-Important-

Hey readers, I put this up front cause I wanted to make sure everyone read it.

From July 13-August 2 I'll be in Sweden and probably unable to update. So, until then, I'll do my best to update as much as possible to make up for lost time.

You may now proceed with the story.

---

*Heather*

Who the hell does she think she is? She's not a god.

I was stalking out of the room, Hatchet and Jacin in tow. What? I wasn't going to run out of a room to be lonely in another room. That's boring.

"Hey," Hatchet said, when I let go of his hand, "I was inters-"

"Shut up. You're staying here with me. You too, ya' queer."

I caught Jacin's glare and returned it, tenfold. "Don't even. I'm not in the mood for it."

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing- almost nothing- against queers and gays and all that, but I was ready to pick a fight. I don't care if he was a magician or twice my size or well muscled. I had a gun and I knew how to shoot it. He might take me down, but I swear to god I'm taking him down with me.

I kept my muscles tense, ready to take the gun off my back and slam the oaf over the head with it.

No, he wasn't having it. The damn pacifist wasn't having a fight. He looked away, suddenly more interested in the scribbles on the wall than my fight.

Hatchets hand rested on my shoulder. I whipped my head around and glared at him.

"Don't you dare def-"

"Sparring?" He asked, giving me the nice smile that he'd always given me since we were little. The same one I got when I was seven and I tripped and scrapped my knee.

"Aren't you supposed to be floating that rock or something?" I asked, motioning to the lump of dirt in his hand.

"Yeah, well, I figure you're more important."

My eyes wandered to Jacin, wondering what his reaction would be. His expression was a mix of jealousy and joy. Not that I care or anything!

I answered, "Sure."

I dropped the gun, setting it down on the rocky ground with a hollow bang. I kicked my foot against the ground and got the same hollow thudding. Eh, I didn't feel like talking to that damn magician right now. Especially when she was over there, I peek through the opening, magically writing with what looked like a flying pen from over here.

Hatchet set down his...rock, and I noted that there wasn't any of the same hollow thudding.

"Same as the Academy rules?" He asked.

I smirked. "They had rules?"

He smiled back at me, and we charged each other. I took the first punch, sending my fist flying at his stomach. He caught my fist in his hand and swung with the other, aiming for my head.

Using my little body, compared to his, and quickness to my advantage, I brought my knee up and hit my original target, his stomach.

"Headshot?" I asked, backing up and giving him time to recuperate. "I thought we were going by Academy rules?"

He smirked. "They had rules?"

He charged now, going for a wide round house kick. I jumped back, and then came at him, bringing my fist up for a punch. He, again, caught it.

Unfortunately, this time, his other hand was closer to my stomach than mine was to his head. He landed a full blow, gripping my already caught fist and pulling me closer.

I coughed and he backed off.

"How many rounds we going?" I asked, wiping spit off my lower lip. Even though I nearly felt sick to my stomach, I was smirking.

He shrugged. "How many rounds before you stop being a bitch?"

"Padawan!" Hecate's voice echoed from the other room. "Language!"

Hatchet glanced a glare in her direction before turning back to me, his expression neutral.

"Could take a while," I replied, turning his shrug.

"We have all day."

"Good."

I ran at him, keeping my abdomen tense for what I knew was coming.

Hatchet took a shot at my chest, holding back like we always did. I dropped low, sinking under him and grabbing onto his arm. My back pressed against his chest and my foot went back, kicking his leg out from under him. One moment, he was flying over my shoulder. The next, he was laying on the ground, one of his arms still in my hand.

"Don't worry," Jacin reassured from the sidelines. "Hecate can heal broken ribs too."

"How about spines?" Hatchet groaned out. "Or concussions. Can she heal those too?"

There was silence for a moment before a yell from the other room answered. "I can!"

"Sorry," I told him, helping to pull him up. "I'm used to having mats."

"No," Hatchet said, "it's good. I'm good. Maybe this'll be my chance to learn how to heal."

