Fire Meets Water - A Kotlc Marellinh Fan Fiction

Chapter 10 - Marella

Marella had also flopped on her bed. Then she got up and started pacing. It couldn't end like this. All the fighting and burning and planning, just to end up as part of the Neverseen? No. Just no. Racking her brain for something useful, she bumped against the wall. That gave her an idea.

Sophie had taught Team Valiant, Linh, Tam, Keefe, Fitz, and Marella an old code from the Forbidden Cities. If she remembered right, it was called morse code. Marella immediately started slamming the wall with her fists.

After about five minutes, her knuckles had cuts on them and Linh hadn't responded in any way. She started pacing again. She absent mindedly picked at the tight cuffs on her wrists.

Marella was all about to give up, when she heard a quiet tapping. It had to be Linh! She was about to yell, but noticed the black object on the ceiling just in time. It must be Fintan's technology; a way of keeping an ear on his new recruits.

"More like his new prisoners," Marella barked sourly. She thought of a message in her head. Are you okay? was good enough for now. Banging angrily on the wall, she tried to communicate with Linh. All was silent.

Marella thought she was not loud enough. But she couldn't be much louder without breaking her fingers.

She pressed her ear to the thick cement.

"Aha!" Linh's fierce tapping echoed faintly around her eardrums.

Fine. You? Any plans? Marella frowned. No plans, she thought. Yet.

Fine. No plan.

No powers. Marella glanced down at the magsidian bracelets that had been forced on her. She didn't know what else to say to Linh. Only two weeks ago there was so much to talk about - like a certain kiss - but seemed impossible now.

The door knob rustled disturbingly. "Dang door! Fintan and all his fancy gadgets!" Marella recognized the voice of the Neverseen woman. But this time, it sounded different. Almost like Marella knew her already. The door's lock clicked, it was now unlocked. The girl scurried to her bed and sat down, swinging her legs over the metal frame.

"What are you doing?" Marella asked, strengthening up. Don't show weakness she thought. "This is my room."

The woman laughed. "Bold! I like it. And, if you must know, I'm here to give you food. You're welcome."

"Okay...." Marella said slowly, "well, what should I call you 'the woman'?" she asked.

"You can call me Crackle," Crackle said. "Of course that's not my real name, but there's no way I'm ever going to tell you what."

Marella's fingers itched to talk to Linh, to ask her if she had someone watching her too, but she couldn't without giving away how they were communicating.

Crackle handed Marella a cold plate. A white roll of bread sat in the middle. You could tell just from looking that it was hard and old. The extra flour on top didn't seem tasty, but menacing. There were some mealy purple stalks, which Marella pushed to the edge of her plate. Then... the yellow pudding. It actually didn't look that bad.

She was probably wrong.

Without the gnomes, the Neverseen's food was supposed to taste, in the words of Keefe Sencen, like old-yeti-sweat-and-gulon-poop-aka-not-tasty.

Crackle stared at Marella waiting for... something. Marella wasn't sure what. She raised an eyebrow in Crackle's direction.

"Am I supposed to eat this?"

"No, but this is all we have. Your other choice is starving, but I don't think Fintan would approve. He has plans for you." Marella rolled her eyes, not liking the sound of that. She hesitantly took a bite of the purple stalks. Wincing, she forced herself to swallow.

"Not half bad," Marella lied, knowing it was way, way, way, more than half bad. "Do you have any bottles of Youth?"

"We do have some, and you can have it, when you start training tomorrow," Crackle replied.

Marella looked up, glad for an excuse from eating the horrible food. "Training?" she asked. But she tuned out Crackle's answer. She was focusing on something bigger.

Where had she heard that voice before?

"..so yeah, I'll come get you too at sunrise tomorrow," Crackle finished.

Just in time to hear Fintan shout through the hall. "Crackle, I need you! There's been a complication in my plan!" Crackle sighed and glanced down the hallway.

"Always asking for help," she muttered. Marella froze. She knew that saying. Right before Crackle shut the door, Marella leaped up and yanked on her hood. It didn't come easily, and the woman stumbled backwards. Marella pulled, and pulled, until the hood ripped off the seams. She gasped, as her suspicion was confirmed.

"Lady Jarma?" she breathed. 

Word Count: 788 

Art credits: Homebickles