The Hidden World

Chapter 12: Journey's End

Sarah's head was still messy. She had a massive headache, but at the same time she felt as if she could finally think for herself, as if some kind of veil had been lifted. She looked at Edmund, now merely a head attached to a torso that had been torn asunder. More than anything, she was curious. The fact that she could think clearly now raised some suspicions as to the nature of the relationship between her and Helena. She glanced at her right arm, now in tatters. "I assume that the spider controlling my prosthetic arm had another purpose, then?" Edmund nodded, the gesture proving to be quite difficult in his current state. "In addition to acting as a controller it also injected you with some rather experimental chemicals that mad you more, err, pliable. You probably noticed that violence felt more appropriate when you were under their effects?" Sarah nodded. In truth, this revelation was quite comforting. She hadn't lost all appreciation towards life, it seemed. Though, some concerns still existed. "But how did the effects end so suddenly? The death of the spider hardly removed the chemicals from my body." "As I said, the chemicals were very much experimental. During the last month you probably developed a resistance toward them, so the spider had to keep the concentration very high. So, when it died, the effect was quite sudden." Sarah nodded. It didn't quite make sense from a scientific point of view. Then again, that was hardly surprising these days. "By the way, you said that Helena can't hear us now...?" Sarah asked. "She has a connection with every single member of her brood. Currently, I have ingested a gem that allows me to pass for a human. Luckily, it also disrupts our connection."

"Look, we don't have much time before Helena starts to suspect something is up," Edmund said. It was clear that he was quite worried. "The two things you need to understand about my master are that her one true allegiance is with herself and that she views everyone else as mere pawns. To her, humans are nothing special." "I must say, I understood as much from the way she acted. And this whole drug-spider-thing just confirmed it," Sarah responded. "I'm glad you understand. But the point I'm trying to get across is that you should cut your ties with her immediately. I beg of you, just leave this city and avoid her – and me – like the plague!" Even though Edmund had not facial features at the moment, his feelings were crystal clear. Yet, Sarah knew this was a request she couldn't fulfil. She looked at Edmund with an apologetic smile. "I understand that you're trying to look out for me, and I appreciate that. But after what I've been through for the last month, I can't just move on. I have decided that I will make sure that no one has to face the same situation I did. But I do promise to try to keep clear of Helena," she said. The idea had been forming in her mind for quite some time now. Even while in the other dimension she had wondered how things would have turned out had Jasmine not given up and accompanied her that fateful night. In a way, the idea seemed like her way to atone for the death of Jasmine, as well. Edmund sighed. "So headstrong and self-assured. Just like your grandfather. However, I must admit that I do appreciate the idea." He spat out the gem he had swallowed just before the appearance of the stone creature. When it hit the ground it broke, releasing all the outsider mana inside it. "I just hope that you will fare better than he did."

Before Sarah could ask Edmund what he had meant, his body started to crumble. In a while only a large spider remained. "This must be Edmund's true body," Sarah thought to herself as she looked at greenish spider start to weave web. Slowly but surely the web started to form into a person. Then came the finer details. The decidedly androgynous body gained a feminine form and soon a familiar dress draped over her. After a brief while of fine tuning and gaining colour, Helena was standing before Sarah. She looked around, and upon seeing no one other than Sarah, she smiled in her unnatural way. "It would appear you have succeeded in taking care of the Witch?" she inquired. Sarah nodded cautiously. While she had been wary of Helena before, the recently made revelations had given her even more reason to be careful around her. Helena's smile crept even wider. "Excellent! I must admit, I was worried when I couldn't see what was going on for so long. I just received word that the Witch's co-conspirators in the other dimension have been dealt with. That means that this whole mess has been finally cleaned." She then noticed Sarah's hand. "Oh, that's a problem that was bound to happen. Well, I'm sure that Edmund can help you with that later." "Not even a word about what the spider did, huh. I'd better keep this exchange short," Sarah thought to herself.