“You couldn't have given me a better opening if you tried, dear.” A familiar female voice taunted Myra.

The images, feelings, and smells became concrete. Myra struggled against the bonds, blinking rapidly. This had to be a dream or something. She couldn't be captured again.

Myra was in a small cave, lit only by fire. A few things were strung around: a horribly molded blanket and an incredibly thin looking pillow, a basket of molding fruit and a set of dirty, but folded clothes. The fire was in a little pit dug into the ground and surrounded by rocks.

Her incredulousness must have shown because the woman spoke again. “Nope, nope, nope! You're not dreaming. I have gotten you. Once that lord told you where the gates were thinnest, I knew I had my chance. My troll came back to tell me of his failure, but I just knew there was a way to get you! All I had to do was be patient. Only moments really!”

As she spoke, the woman came into the meager light. It was the girl Nathan's friend had tried to trade Myra to! Amoria was wearing a green frilly dress this time. It was immaculate. Either she had some kind of magic to keep her dress clean or she hadn’t been here long. She snapped her delicate, child looking fingers.

This could so not be happening. She had to get out of here now!

Myra’s eyes welled up with tears of fear and she wrenched at the ropes binding her. How could the girl have done that when Myra wasn't even there? That wasn't fair! Magic was great and all and possibly defied physics, but how in the world? Everything she knew before had some way to fight against. How could one fight when one was transported and tied up to where one couldn't even move?

The troll came into view. His face was bloody and it looked like he might have been electrocuted. Patches of his skin were burned and what meager hair he had stood up on end.

Myra tried to back into the wall she was pressed against. Surely, Amoria didn't mean to hurt her. She wanted Myra to help her. Myra couldn't do that if she was hurt. Amoria realized that, right?

Amoria laughed again. “I won't hurt you. Never let it be said that Amoria would stoop to torture someone. No, I have minions to do that for me. No, he's here to keep you in good behavior.” Amoria dipped her head towards the troll. “Him I hurt because he hurt me. He failed to capture you and I almost lost you! How embarrassing would it be to not be able to hold onto a little human?!” She winked at Myra. “We'll just keep your powers to ourselves for now, hm? Now, right to it! I'll throw minor forces at you and you deflect them. This way I can see how much power you have and know where to begin. Remember what you did with my troll earlier.”

Amoria swirled her hands in a way Myra hadn't seen yet. Before Myra could blink, let alone try to defend herself, the girl’s attack hit her. It felt like someone tackled her, like they were able to hit every inch of her body with all their strength. Air rushed out of her. The worst headache she’d ever had spread through her whole body. She felt weak, physically and mentally.

“Well, that wasn't near good enough! I guess I should untie your hands. You can't just use your mind, hm?” She jerked her head to the troll.

Her minion pounded forward. Not that he moved quickly or with force. Trolls were just that big. In the little cave, his every move felt magnified.

On reflex, Myra tried to jerk away and ended up with squirming a bit. He roughly turned her and shoved her against their cave wall, scraping her face against hard stone. His stench settled even more deeply in Myra’s nose and mouth, making her gag. One giant hand grasped both of her wrists as the troll pulled the knot loose. The rope fell to the floor next to her.

“Pick it up now. We can't have her finding some way to escape with it.” Amoria demanded.

The troll obeyed and moved back to his original position out of the firelight. Now that she knew where the troll was, she could make out his outline.

Myra turned, holding her hand to her face. The scrapes burned. Myra knew they weren't terrible injuries, but if she didn't treat possible infections, this could get bad, fast. Well, worse than it was.

“Once more, shall we?” Amoria asked.

“Please don't,” Myra pleaded. “I can't do this.”

“You won't if you don't think you can. Believe, girl. Who knows? If you impress me enough, maybe I'll let you out of here for a while. Otherwise, this is the only food you will receive. Think you're hungry and uncomfortable now? Imagine after a few more lessons and you have been here for days. Try harder, will you? I am on a tight schedule.”

