told Blondie that Mira knew the sting of racism better than most witches or magic-users, and she was keen to not let that get in her way, to silently dare anybody to try to get in her way.
Mira also seemed to never have much to say about the Evil Queen, not anything bad, or good, the witch was unusually neutral, even after they all discovered that the Evil Queen was not really all that evil and that she never signed the Book for some reason. In a topic where everybody had to have an opinion in some form or another, Mira appeared to have none.
Which told Blondie's instincts that perhaps Mira knew far more than she let on, and she was just waiting for everybody to catch up.
But what it was Blondie had no clue and as she lightly snooped around the other girl's things she just became more and more puzzled!
She found a book about micro-talismans by some mad scientist lady named Clawstorm Grimmbook laying openly on the girl's desk, a small package of the talismans Mira had made that week labeled to be shipped to a non-profit refugee facility in the Queen lands for the human folks trying to escape the tyranny of the neighboring four human kingdoms, notes and mathematical equations that the blonde couldn't hope to begin to decipher, a black memorial armband with a teacup meticulously embroidered on it for the memory of Wonderland being cursed, and in a hidden compartment in Mira's desk Blondie found a cache of worn, but very much cared for, pictures of Raven as a baby and little girl, the Good King, Lady Good King, Elenore Queen, and a dark haired woman (and sometimes a dark-haired man who looked very similar to the woman), who was smiling and happy and wearing bright colors and was young and had Mira's grey eyes…
Blondie looked at the back cover of the book where the lady mad scientist's picture was, then back to the photographs of the happy woman holding baby Raven in her arms, Raven's happy mother holding her firstborn baby daughter in her arms.
Raven's mother was also this lady mad scientist who also had Mira's exact shade of grey eyes…
Blondie turned to stare at Mira's sleeping form.
Was this very good reporter investigating or was this something else entirely?
XXX
"So he's been her grandfather all along?" Lizzie paced the room agitatedly.
"What should we do?" Kitty wondered. "Tell Raven? Not tell Raven? He's surely likely to cause issues down the line, there is no way a man who was willing to resort to that kind of trickery could be trusted. It's downright dangerous! And Raven has had the tendency of going soft with the old man, even when he's up to his tricks."
"Maybe not by Wonderlandian ways, but remember; he is of Ever After and that kind of irrational deceit is just another part of life there, there are no arts of rhymes of how to do such things properly there, and we have to tell Raven, whether we approve of it or not he is her family and apart of her tribe. It's probably the reason why she's been so lenient towards him and fretting over accidentally causing him stress heart attacks, on some level her instincts probably know the truth, maybe they've always known that he was family." Maddie decided sagely. "It's how witch instincts sometimes work."
"I need to meet with my mother in a few moments but I will bring this up with her." Lizzie vowed. "If we find any indication that he knowingly neglected Lady Elenore and his daughter and if he decides to be a problem, we can become his main issue very quickly." She said before making to stalk out of the room. "Let's pray for some peace and quiet though, I think that we all need a break right now."
XXX
After much contemplation Apple opened the Book to a random page, idly fingering the eraser still jamming the lock.
It started with one page, the paper ripping before shooting away in a ball of light was interesting, in an odd way, almost addicting really.
Then it was another page, then another and another, before long the princess found herself kneeling on the ground, trying to get better leverage as she tried to rip out larger and larger chunks of paper, sweat beading down her brow and feral sounds escaping her throat as her rage built up and every instinct in her body was crying out to kill, kill, kill so that she could finally live her own life, live her own dreams, live with the one she loved.
And if this thing still existed, threatening all of that, threatened her potential for a real happy ending, well that was just not an option. It had to go.
The princess fell back when the Book of Legends released a wave of magic, freeing it from her clutches; in a big ball of paper yellow light it shot up and flew away.
Apple roared after it, shooting to her feet and slapping both hands to the railing in an effort to try to spot where her wounded victim had gone.
