Secrets (Broomhandle45 and Selini)

People were told a lot of things, and it was usually best to believe all of it. Hannah didn't blame them, nor was she going to. Serenity was exactly what it sounded like: peaceful, unified...a utopia in a world where that was simply a joke word. A population of fifty thousand people was an impressive number, and it was all thanks to a massive wall that surrounded them. People didn't wonder what it took to build the roads outside of Serenity, people didn't question what those drivers of the convoy may or may not have seen, or the people who kept them safe did to make sure they saw nothing. People never thought about how much it took to make more barriers, to make more ignorant people.

No, ignorant was safe and alive. Knowing was danger and death. Coming to Serenity was a disturbing breath of fresh air that someone as bitter and rough as her didn't know what to do with. Everyone was always so damned happy, she couldn't help but crack a half honest smile at their politeness. She wasn't here for pleasure, however...she was here for business. On the good side of thirty, Hannah didn't have a last name. A lot of people in her former line of work didn't. She was a woman who once possessed a youthful vitality, a pointless exuberance for her job. Now, her beauty was shadowed by the hard reality of life, her curly blonde hair currently in a messy ponytail as she stuffed her hands into her worn jacket pockets.

Serenity was a bustling place, filled with buildings made when technology was better. Now, they were in states of constant disrepair, some had been cleared out and replaced with newer, less impressive buildings. Some had yet to be cleared out at all. On the south end of Serenity, a place where the poorer people lived...the ignorant happiness was still there, even if it was more than a little forced. She took a casual glance around, and then at the house in front of her. At one point, it was probably some kind of store that had all kinds of items, but as time wore on...it was retrofitted, chopped up and made into a house. It was a weird amalgam of new and old, and all of it looked like shit.

She sighed faintly, moving swiftly up the creaky steps as her green eyes narrowed toward the door. That familiar feeling made her skin crawl, but she suppressed it with a light swallow. It never got easier feeling it. She knocked on the door twice, and the door opened without much hesitation. Magic. Dark, dark magic. The people within the house were dirty, wearing tattered clothing and grinning at her with their diseased teeth and dirty gums. Some of them were hacking up blood. She knew what she saw. Adepts, people who thought they had a talent for magic...and instead gave their souls away for a fraction of power. It would eat away at them until there was nothing left. When the world went to shit so many years ago, there were plenty of people who could use magic. If there were now, they kept quiet...and they certainly didn't turn into half dead masses.

She pushed past the mess of dirty, desperate people and headed further into the house. There, she met the real magic-users. Men dressed in slightly better clothes, but walked like they knew better and they were made better for it.

"Ah, Miss Hannah." The leader greeted, an older man...with pale skin and burning eyes. If it was her old job, he'd be shot on the spot. But it wasn't, but that didn't stop her fingers from twitching inside her jacket, however. The urge to draw and put two into his smug face was almost overwhelming. She wondered if it was because she didn't like him, or it was just an old habit? His hand settled on a large black case on the table, patting it fondly.

"I requested your services specifically, because I need this delivered to Dead End Bend as soon as possible." Hannah quirked an eyebrow at that, her posture tightening a fraction. Dead End Bend? All the way on the end of the First National Road? That was a trip, to say the least.

"As soon as possible," Hannah repeated, glancing down at the case. "It takes at least a month for the convoy to get from one end to the other, maybe less than that if they get lucky." Way stations and small little villages were popping up everywhere to help reduce that strain, but there were some places that were absolutely inhospitable to people...for more reasons than one. "How do you expect me to do that?"

"A reasonable question, Miss Hannah...rest assured, we have prepared a transport for you." He smiled, motioning for one of his men to take the suitcase. It seemed oddly heavy, which made her curious. And...somewhat grateful she wouldn't have to lug that damn thing everywhere, but she followed the man out behind the back, where a surprise awaited her. It was a car, one built for the rough and tumble roads and situations outside Serenity. These were usually given to Pathfinders, or the occasional wall patrol team. It was suspiciously absent of any markings...hm.

"Half of your payment is already in the vehicle," The older man supplied, as one of his underlings settled the suitcase on the back with a faint grunt, shutting the door. "You will get the other half if you reach Dead End Bend in less than a month, Miss Hannah." A fairly generous offer, which made her slightly paranoid. But she nodded all the same, and headed towards the car. She had done worse for less, she supposed.

