Bound

Autumn shook her head, and licked her lips. Well. She could move her mouth, as well as her head. that was good. "What's going on?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Emily asked. "Hurry, before the Librarian comes back. What are you?"

Images flashed through Autumn's mind, of dark things she'd seen, the constant ghosts, shadows that sometimes seemed alive, skittering on the edges of her consciousness. "I don't know," She answered honestly. She tried to move again, but she couldn't. Her body wouldn't obey her.

She felt her breaths squeeze out in gasps. She struggled against the power that held her tight, but she couldn't see anything. She could even see her body moving, although she felt like she was wrestling with an elephant. "Let me go," she gasped, eyes widening in panic.

"Calm down. I had to halt the spread of the poison, so most of your body is in stasis." At Autumn's blank expression, Emily sighed. "I put you on pause, except for your head and vocal system. You can speak and think, but the rest of your body won't move. If I hadn't, you'd probably be dead by now."

"Oh." Autumn shut her eyes, concentrating on her breathing.

"I'm sorry," Emily said. She held out the cup. "I got this from the Librarian's supplies. Firewort. It should heal you of the necrotic energy." Emily pursed her lips, shook her head, and sighed. She pulled out a string of small flat stones and cast them in front of her. Glowing lines connected the stones in a pattern of swirling spheres and orbits, like Celtic knots wound into the air. Emily touched the stones rapidly, like a keyboard. The glowing picture of Autumn appeared before her, an outline in pale green, with an angry deep red pulsing on one side and gray-tinged circles covering the body. Emily moved some of the circles to one side, and Autumn found that she could again move her left arm. Emily handed the cup to Autumn, who drank it quickly.

The taste was somewhat like cucumber, but more salty, with a tinge of lemon. Autumn felt a warm glow passing all through her body, and then concentrating on the right side of her torso where she'd been stabbed. Suddenly the heat turned to ice that got sucked out to slide across her skin and dribble down her side.

"That should take care of it," Emily said, "But no purely mortal human could have survived being stabbed by an Underworld blade. How you got it is also a mystery. And you didn't seem surprised when I activated the magic wards in front of you. So. What are you? Or maybe, who are you, I should ask."

Autumn blinked slowly. Emily was always asking questions, and they'd worked on school projects before. Emily had always had eyes that seemed to see too much. She shook her head. Of course Emily would be involved in weird stuff, if the Librarian was. But she couldn't understand why Emily was being so hostile. Why was she trapped? She hated being bound like this, but crying about it wouldn't help. And Emily had healed her, so that was a good thing. She probably wouldn't try attacking Autumn at least. "I see dead people. 6th Sense, or something. First time one attacked me. I don't know why." Autumn shrugged the one shoulder that was free. Emily seemed to know what was going on, and Autumn was tired of constantly being hounded by random ghosts that said or did nothing except make her feel like a freak. "Tell me what's going on now." Autumn winced slightly at the harshness of her own words, but there. She'd said it.

Emily had leaned back, the way most did when Autumn got grumpy. Most anyone except grandma and Tori tended to avoid her, actually. But Emily, it seemed, had nerves of steel. She seemed shocked by her own reaction, but nodded once.

"If I let you go, you won't attack me?" Emily sounded scared, and Autumn laughed despite herself.

"Just don't tell the Librarian." Autumn said. "You can't keep me like this. I won't hurt you. I promise."

Emily relaxed perceptibly. "Okay. I'll try to explain what I know, and you can help me figure out where you fit in."