Amoria hit Myra again and again. Her success rate continued to fall. She thought she should get used to the pain or find a way to use it. Like how the sensei in a Japanese movie always talks? Use the pain. Embrace it and be stronger. Myra tried. She really did.

Myra felt the all over pain and embraced it. Her body shook, quivered with the effort of keeping her standing. Her vision darkened. She could still kind of see, but the few details she could make out before were lost. Myra couldn't see the troll anymore, but that was good. He was a distraction.

The only way for her to get out of this was to best Amoria and find a way to escape. Amoria wouldn't have kidnapped Myra if she didn't think Myra couldn't offer her something and if Myra could, that meant it was something Amoria didn't have. Somewhere within Myra, lay power Amoria didn't possess, couldn't possess. Myra could have power over Amoria if she could only find it. Amoria was playing with a double edged sword and was about to get cut.

Leaning on the cave wall, Myra sank into it and tried to push the energy it created into her hands. Thrust it out in front of her like a net. It would capture Amoria’s energy and Myra could use it for herself. She didn't know where this knowledge came from, but it sprung into her head like trying to remember a fact one had just forgotten. She felt the energy in her fingertips build, electric, sparking. She still couldn't see, but that didn't matter. Amoria was right in front of her. All Myra had to do was capture Amoria’s power and fling it back with some of her own.

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That sounded scary, but if Myra added even a few zings of her own power, it might overpower Amoria.

Just when Myra got it focused, Amoria hit her again and it fell apart. Myra fell apart.

She simply slid down the wall. A piteous moan escaped her despite herself. Her eyes sank to narrow slits, unfocused. The already dark cave became no more than suggestions of shapes. Amoria's shape moved towards Myra, her voice a soft, condescending murmur. She spoke for a moment until she realized Myra wasn't going to reply. With another soft sound, Amoria crouched right in front of Myra, her face inches from Myra’s.

"When you wake, we will attempt once more. Fare better next time and I will bring you fresh fruit." Amoria promised, her petite face cruel despite the sweet tone. "If not, I'll leave you in The Forgotten Wastes. Even in a hundred years, not a soul would come across your bare bones." She smiled as if she made a joke.

Myra wasn't quite unconscious when Amoria and her troll disappeared. For what felt like hours, Myra lay in a stupor, unable to move, focus her eyes or even form a thought. Slowly, her circumstance dawned on her.

This fae, this spoiled, arrogant child. For that's what she was. Myra didn't care how many years Amoria had lived. She was a child. She hit Myra with an apparently medium force four times and incapacitated Myra completely. What happened to not hurting her? Skewed logic on that one.

Even so, Amoria was going to do it again tomorrow.

Or whenever she came back.

Myra had to find a way out of here. No one knew where she was. It was all up to her. Myra latched onto that thought and let it reverberate around her still addled mind.

Without a father around and even though her mother loved her and was there when Myra had needed her, Myra still had to take care of some difficult things herself. Especially when she realized she could use magic. Everything Myra knew about it she had to teach herself, with the exception of the last few weeks.

Words from magic and spell books came back to her. Philosophy, religion, poetry, history and doctrines of discipline tumbled through her mind.

After a while, the feeling in her fingers began to return. Myra hadn't even realized she’d lost it. Her fingers twitched spasmodically and the feeling returned to her limbs. As it did, the fog lifted from her mind.

The fae earlier hadn't told Myra much that she couldn't have figured out on her own given time. Every book she’d ever read that even remotely touched on how to get what one wanted had told her.

All Myra needed was her will. It was just going to be quite a bit more difficult than it was before. She simply had to bring forth her will, stronger than she ever had before, imagine exactly where she wanted to go and she would be there. Just like she had earlier that night. She just had to want it more than anything.

Myra refused to think of her friends freaking out over her disappearance and their own attack. And possibly injuries. She’d return home and everything would be just as it should.

Everything around her now didn't matter. She forced away the feeling of hard stone beneath her, ignoring the way it cut into her skin.

