The amount of magic floating just above the shop windows was easily as much as there usually was in the shop, maybe more. She glanced sideways at Athena, who was watching her, still tapping her foot impatiently. The goddess had used all that magic without so much as flinching. How exactly was she supposed to out-magic a god anyways? This was ridiculous.
Not for the first time, she wished she could just rub the bone necklace and ask Styx to smite her, or whatever it was that gods did. But that was just it, Styx was a goddess, not a genie. She didn’t take orders. It was astonishing that she was even here in the first place. Alice darted a glance at the river goddess, who was staring off into the distance, the ever-present black mist rising up from the bottom of her dress and curling over the sidewalk, leaching the brightness from the snow it fell on, turning it grey. She sighed and tilted her head back again to stare at the magic. The motion made something stab lightly into the small of her back, and she suddenly remembered the strange knife she’d strapped on earlier. It was strangely comforting - even though, in fight with the goddess of war, it might as well have been a butter knife.
“Okay,” she breathed, “let’s get this over with.”
Alice shut her eyes tightly. She did not want to see what she’d seen last time, all the magic pointing down at her like loaded guns, strange and threatening. It took a few seconds to find her barrier and break it down, that reluctance and fear that stood in the way of opening herself up to the magic. Finally…finally she stretched out with her subconscious, feeling the threads above her, letting their frantic energy fill her until her fingers and toes buzzed with the hot electricity of the magic. There was potential in each thread she touched. Each strand of magic hinted at what it could be. What it could create. There was potential in even a handful of magic, and this much of it made Alice’s head spin. Now she could feel it coming closer, her entire body tingled as it descended on her, caressing her skin, filling her with radiant energy. As much as it disgusted her to remember the lesson Ambrose had taught her, to remember his words, she allowed them in. She had to, to allow the magic to come in.
Alice pushed more fear away, forced more internal barriers down, and allowed the magic to slip under her skin. The pulse of raw power was dizzying, a rush. Hot and intoxicating. Her cheeks grew warm with it and the darkness behind her eyelids exploded into radiant light.
The light slowly dissolved, revealing the world behind it. Her companions seemed to be frozen around her. Altair was watching her, worry creasing his forehead, his blue eyes serious. But he didn’t move when she looked at him. Gabriel and Maya were clutching at one another, she could see the tension in their muscles, the way they hunched their shoulders. But neither of them moved. Azura and Shakra stood side by side, and Azura’s mouth was open, as if she were saying something. Alice felt a surge of panic and confusion over the roar of the magic in her head. Had she accidently frozen time? She wasn’t like Athena, she didn’t know how to unfreeze it to get everything back to normal. What had she done?
But no. Something cold and wet brushed past her face, and she looked down the street to see snowflakes dancing in the yellow halo of a streetlamp. The world wasn’t frozen, just different. Because she could tell it was different. Something had changed, or maybe she had.
Evening was fast approaching, and the sky was turning darker, the stars starting to emerge one by one. For just a moment, Alice thought she caught sight of something strange, a thin, shimmering thread that connected each star to the next. Just a flash of it, and then it was gone. Was she imagining things? Maybe Azura was right about people going insane from overloading on power. She could feel the magic pulsing through her now, like an electrical charge, it felt like all the hairs on her arms were standing up, like her feet should be floating several inches above the sidewalk. She was like a supercharged human battery right now. Had she already gone insane? How could you tell you were insane?
When she looked back at her friends she saw what confirmed it. They didn’t look like themselves anymore, each one of them had a set of shining silver threads running over their skin, hundreds of tiny lines that shimmered when they shifted, likes strands of Christmas tinsel. It was in the fabric of their clothes and their bare skin. She shifted her gaze quickly, since they were all staring at her with concerned expressions. When she looked up at her shop it was only to do a double take in further disbelief. The very walls of the shop, the bricks beneath the windows, the glass panes themselves, were threaded with the thin silver lines. It struck her than, in a quickening of the pulse and a pang of shock, that what she was seeing was the network. That the sparkling silver threads around her was the magic in the fabric of the world itself. This was what drove people insane, was seeing what the world was actually made of.
Alice turned to Athena, heart in her throat. The goddess was staring at her, arms folded across her chest. Her eyes were flat with boredom. Clearly she had no idea what Alice was seeing right now.
Alice looked hard at her, seeing the silver threads that made up the fabric of her white dress. Impulsively, she reached out a hand towards the goddess, who stared at her in shock as she grabbed one of the silver threads and yanked on it, altering the pattern. When she stepped back, she was shocked to see the dress had turned from white to black.
Complete silence greeted this change, and then someone started laughing, a low, rich laugh full of amusement. Alice let go of the magic abruptly, sagging back against the brick wall. The goddess Styx was standing in the center of the sidewalk, one pale arm raised, finger pointing at the shocked looking Athena. The dark goddess was laughing, her head tipped back, shoulders shaking with mirth.
Athena herself was looking down at her dress, her mouth hanging open in shock, “What…a glamour…”
“It isn’t a glamour,” Styx’s voice became serious, “you know it, sister. The sorceress bested you. Your trick was wonderful, but she has altered a part of the fabric of the universe. A very small part of course, but…”
“No,” Athena’s voice shook, her face was growing flushed, “no she cheated…”
Styx folded her arms across her chest, dark brows drawing down, “She did not.”
“She did,” Athena’s voice was growing steadily higher pitched, and now her fingers curled into fists at her sides, her arms shaking with suppressed rage, “She had to have…”
Styx’s voice was suddenly cool as a winter storm, “Do you question my judgement?”
Athena stammered, “No…I…it’s her…” she whirled on Alice, eyes wide with rage, “it’s you. You did something. You can’t have won…”
Alice, who felt as though her legs wouldn’t hold her if she tried to stand up right now, just glared at the goddess, “Well, I did. That’s why I brought a judge in. And she’s said I’m the winner. Now keep your word and go away forever!”
The faint blush on Athena’s cheeks deepened to a mottled purple, and she gave a guttural snarl of rage, “I’ll kill you!”
Alice gasped, clinging to the brick wall as the goddess of war launched herself towards her, black dress flapping like bat wings as she advanced, screaming with rage.
The goddess struck out furiously, catching Alice on the cheek, snapping her head back painfully into the window behind her. Athena was still shrieking, clawing, screaming she would kill her, and Alice reached for the knife at her back without a second thought, struggling to yank it out of the leather sheath as she fell backwards onto the sidewalk. She landed on her arm, scrapping the skin, still scrambling for the knife. Finally it slid out of the sheath, and she jerked upwards, trying to block Athena’s wild blows with her other hand. She could hear someone yelling, as if from far away, and then she was swing the knife forward, slashing at Athena’s flailing arms.
The goddess shrieked as the blade sliced through her forearm, scrambling backwards, clutching her wound. She looked down at herself in astonishment as scarlet drops slipped through her fingers, when she looked back up at Alice, the pure, animal rage on her face was terrifying, “you cut me. Insignificant little witch! I’m going to rip your guts out and play with them. I’m going to…I’m gonna…going…” her mouth continued to work, but suddenly she was gasping, and her words were slurred and jumbled. Athena’s eyes widened with disbelief, shifting from Alice’s face to the knife in her hand. Alice looked down at the blade, wondering what on earth had just happened.
Styx was suddenly there, catching Athena just as the goddess went ridged and fell backwards almost like a felled tree. The dark goddess stared at the knife, brows raised, “well, little sorceress. We are full of surprises.”