Missiles & Magic

"It's really pathetic, your insistence of dying alone, for the 'good of many'," the voice of her captor sounded almost bored in Swan's mind. "Why not live to fight another day? What happened to not leaving people behind?"

The agent answered only by dignified silence.

"You always think you are so much better. More moral. Your conscience and your hands clean. But are they really? Isn't that just a little, tiny bit hypocritical and selfish? Why not give them a choice to die for you?"

The images that followed almost didn't let her notice the creak of ship boards underfoot.

Her defenses were insufficient, the mind battle too exhausting. Swan needed a different tack, and the moment's respite gave her opportunity.

"Tell me about yourself?" she asked the intruding consciousness.

Deep womanly laughter responded, almost too genuine.

"Oh, would you like to hear my big evil plan?" an enchanting alto asked. "Or are you looking for a chink in my armor?"

Swan kept her thoughts and emotions carefully neutral, tinged with a mirror of amusement.

"I'm just a woman trying to make it in this world. Queen Witch for those who know neither magic, nor power, when they see them."

The Library was quiet, despite the number of agents milling about. Nobody dared disturb the silence.

Whispers of the tomes sounded like swell of the sea.

"It happened before," Mouse spoke sotto voce. "Before our time. We can find the accounts."

Raven shook his head. 

"I'll listen to it from her one day. Once we..." ...recover the body.

Mouse would rather know now.

What if the enemies found out what Aniani is? If Swan didn't die quickly enough?

"Somehow dying never feels like the worst option," Raven said philosophically, apparently reading her mind. "Unless someone else needs to do it."

The shield dissipated. Rough hand yanked Swan to her feet. She could see lips moving, but the ringing in her ears was louder than whatever insults they hurled at her.

Blinking, she realized her attempt failed. But the grip on her mind relaxed. She shivered - with shock or cold, she could not distinguish. Darkness shrouded the world around them. No way to know where she is. 

Her magic reached to the quell again, but before she could pull more than a sip, a portal blinked into existence. She was unceremoniously pushed through. On the other side the mental shackles reengaged.

Swan felt the other consciousness pressing heavily on her mind. Keeping her simultaneously subdued but supported, almost floating. Within her own mind, out of her own body.

She barely registered they were still moving. But suddenly she felt it. An influx of power. A source. Could it be?

No. The shackles held too tight. Never wavering in the control and torture that consumed emotions and thoughts.

But part of her mind returned to her body. And started moving. She felt her captors' fear of what surrounded them. 

And so she threw herself to the side. The explosion turned everything white.