After vanishing from the area, everything around her felt as though it was being warped, folded by space itself.
Sound stretched first, then light, pulled thin and bent until the alley, the watching eyes, and the circling men were stripped away like a skin shed too quickly. For a heartbeat she felt weightless, suspended in a pressure that pressed from every direction at once, not crushing but measuring, as if something vast had wrapped its attention around her and decided she was worth keeping intact.
Then gravity returned.
She stumbled forward, boots striking solid ground, and barely caught herself before pitching headlong into stone. She groaned with a pout, her butt in the air and when she looked up, her eyes widened; the air here was colder, cleaner, threaded with a sharp metallic tang that made her nose wrinkle. When she straightened, her pulse still racing, she realized they were no longer in the city's underbelly at all.
They stood inside a wide, circular chamber carved directly into bedrock. Runes were etched into the walls in slow spirals, old and powerful, glowing faintly violet in response to the energy that still crackled in the air. The ceiling arched high above them, lost in shadow, and the floor beneath her feet was smooth from centuries of use, not by crowds, but by purpose.
The woman was already a few steps away, completely at ease, as if abrupt displacement were a mild inconvenience at best. She rolled her shoulder once, the plates of her armor shifting with a soft scrape, and turned back toward her with an expression that hovered between amusement and appraisal.
"You didn't hesitate," the woman observed. "That usually means either desperation or confidence. I haven't decided which you are yet to have wandered into a part of this city where some have it out for your head... or tail."
Her muscles remained tense, instincts screaming to either flee or strike, but she forced herself to still. The limiter thrummed faintly under her skin, reacting to the dense magic saturating the chamber, and for the first time since it had been placed, it felt… strained, it felt as though it was struggling.
"Where did you bring me?" she asked, her voice steady despite the lingering echo in her ears.
The woman smiled wider at that, clearly pleased she hadn't been met with panic. "Somewhere inconvenient to find and very inconvenient to leave without permission." She gestured lazily around them. "A relay chamber. It is old and predates the current authority by a few inconvenient centuries. We use it when we don't want the wrong ears listening."
That set off a quiet alarm in her mind.
"We?" she echoed. "And you sure use the word 'inconvenient' a lot."
The woman chuckled and as if summoned by the word, shapes detached themselves from the shadows along the walls. Not many, only three, but they moved with the same disciplined restraint as the men in the street, their presence controlled and deliberate.
They were all dressed in black and red cloaks, yet none of them raised a weapon, but all of them watched her with the sharp focus of predators who knew exactly how close they stood to striking distance.
The woman lifted a hand slightly, and they stopped.
"Easy," she said mildly. "If I wanted her restrained, she would already be on the floor."
Her gaze returned to her, eyes bright and curious. "You made a very expensive mistake earlier, little fox. Running where certain people could see you, listening where you should not, and reacting like someone who knows she's worth more than she pretends."
Her jaw tightened at her words and her eyes narrowed. "I did what I had to."
"Of course you did," the woman replied, unbothered. "That's usually the excuse right before someone ends up in chains or graves." She stepped closer now, close enough that the air between them felt charged, and her presence pressed against the limiter like fingers testing a weak seam. "The difference is, you chose me instead without even knowing who you were truly looking for."
That was true, and she hated how instinctive the choice had been.
"You knew they were after you," the woman continued softly. "Not just because you're unfamiliar or because of the type of creature you are, but because you resonate wrong. Even restrained, you hum." Her gaze dipped briefly, not leering, but assessing; it was as though she could see straight through skin and bone to the structure beneath. "That makes you valuable in the wrong markets."
Her stomach twisted, a cold clarity settling in. She had known this, in theory, but hearing it spoken aloud stripped away any remaining illusion of safety, she may never know the true meaning of that word here, since even she did not know what she truly was.
"So," the woman said, straightening, her tone shifting from curiosity to something sharper, more deliberate. "I am what you were not expecting and your dear protector will not be happy about this, even though I am willing to spark the fire and give you what you so desperately seek."
She snapped her fingers again, much softer this time, and the runes along the wall flared brighter. A second presence slid into the room, not through a door, but through the air itself, appearing like mist pulled into shape.
Her breath caught and her eyes glowed faintly.
It was not a knight, but it was unmistakably tied to authority. The figure wore robes marked with sigils she recognized from Selene's domain, though they were altered, older variants woven with private authority rather than public decree. His eyes settled on her immediately, narrowing with recognition that made her skin prickle.
"You brought her," he said, not surprised, but displeased.
"Yes," the woman replied calmly. "Because you were going to lose her."
Silence stretched tight between them, heavy with implication.
The man's gaze flicked back to her, then to the woman. "You're interfering."
"I'm negotiating," she corrected smoothly. "You wanted to observe her longer. Others wanted to sell her, while for some reason our dear magistrate wants to protect her. I decided neither outcome suited me, there is more to this."
Her heart pounded as pieces slid into place far too quickly. This was no random encounter, no lucky escape. She had not stumbled here. She was being watched all along. By whom? She did not know, but it had to be someone within the knight's headquarters, due to which she had been redirected.
The woman turned back to her, purple eyes gleaming. "You wanted answers. A weapon. A direction." Her smile returned, slow and dangerous. "Congratulations. You just walked into the center of the board."
She swallowed, pulse roaring in her ears, but she did not step back.
"What do you want from me?" she asked.
The woman studied her for a long moment, then leaned in just enough that only she could hear her next words.
"To see whether you're worth protecting… or worth unleashing and to see what your presence truly means, and also what my dear stepsister sees in you."
The runes pulsed once more, sealing the chamber, and her eyes widened in shock, she understood with chilling clarity that whatever path she had thought she was choosing when she left the headquarters, it had already twisted into something far more dangerous, colliding with power and secrets in ways she had not expected, and now... she was in the center.