LL fic - The other side
The other side
Nicci frowned as she stopped mid-stride. “I’ve had enough of this. Tell me what you want with me or I won’t take another step.”
The other woman turned around and Nicci found herself fixed by a piercing stare. “I got you out of there when I could’ve just as easily let you rot in Rahl’s dungeon so you better do as I say or I will chain you to a tree and leave you here.”
Nicci balled her hands into fists. She could try to fight, to overwhelm her opponent, but she wasn’t stupid, she knew that she didn’t stand a chance against the Mord’Sith especially now that her magic was still bound by that damned Rada’Han around her neck. So she took a quiet breath and began moving forward.
“So will you at least tell me what it is that you plan to do with me?”
She was rewarded with a sinister smile and perfectly arched eyebrow. “All in due time, witch, all in due time.”
…
“That’s what you wanted all along? To change the past just so you become a… good person?”
Nicci spat the last two words with as much disdain as she could muster.
Denna merely inclined her head and smiled, white teeth showing between full red lips. “We all have our demons that follow us wherever we go and quite frankly I’m sick of them, so yes, this is the plan and you will help me cast the spell to change my life if you value yours.”
Nicci slowly shook her head from one side to the other. “You don’t know what will happen, the spell is too powerful to be controlled by just one person. It could all turn on us and we’d be sentenced to lives as slaves or worse.”
Denna took several quick steps forward, agiel vibrating in her closed fist. “You have no choice in the matter, you need to understand that you either cast the spell or I will end your life right here, right now before I find another witch to do it.”
Nicci scoffed but kept a wary eye on the red leather rod in Denna’s hand. “As if anyone else was powerful enough to do it. But you forget one very important fact.”
“And what would that be?”
Nicci pointed at the Rada’Han around her neck. “I cannot use magic even if you tortured every last bit of life out of me.”
“You underestimate me,” Denna replied.
She reached up to grasp the silver necklace with gloved fingers and a moment later Nicci felt a stinging sensation at the back of her neck before the Rada’Han clattered to the ground. She stared wide-eyed at the piece of metal. “What…? How did you…?”
Denna casually raised a shoulder and turned away to look at the runes drawn across the earth beneath them. “Don’t ask, just do what I tell you.”
Nicci wanted to protest, wanted to know how this Mord’Sith was capable of things she’d never seen anyone else do, but it occurred to her that maybe this was her chance to her own life around as well. She was powerful enough and because death was the most probable outcome anyways she had nothing to lose.
She began casting the spell before Denna even had a chance to turn around. They were engulfed in bright light and everything around them disappeared into white fog. The spell was powerful, the runes reacted to her magic and she felt it drain out of her with every breath.
Denna turned and they stared at each other for several long seconds before darkness descended upon them.
…
Nicci slowly opened her eyes and squinted at the sunlight above her. Everything was just a little too bright and she rolled away from the light to recover her sight. She became aware of the soft material beneath her, unlike anything she’d ever felt before.
She sat up abruptly, looking down at the clothes she was wearing. She pulled at the material of her pants with two fingers, frowning at its soft feel.
“What the…?”
A door to her right opened and her eyes snapped up to take in the rest of her surroundings. She was in a room with large glass windows and white walls, strange-looking furniture everywhere.
Her eyes widened as Denna stepped into the room, balancing a tray with what seemed to be food in her hands. “Morning baby, I hope you’re hungry, I made breakfast.”
Nicci’s mouth opened in shock. What had she done now?