Aurora

Eighteen

[ex malo bonum]

Dale looked up as her grand bedroom doors swung open, and Adhara hurried in. The fabric of her billowing dress hissed like an angry snake was following her as the daughter of Nemesis marched into Dale's room. Once the doors shut behind her, Dale got to her feet in a hurry, nearly tripping over herself.

"So?" Dale insisted, golden eyes wide. "What do you have for me?"

Adhara took a deep breath, her violeteyes flickering. "Firstly, I am not your personal messenger. Secondly, I couldn't tell them everything. I ran out of time."

Dale chewed on her bottom lip. "What did you manage to tell them? How'd they take it?"

Adhara dropped Dale's inquisitive gaze and swept over to the ornate sofa nearby, perching herself on the top of it. "I told them that you were okay, that the mansion moves, and that Luke is Aether."

Dale nodded. "But they don't know that all the answers to our questions are here."

"I'm afraid I wasn't able to tell them that," Adhara's voice was tight. The daughter of Nemesis cleared her throat and looked towards a window, the sunlight making her bronze pallor glow.

"Why not?" Dale hedged, taking a step closer. "Did something happen?"

Adhara pursed her lips. "Mark happened."

Dale blinked, feeling like she'd been hit between the eyes. Oh. "What'd that idiot do?"

A ghost of a smile tugged at Adhara's lips, but she continued to frown. "Oh, nothing. Simply accused me of being a traitor and a villain and the root of all his problems." Her voice was light, but with each word, Dale felt like she wanted to leave this mansion if only to smack her best friend upside the head.

"Adhara, he doesn't mean it," Dale tried, but Adhara inhaled, looking away. "He's just..."

"I know," Adhara interrupted, her voice resonating. "But there's an ounce of truth to everything people say, especially in lies. As the keeper of balance, I've gotten pretty good at telling when someone is honest and genuine or not. Mark meant every word."

Dale shut her eyes, willing her mother to use her power to smack Mark with a tree branch the next time he passed under one. When she opened her eyes, Adhara had gotten to her feet, brushing off her swishing gown.

"Did they have any messages for me?" Dale asked.

Adhara nodded. "Amelie said that she'll try to break the barrier, given its being made of Mist. That's all I felt compelled to tell you." She started for the door. "Anything else?"

Dale shook her head, feeling numb somehow. "No."

Adhara took that as her cue to leave, it seemed. She continued for the door, but just before she disappeared, Dale called, "Mark's crazy about you, Adhara. He may be mad and sad and distraught right now, but really, he just wants you to be okay."

Adhara tensed, but she glanced over her shoulder, raven waves cascading down her back. "I'm afraid the only person he wants to be okay is you, Dale."

And with that, the daughter of Nemesis shut the doors behind her.

~~

Later that evening, as night was falling over the mansion, Dale decided her crusade. She was in the center of her enemy's stronghold, with the answers to freeing innocent halfbloods and protecting hundreds buried somewhere in these golden halls. All she had to do was find it, find someway to tell her friends, and then find a way out of this hell.