Mianite: The Third Dimension

11: Diane

Sonja's POV

Tom had been gone for a week now. Erin was mostly recovered, but she still stayed in her hammock for the most part. Or, y'know, next to Jordan. Familiarity, I get it, but it's not like she doesn't know everyone else by now. Goro came and left frequently. Something was wrong with Liri, and Goro was frantically trying to watch us and find his sister at the same time. He means well, but I can tell he's getting the better of himself. And everyone else?  Well tiem reester in all it's glory has done nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. It's time for a change.

"I'm heading out today." I announced, slinging a food pack over my shoulder. Tucker was sitting at the table, eating an apple. He almost choked on it. "What? No. Not without me you're not." He was still a little antsy after the whole I-Almost-Died thing.

"Tucker, would you accept me as a substitute?" Wag called. "I want some more books for our sad, sad little bookshelf."

Tucker rolled his eyes. "We don't need books. We need safety. No dice you guys."

I sat on the table and kicked my feet. "I want to leave for a bit, Wag wants books, you want a bigger stick up you're ass. I get it, we all have our needs."

Tucker stood up. "Not funny. Forgive me for caring about you."

I kissed his nose. "Poor little mad baby. I'll be fine, promise."

Eye contact was key. I counted to three in my head and smiled at him sweetly. He moaned and sat back down, pulling his cap over his eyes. "If you guys are gone for more than one f-ing hour I'm jumping off the wall."

Wag and I were gone. With his hood safely disguising his identity, all we had to worry about was his strong magical essence,  which was totally something we could solve 0 problem. Ugh. We had maybe 30 minutes.

We stepped into the library and pulled books off the shelves. Wag slyly slid them into his cloak, hoping we could get away without talking to anyone, even the librarian. We were almost out the door when a knife blade slid out of no where and landed up against Wag's throat. I was about to shout when I remembered how we were practically criminals, and spoke to Wag's captor instead. "What did we ever do to you?"

She smiled mostly with her red brown eyes, which were so vibrant that you can even see them through the mess of long brown bangs that covered half of her face down to her nose. "Surely you know about the reward those twin dictators are offering for you're asses, especially Mr. Party Tricks over here," she said, twisting her knife on Wag's neck. "Just because everyone else missed you, that doesn't mean I will too. Sucks for you."

I held up my hand slowly. "We know about the magic shortage here, and we're trying to help, but we can't do that if you kill him or turn him in."

She smirked. "Ok 1.) I can't kill him or I lose the quintessence, obviously and 2.) Who said you could actually help?"

"We follow gods from across the realms, including this one." Wag breathed, talking for the first time since he was attacked. "We have godly power on our side."

I heard her gasp. "What gods?" She said, applying pressure to the knife. Wag winced. I started rambling off names. "Um, Ianite, Mianite, Goro, Dianite... um... Li-"

The knife disappeared. Wag exhaled and dropped to his knees.

"I'm Diane." The girl said at last. " And that Dianite bastard has something that belongs to me. I'm helping you from now on and you don't have a choice until I get what I need back."

I took a step back and Wag took a step forward, confronting Diane. "As if we could trust you just like that."

Diane crossed her arms. "I'm just as much of a criminal as you are, Mr.Wizard. I have no friends, nowhere to go and nothing to hide, and I mean that literally, those freaks in the inner city took a solid 3/4s of what made me me. Now here's the deal, I have information you will need without a doubt if you really wanna change things around here, and I have a grudge to settle. All you have to do is trust me."

"No." I said speaking up. "That's not good enough." I pulled a vial of purple liquid from my pocket. "Do you know what this is?"

"Sonja what the hell how did you get rock snake venom?" Wag stared at the vial with disbelief.

"This isn't the first time I've been bored recently, ok? So I took a little trip, big deal, the pay off was great. And useful. So Diane," I said, turning to her. "Do what we need and take your revenge, but if you double cross us this goes into your system, I'll make sure of it. I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to poison you, city officials perhaps, if you really are the criminal you say you are. So what'll it be?"

Diane was silent. Finally she looked at me and smirked. "Deal" she said, sticking out her hand.

When Wag, Diane and I got back everyone froze. Jordan made a move for his slime sword and Tucker made a move for me, first out of protection, and then out of rage. Wag sat them both down next to Erin, who had simply been staring from the table the whole time, and explained (well, except the venom, Wag and I kept that a secret). At the end Jordan chuckled. "I can't believe you guys got mugged at a god damn library."

Tucker tried to ask Diane more questions but she simply gave him the finger and climbed into a hammock which she claimed as her own. She was one of us now, and I just hoped I made the right choice.

For those of y'all who care: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I let school and my own personal problems get ahead of me. Before anyone becomes to involved in the story, I feel like I should mention I struggle with depression and there are days when I want to write and can't because of my lack of energy. That's no excuse, but it is a significant figure none the less. Thank you for you're support. It really does mean the world.