"Oh, and Miss Hannah?" The man smiled, his eyes glittering with magical power as she glanced back. "You must not, under any circumstances, open the suitcase." It wasn't usually her policy to ask questions, but she furrowed her brow a moment and slid inside the car without answering. The man seemed satisfied with that answer as she started it up and it rumbled to life. Honestly? She didn't really want to know what was inside it, especially since she was helping a bunch of shady magicians. Whatever it was, she didn't need to know.

Still, it was nice having her own vehicle. The Wall Patrol gave her a weird look when she drove up in what appeared to be an exact copy of their own four-by-fours, but it wasn't anything they could really help. The world outside of Serenity was a dangerous, horrible place...but the few miles before Serenity reminded her of old stories about Elysian Fields, the beauty surrounded by Hell. It was a lazy drive in such boring, but peaceful surroundings...but every so often, her eye would catch behind her to the suitcase. Ignorance was bliss, but sadly...that had been burnt out of her a long time ago. Hannah was almost certain she saw that suitcase move. No matter, it wasn't important. Her job was to get it to Dead End Bend, that was it.

Right? Right. Right.

...But her eyes still lingered, every so often. Even as she stopped at the gate for Paradise, the first little town that still had blissful ignorance-really, they all did, but Serenity and Paradise didn't have to try as hard- she pulled into a tiny little inn, designed mostly for the convoy and other occasional travelers. She tried to distract herself about it, by getting something to eat and taking the suitcase in with her to the small, single bed room. It didn't move when she carried it in, but it was surprisingly heavy. It was a strange suitcase, at first blush. It had a carrying handle, but she saw no actual clasps to shut it and close it...or anything actually preventing it from opening up except for a single, polished silver button. There was some sort of etched character on it that she wasn't familiar with.

She probably stared at the suitcase for hours, until finally...it moved. Not subtly, or faintly. But the entire bed shook gently, she moved forward carefully and ran her hands over the smooth frame. This was it, wasn't it? How Hannah finally died, not by old age...but by her own stupid curiosity that kept gnawing at her like a parasite. What was she transporting, and why in whatever gods name was it moving?

Something told her to open it, but she didn't know what...or why. She licked her dry lips, and pressed her finger against the button. Almost immediately, a thin needle slammed into her finger and she recoiled back with a hiss of pain. The etched character filled with her stolen blood, and the entire suitcase let out a hiss. But it wasn't a mechanical hiss. Her ears started ringing, her eyes started watering...she was hearing things, whispers and voices. Arcane magic slowly seeped from the suitcase as it slowly opened up. Hannah moved forward, even though everything in her body was telling her to run.

What was there...surprised her. Her green eyes widened in faint shock. She was carrying a...naked girl?

Shifting was natural. Maybe even some squirming. It was a rather cramped, after all. But whatever subtle squirms she made, she didn't notice. Dreams were such wonderful things; almost the true reality when the waking world was such a nightmare. In her dreams she was not bound by flesh and blood - not restricted by the awful whims of old men. In her dreams she was a Force. An Abstract that watched over her own little world; orderly little people who came to her for power or health or redemption or vengeance or a hundred other fascinating little reasons. Oh and she was a capricious little thing. To some she granted their greatest wishes, giving them wealth and power and longevity or whatever they desired. She always demanded a price, but sometimes they were clever enough to pay it for as much as decades or even centuries. Others she rejected, blaming a lack of properly meaningful sacrifice or not strong enough faith - the greatest opponent to her Grace was disbelief. Still others she consumed, exploiting the tiniest of mistakes to grant more power than they could rightly handle, or give them exactly what they asked for, but not at all what they wanted.