XXX
"Why are you so insistent on going about all of this madness!" Milton exclaimed throwing his arms up into the air. "Do have any idea of the consequences?"
"Of course I do!" Raven almost shrieked. "I spent months researching my options before Legacy day! The political fallout, the impact on my people and family, all the people who had reportedly escaped their destinies before, I looked into every conceivable angle I could! If you could just sit down and listen to my side of things, put yourself into my shoes and see all of the political lions trying to use me and put their agendas ahead of the wellbeing of my family and people maybe you'd finally see that I had no choice, that I never had a choice but to rebel!"
"There probably was a choice but because you never asked for help you painted yourself into a corner!" Milton reasoned desperately.
"How could I possibly ask for help? Everybody was more concerned with me denying my true nature and personality in favor of acting like a hilariously bad caricature of this unattainable and very lonely ideal of a woman who is not only long dead but never actually acted just like the evil witch that everybody believed she was, acted as evil as everybody wanted me to become! They wanted me to be the favored person to hate and set blame upon even if I did nothing wrong!" Raven shouted to the sky in frustration. "How was I supposed to trust anybody when they were more concerned with my ability to cackle evilly over the plight of my people!"
"Why are you being so unrelentingly stubborn?" Milton demanded after finally realizing that his argument with his granddaughter was going nowhere, both sides not giving up an inch.
"Why are you being so persistent? What has you so invested in what I do with my life and what my family does with their affairs?" Raven shot back heatedly and a little teary eyed.
Milton took a deep brave breath. "Because believe it or not I actually do care about the situation past your destiny, and, more importantly, because… because I'm your-"
Raven had reacted to it first; the rush of words flowing across her vision, her body convulsing in reaction to it, her tattoos beginning to glow a liquid gold color.
Giles hunched over himself like a startled animal and rubbed at his arms, trying to get whatever was crawling under his skin to stop.
Milton gasped in alarm, looking around wildly, trying to see past the thick incoming path of words as he sensed something coming right for them-
The Book of Legends sailed through the air and slammed into Raven's torso at top speed, parchment yellow magic spilling out of it and into Raven making the witch gasp before releasing a weak, startled scream as she fell.
The next conscious moment the witch felt arms hook under her and hoist her up from the ground, there was a lot of yelling over the long monotone ring in her ears, she caught a glimpse of the royal guards running towards them, a flash of bright green light that glowed behind the letters in her eyes and then she was suddenly in a forest with a lot of trees and then they were running but Raven couldn't see where to anymore because of the words in her eyes and the creeping feeling of losing her thoughts as her mind crumbled into unconsciousness.
XXX
Clawstorm convulsed, she was in the midst of having a seizure on the futon, between the words rushing past her eyes and the crawling sensation clawing under her skin and senses she felt someone pry open her mouth and stick something thin, long, and wooden between her teeth, keeping her tongue away from her teeth and keeping her teeth from grinding together. There was also a heavy weight that settled over her torso and held her twitching arms down as wave after wave of words bombarded her.
"Come on… come on… you're stronger than this… snap out of it, beat it, come one snap out of it!" Blondie's voice begged from above. "Come on Mira! Or whatever you like to be called, I'm your friend! Please, please, please snap out of it!"
XXX
Faybelle had heard about Apple's well wrapped up temper from Raven, how there was very little that could be done when the princess was on a full-blown war path, or even on the cusp of one, and Faybelle kind of understood what the witch had meant when she had warned Faybelle to never ever get Apple so worked up that she got really angry. The fairy had seen glimpses of the mentioned temper before in past months after all, but seeing it almost completely unleashed was… well it was kind of way more of an impressive look on the princess than her usual hapless damsel act, Faybelle would admit that much.