"Yeah, maybe."

Hatchet suddenly scowled. "How about you tell me what's wrong?"

I shook my head.

Jacin started walking out. "I'll be taking this as my cue to leave. Scary person. Sweethe- Sorry, Hatchet."

We watched him leave the room, both of us trying to burn into his back with out glares.

"Wanna tell me what's wrong now?" He asked, picking up his lump of dirt and floating it.

I rolled my eyes. "Not really."

"Oh, come on. You know you wanna."

I looked away.

"Fine. I see how it is."

He poked my in the stomach and I flinched back. His other hand came around the other side. He didn't stop until I was nearly in tears, laughing and begging him to stop.

"Alright!" I half yelled, half laughed. "Alright. Just...stop." I took a second to hold my stomach and try to breath. "Hecate! Stop listening!"

I waited a second until she yelled back. "Okay!"

"You really think she stopped listening?" I asked Hatchet, giving him a skeptical look.

"Only one way to find out. Dammit, bitch, asshole, bastard, god dammit." He waited a second. "Nope, we're good. So, tell me what's been buggin' ya'."

"Well, I guess it's kinda everything."

"Ugh. That'll be a hard one to fix."

I couldn't help but let out a little laugh. "Alright. Um, I guess it's kinda...magic. And Hecate."

"So, what's wrong with magic? Besides the obvious. Let's start with that."

"Besides the obvious? Isn't it all obvious? I used to be a soldier. In two, maybe three days I was expected to suddenly change all of my beliefs."

"Woah, woah, woah. No one's forcing you to do anything. I know you, and I know that you like steady and calm and unchanging. I also know you're a good person and that's why you're saving magicians. If you didn't see it as even a little good, then you wouldn't be helping. You don't have to change your beliefs. You just have to know you're doing the right thing."

"And I do know that I'm doing the right thing. I'm helping save innocent lives, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. That's why I joined the Black Hands. Because it seemed right. Because I was convinced that I was changing people."

"So what's any different now? Yeah, it got a little harder and a little rougher. A lot of people disagree with us, but who cares about them. You know you're doing the right thing. That's what matters."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So, what about Hecate? Again, besides the obvious."

"You mean that she's obviously out of her mind?"

he nodded. "Yeah, besides that."

"I guess...I just don't get her. I mean, she's supposed to have killed people, right? I read the report too, everyone in the section did. It said friendly facade and I automatically accepted that. I mean, she's killed innocents, right? That seemed normal. But then I actually talked to her. For the first, I don't know, week or so, I thought the report was probably right, but now..."

"Now you don't know. Yeah, after a few conversations with her I gave myself a few rules. Firstly, expect the unexpected. She's never gonna be normal or possibly say anything normal. Second, never try to understand her, that just makes it harder."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I guess."

"Ready to go?" Hecate asked, making me jump.

"When the hell did you get here?" I asked her.

"Hmm, bout three seconds ago. Four...Five...Si-"

"Alright, I get it." I cut her off. "What's happening now?"

"We head back to the van, probably get some food. Sleep. Come back in the morning. Oh, and I should maybe, probably apologize. I realize you guys are probably bored so tomorrow I'll magic you up and give you some money to wander."

---

Upon Hecate's recommendation, we ate at this little burger place called Stack 'em Up. Per the name of the joint, their burgers were colossal. Good place, though. Good heart attack burgers.

We slept in the van that night, but we were pretty comfy. I watched Hecate sneak out at around midnight and come back at about three in the morning. I'm not sure if this is dedication or obsession. When it comes to her, what's the difference.

---

"Here, is your money," Hecate said, handing Jacin a stack of cash.

I'm not so sure about her magic, because he looked perfectly like himself to me. So do the others, for that matter.

"I'll be back at around five-ish. Quin, you still have those glyphs I gave you, right? The magic emergency button things."

"Yeah. I still have them."

"Good, good. Alright, well I guess I'll see you all later."