Oh and the world in which they lived, what a fantastical place. A world of order, where laws, though complex in design, were simple enough in function and even the exceptions had reliable rules. A veil of chaos overlapped the pristine order, adding a little fun to the lives of those strange people. People that built marvels on a whim; great artistic endeavors. Even their living spaces were a marvel, veritable jungles of metal, glass, and concrete, where more souls than she'd ever even heard of in the waking world - a measure not of thousands, or even the impressive tens of thousands Serenity boasted, but millions - lived together, sometimes sprawled out comfortably, but most of the time cramped in on top of and around each other like the rodents in the test lab. They could go anywhere in this ordered little world; cars of more variety than she'd ever seen, available to the individual, not just the militia and rich. And that was among so many other fascinating machines of every purpose. They could fly! And in such a commonplace manner that they could even somehow manage to feel bored while doing so! Everything was perfect.

She loved them, and she hated them. Every last man, woman, child, beast, and in-between. Her passions for these amazing creatures were so great that one day, at the behest of some very unique individuals - so fervent was their plea and so great their sacrifice, as she had never seen before - she destroyed them all. The cry was so pure that she sacrificed her perfect little world that she loved so much for the sake of it, and brought her Grace down upon the world in full force. A force that ripped apart the laws and Changed the people until so very very few of what Was remained. Then it was over. She was no longer above her world, she was a part of it. Trapped forever in this horrible reality of chaos that the ones she loved wanted so much. Oh how she hated them, and yet was glad of her sacrifice. It was chaos now, but eventually there would be liberty in primal madness. Eventually her Grace would consume the rest of the world and there would be a new End. The true End.

Darkness

Except... why was everything turning so bright all of a sudden? No, wait! This was the wrong way for her world to disappear! She wasn't supposed to wake up so soon - they promised she wouldn't be woken up so soon!

The young woman wasn't all that small, around 5'5" by best guesses, but she certainly looked it curled up and hugging her legs in that snug little case. She was certainly slender, though with a bust a tiny bit more generous than her slim build might suggest. Her skin was at once silky pale and darkly tinted, as if the shadows themselves were attracted to her. To an attentive eye the rest of the room would almost immediately begin to support that theory, as light seemed a bit more dull than usual, covering the area in a profound gloom. A shudder ran through her as the magic did its work and brought life back into her veins. Her eyes snapped open, though it took a little bit of stiffened effort to prop herself up into a sort-of sitting position. The eyes that glanced around frantically before settling upon the only other occupant of the room were impossibly dark and filled with a sort of maddened hysteria. There was a fire behind them; not of red heat and vitality, but of an overwhelming, all-consuming, black cold. If they had any color to them, it was not visible. What was quite visible was an almost palpable look the likes of which a predator might make. The tiniest of sniffs hinted at their malevolent purpose, and though there were no pupils to speak of, Hannah would be able to feel that the empty gaze was centered upon the pricked finger - the source of that sickly sweet scent. Power, yet madness. The hint of understandings entirely alien to this world, or perhaps far far too real. It could truly only be described in mortal terms as Black Magic, and it threatened to overwhelm the hapless courier, too bold from curiosity; to swallow her whole in the sweet embrace of lightless madness. Until she blinked.

The room was normal. As if nothing had ever been wrong. The lighting was as it should be, and though the sight of a woman sitting groggily in a suitcase upon the bed was a bit abnormal, the girl herself seemed quite normal. Raven hair was short - barely shoulder length - and a bit messy, and the previous abyssal flare in her eyes was gone, replaced by quite normal-looking chestnut orbs filled with confusion and apprehension. This was a face she did not recognize. That had never happened before. She hadn't the slightest idea what to think of it. Danger was little more than an inconvenience for her, so she was much less afraid and much more curious, but cation never hurt in her somewhat limited experience with outsiders.

"Wh... who are you?" she asked after several long moments of inspection. Her voice was soft, but deep - almost sultry, and strained as if she hadn't spoken in quite some time, or needed water. If she noticed her awkward position and lack of clothing, she didn't seem to care. All that mattered for the moment were the 'What's, the 'Where's, and the 'Why's.

She remembered that feeling, and it made her blood run cold. She remembered staring into darkness and almost wishing for it to be over. It was always so hard after so long to resist, some simply did it out of habit. They had it trained in them so hard that it was a reflex, to stare in the darkness and not want to go deeper. Staring into those eyes of darkness that she felt press down on her mind, it was hard to ignore the pull. Her bloodied finger curled into a tight fist, the sensation of pain dragging her out of her cosmic reverie. She didn't just fear it, she felt how much she should fear it. She wondered if she was so jaded that she didn't simply lose her mind in the incomprehensibility in those dark eyes. It felt like forever, an eternity that she could never get away from. And then, the darkness was gone and replaced with chestnut brown, almost innocent in their vivid color.

