The Exchange

Chapter 24

'What is that supposed to mean?' I ask him.

He just said the experiment already started, but that couldn't possible be. I wasn't aware of it. Was this conversation some sort of test?

Without answering me he calls in the men who brought me here.

'Get that old lady in here. I need her. Now.'

'What old lady? What do you need her for?'

'So many questions, little puppet. Don't. You will find out soon enough.'

I was too startled to tell him not to call me his puppet.

But in some way I was.

A puppet on a string. Doing whatever his master wants him to do.

And I hated it.

The men came back, with the old lady now.

The old lady was small, about the same height as Amren.
She had grey hair and kinda looked like how you imagine a witch in fairytale. Old, hunched, somewhat ugly.

But she wasn't really ugly. I mean for as far as I can tell. Her face was covered in blood.

A lot of blood streamed down her face from a cut right above her left eyebrow, covering the leftside of her face in blood.

A bruise was on her right cheeck, and she had a split lip.

But her eyes...

Her eyes where pitch black where normal people had white. And because of the black, the aquamarine color of her iris and pupil popped out even more.

Her eyes were beautiful.

And she wore her wounds and blood with pride on her face.

When she looked my way, I gave her a small head nod in respect.

Nobody saw, but she did.

She nodded back at me, and made me feel like I still had hope.

In my head I wrote a note to myself that if I ever get out of here, I'll rescue her. I won't let her rot here.

The lord started talking.

'Anna, meet Althea. I'll quickly explain the experiment to you, alright?'

Whatever you say.

'Althea, I want you to show Anna something. Use your magic to show her something in her head. Anything, it doesn't matter if it's a thing, a number, a color, I don't care.
After that, Anna, your part begins. My men will try to get you to tell them what you saw. All you have to do, is not tell them. Do not tell anyone, let it be a secret between the two of you,' he said, pointing to Althea and me at the last part.

'That's all you have to do. Easy, right?'

When none of us answered, the lord seemed a bit disappointed, but not surprised.

'Well, let's begin then. Althea, you're up.'

When Althea didn't make any moves, it looked like she didn't want to do what she was asked, easy as it was.

The lord noticed and made a vague move with his hand.

One of the men saw and walked up to Althea. He hit her in her face, causing the split lip to start bleeding again.

I gasped, and Althea brought her hand to her face.

She then turned her face to the front again, not causing this to wipe the pride of her face.

When she didn't make any moves again, I saw the lord getting impatient.

'Althea,' I said.

'It's okay, show me something. It's okay.'

Apparently, these were the words she wanted to hear. She still hesitated, but slowly walked towards the chair I was sitting in.

Her aquamarine eyes looked at me, and I nodded to let her know that she should continue.

She stood still behind me, and slowly brought her hands close to the sides of my head.

I closed my eyes and the nails of her index fingers sank into my skin.

I took a deep breath and let her magic in.

It hurt, my magic was fighting with hers, because it was a strange magic.

I tried to control my magic, I tried to contain it and let her do her work.

A massive headache was starting, and I grabbed the armrests of the chair.

My breathing started to speed up, and I started to see things.

It was really starting now.

At first, I saw things that were familiar, so I started to get confused.

Memories of me and my family were flashing in front of my eyes. What was she doing?

When it stopped, I saw the thing Althea wanted me to keep a secret.

I saw one man. A very special man.

Azriel.

Smart. Althea was searching through my memories for something that was hard to tell the lord and his men.

If I told them I saw Azriel, I put him in danger, which makes it even harder for me to tell them.

I started to like the way Althea worked.

I opened my eyes, and saw Althea next to me.

She nodded at me, and I nodded back.

Then, she walked away.

'Is it done?' the lord asked. He sat in his throne, not amused and impatient.

I nodded.

The lord made a move with his hand and one of the men grabbed Althea's arm and brought her out of this room.

The other man walked to another away as well, but stayed in the room. He came back with ropes and tied my hands to the chair.

'Don't worry,' the Lord said, 'this is just to make sure that the experiment goes fair and easy.'

Fair and easy. Yeah, right.

The other man came back, with something in his hand. I couldn't see what, because I was sitting with my back to the door.

Something heavy was put down on the table.

'Remember Anna, the only thing you have to do, is not tell us. Don't tell them. Understand?' the Lord asked.

I nodded.

Right after, the man tilted my head back.

A cloth was put over my face, and I had seen too many movies to not know what was going to happen.

Then, the water came.