Chapter 7: Divine Intervention

Emma knew that it was useless to try but checked the windows and doors anyway. As she thought, they had all been sealed shut.

It wasn't like she'd have been able to scale the walls in broad daylight by tying her bedsheets together. She would have thrown herself from the windows and used magic to float down to ground level, but that wasn't happening any time soon with her magic sealed.

She'd have done it regardless if that was a viable option for escape. She'd survive the fall from the third floor, but not before one of the staff found her broken body trying to put itself back together on in the gravel.

In a rush, Emma tore the room apart, looking for anything that could be of use to her escape. While searching, she found two scrying stones in her bedroom, one in her bathroom and one in her closet.

They were listening in on her to make sure she wasn't planning to escape. Emma crushed all that she found but didn't hold out hope that she had found them all.

Judging by the light filtering in through the stained glass windows, it was probably close to seven in the morning. That left her roughly twelve hours to escape and disappear before the moon rose and the wedding took place. Not a lot of time, considering that staff would be coming in soon to stuff her into a gaudy wedding dress.

Nothing of value turned up in the bathroom, but as she quietly entered the closet, she was pleased to see that under the floorboards were the alchemy supplies that she used for making potions and poisons from her childhood. Though her magic was out of reach, she could still do some damage with what she had available.

But, it wasn't enough. Even with the glass bottles of various ingredients, magically preserved for the last one hundred years, the number of concoctions she could create was still small.

She'd been stripped of her daggers when she'd been knocked out, and the weapons she'd stored under her mattress had long been removed under her mother's orders. Thankfully, she had two daggers hidden in the fireplace flume which had not been taken, and she quickly strapped those to her thighs.

Two daggers and an alchemy set were all she had for getting out of this prison.

Desperate, Emma decided it was time for some divine intervention. Or, at the very least, some helpful advice.

Pulling a dagger free, she knicked her forearm with the sharp blade and used her blood to draw a line with two crescents on either side. Emma whispered, "Eris, goddess of chaos, strife, and discord, I beseech you for an audience." before plunging the dagger into the symbol. The symbol glowed purple and evaporated into smoke that spiraled upwards.

From the smoke stepped a tall woman of exceptional beauty. Her skin was of the palest porcelain, her long, wavy black hair fell well past her waist, and her large lavender eyes were striking but also off-setting as if staring into them would show that she was unhinged.

Behind her was a pair of jet-black wings tucked tight to her back that had a slight blueish sheen when they hit the light. She was dressed in a black Grecian dress underneath a golden breastplate, and on her brow was a circlet of golden apple tree branches interwoven with black obsidian snakes.

The goddess stretched her wings as she looked around the room before her eyes landed on Emma. At once, Chaos incarnate broke out into a dazzling smile.

Eris, the Goddess of chaos, anarchy, and strife, immediately wrapped Emma in a warm embrace as if they were old friends.

Emma quickly whispered, "They're listening," and the goddess nodded, flicking her wrist as a shimmering bubble surrounded them, damping all noise that they made.

"Em! It's been too long, babe." Eris cooed, her voice low and husky. As the personification of chaos, her wild, untamable nature always made her a very charismatic being.

Emma genuinely smiled back at the being in front of her. Eris, her patron goddess, was a very hands-on kind of being, a stark contrast to the other divine beings that didn't even care to appear for those that pledged themselves to their service.

"I missed you too, my goddess." Emma breathed, feeling the slightest ease in the tension that had held her since waking up being tortured. Eris was a familiar face that always seemed to have her back when she needed it.

Eris pulled back and looked at her favorite witch and frowned in concern and confusion. "What the hell happened to your magic?"

That question led to Emma giving her a summary of what had transpired in the last few hours: Philly's funeral, her brother spiking her drink with Sleeping Beauty's Breath, her mother and siblings torturing her and sealing her magic, and the quickly approaching wedding.

"That b****!" Eris growled, her lavender eyes swirling as if alive, "If she didn't have her own patron, I'd have snuffed out that cow long ago and pissed on her ashes for good measure."

"I couldn't agree more, but right now, I'm in serious trouble. I don't suppose you could break the seal on my magic?"

Eris gave an apologetic shake of her head. "Sorry, doll. If another diety had done it, I'd do that in a heartbeat, but since it was done by a mortal without divine assistance, I can't interfere."

"But you interfere with lives all the time. Your the goddess of chaos and anarchy, for crying out loud."

"Yeah, but even I've got conditions I gotta follow. Inspiring Guy Fawkes? Weakening the chains of the oppressed in the Haitian Revolt? Knocking over a lantern and causing the Great Fire of London? None of the other deities had a vested interest or a hand in aiding any of them, so I didn't break any rules. Evil as your cow of a mom is, she's got some serious power backing her, and I can't mess with that too much without taking some serious heat."

"I love ya, babe, but even with a body that hot," Eris said, giving her a saucy once over, "I'm not willing to go against the higher-ups for you."

"However!" She said with a flourish, one finger raising, "While I can't rip that seal off like a bandaid for ya, I can loosen it a bit. It won't be much, but over time, that seal will slowly start to wear off on its own. Basically, I'mma be boosting your connection to me, so do flip a table or throw an enraged cat at someone for me, will ya doll? The more chaos, anarchy, discord, and all-out madness you directly cause, the stronger your connection is to me, and in turn, the weaker the seal on your magic gets. Do enough, and I can start returning your magic back piece by piece. Works for you?"