She was beautiful, flawless almost. It actually unnerved her a little, it took her a minute to find her breath before she exhaled, hand running across her own face to give her body a sense of awareness. What had she done? What was this job actually supposed to be?

"Someone in big trouble," Hannah said, her voice thick. She didn't have much time to answer aside from that, the lights flickered horribly, and she felt a cold chill run up her spine as she glanced out the window. Trouble. Shit. Things that made your eyes blur and your brain sizzle if you didn't know how to rationalize it, if you couldn't keep yourself together. Humanoid things, with eyes like dark fire and lanky arms fitted with long, bloody fingers that seemed to effortlessly move through the wall. She knew Sweepers would clean this place up and completely repopulate it. Nobody would know. They had to be gone before that happened.

"We need to go," Hannah said quickly. She knew it, whatever she did...it released some horrible dark magic. That attracted things like moths to a flame. "Can you stand?" Paradise was going to turn into Hell.

The mysterious woman tilted her head curiously at the answer she received, following the courier's gaze out the window and upon those bizarre creatures coming through the wall. She'd never seen such things before, but they felt so familiar. Kindred, in a way, but so much lesser. In fact, the sight of them made her hungry more than anything. Though somehow she knew that such simple manifestations would be little more than appetizers, and bland ones at that. There just wouldn't be enough purity, or even concentration. The revelations of half-truths, caught between two worlds and no longer belonging to either. Pitiful, really. Yet at the same time all these thoughts confused her very much. It was almost as if The Dreamer was speaking within her mind, for how else could she know all these things? Such a thing would have been a rather disconcerting concept on its own, but amidst all this other confusion she simply couldn't process it right now. There were more important things at hand.

She couldn't think of any reason to trust the woman, but at the same time she'd never been told what to do about new faces and the woman had woken her, so she didn't really have a reason not to trust her either. In the end all she could do was shrug and go along with it, having really nothing else to do. Stiff arms supported herself as she climbed out of the case and onto very unsteady legs. It took a good bit of effort; her legs were tingling in their renewed life, a thousand ant bites upon every little nerve, but eventually she did manage to stand without the aid of arms. Still, it looked like it would take just as much effort for her to take her first few steps, and the creatures were approaching much faster than she was moving.

Screams were already echoing out into the cool evening air, the sounds of both victims and first responders being shredded not just of flesh, but of spirit. The touch of dark magic was a wholly corrupting one. Just a scratch was often enough to Turn a rational being, human and animal alike. For some it took minutes, others could hold out for days, but everyone succumbed eventually. The lucky ones were shot by Sweepers and Inquisitors before they could Turn. There was no real guarantee what the transformation would be - the laws of magic and nature had become so completely random - but it was always bad, and always so maddening that there could be no recognizable trace left of the victim's mind. As far as anyone knew, of course. Only Pathfinders ever saw much of what was really out there, and most of them didn't come back very talkative... if they came back at all.

Hannah would need to act faster than her newest charge was moving if she wanted out before all hell broke loose. Life was returning to the strange girl's limbs, but not nearly fast enough. Especially considering she didn't really seem to care one way or the other. The sight of monsters and sounds of horror were not phasing her one bit. In fact, she was even casually continuing their cryptic little conversation as she regained her strength and balance, still-curious, surprisingly innocent tone echoing out a simple, "Where are we going?"

If it was anywhere else, and any other time. It would have been a little bit endearing to see the naked young woman unsteadily rise to her feet. She was trying, but there was a complete lack of panic to her movements. It unnerved her more than the earlier situation with her souless, black eyes. They didn't have time for this, so Hannah moved forward and scooped her up bridal style. She was surprisingly soft to the touch for her rough hands. She mildly felt like she was tainting something pure with her dirty touch, but that was usually anything she touched, really.