It was more than just anger though, it was like this intricately woven thing that had just as much intelligence, royal personality, and this nearly wild sort of insanity as there was primal white-hot rage. Faybelle guessed that Apple was merely on the cusp of a warpath because of how the princess was simply silently standing there, like a volcano itching to erupt, Raven had said that Apple could get quite loud when she was really worked up but it was the before moments when the blonde was quietly stewing that were the most frightening.
There wasn't nearly as much crying or screaming as Faybelle had assumed there should have been when Apple found out about the Grimm brothers infiltrating the castle and taking advantage of Raven's trust that they, or at least the Headmaster, would at least be a decent human and go back to Ever After to sulk after she schooled him in an argument, and instead just simply decided to knock her out and kidnap her.
"If they don't let go of her soon I'm afraid that I'll have no choice but to declare martial law and take Raven back in a… not so very princess proper manner." Apple stated in an eerie tone, like she was commenting on the weather. "I'm sure that I can rally enough students to cause enough trouble to force him to let her go."
"…Really?" Maddie asked, sounding just as surprised as the rest of the room, and more than a little weary.
"Giles won't let the Headmaster harm her and Faybelle has already gained Raven's old title and signed the Book." Apple had stated in this very calm way with a voice that gave the fairy the impression of a type of cannibalistic fae. And the way that the guards that had retold the story to them had quietly started to scoot away meant that they could sense the danger rolling off of the princess in waves (although the fantastically terrifying expression she was making and the feral insane gleam in her very blue eyes was probably the main reason). " We can't go in arrows blazing quite yet, unfortunately, Raven and I have a deal; if the fights she picks are harmless to her person, or if she just needs some time away from me after one of our fights, I'm to give her a maximum of four to five hours before hunting her down."
"Aren't you worried about the Headmaster locking her away somewhere?" Kitty asked, eyeing the way the princess just barely managed to hold back snarling at the concept.
"I'd like to believe that the Headmaster of a school filled with future important rulers would not be stupid enough to start an uprising that would surely transpire if such an act were to be taken upon an individual who isn't even one of his students anymore." Apple slowly closed her eyes, her brow twitching.
"Raven can hold her ground very well in the face of overwhelming pressure." Apple breathed deeply. "One old man would be practically nothing to her. And besides, Faybelle and I need time to get the remainder Raven's things ready to be shipped out by this evening and to check in on Mira since Raven won't have time to do so herself, after that is all finished then we can go and get her."
"And you're okay with this?" Lizzie asked.
"No I am not." Apple spoke severely. "But Raven tends to not like it when other people try to fight her own battles for her or if people overreact to things she views as completely harmless. Five hours tends to be right around the time her patience runs out and that's right about the time she'll accept help willingly… or break a window screen and jump out, whichever come first. She doesn't ever really see the Headmaster as a threat, that's probably still true even after this little stunt, as long as Giles is there to make sure his brother doesn't take things too far she'll only really ever see the man as just another human throwing a hissy fit over the tired old destiny issue."
"She does have a point, as much as it pains me to say it." Faybelle grumbled out begrudgingly. Because no matter how irritated Raven got at the Headmaster she never got really angry with him or hated him for just about anything, which was strange in Faybelle's opinion, but then again Raven was not a naturally vengeful individual.
"She's probably giving him those "I'm not angry just disappointed in you" looks right now, that always ruffles his feathers." Kitty snickered. "Even so, we should probably take our own precautions incase this goes sideways."
"Yes we should." Lizzie nodded. "Who knows how far he's willing to go with this. My mother and her advisors are sending out demands for an explanation as we speak but it would be really rather troublesome to involve the king and queen of Ever After in all of this if worse comes to worse."
Apple scowled at the mention of her parents. "My mom and my daddy must never be brought into this, they've already made their stances clear that they won't help out in anything related to Raven's mother." Or at least that was the impression Apple had gotten from their past behavior, really she was having trouble imagining her parents as being people to trust with anything relating to Raven right now.