Emma nodded, readying herself. "I'll take anything that will give me an edge right now, and you know how much I love bleeding those greedy pigs."

Eris smiled as if she had just been given the greatest compliment of her life, her beautiful grin showing off sharp canines. "You say the sweetest things, girly. Alright, gimme one sec to loosen those screws."

Eris lifted her hand and pulled one golden leaf from her circlet. She pressed the leaf onto Emma's forehead with her thumb and spoke words in a language both harsh and musical that Emma couldn't even hope to translate.

The leaf sunk into her skin, and a soft glow filled Emma's green eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief as that raging inferno inside her that had gone cold now showed a tiny flicker of life, like a candle in the darkness.

It wasn't much, but it was something. And that little flicker gave her hope.

Eris grinned, "There ya go. You won't be opening portals any time soon unless you can start a major world war in the next five minutes, but it's a start. Keep feeding that puppy, and you'll get back to where you were in no time."

"Thank you so much, my goddess." Emma beamed, happy to have even this little spark of hope.

"Aw, you know you're my favorite witch." Eris giggled and gave her another hug. "Now that that's one crisis averted, how are ya planning to blow this joint?"

"I got two daggers, alchemy ingredients, and a tiny piece of my magic. Got any suggestions?"

"Hmmm..." Eris furrowed her brow, crossing her arms and putting a finger to her lip as she thought about it. "What's the best way to get out of here if you could?"

"Ideally? Through the staff tunnels." Emma answered, "Goes from the kitchen to the staff quarters off-site. But Orianna will absolutely have people watching those."

Eris's face split into a mischievous, almost frightening grin. "So we make sure that the people she has watching don't see you."

Emma gave her a suspicious look, "You're not going to turn me invisible for all of eternity, are you?"

"Oh, don't be silly." Eris rebutted with a scrunched-up face, waving her hand as if to dispel something unpleasant, "You know that always backfires. We're gonna do the ole' switch-a-roo. Switch you out with one of the maids, and then you walk out free as a bird. Cliche, but effective. The staff in this hell hole are barely witches, so your current magical signature won't appear out of the ordinary for the guards that are watching this place."

Emma shook her head, "I'm out of the Blister Mint, Callorway, Knot Blossom, and Ele Root needed to brew such a potion."

"Hold on," Eris replied and pulled her breastplate out far enough so that she could reach into her dress as if she was searching for something she had stored in her bra, "I think I've got what you need. We'll list this on the invoice as payment for that ball of a time I had in Poland because of you."

She rummaged around in whatever interdimensional storage she had down there for a while, apparently having a hard time finding what she was looking for. Emma raised an eyebrow, "Having trouble with that Mary Poppin's bra of wonder?"

"Hey now! It's called fashion, you should look it up. The pros far outway the cons. I've got a small horde of zombies in here just chilling, and because they're not alive, they don't die in the vacuum."

"Yeah, I don't want to think about a zombie crawling out of your bra, thank you very much." Emma gauged at the mental image, the mental image enough to induce nightmares.

"Here we are!" Eris said triumphantly and produced four small vials, each filled with the missing ingredients. Emma took them without question and went over to the fireplace. She used a firestone in her alchemy bag to get a blaze going and added water to the small cauldron. The potion would have done better with wine, but she had to use what she had available.

Eris watched over her shoulder curiously as the potion came to life fairly quickly, and Emma emptied the extra liquid into the toilet to get rid of the evidence. She then filled it back up with water and started brewing another concoction.

"Whatcha making?" Eris asked curiously, head tilted to the side as she watched.

"Silent Smile. It's a poison that slows the heart rate down low enough that one might think the person is dead. I've got everything we need to make it, and I want the person I'm replacing to be out and cause a bit of scene when found."

Eris gave that slightly evil grin, loving the thought of all the chaos that would ensue from this.

In short order, the poison was brewed. Emma took a cloth bandana out of her closet and tied it around her face to keep from breathing in the fumes.

"Best be quick, doll. I feel your victim on their way." Eris remarked as her body faded into invisibility. Emma hurriedly took a washcloth from the bathroom and dunked it in the poison, and ran to hide on the other side of the bed.

In a moment, a knock sounded at the door.

"My lady, I have the dress you'll be wearing. I need to make sure everything fits correctly." A meek voice said from the other side.

The click of the door unlocking was like a gunshot in the silent room as the maid entered, a voluptuous, gaudy dress in tow. She set the dress on the bed and then saw the light on in the bathroom, the door ajar.

Frowning, the maid called out, "My lady? Are you decent?" as she walked towards the bathroom.

That was when Emma struck. Quick as lightning, she was on her feet and wrapped her free arm around the woman, the hand holding the poisoned wash cloth slapping over her mouth.

Unable to scream, the maid tried to struggle, but Silent Smile was a fast-acting poison. Her muscles soon went limp, and Emma eased her lax body to the floor. The maid had a pleasant smile on her face as the poison gave one a minute of bliss that coddled the mind before their body locked up, going into a deep sleep that would be nearly impossible to get someone out of.

"Well now," Eris said with a grin as she came out of invisibility, looking down at their prone victim, who smiled back up at her as if they were all the best of friends. "That went better than expected. Now, scoot. We gotta get this broad into costume before the rest of the crazy squad shows up."