"Away from here," Hannah said quickly, nudging the door open with her hip. She kept everything in the Jeep for a reason like this as they stepped out into the cool night air, filled with screams, gunfire and noises that defied all understanding. Things that were thunderous, but made no noise other than the pressure against the eardrums. This was her fault, all because she was too goddamn curious for once in her life. Carefully, she opened the passenger door and sat her down. She wished she had some clothes to give her, but that'd have to wait. She could feel them getting closer, dammit. "Don't worry, you're going to be fine. My name is Hannah." Why she assured her, she didn't know...because quite honestly, she didn't seem scared.

She was going to chalk it up to being stuck in a suitcase for who knows how long.

"Nph-!" the odd girl grunted questioningly in surprise as she found herself scooped up and carted off. She didn't stuggle, though her brows did furrow and lips purse together in a look of somewhat childish indignation. This strange woman was just too curious to resist for now. This was a genuine fear. She was quite well collected, but there was simply too much urgency for it to be anything else. Which in itself was strange. Why would she fear those weak, pitiful half-truths out there and not the pure artifact of horror in her arms. The mages who had raised her did not fear the crawlers, but they most certainly did fear her. What's more, there was an enchantingly raw, natural beauty to the woman that she had never seen from the stuffy, meticulously careful folk that dominated her life. It was refreshing even despite the confusion.

Around the time she was starting to occupy herself by poking her porter's chest, they quickly arrived at the vehicle. Yet another little fascination. She had never actually been in one of these things before - at least not while she was conscious. She settled into the seat easily enough, idly touching just about every surface in reach and looking quite content. Hannah's reassurances earned little more than a confused head tilt.

"Of course I will." she responded with an air of amusement, as if the implication that she might not be fine at any point in the near future was simply absurd. She didn't bother with an introduction, figuring if the woman knew enough to wake her she probably already knew her name. But she was polite enough to return the pleasantries, "Nice t'meet'cha, Hannah. I think... you aren't the New Master I was told to obey, are you? Where is Sir Nosferatu? Somethin' happen to him?"

It felt like an odd question. She really couldn't have cared less which wild-eyed fool poked and prodded her, but still... well, at the very least it hurt less when they weren't angry, so it felt like a worthwhile question. Not that she was expecting an answer. This woman seemed rather intent on diverting her questions with harried non-answers. Not that dhe really knew what to do with an answer anyway. She wasn't normally permitted this many questions, though, so the exercise itself was pretty fun. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, or some such. Ultimately it seemed like a benefit to know where her boundaries were with this new keeper. And unlike Hannah, she was still in no rush.

She glanced at her face a moment as she clipped on the seat belt. The proximity was...possibly half an inch or a little more, she was like a child almost. Looking over everything, touching everything-her breasts included, apparently-. But her face was...flawless, there was no other word that she could think of that fit her more. Flawless, that unnerved her more than anything...for other people, they'd just fall into that sense of pervasive awe. Hannah just had to ignore the fact that she had a perfectly beautiful naked woman in car like nothing was wrong. Adding to that, she seemed completely ignorant to the situation around her. Especially with her reply.

"No, I'm not," Hannah said, quickly moving to the other side to start the car. "I don't know who that is, or where he is...probably where I'm supposed to take you." she said, backing out of the lot. They were everywhere, the guilt burying deep in her throat and not letting go. This was her doing, she knew it. They were everywhere, like a horde of locust...killing, violating and everything in-between. Oddly, being around the naked woman next to her relaxed her...and worried her even more, this was not a place to be relaxed. This was a place to be afraid and focused. But...it was hard to, because something in the back of her head told her she simply didn't need to be.

"Supposed to take me...?" she echoed, looking hard at the woman and trying to process this new information. For the first time a more "normal" emotion crossed her features: concern. "Then... why did you wake me? You must take me back, it isn't..."

She felt the pressure hit like a truck. Something new had entered the area. Not a half-truth, though thankfully not quite a full truth, but still utterly alien enough to warp the very land it walked upon. Even the mindless crawlers, never displaying anything like what any human would call "reason", gave the newcomer a wide berth. It was likely equally mindless if it truly was here to claim her, and most probably posed no threat - as very very few things did - but whether or not she could defeat it, much less protect her curious new companion from it, was entirely uncertain.

