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Farah was well aware of how much she was risking. But staying away was no longer an option: the longer Rosalind kept the school under control, the less time Farah had to spare. Her students were in immense, unthinkable danger. Rosalind intended to use them all as cannon fodder without a drop of pity, just to achieve her own ends. The mind fairy hastily went through the documents, hoping that she would still be able to reveal the truth to everyone. Several times Farah regretted not taking Saul with her, but she had no right to risk the life of another person she loved so much. She couldn't even imagine what would happen once Saul didn't find her in bed next to him in their temporary shelter. But there was no turning back. Farah had already been to every possible place where the necessary documents could be found. She remembered well where she had put them, but since then the school had undergone considerable changes and now Farah could not even find her own things. This cluttered room in East Wing was the very warehouse where unnecessary or obsolete items were deposited: photographs of long-gone and forgotten times, documents, student forms, journals with notes. it was all in boxes that looked exactly the same. But Farah felt something she was looking for had found its place here. That document was a treaty signed by Queen Luna, where she confirmed the supposedly past evacuation of Aster-Dell and agreed to destruction of the town. It certainly should have been. This was what Rosalind had been talking about in order to convince her squad of the correctness of her actions. Farah supposed it might have been a lie, but it was still worth checking.
Queen Luna, who was extremely reverent about reporting, could not allow such a thing happen without her written consent. The mind fairy reckoned that both Rosalind's and the queen's signatures should be there, which would prove their culpability for what had happened and could be the instrument for their voluntary resignation from their posts. The journals, books, and other piles of papers in Farah's hands flipped swiftly and didn't stay long - she tried to do everything quickly for fear of being seen. Putting one book of notes back, the fairy took out the next and, using magic, made the pages turn by themselves, guided by smooth motions of Farah's fingers. Wholly concentrating on her search for information, Farah was not immediately aware of the danger very near to her. And when she did, it was too late to do anything about it as someone had already entered the room and spotted her. Farah only sensed it, but did not hear it. The man behind her didn't make any unnecessary noise. Or rather, he didn't make any noise at all. His footsteps were soft and cautious.
For a second Farah stopped leafing through her book, frozen in place, trying to find a quick solution. The man behind her stopped, causing a frantic heartbeat in the mind's fairy chest. She appealed in vain to her composure, pleading with herself to breath more calmly. But the enemy was standing right behind her, and she felt as if she could hear his breathing and literally see a triumphant grin spread across his face. Farah was sure it wasn't Rosalind. That one wouldn't be stretching her victory in such anticipation. There was only one person left and that only made the tension in her whole body worse. All these thoughts and feelings flashed by faster than Farah would have thought possible. She decided on a tactic of total acceptance and surprise, hoping that the man behind her would buy it. The problem was that he had always been extremely hard to fool, but now there was no choice.
Pretending no longer to read the emotions of the confident uninvited guest, Farah continued nonchalantly reading from the pages of one of the books in her hands. Letters and numbers began to blur in front of her eyes, which confused Farah for a moment, but then refocused all her thoughts back on reading the notes. The footsteps behind her were getting closer and the room seemed to get smaller, narrowing the space and leaving the mind fairy alone with twisting fear and tension in her insides.
- Come on, Dowling! You know very well I'm here.
Andreas's voice made Farah shudder faintly, stopping to turn the pages again. She looked straight ahead, cursing to herself that she had not thought to search the room more freely. She and Andreas were now sandwiched between two massive, iron shelving units that were filed from top to bottom with boxes containing no small amount of mystery.
- I suggested you don't fight, - he said and his voice still emanating an abominable, triumphant sound. - You've been found out, thanks to the magic you recklessly used to pick locks. Now the whole Alfea is looking for Farah Dowling and I'm very glad I could make it first...
As soon as the man had finished chanting dithyrambs to himself, Farah decided to take a risk - quickly turning around, she intended to hit her opponent with magical wave. Andreas' reaction was instantaneous, as if he had been expecting this action. The man struck Dowling across the face with force, causing her, in the cramped space, to run into one of the shelves with her forehead and collapse to the floor. Her head throbbed and her eyes involuntary became wet, causing her vision to become visibly impaired. A dull pain pulsed throughout her head, causing a slight nausea. Groaning in pain and leaning on both hands, Farah tried to rise up, disoriented and not quite sure where she was relative to herself. The fairy's movements slowed and she tried to attack Andreas at random when he grabbed her arm and rolled her completely over onto her back, pinning her to the ground. Breaking free from the tenacious grip, Farah despite her opponent's smugness, still managed to concentrate magic in her fingertips, but the next second she was screaming in pain at her wrists. She didn't even need to look at them to know that runic restraints the cause.