"Say Lizzie… can I borrow that bat I saw in your old room?" Apple asks politely, making Lizzie freeze in a baffled sort of way because the only thing she had that even vaguely resembled the Ever After baseball hitting stick was a decorative three-ringed club that was traditionally placed in accessible locations for all royal children too young to wield a blade to defend themselves in case the castle was infiltrated.
"I'm asking because I highly doubt that Daring will let me borrow his sword." Apple clarified cheerfully.
"Princess do you even know how to use a sword?" Faybelle asked eyeing the blonde suspiciously.
Apple rolled her eyes. "You wave it around and make slashing motions with it, I've seen it done hundreds of times by the princes. It's not really that difficult of a concept."
"I'm sure that you'll do just fine with the bat." Lizzie assured in the ensuing foreboding silence, making a mental note to give the princess the club made from the really soft rubbery materials.
XXX
"She's… tiny. I never thought that she'd ever look so small." Milton murmured brokenly as he gently slid the cushion under his granddaughter's unconscious head.
The bench that she was laying on was not ideal for anybody to be lying on but him and his brother had no choice but to act as quickly as possible with the materials at hand. It had been a near miracle that Milton remembered Clawstorm's forgery Book in time to save both the Book's power and his granddaughter from the rush of words trying to shelter themselves inside her head, the magic circle had been hastily drawn up to keep the words from needing to reside solely in the young girl's body, when Clawstorm's Book had been brought in the words had surged towards that immediately and now it was all a matter of waiting for the transfer from what was left from the old Book to the new.
"She's still very young." Giles reminded gently. "No matter how big or strong she's had to act to keep things held together, or to stand up to those who do not know the full scope of what she has to deal with."
"She never asked for help." Milton sat down heavily in a chair just outside the circle.
"She probably is very uncertain about whom she can trust and who can offer her any sort of useful help, or so she said so herself if you will recall." Giles pointed out.
"I know." Milton sighed in defeat. "She had her reasons, good reasons, but that still does not make it at all fair. A girl her age should only be concerned with… normal things, like tea parties and learning to advance her witch skills in her personal studies."
"Grandfather's school rules that prohibit normal types of non-destiny magic lessons still giving you troubles?" Giles asked with a silent, disappointed huff.
Milton grimaced. "It's not like I've ever stopped trying to get rid of those, but the wording he used… very difficult to get around, though up until recently I haven't had nearly as much pressure from parents to have those classes installed, thus far the academic magic classes are the only loophole that I've managed to find in the clause thus far."
"I know that you've never stopped trying to find ways around all of the barricades that grandfather had put up for the witches that come to this school and the law that does not allow them the same protections as the other kingdoms." Giles said kindly. "You do care, you've always cared."
"I know that fairytales aren't seen in the same light to witches and fairies as the humans see them." Milton sulked passing his hand through the circle's domed barrier to brush hair out of Raven's face. "I know that she doesn't see fairytales as anything more than a restricting hassle… but it didn't used to be that way, and maybe I've been a little too remiss not looking into issues that have arisen over the decades, but the Book and the traditions were created for a reason… to keep peace between Ever After kingdoms."
"And I'm sure that if you sat down and explained your side of things in the same reasonable manner you are talking to me right now, your granddaughter will listen to you." Giles nodded to himself. "She is a very logical oriented girl who asks questions, and when they aren't answered or are ignored that's when she tends to act out."
"…I suppose…" Milton hesitated. "She too… has good reasons. Very good reasons, for wanting to break free of her role, I just… I had just hoped, back when I had thought that all this was simply just a matter on honor that she could have found a way to regain it, to become the shining example of what the Queen family used to represent."
"But that doesn't seem to be possible, her political enemies have made it impossible." Giles reminded pointedly.
"No, you're right, it does seem that they have made it… impossible." Milton looked down as he finally admitted to what he had suspected but dared not voice. "It's not fair, she's too young to have to be worrying about things such as this! And Clawstorm…" The man trailed off. "My daughter is out there, where she could get herself-…" He cuts himself off unable to finish.