"...safe... Okay, let's go." she finished slowly. The implications were hard to process. She didn't know how to cast the wards to keep herself hidden, so without that case they were likely going to be hunted wherever they went. But at the same time, she felt more free than she ever had before. A bit of inconvenience seemed a worthwhile price to pay. As soon as they were speeding off towards the horizon and they could relax a bit, she had but one thing to say, "Is there anything you do know?"

She was grateful for the cooperation, even if she probably didn't want to wonder what made her pause. She decided that it was best not to ask questions about something like that, they were gone before whatever it was that made her hesitate was possible to be seen. Or maybe they-ugh, no. That sort of logical pitfall is what made people lose their minds, paranoia was the first thing of an unraveling mind. She had to stay focused, and oddly...the lovely naked woman next to her helped with that considerably. There was a silence for a while, a tense one...but finally, Hannah felt like she could breathe.

"Lots of things," Hannah replied dryly. "None of them apparently told me not to open up a proverbial Pandora's box, however. I know that you're not just a woman, and I know that whatever reason I decided to open you for isn't going to satisfy the people who hired me." So, she was fucked...and not in the good way. Which left her with a dilemma, where was she going to go? More importantly, she had a feeling that they knew.

Ugh. She should have just put a bullet in her head when she made this stupid choice...

The curious naked woman simply sat and stared out the window, watching the scenery speed by while she waited for her porter to respond. The landscape was far more dry and barren than she'd expected. There was such diversity within the wall that she had come to imagine the outside world as some massive, wild, jungle-like planescape, or floating landmasses, or the ruins of a massive city as far as the eye could see in every direction. Yet even the crawlers she had felt coming to her were mundane - boring. Still the vast wasteland stretching out before her had enough scars and held enough "endless grandeur" to keep her entertained enough for now, despite disappointments.

"Hmm." she pondered idly when at last the conversation resumed. Her response, in turn, once again seemed to return to that 'innocent' matter-of-fact'ness. "Yup, that was a bad idea. They're probably not very happy about it."

Her eyes went wide and she made a kind of excited 'Ooo~' expression, "Does this mean you're gonna kidnap me?" Without a speck of concern. As if the idea was a fun game. And indeed, it really was. Doubly fun to be kidnapped by such a rugged beauty. Even more if it happened to lead to something else she'd never experienced before. New experiences in general were quite fun, especially to a girl with no real need to fear consequences. Life was an open adventure, and her's could not be snuffed out with any sense of "ease".

Hannah stared at her like she lost her mind, but...she was fairly certain the naked girl was the more sane between the two of them, and that was immensely concerning to her. She swallowed lightly, glancing back towards the road. She found that...adorable, and coupled with the fact that her 'kidnapped' woman was absolutely naked, it left nothing to the imagination of where her mind wandered. She had to stop herself, because she could feel it. That lingering tendril in the back of her mind, questioning the what ifs of how dark it really was in those shadows...and it would be okay, as long as she kept a light.

No, one step into the shadows was the only step that you'd take, nothing more or less. Dying under the throes of a black widow spider had no appeal to her, then again...dying in general wasn't something she was looking forward to. Her life promised an unpleasant death regardless, but she wasn't looking forward to dying just yet.

"...I guess I have, haven't I?" Hannah finally mumbled. "Shit."

Shit, shit, shit. She was fucked. She couldn't tell herself that enough. But right now, all they could do was drive. The wasteland was a boring place to be, but it kept her thoughts somewhat clear as the thick forest was slowly crawling over the horizon, it's trees tall enough to blot out the sun. Shit, what was she supposed to do now?

The strange woman's thoughts were still quite hard to read. The places her eyes roamed suggested lust was among the roil of emotions, but the rest was lost to her. Distress or frustration, perhaps, as the expletive might suggest. The little Artifact tilted her head in curious confusion, staring at her "captor" with intense contemplation.

"You're afraid of me." she finally concluded with a frown, profound loneliness echoing in those dark hazel eyes. She began to chew on her bottom lip as she looked away, back out the window. "You're afraid of them too."

Her eyes went wide as the realization hit her, "They're afraid of me!" The excitement in her voice was obvious. "I can protect you."