- Shut up!
Andreas clamed one hand over Dowling’s mouth, gazing into her hate-filled eyes.
- Unpleasant pain, eh? Beatrix was of the same opinion.
Removing his hand and allowing Farah to breathe fully, he straddled Dowling’s legs more comfortably, squeezing them with his hips. The mind fairy twitched, now ready to engage her once friend. Fear instantly evaporated as she looked into the eyes of the one who had betrayed their friendship. The one who had known of Rosalind’s plans all along and hadn’t thwarted her, hadn’t warned her friends. The one who had abandoned his son, the one who had imprisoned Saul and aided in the murder of Farah herself.
- Don’t move, - Andreas hissed.
The fairy, well aware of how the slightest resistance from her would anger this traitor, jerked harder, helping herself with her hands and trying in vain to throw the man off her.
- I said, - Andreas squeezed the fairy’s throat hard, leaning close to her face, forcing Farah to open her mouth, - don’t move! You may have been one of the best against the Burned Ones, but you were always powerless against me in hand-to-hand combat.
Farah was still able to breathe, but one more little squeeze would be enough to cut off the fairy’s oxygen. As she stared at his hated face, Farah did something she didn’t regret for a second. The greasy spit hit the man square in the face, and he slapped the fairy across the face with a vicious snarl. Farah cried out, feeling the headache intensify. Andreas grabbed the fairy’s face, giving her a painful squeeze, forcing her to look up at himself.
- How stubborn you are! And getting worse every year, as far as I’m concerned. But at least you still have your beauty…
Andreas ran his thumb across the fairy’s blood moistened lips, grinning at the hatred and lust for revenge his former friend was looking at him. When he removed his hands from her face, Farah’s whole body tensed and Andreas felt it. The fairy followed his every movement carefully, feeling her legs slowly begin to grow numb.
Andreas took a small, elongated vessel from his pocket, a pale blue liquid at the bottom of it. The man unceremoniously gripped Farah’s chin, with the obvious intention of liquefying the fairy’s drink with some unidentified shit.
- Ben made it, - Andreas said in a nonchalant tone. – If it’s any consolation.
- What makes you think, - she said again, her mouth tasting unpleasantly of blood, - that I would drink it?
- You don’t want our mutual acquaintance Silva to get hurt, - the man grinned. – We were able to figure out your location before you even got here. We were going to send a squad, but you showed up just in time to make a surprise visit.
- You’re a liar! – Farah hissed.
- You want to find out? Besides, there’s Ben and his kids left here, Bloom, for one. We could take anyone and make them suffer and it would all be on your conscience. And all you have to do is drink this, - Andreas lightly shook the contents of the vessel.
Farah knew that this could indeed be the deepest lie, but she did not want to risk anyone’s life but her own. She obediently opened her mouth, sincerely hoping that she wouldn’t die now.
- Good girl, – Andreas whispered sweetly, pouring the potion into the fairy’s mouth.
Farah coughed instantly, to which the man reacted immediately, lifting the fairy’s head a little higher.
- What is it? – coughing out her own lungs, she asked.
- A sedative, - Andreas said as if nothing had happened. – It will knock you out for a couple of hours so I can hand you over to Rosalind. She missed you.
After mentioning her former mentor, Farah flared up again, trying to use her hands and finally free herself from her old friend’s grip.
- Shh, - Andreas intercepted Dowling’s hands with ease, placing them on either side of her head, - relax. Don’t make it worse for yourself, Farah.
The heaviness in her head increased with each second and then spread throughout her body. There was an overwhelming weakness that was hard to resist. Her mind was in the grip of a strange mixture forcibly poured into her mouth. The fairy watched the fuzzy features of Andreas’s face spread into a grin across his satisfied face. His eyes were rapidly closing, denying Farah any means of preventing him from loosing consciousness. Resisting to the last, Farah finally succumbed to the enticing effects of the potion and passed out, abandoning her attempts to persuade her mind to control itself in spite of her will.