Missiles & Magic

If Lioness thought she would be able to follow what the sorcerer was doing, she was wrong. There was no single artifact or simple incantation. It was a long, complicated ritual. At the end, she wasn't sure if she was awake through all of it, or if she hallucinated parts of it.
Suddenly she stood in a thronged living room.
She braced... and realized there was nothing assaulting her.
Her arms crossed on her chest in an unconscious defensive gesture.
Someone smiled at her. Asked a question.
She couldn't *feel* beyond that.
She felt exposed and vulnerable like never before.

Lioness was getting weary, and worried by the lack of emotion Sarmad was showing.
"Tell me, then, what are you offering me?"
"I'm going to let you go back to your 'friends', if you so wish."
"That's... unconventional..." ...and therefore worrisome.
"But you won't be the same - you'll lose your 'gift'."
Her mind raced, torn between fear and curiosity.
How could he take away an innate magical ability? Impossible. Or?
Could she live better without relying on empathy?
Was he right that she - and the Agency - are too stuck in their ways to adapt?
"I'll take my chances. Do it."

"What do you mean you 'lost' her?" Raven was pacing Eagle's office, looking like a thundercloud.
"She missed her check-in, and didn't complete the task," the director explained. "I have Ant combing through all available security cameras footage in the area, but you know that is pretty much like looking for a needle in a haystack..."
"Can we have Weta and Owl on it as well? The youngster usually has a few tricks up his sleeve, and the old codger..."
"They are wrapping something up, but they will jump in as soon as they can. We'll bring her back, Raven."

Lioness opened her eyes and met Sarmad's gaze.
"Using magic to persuade me mine is somehow 'wrong' seems a bit hypocritical," she said firmly. "Where would *you* be without it?"
His lips curled into a half-smile.
"I know life without magic. It's what I use, not who I am. You can choose to close your eyes again and go back to your dream world... or you can finally wake up and find out what is real."
"Not all awakenings lead to reality... sometimes they only land you in a different nightmare."
He shrugged.
"Are you too scared to try it?"

The garden was a safe space.
The place where everything made sense, where all had its order.
Maybe it was cowardly to hide here now.
But she needed to get her balance back.
But today things looked... different. The fruits were all wrong, the sounds garbled.
She sped up, until she stood in the shade of a twinned tree in the middle of the garden. She breathed a sigh of relief, only to watch the tree split in two, revealing a nest of maggots at its base.

"Would Darrow still love you, if you couldn't magically make sense of him?"

"Men rely on more... straightforward approaches."
To prove a point he touched her again.
"Stop!" she gasped, surprised by her own reaction.
He stepped back, satisfied.
There was a pulse of familiar magic.
The artifact combed her memories, dragging unpleasant ones to the front.
"You can't turn me!" her words sounded weak.
The magic stopped and he finally faced her.
"I don't want to hurt you. Just to open your eyes."
He said it with caring sincerity.
She couldn't look at him.
"You're smart," the baritone persuaded. "You know *they* are using you..."
"...just because of your gift."
She gulped.

"Sorry to have burst your little bubble," she continued when he didn't respond.
The footsteps stopped right behind her back. She didn't turn.
"My life wasn't as sheltered as yours," he said philosophically. "You only confirmed what I knew for a long time."
His fingers brushed the back of her neck, lifting her hair. It made her skin tingle and she had to brace herself not to shudder.
"And what was that?" she asked as the sensation subsided. "That you shouldn't trust the evil West?"
"That women are creatures of subterfuge, especially when they play with magic."
"Aren't men too?"

"At the briefing today," Lioness started gently as she sat across the table from Raven at dinner. "I almost thought you were going to bite the chair in front of you in frustration."
Raven was about to answer, when a tiny voice interrupted.
"You think chairs are for biting, daddy?!" Thea giggled, turning in her high chair and putting her mouth on the back.
"No!" she turned back, wiggling her finger. "Chairs are not for biting! Only food is for biting!"
Raven looked torn between smiling and sighing.
"You're right," he said. Both to his partner and to their daughter.

Raven fixed Lioness with a stare.
"You don't have to do it."
"I don't have to... but I want to. We've been through this. I am an agent."
He shrugged, and dropped the subject. She took it as victory.
***
Three weeks later, she felt guilty, as she remembered that exchange.
Maybe motherhood made her rusty, she never saw them coming before there was a sack over her head.
Whoever "they" were...
She got her answer as door she couldn't see opened in the cell.
"It's not always fun to be swept off your feet," an unmistakable, enchanting voice told her.

"I can't say I wasn't surprised, when I learned your 'accident' has not been quite as fatal as I believed," the velvet baritone continued. "At first I wanted to ask you a lot of questions..."
His footsteps were closing in, but he still stayed out of her line of vision.
"...but ultimately that would be wasting both of our time, wouldn't it? Now that I know who... what... you really are."
"You're right. After all, what is a few questions between friends," she found her voice.
Maybe she was too bold because there was no anger hidden in his emotions...