Highest rank: #23 in adventure.
Jericho and her friends, though mourning the loss of Virgil, are safe and out of immediate danger, with Fell and Anjali nowhere to be found. But the fallen one and the dark druid might not be the only things they have...
To our collective surprise, none other than The Belladonna of Italy, Zanna OcchiBianchi, entered the room. She stood there, regal and poised as ever as her sharp eyes slowly surveyed the scene in front of her. After a few moments, her gaze came to rest intently on Atticus. I blocked her path as she began to approach him.
"I mean him no harm, Demon," She said calmly, seemingly unoffended as she waited patiently for me to step aside. I was hesitant at first, but finally moved out of her way. Zanna had always been neutral as far as I knew; what did she have to gain from picking sides now? Atticus stared at her dumbly as she went to him, his eyes wide.
"I... I wasn't sure before, but..." he stuttered, "your light... why don't you have a-"
"I know, young one," the Belladonna interrupted softly as she knelt in front of the kid, somehow managing to look graceful and Queenly even when she was on her knees.
"But this is no time for trivialities. Here." Zanna took his hand and placed a wicked looking dagger in his palm. She closed his hand around it and turned her fathomless eyes back to his.
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"You will need this, Atticus. What you choose to do with it is entirely up to you."
She straightened and turned around just as the people that could only be the party crashers Wiishu was talking about ran into the room. It was priestess Aoife and Shaaman Hecate. They were the only surviving high Witches besides Zanna and Ashanti, who was now supposedly dead.
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Aoife and Hecate scanned the room with narrowed eyes. My blood boiled when Signe flinched under her mother's gaze. The Witch's eyes eventually came to rest on Zanna herself.
"Belladonna..." Aoife addressed her lowly, "Have you come to help or hinder?"
Zanna's face remained expressionless with her reply. "It is beyond my power to choose, Priestess. I leave the choice to inescapable fate," she said cryptically. She turned back to Atticus.
"I will see you very soon, young one. Be brave."
With that, her body disappeared from the top down, like it was being eaten by a shimmering curtain of air.
"Coward!!" Aoife screamed, her eyes murderous. "Don't meddle in our affairs!!"
"Mom..."
Aoife's head whipped towards Wiishu as she timidly spoke up for the first time. It was unnerving; I'd never seen Signe act so unsure before.
"Mom, please... we don't have to do this," Wiishu said in a pleading tone, "I don't want to fight you, I never did!"
Aoife's eyes darkened.
"No, my daughter... you don't have a choice. ATTACK!!"
Apparently the command applied to the Djinns behind us too, because at that moment, every one of them lunged.