Giles is silent for a moment. "Raven doesn't have to go about things all by herself. The questions we need to pose right now is; what is going on exactly, and how do we stop it?"
"And how to keep them safe." Milton sighed. "I… don't suppose that she'd perhaps let me send her off to a nice safe country under an assumed name and with a decent trust fund until all of this has blown over…"
Giles snorted in disbelief. "What do you think would happen?"
"…She'd find her way back and yell at me in front of the entire school." Milton predicted. "But it's nice to hope that she'd at least find my idea a tiny bit tempting."
"You're starting to sound more and more like a grandfather." Giles pointed out.
"I'm starting to feel more and more like a grandfather and a father." Milton admitted. "Though both my daughter and granddaughter do seem to be set on making my hair go white. But they are both rather exceptional witches in their own rights; did you see the size of those golems that Clawstorm made?"
XXX
Clawstorm's head hurt. And there was a limp weight watching her from her torso.
It had been years since Clawstorm was able to get any alcohol to get drunk enough to have a hangover, and she never got drunk enough to forget that she had hooked up the previous night with somebody, especially then because alcohol being the suppressant class drug it was only ever stayed fun for sleepovers if she just stayed buzzed, roaring drunk only ended up with her getting all depressed about shit and making dumb bets with Rafael to get her mind off of those sob story things and to try to make herself feel better.
"Hey." Someone tapped at her face. "Hey, wake up, it's not like I can call in a healer to tell me that you're okay while you're in this form. You need to tell me what's going on yourself. C'mon, up, up."
Clawstorm scrunched up her nose. "Chief?" She whispers hoarsely.
"Yep." Blondie confirms. "How do you feel?"
"Like I have the mother of all hangovers." Clawstorm groans slapping a hand over her aching eyes to block out the painful light trying to shine through her skin. "Just the headache and the eye soreness though, I don't feel queasy or dehydrated, and it doesn't hurt to have you speaking so loudly…"
"Not that a teenaged girl living a sheltered life has had any experience with such things." The witch adds after a pause.
"The ban of alcohol of all kinds at the school and village makes smuggling difficult but not impossible." Blondie says breezily. "Though it's adorable that you adults think otherwise."
Something about that sentence makes Clawstorm freeze, snapping her eyes open wide, and for more than one reason.
"You're a good person at heart." Blondie continues nonplussed by Cawstorm's panicked look and still laying limply on top of the woman. "I'm not afraid of you at least, I also understand why it's so important that people keep thinking that you're evil though, and I think of you as a pretty good friend so I'll keep you a secret." The girl sat up in the woman's lap. "Remember that in the next few moments of shock before you start to freak out."
Clawstorm slowly moved her head to the side, her wide eyes meeting her reflection's in the mirror that was hanging on the wall beside the futon. Her glamour and height-shift had disappeared sometime during her fit, leaving Clawstorm Queen, aka the Evil Queen, in plain view.
"Oh holy mother-… bad words that I should not say." Clawstorm squeaked out, her voice several octaves higher than normal.
"Definitely something a good mother would say." Blondie nodded to herself as if satisfied. "Sit up so that you can take the headache pills that I found in your bathroom's medical kit." Blondie ordered, placing said pills into the woman's clammy palm.
"Drink up." The girl prompted, holding up a glass of water helpfully when all the woman did was stare at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Finally, after another long moment Clawstorm sat up and did as she was told.
"You… you're not afraid of me." The witch mumbled dumbly. "But I'm evil."
Blondie gave the woman a flat look, producing the black band Clawstorm kept as a reminder (and a punishment) and holding it up for the witch to see. "Look me in the eye and tell me that your heart didn't break having to be responsible for this." The girl dared.
Clawstorm's bottom lip wobbled and to the woman's horror tears sprang immediately to her eyes.
"That's what I thought." Blondie nodded to herself, hugging the woman to her as the witch began to sob quietly.
