Skinner left soon after their talk, informing Sabrina he must return to her father or risk suspicion. Sabrina accepted but felt boiling panic run through her as she watched him leave. She wondered whether she just let the only person who knew her true intentions walk free, possibly to report back to her father. The idea of Skinner’s betrayal to her father made sense, regarding how poorly her father treated him. She decided, at last, to allow her mind to become completely consumed in Alchemy.

She began brewing the Goldrush Poison again, this time combining the brew with a catalyst for amphibian poison, not reptilian venom. The potion became diluted as it should have, and Sabrina was thankful Skinner arrived when he did. It would have taken her several days to discover Goldrush was made from the toxin of an amphibian and not reptilian. These details mattered when it came to the fine art of alchemy.

With her potion brewing in a small cauldron, she pocketed Thana’s blood for safekeeping, and left her laboratory, hastily venturing through the sewer's vast network of tunnels. She knew where she was of course and before long, she arrived at the surface. The two moons were high and captivating, as the male moon chased the female moon in its infinite act of affection.

She felt the thrill of moving again, the taste of the night air on lips, the wind that stroked at her hair. She leaped, sticking to the side of a building, and climbed. Now that she was moving her body which was leanly coated in smooth muscle, she felt ravenous hunger rise within her. She needed to feed, and the city offered a banquet of dishes. She hadn’t gone as far to try anything…too human, but the city of Leeside had its fair share of cats and dogs.

Moving from rooftop to rooftop, she heard every step that thudded below in the streets, almost all were the marching steps of the WC. As she made herself westward, however, considering what the taste of a raw fish might be like, she heard hushed voices come below. She landed on the next roof with deaf silence.

“Come on—quickly, this way.” Came a whisper as quiet as the wind. Sabrina crawled to the edge of the tiled roof and peered out over it. Below her, she saw not one, but three noticeably young women, each donning a shaded hooded. They moved as silently as they could through the city streets, the lead woman guiding them as she glanced around corners in search of any WC. Sabrina crawled spider-like, stalking them like a jungle cat.

She felt that same elation at being undetected, having the power to kill at her disposal but choosing not to…not yet perhaps. The woman leading the trio took one last look around the corner, no doubt ensuring they would not be interrupted, then crouched beside a sewer grate.

“Okay, help me.” She said, and Sabrina faintly recalled the sound of that voice. The women lifted the sewer grate with great difficulty, all straining together under its moderate weight. Each one peered down in the black abyss and Sabrina could almost taste their fear.

“I’ll go first.” Said the familiar voice, placing an oversized leather boot on the first ladder step.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Sabrina softly, leaping from her great height to land skilfully before them. The woman all turned started, one of them squealed but was silenced when another sealed her mouth shut with a large hand. The lead girl slipped in fright and went falling into the sewer hole.

Without thought, Sabrina opened her mouth to release two strings of sticky webbing that caught the girl right before she disappeared into the darkness below. The girl that squealed, squealed again, but the sound came out like a muffled bird song. The lead girl climbed out of the sewer, shaking from the terror of just falling. Sabrina snipped the webbing from her tonsils with the inside pincers and approached.

Thankfully, all but one of the young women were too afraid to say anything, except the one that continued to squeal beneath a clasped hand.

“If you don’t stop squealing Casey,” Sabrina warned, “I’m going to get Mona here to punch you in the face.”

Casey, the young woman she had shared an orphanage with, opened her eyes in wide horror in recognition. Mona, the short, flat-nosed, chubby girl holding Casey’s mouth, smiled.

“Sabrina?” asked Isabella in disbelief. She had been the one leading the trio.

Isabella was Sabrina’s arch-nemesis back in the Torrent Orphanage, now, however, she amused herself at the prospect of Isabella being anything more than an irritating tick.

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“You don’t want to go down there.” Sabrina said truthfully, “The west wing sewer is filled with things you can only dream about in your nightmares.”

Mona let go of Casey’s mouth slowly, allowing her a breath before she passed out. There was a second of silence, then Casey’s eyes widened even further as she acknowledged the webbing across the ground in front of her. She squealed again, which was swiftly silenced by a moaning Mona.

“Shut up Case.” Mona snarled through gritted teeth.

Isabella approached, her face contorted as if she was looking upon a hideous monster. Sabrina supposed in some ways she was.

“What are you doing here? We all thought you were dead. Tabatha thought you got yourself—before she—well.”