"Hold up," I said, grabbing onto her shoulder while she walked off. "I'm coming with you."

I waited for her to brush me off, or tell me no. She just smiled and took me with her anyways.

---

I think she knows I don't like her that much. It's be kinda hard to think she didn't with her maybe being a genius and all. Still confused about that. She acts like an absolute ditz most of the time. But when she talked about her 'scientific magic' there was so much knowledge in her eyes that it scared me.

If I asked, she could probably explain the meaning of life and death.

"Hey," I asked, running up so I could walk besides her, "I'm gonna ask a question and you're gonna answer in the most normal way you can think of. Okay?"

She glanced at me before giving me a soft smile and a nod.

"What do you think the purpose of life is?"

She let out a little snort. "Getting right to the complicated things, huh?" She gave a few more little chuckles before continuing. "To live. That's why it's called life, right?"

"Okay... And death?"

"There's no purpose to not existing, right?"

"But why?"

"That's probably something you should ask to someone who believes in gods or a god. Death is death. Can we please stop with all the serious questions? I don't like these things. I love magic but this... Eeh."

I rolled my eyes at her. Did I have her in a corner, or was that just hopeful thinking? Probably the latter.

"You know I don't really like you," I blurted out.

She smiled at me. "Yeah, of course. I like you, though. You're not like a lotta people I know, ya' know? You question me. Makes it more exciting."

"You're weird."

"I know. Oh, here we are."

I stopped next to her, waiting for her to snap her fingers or give some show of using magic.

This time it was a circular hand twirl. The ground below us started to sink, slowly but surely. She flipped her hand over, facing her palm towards the fading light above us. A stream of bright light followed, stopping in her hand to form a little circular ball.

I watched as the thick dirt walls changed to the open air of the rune. I couldn't see the walls, but I knew what the basics of the room were. The wall was covered in scribbles. One the far sides of the room, there were two big scribbles. On another wall, there was another gigantic opening, leading to another room filled with more scribbles. In the middle of the first room, there was a hollow area under the floor that..

"Hey, Hecate," I said, stepping onto the solid ground, "you know, you missed something in this room."

She raised her hand up, sending the ball of light into the roof scribbles.

From the side, I could a smirk biting at her lips.

"I don't think so."

Now I was smirking. I knew something she didn't. I, for once, had the upper hand against the queen of magic. I guess when she was in silencers was an arguable moment, but even then I felt like she had complete control of everything that was going on.

"Oh, yeah?" I asked, my little smirk progressing into a triumphant grin. "The how do you explain this?"

I tapped my foot against the ground. The same hollow thumping sounded as it did yesterday.

I was a excited, definitely. I wanted to see it, her look of loss, her helpless fallen expression. Even on the way to her own death, she was smiling. But she took pride in her work, more so maybe than even her life.

But no, nothing. In fact her grin grew even wider as she trotted over to me.

Her foot tapped the ground, somehow in a much more showy way than mine. Her smile grew when she listened to the hollow thumping it made.

"Look at that, I stand corrected. Nice job, scary girl. No, that doesn't sound right. That's Jacin's nickname for you. What should I call you?"

"Heather. Now spit it out, how come you didn't know this was here."

She let out a low hum.

I watched, admittedly not as amazed as I should've been when streams of light greenish water, pure magic I think, came from around her back and started to prod at the ground. The dirt shifted and moved around the little spiderlike limbs that she made, proving that they were real.

She let out a quick gasp, making me jump. The green limbs vanished in a puff of light green smoke before being pulled into the ground.

"What?" I asked, alarmed. "What happened. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine. It just surprised me. I didn't think it'd try to take my magic." She trailed her hands over her arms in an action that looked like hugging herself. "Sorry. Looks like we have to do this the old fashioned way. Digging. With our hands too."

I nodded, kneeling down. I started digging, using my hands to make divots in the dirt.

What? I'm not coming along to so nothing. Whether I like her or not, I refuse to be useless baggage.

She kneeled down, dropping her bag next to her and then digging.