"I did a lot of bad things." Clawstorm tried to remind the girl, even though she looked like just the opposite of an Evil Queen right now.
"There is nothing wrong with trying to protect the people you love." Blondie said kindly, producing a handkerchief. "It's a moral grey area, having no choice but to do doing bad things in order to do the right thing. And since I'm not one of those psychopaths, and Raven is my friend, you still don't scare me."
Clawstorm sniffled for a few more minutes, slowly giving up the instinct to fight or runaway or the throbbing ache in her brain and just focused on the soothing hands rubbing her back.
"I really hope nobody comes barging in." The witch comments after a few minutes of putting herself back together and taking an assessment of just how things looked like in the mirror. Which makes her cringe and feel all creepy inside.
"If I get off what are the chances of you running off?" Blondie asks.
"Um…" Clawstorm bites her lip. "Honestly…?"
"You better hope that nobody barges in." Blondie concludes, making a great show of getting comfortable in the woman's lap. "Because I'm not getting off until we figure out what just happened to you and I can be assured that you won't run off and disappear into the forest."
Clawstorm bit her lip again. "Well I might just be safer for everybody if I-"
"You aren't going anywhere." Blondie ordered in a savage tone, one eye trained unblinking at the woman and leaning forwards until the witch found herself lying back onto the floor just to get away from that stare.
"Or I could stay here." Clawstorm hummed all innocent-like.
Any idea on what just happened with you?" Blondie asked.
"Give me a second to assess everything in my head, there was something familiar about that feeling that passed over, but aside from the fact that it had come from somewhere outside my body, it was so overwhelming that I couldn't discern what it was before… you know." The witch shrugged closing her eyes.
"You make your brain sound like a computer." Blondie commented, only to be met with silence.
"Uh… Mira? Raven's mom? Hello?" Blondie asked the unconscious woman nervously.
"I'm not putting up with this again." Blondie decided pinching the woman's side, hard.
"Ow! What?" Clawstorm whined as she jumped into the waking world.
"Warn me next time you do that." Blondie hissed.
"You sound like my old roommate." The witch grumbled. "Someone's messed with the Book of Legends again, I… let's just say that I've always been able to sense where that blasted thing was, I can sense my daughter's magic signature with it as well as two others that are close by her, that would be the Headmaster and Giles to be more precise. I… wouldn't be too concerned about things quite yet… my instincts are saying that there is no danger, and to be honest my head is killing me so… I think I can afford five minutes before storming the Headmaster's chambers."
"So he really is your father. Raven said that servants could sense the Book, and what I heard while I was in wonderland and you were kicking that guy's butt…" Blondie realized in an awed voice. "I heard that Kline guy refer to him as such! If you will remember that I was there while he and you were facing off." The reporter reminded.
Clawstorm deflated. "Yeah… the news is still a surprise to me, along with the fact that apparently I unintentionally signed myself up as the next servant to the Book so… awkward much ya know?"
"I bet." Blondie huffed sympathetically. "Are you worried about Raven? And what the Headmaster might do to her?"
The witch was silent for a moment.
"He treats her better." The woman admitted in a small voice. "If it were me in her hat I'd be worried because he doesn't like me much… but he treats her better, and with a lot more respect. Giles is there too so I know that she's safe, and with the way everyone has been going on about my daughter standing up to the most powerful group of youth in several worlds… I'm not too worried. I'm still going to come for her, I don't trust either of those two ninnies that much with my kid, but I trust them enough to alert Faybelle to her location and have her get my daughter."
"You're not going in yourself?" Blondie asked.
Clawstorm shook her head. "I can't get too close to the offices unless I want them to sense me and my bond… it's a weird Book servant thing, we can sort of sense where each other is if the conditions are right, and right now the conditions are very right."
"Well that's rather inconvenient for you." Blondie shuttered at the creepy thought.
"Tell me about it." Clawstorm snorted.