Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 17: Deal With The Devil

Mog offers a quick nod. "Noted. Right. Well..." she timidly steps away from the wall and reaches into her pocket to retrieve Reela's broken phone and hold it out to Avinalyn. "I found her phone! It's all busted and stuff, which is unfortunate, but—"

Avinalyn takes it swiftly and looks it over. Cracked screen. Dented back. "Broken out of anger," they lightly chuckle to themself. If only they could have seen it. Her fire. They wonder what it would be like to watch her anger be directed onto someone other than them.

Maybe one day they'll be blessed with the experience.

They slowly nod as they decide on what to do. They hand the phone back to Mog and recross their hands behind their back. "Have it sent to Utopia. Discreetly, if you could. The continent's paranoid enough about the recent sightings of spies, so watch you don't get yourself shot on sight. Take it to Unity City to have it repaired and then bring it back to me," they step towards Mog again with a threat in their eyes. "Not Reela. If you disappoint me one more time, Mog, I might just consider your usefulness spent. Is that clear?"

Mog quickly nods. "Yes, Boss! Crystal clear! But... what are you gonna do?" she asks as she returns the broken phone to her pocket.

Avinalyn sighs and walks over to their wardrobe. "That shard you sent Reela away with is too valuable to let go," they remove their robe, leaving themself in just their slim black trousers and they open the doors of the wardrobe to grab a black shirt. "And thanks to you, I must go get it back." They pull the shirt on over their head before putting their red robe back on.

Mog tilts her head. "What if she's gone? How'll you find her?"

Avinalyn chuckles again and glances back at her as they readjust their robe to sit perfectly over their half-unbuttoned blouse. "You should know. After all," they nod to her. "You're the one who gave her an attuned shard," they say before reaching into the inside pocket of the robe and pulling out another shard to show her.

"So I can go right to her."

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Reela gasps and her eyes light up as she runs across the room. "Auntie Jules!" she exclaims and Jules turns around to face her in time for the girl's suffocating embrace. Jules laughs and ruffles Reela's hair before hugging her back.

"Welcome back, gremlin," she chuckles. "How was your four-day nap?"

Reela lets her go and tilts her head quizzically. "You don't sound very concerned about that," she says and glances over at Desdemona where she's sitting at the table, still having Ganon – her seeing eye frog – look over the rift shard in front of her.

Jules shrugs. "I knew you'd be fine. Pretty intense, but it was your first time so I can't really blame you."

Corb snorts and Reela sighs. "Shut up, Corb," she huffs but keeps her focus on Jules. "First time with what?" she asks, and Desdemona laughs dryly.

"What the fuck do you think?" she holds up the shard. "With this bad boy."

Todo eyes the shard curiously and tucks his hands in his jacket pockets. "So, you know what that is? And what the hell it did to Reela?" he asks and spares Reela a glance to look her over. She seems fine for the most part, but with Reela it's always been really hard to tell what 'fine' means. The burn on her chin is concerning too. But that's a conversation for later.

Jules takes the shard from Desdemona and nods. "It's a rift shard. A leftover piece of a rift from ten years ago," she says and hands it to Reela. "As for what it did, it warped her from somewhere to the forest you said you found her unconscious in," she explains simply. As if this is common fucking knowledge. Must be an Angevin thing.