Just like before, she let the sounds, sights, smells, feelings and tastes of the dormitory and the girls she shared it with, fill her senses. Only this time, she thought of how things were in the early morning. That's about what time it was now.

Illa's snoring would be coming softly even through both of their closed doors. Myra’s own breathing would be deep and slow with sleep. There would be that soft glow from the night lights. By now the smell of popcorn would be faint, but still slightly there. Especially since the bowl was probably still on the end table. They usually had popcorn on Friday nights. The weight of Myra’s blankets over her would be comforting and the softness of the cotton sheets would be lovely and smooth. She’d still have a remnant of mouthwash taste in her mouth.

As Myra remembered and imagined each thing, sensory input from her actual surroundings disappeared. She became locked in what was inside her own head.

That was the easy part.

When Myra was in the weak spot, that was all she’d needed. But now, she had to break through the barrier all on her own.

She reached out a hand in her mind, to pull at the covers she imagined were on top of her. What she felt was the strangest thing. A sensation similar to putting one’s hand in cobwebs sank over her. It came with a heavy weight, as if she were straining against a physical object. It almost felt just like before when Amoria attacked her.

Was it magic, too? The magic that kept the two worlds separate?

She stayed like that for a while. How long, she wasn't sure. She just didn't know what to do next. How could one fight against magic? Amoria's test had shown that Myra didn't know. But dammit, she had to learn and now! There was every possibility that Illa and Summer and Nathan needed her. Their defenses had been overcome. Maybe they had been physically, too. It sounded crazy that she could be able to help them or even be in time, but if there was even half a chance Myra had to be there.

And there was definitely no way she was waiting for her kidnappers to come back.

"Magic is truly what one can imagine." An author's words came back to her.

What she can imagine. The barrier felt like a wall, a strong, flexible wall. Every wall, though, had its weak spot.

Myra probed the feeling of the weight, imagining she was pushing against it with various parts of her body. It felt as if she could almost push through it with a finger, but definitely not her whole body. Over her torso it was the strongest. Her hands encountered slightly weaker portions and her feet somewhere in between. Myra’s tactics changed.

She thought of herself walking, peering at a fence for the planks that were old, rotten and torn or altogether missing.

And found one. She slipped an imaginary foot into the hole. The rest of her followed suit as if she were truly walking through a fence.

Myra was free! She had done it! She was free from Amoria and had managed to transport herself.

So excited was she by her success that she didn't realize she wasn't where she wanted to be until she’d skipped several feet in pure joy.

Where was she?

"Miss, do you have your ticket? Miss?" A friendly voice asked.

Myra blinked. The smell of stale, long since burned popcorn filled her nose. In front of her was an old fashioned looking box office with a sidhe man looking at her in askance. Turning around, Myra only saw darkness as if all the lights behind her had been turned out. In front was only the box office and a single door. She couldn't even see what the door was connected to.

The sidhe man waited politely, his head slightly cocked to the side. Why she showed up here instead, Myra wasn't sure. Maybe something latched onto the popcorn idea? Considering it was a theatre, that seemed likely. On top of that, Myra hadn't opened a gate like she'd wanted. She just poofed herself to another place. Could that have been part of it?

An overwhelming sense of longing and frustration welled over her. Illa and Summer definitely weren't here. She had only half succeeded. Inexplicably a knot of tension relaxed in her shoulders as the scene brought back memories of when she had toured ancient forests with Illa and Summer. Myra knew all she wanted was to be home and assure herself that her friends were safe and assure them that she was, but something about this place latched onto her.

Myra turned back around and slowly walked closer. The 'building' started to come into view. It was like the party she'd gone to only days earlier. An entire tree trunk had been used to create the theater, just like the redwoods of California. The warm brown blended with the darkness at its edges, where seemingly small grasses grew. Its color took on a hint of red near the middle. Myra looked up and couldn't see the leaves or even where branches separated off. Just straight up. An opening had been created to one side and a ticket booth to the other.

The sidhe repeated his request in a pleasant voice. "Miss, I'll need your ticket."