March 30, 2005
Coralis sat straight up and mind-linked what Sonylla told her to the Shadow Elementals.
"We knew it was coming. It's almost surprising they didn't kill us right away," said Alejandro.
Coralis tried to pay attention to the two conversations going on in her mind. She closed her eyes and laid back on the ground, her cuffed hands on her stomach.
"However, they aren't sure if you and Alejandro would be burned. They fear you are the real deal and will call upon Satan and send the fire back against them," said Sonylla, which she also repeated to the Shadow Elementals.
She heard some laughter.
"They're growing smart, although we wouldn't need to call upon Satan to do that and could have done it already if we wanted to," said Coralis.
"Are you planning on letting them burn you, or kill you?" said Audrey.
"AUDREY?" said Coralis, injuring her ankles as she abruptly sat up.
Alejandro gave her a puzzled look.
"What else is being said about us?" said Alejandro privately.
"Everyone at school is talking about it. Please tell me they aren't going to kill you," said Audrey as Coralis lifted an index finger toward Alejandro.
"They won't kill me, that's for sure, but we're considering letting them think they did," said Coralis to Audrey before answering Alejandro privately, "It's my protegee, she hasn't mind-linked me in a while."
"Don't do that. It would kill the spirits and people would revolt. It's been hard enough convincing some people Frank didn't betray you, but no one can prove it's probably the EBEE who had you put on the list of wanted witches. Did you hear what Oleandro said 2 nights ago at the flyball game?"
"Which is probably exactly what the radicals hope will happen. People didn't revolt so far, but anger is rising. At this point, it won't take much for our people to side with the radicals if they get angry enough, that's a good point. What did Oleandro say?"
"Oleandro made a speech during the intermission. He told people my cousin wasn't the one who betrayed you and not to listen to false rumours being spread. He doesn't want people to hate all humans because of what's happening to you and Alejandro Salinz. It helped, but it'd be in vain if you two get killed."
Coralis stayed silent for a moment, thinking about what Audrey just told her. She wasn't expecting Oleandro to address people the way he did, but wasn't surprised, remembering his mate was human, like hers.
"We're also considering escaping the human way, our original plan."
"Do that instead. Anything, but don't let our people think human authorities killed you."
Coralis told the Shadow Elementals what Audrey told her.
"She isn't wrong. Wise words spoken by a child," said Malkya.
"Oleandro spoke to the crowd like that? Wow! I thought you two hated each other," said Alejandro.
"Sports rivalry, but nothing more. He came to my wedding with his mate. All right, so let's plan for our escape and finish the damn mission Jourmol and Erikua started."
Coralis told Sonylla her conversation with Audrey and their decision to plan for an escape to complete the mission started by Jourmol, which would also free him.
"I'll update High Mage Finnas and Sebastian with this. They were hoping you would escape if they couldn't convince the authorities there to release you. I don't know if Tobly came up with a plan to free Jourmol, but odds are you'll get to him quicker, even with you currently sitting in jail."
"Tell Sebastian to ask Gus, Erik and Henry for anything they could find about the jail we're in. With the shadows, we are currently working on the plan to finish Jourmol's mission once we're out, but we also need to make a foolproof plan for the escape itself."
"You got it! Your man will be happy to hear you're planning on escaping before execution day."
The next day, Sonylla met with Sebastian to visit Frank, preferring to give him the latest update in person. Mark was there.
"Don't worry, he's safe. If Frank trusts him, so do I," said Sebastian to Sonylla, reading her uneasy expression.
Frank saw what looked like burned marks on her neck.
"What kind of torture are they doing to her now? Mental one wasn't enough?" said Frank, pointing at her neck.
"Aaah, you saw those," said Sonylla, rubbing her neck. "I managed to conceal most of them but they're still ruining the perfect look of my smooth dark skin. They're starting to play with fire again. I don't understand why if they believe she'll summon Satan to turn their fire against them if they burn her at the stake."
"That's sick! Wait, so everything they do to her, you get it too?" said Mark.
"To a lesser degree," said Sonylla, rolling up her sleeves to show her arms. "It's only at the surface. She doesn't want me to heal the surface wounds because if I do, her guards will know she isn't human and other people will find out about the kind of link we have. It looks bad because she also isn't using her energy to heal quicker, but don't worry, what they do to her is nothing she can't handle."
Frank wanted to punch the wall but stopped himself from doing so. He was livid.
"She got worse when we played flyball against teams like Spain or Britain," said Sebastian.
"That's what she said too. I remember the injuries I started feeling after we did that spell," said Sonylla as she showed them her back. "It felt different, but probably just as bad, yeah. The difference was I could help her heal during intermissions or when I was awake, and most flyball injuries didn't go as deep as those she's getting now."
"It doesn't matter if she received worse injuries when she played flyball or when fighting people during missions, I can't stand the idea that she's been continually tortured over what they think she is since they captured her last week. I'm supposed to be the one to protect her against my kind, yet, it's my kind beating her up now," said Frank.
"Frank, she has been betrayed by our kind. There wasn't anything you could have done to prevent this. Even if I would have killed Jorgie myself back when I built the case against him, someone else would have been used to help set the trap. This isn't your fault. Blaming yourself isn't helping her and she doesn't want that," said Sebastian.
"What kind of torture are we talking about? Besides fire and what looks like lashes. Frank told me about the mind games, but besides that, is it just physical?" said Mark before regretting his question when he saw Frank biting his bottom lip while looking at the ceiling.
Sebastian looked at the floor and Sonylla's facial expression turned somber when she read the anger and rage on Frank.
"Besides the mental games, it's only physical. Nothing of a sexual nature. She said they suggested it, but she told them that if she was who they thought she was, to imagine what she would do if they carried on with their fantasy. They beat her up with a bat, but didn't rape."
Sebastian quickly changed the subject by telling them the reason they came to see him and sat down on a chair. Sonylla and Mark took a seat on the couch, but Frank didn't sit with the others. He opened the fridge to pulled four bottles of beer out of it after asking his guests if they wanted one, and leaned on his elbow by the kitchen island.
Twenty minutes later, Sonylla's hologram lit up and she pressed to answer High Mage Finnas.
"Agent Sonylla Windflame, you need to tell Blue Thunder they need to be out of there before noon on Monday and they cannot fail. They are planning to execute them with silver bullets before burning them at the stake."