It took at least ten minutes before we hit the bottom. What slowed us was when we hit a layer that seemed normal to me, but Hecate couldn't touch.

She said that what was in the dirt tried to 'eat' her magic. She almost seemed...scared, in her own happy-go-lucky way.

When the whole was big enough to get into, she insisted on dropping first, so I didn't fight it.

"How is it?" I called. "Everything okay?"

"Uh, how about you stay up there." A stream of light flew past me, stopping in, assumedly, her hand. "Keep watch."

"Alright, no. I'm coming down."

I dropped my feet into the whole and prepared to jump

"No, no, no. You really shouldn't-"

My feet hit the ground. When I looked up to examine the room, I knew why she didn't want me coming. There were skeletons, hanging from the walls. Their hands were bound above their heads, their feet unable to touch the ground.

This wasn't the modern movie skeleton. No, it was scarier. These things were clothed and had patches of hair on their heads. They hadn't been dead for more than a hundred years.

"I thought magic was good," I said. "Or decent enough."

"Everyone has a dark side. Even magic." She held her hand up in front of me. "Stay behind me."

I nodded, and we kept walking. As we went, they became less scary. I guess. At some point, the skeletons went from hanging on the walls to sitting on the floor, even though their hands were still tied high up.

"These are older," Hecate stated. "Much older. The bodies are more decomposed, less traces of muscle and hair."

"Oh god," I mumbled. "Please switch out of explorer Hecate."

"Right, sorry."

Up ahead, I could see a clearing, a darker space.

My heart was beating wildly in my chest and I was taking deep breaths. This wasn't a horror movie, this was real. These were real dead people, and not all of them were that old. No, not just that, this place was a collection of murders.

And I could feel the eyes, even though they didn't have any. I could feel it, feel something. It was what kept my heart thundering and my breath-

We were getting closer to the room. It's darkness was consuming more and more of the space around us. Instead of formable skeletons on the ground, there were piles of dust and some parts of bones.

The room was closer, now, only a few steps away. I'd rested my hand on Hecate's shoulder, and I didn't particularly feel like moving it at the moment.

It was right there. Now it was here, we were-

Hecate's light went out. Her body slammed against mine, bringing me to the ground, her wrapped around me.

There was a light past her and a considerable heat. Something, was burning.

She was burning.

There was an earsplitting sound echoing through what must've been an empty room.

She was screaming.

Something cold hit my shoulder.

She was crying.

I pushed against her, trying to force her to let go of me. It wasn't until the fire disappeared that she finally did. No, she didn't let go, she sagged against me. She was limp, but awake.

Her left side was burnt, and shaking, mostly her arms, but partially her side.

"Hecate?" I asked, for some reason a question. "Hecate. Hecate, we gotta go. Can-can you heal? D-do the healy thingy?"

She weakly shook her head, her eyes half lidded. She wasn't screaming anymore, but tears were still streaming onto my shoulder.

"You can't sleep, okay?" I told her. At some point, I'd gotten her out of the hole and we were heading towards the platform. "Don't sleep. Keep talking to me. Talk my ear off like you always do."

"You know?" She asked, on my shoulder, her voice hoarse and weak. "I knew you liked me. Just a little."

"Mm-hm. Just a little, that's right. But if you stay awake I'll like you a little more. Can you do something for me? I know, it's a lot but-"

The platform began to lift.

"Thank you. I need you to stay awake, okay? When we get back I need you to make us invisible."

I jumped, pushing her up ion my back even further.

"Can you do that for me?"

She gave a weak nod.

I reached for the phone she gave me and immediately dialed Quin's number.

"Heather?" He asked, a little surprised. "What's w-"

"Get a hotel room. Even a motel. Get water, lots of cold water. And bandages. And pain killers, lots of pain killers. Text me the address."

I hung up, buried the phone in my pocket, and then started to run, a sweaty, half unconscious, burned queen of magic leaning on my back and crying on my shoulder.