Then he laughed.
And she never knew what to do when he laughed. She never understood why.
As desperate as she was to never let him find out, he was right. She was starting to crack.
She wanted answers. She wanted her aunt. Only one person in her family thought she was worth anything, and Hellebore hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye.
So if it was a trap, she'd be prepared, but if it was her aunt...
She was a hypocrite. She hoped it was her aunt.
So instead of going back to her room after dinner like she usually did, she made an excuse to Taiyo that she had some more work to wrap up before going to bed. She went back to her lab to wait. Her belt was stocked full of anything she might need to ward off an attack. She twirled a thin knife in her fingers, typically used for dissection, but it had its purposes elsewhere. Alchemists didn’t fight with typical daggers or swords anyway.
It was nearly pitch black when she left her lab and stepped out into the hallway. Moonlight came in through the windows on the other side of the hallway, giving her just enough to see by as she crept through the hallways and to the corridor. She was going half an hour early. If it was a trap, she’d be waiting with her own.
She reached the corridor, pulling out her chalk as she turned down the hallway, goggles resting on her crown and mask around her neck. She looked around and saw no one, so she moved to write her first formula. She was halfway through it when all the moonlight vanished, and all that was left was darkness.
So it was a trap. And they were already there, waiting for her.
She reached into her pouch and grabbed a smoke bomb, activating the prewritten formula and throwing it before pulling her mask up and stumbling to her feet.
She heard no coughing.
Who was it? Where were they?
She stumbled back, but the darkness was absolute. Their control of the moonlight and the time of night gave one distinct, likely possibility. Moon Elves.
But she heard no breathing, no footsteps, nothing.
If she ran, would she just run right into them?
Then the sound of glass breaking ripped through the air. Her smoke started to dissipate, and a sliver of moonlight came through, highlighting the gray smoke.
Two figures came through, and before they could attack her, she attacked first. She lunged forward, driving her knife toward where she estimated a Moon Elf's chest would be. She missed the elf, twisting, but she still threw her weight forward. It worked. He stumbled back with a gasping grunt and went right back out the window with a yell.
Then arms quickly went under and around her, preventing her from moving her arms. She jerked and coughed as smoke filtered through her mask before it was ripped off her face completely. Out of the corner of her eye and in the moonlight, she could see now she'd been correct. Their silver hair and markings gave them away, as did their clothes. Moon Elves. With masks on?
They were well prepared against an alchemist then.
The elf said something, but she couldn't make it out beneath his mask and her harsh coughing. Plus, she didn't know their dialect of Elvish anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered.
She wasn't getting kidnapped by elves a second time. Her pride couldn't stand it. So she went completely limp, holding her breath so she didn't give herself away.
As soon as she did, the elf dropped her and rushed to the broken window where she'd pushed his compatriot out of. This was her chance.
Except when she tried to get up, her arms weren't moving as fast as she was willing them to. Her feet weren't moving at all. She gasped and choked. A paralytic.
Had he injected it when he'd had her restrained?
Her smoke bomb hadn't had one. Although it would have been smart but useless since they had masks anyway.
But now she couldn't even move to escape. She couldn't even twitch her fingers, having only crawled a few feet down the hall by the time the second elf had helped the first back in through the window. They looked at her, but she couldn't makeout anything beneath their goggles and masks. They exchanged a few more words, some sort of argument, but it was muffled. There was something about their voices or their words that was familiar, but she supposed their dialect was similar to Iubian Elvish. If she tried, she might be able to translate a few words.
Not that it helped her get out of this. She couldn't move her fingers. She couldn't transmute. She was utterly helpless and maybe if she was lucky, they would put her out of her misery and kill her now so she wouldn't have to live with the humiliation of being kidnapped twice by elves.
No wonder her father and brother had so quickly agreed to marry her off. She was worthless as an alchemist.
The two elves hurried toward her and one of them quickly slung her over his shoulder. The second moved to secure their escape, starting to climb out of the window first, a rope tied to a stone carving protruding from the castle wall.