The memory of Tabatha filled Sabrina with both hate, and regret at the same time.

“No and no,” Sabrina said. Casey had at this point now fainted, Mona let her fall the to floor in annoyance. “I take it you’re trying to escape?” Sabrina added.

Mona nodded, “Yeah, we thought we’d take the west wing sewers into the ocean. Swim around to the camp outside the city.”

Isabella, in all her annoying beauty, bobbed her head in agreement. Sabrina had to hand it to them for their bravery but pitied just how stupid it would have been, knowing what she knew about the west wing sewers. The three of them would have made for a pleasant treat for what lurked down there.

“Why do you want to get out of the city so badly?” Sabrina asked, despite how ridiculous the question was.

Mona hushed a wheezing sniffle as if Sabrina just shocked her. Isabella looked away before Sabrina could gauge her reaction, and Casey appeared to be in a deep sleep on the floor.

“The WC,” Mona murmured, causing Isabella to wander off slightly. As if not wanting to hear what was about to come. “Well, they…come to the orphanage at night—to maintain order, but instead they—”

Sabrina held up a firm hand, feeling her teeth clench. She looked out at Isabella’s back, for the first time feeling sorry for her, and her beauty. She looked back at Mona with sympathy, looking down at Casey, another likely victim of her father’s ‘rule’.

“Follow me, I’ll get you out,” Sabrina said.

Sabrina led them through the streets deafly, her senses able to detect where the WC patrolled from three streets away. The three girls chased to keep up with Sabrina’s, her hastened steps matching the three girls’ brisk jog. Casey had gotten over her perpetual desire to scream at every chance she got and was now following them with silent acquiescence. Before Sabrina knew it, the tall walls of Leeside towered above them. Its height matching that of a Storm Giant.

“Wait here,” Sabrina said, dashing at the stone surface and running vertically upwards. The three girls gaped in amazement as Sabrina scaled the wall as if it were no different than a flat surface. Sprinting over the edge, she landed gracefully and glanced about at the surrounding Royal Guard.

The Royal Guard were numerous on the walls, but Sabrina was in between a gap in their ranks. Either side of her was open-air of about two-hundred feet. She whistled downwards, herding the three young women to form below her. When they did, they all appeared to be peering up at Sabrina as if trapped at the bottom of a wishing well, their doe-like eyes sparkling under the moonlight.

While the coast was clear, Sabrina shot a thread of webbing downwards, sticking accurately to the chest of Isabella—right below the neck. Sabrina snipped the line, then grabbed it firmly in her hands. She snapped the string tort, then let the laws of motion do the rest, as the string stretched like elastic, then catapulted the trapped energy within, sending Isabella upwards in a shallow arc.

The night sky filled with the muffled screams of Isabella as she shot upwards over the wall. Sabrina traced her above, then, wrapping the string around her forearms, she sprinted to the other edge of the wall, guiding the now falling Isabella. Right, when it looked like Isabella would splat against the ground below, Sabrina tugged the string, causing Isabella to bob a few times, then hang suspended above the ground. When Isabella was safely hanging ten feet from the ground, Sabrina let go and went for Mona.

Following the same idea as before, there was only one subtle difference: this time the night air wasn’t filled with a single sound, as Mona went hurtling over the wall in disciplined silence. When Mona landed safely next to Isabella, it was just Casey to take the leap.

The night air rang with the high-pitch vocals of Casey Mirant. The girl screamed at the top of her lungs as she arched over the wall, her arms and legs flailing about wildly. Whilst Sabrina flung her through the air, she had a sudden urge of letting her go mid-flight to cascade off into the night sky forever. She resisted, and accurately pulled the string tort, right before Casey would have smacked into the side of the wall.

Royal Guards were clambering to the sound of the apparent girl being hurled through the air from a city catapult, their metal suits clanging with every step. To Sabrina, they sounded like a charging battalion of armoured elephants. Sabrina leaned over the wall to give her three loose friends their final farewell. Mona had taken the liberty of choking Casey out and lifting her over her shoulder. Isabella raised a hand in silent salute, and Sabrina watched as the three of them went disappearing into the darkness, like melting shadows.

Sabrina dashed backward before the Royal Guard got within a hundred feet of her, throwing herself over the edge. Falling backward, she pulled off a flashy backflip and landed back into the city of Leeside. A new fire took Sabrina, and with newfound fury in every footstep—she made her way to the Torrent Orphanage.