It was about then that the trees started coming into clearer view, framed by a brilliant aura of reds and violets as the sun set behind the. The naked woman shifted, squirming in the seatbelt enough to slip her legs in under herself and lean forward as far as the suddenly awfully restrictive device would let her go. Her hands came to rest upon the dash to support her as she started out the front windshield and marveled, eyes practically sparkling at the beauty of the scene. The endless grandeur made wild and mysterious, with light and shadow playing a marvelous game beneath boughs that simply did not know restraint. There was power here, she could feel, but either diluted across the exotic landscape, distant, or sleeping... or all three. Either way it was not a place the distressed beauty beside her should stay in for long.

Hannah glanced at her a moment in minor surprise. As if it was the silliest statement in the world to not be afraid of her, but that was just it, wasn't it? She felt guilty when it was brought up, looking at her was like she had just insulted her best friend. But all of that seemed to fade in the moment of her excitement. She...honestly didn't doubt that she couldn't protect herself, but why was she wanting to protect her?

"...What's your name? Have you told me?" she decided to ask, eyes flicking up into the treeline that decided to change how sunlight moved through it on a second by second basis. It was an endless cascade of colors that forced you to either focus or zone out, so they could get you. Noises and whispers that seemed normal to a forest were different here, each and every one was a hook designed to grab you and pull you in. It was a mental exercise that Hannah had spent much of her young life mastering, every word that she heard was replaced with her own in her head, a mantra that kept them from sinking their claws in too deep. But around her? She almost felt like it was a useless exercise.

The look she gave, a wholly perplexed, almost concerned glance over her shoulder. Was... was she serious? Was there a memory issue here? Would she even be able to remember that she was under protection? ...would it matter? What were the chances the strange woman would run at her first display of power? What were the chances such an action would be completely justified? Despite great progress she wasn't exactly best known for control. "Mmn. You really aren't one of them, are you?"

She shook her head and smiled. "Arha, greatest Nightmare of our age. Rawr." Her tone was playful, but whether she was being sarcastic or not was far less clear. Especially after she concluded the thought with, "Hmm... maybe the second greatest if the Masters get their way."

And with that she returned to her sightseeing, eyes wide with marvel as she watched the land shift from a barren, lifeless, spiritless, soulless wasteland fading to nothing under the setting sun, to a place with as much color, soul, and magic as the other had lacked. Almost as if passing through a tangible barrier into an entirely new world. Now this... this is what she had been hoping for. A place where magic had torn the tapestry of the world asunder and filled the rent weave with imitations of what it had once displayed, but with fabric impossibly thick and thread too weak to hold it. There were colors the human mind could not perceive; geometry it could not comprehend. The voices were a little louder here, but no different than normal. Still easily ignored.

"Do you sleep?" she asked suddenly, quite out of nowhere. Her voice had faded to a wistful trill, as if she was talking not to Hannah, but the trees themselves. Or perhaps speaking for them. Whether willing or compelled, the natural emanation of magic from her body was starting to synchronize with that of the forest. Tiny sparks of color danced in her eyes, and light and shadow roamed across her bared skin as if the car were not there at all. Likewise, however, did the forest begin to sync with her, exchanging insanity with mystery, malevolence with whimsy, and that "alien" discord with a more "human" chaos. Still dangerous, no doubts there; but less sinister and more fae-like in callous, fun-loving fancy.

Arha. Arha. Arha. That name, it sounded familiar. It made her body ache in ways she didn't understand and a few she did. Somewhere, she knew. Maybe she had never heard the word in her life, but she knew. And it...scared her and excited her all at once, maybe it was the Sweeper in her. Back when they attempted to understand just what and who these creatures were supposed to be. It didn't last long, when your head researcher scooped his eyes out with a knife...you figured maybe things were best left to ignorance.

But that name stuck with her as she shifted in her seat, letting out a faint exhale.

"When I get tired," Hannah said, regardless of who she was talking to. She remembered her days in this forest, trying to rid it of the worse problems to keep the road safe. The entire atmosphere felt...different, and she wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not. But it felt familiar, that was a small comfort in the grand scheme of things. You never answered these things directly, a yes meant a promise of something, a no made it difficult to continue. A neutral answer gave enough to leave you be and carry on.