The tang of citrus fruits and the scent of cigarette smoke invaded her senses, and she turned around to see a young woman standing over the body of a green haired man.

Harriet had never seen her in her life.

The woman's hair hung in thick brown waves, falling over the side of her face, and brushing against the heavy makeup that covered her cheeks. She wasn't in uniform, and yet she was standing over the body of a rebel. Why? In her hand, Harriet saw a pulse of dark magic forming, and ducked out of the way just as the woman threw the magic at her. It hit the bricks behind her head, and they exploded in a spray of debris. She was just glad she wasn't in the firing line.

Harriet dodged the woman's next blast, and swiped a staff from one of the bodies on the ground. She spun it in her hand to get a quick feel of the weapon. It was longer than her quarterstaff, and the balance was slightly off, but it would do. The woman gave her a devilish grin, and picked up another staff, seemingly getting ready for a fight.

She didn't like her odds.

The woman made the first move, twirling her staff, and lunging at Harriet. She barely blocked it. She was fighting to live. The woman kept twirling her staff, switching it from hand to hand, skilfully blocking all the Harriet's hits. Harriet had no time to catch her breath. Crack. Crack. She was being pushed backwards. Crack. Crack. But then she saw an opening. The woman had left her waist uncovered. She swung the staff at it. The woman let out a small gasp, and Harriet switched to the offensive. That was her weakness. She could fight on the offense, but defence was her weakness. She was forcing the woman back. Crack. One hit. The woman stumbled.

Harriet leapt forward and hit the staff out of the woman's hand, and knocked her to the floor. Her staff found the woman's neck, and she pressed down.

The woman simply grinned.

"Who are you?" Harriet demanded, resisting the urge to throttle her.

"Abigail." The woman said, now smirking.

"Surname." She said through gritted teeth, forcing herself to keep her eyes open.

"Laar."

Harriet jumped off her, and stepped backwards, practically tumbling over her own feet. "You're lying." She spat, raising the staff again.

Abigail laughed, and pulled herself to her feet, massaging her neck. It wasn't true. She was lying. She couldn't be related to Laar.

"Afraid not, sweetheart." She saw her curling her hand into a fist. That couldn't mean anything good.

Darkness seemed to seep through the walls, clouding her vision and making her look around. The faint sound of Abigail's laughter echoed through the tunnels, ricocheting off the walls an multiplying until it was merely discernible as her voice. Harriet let out a low growl, and reached her hand out, feeling for the wall. Smart wood panelling brushed her fingers, and she rested her whole hand on it, walking forward.

Fucking dark mage.

She almost tripped on a body, and felt bile rise in her throat as she stepped on what felt like their nose and it gave a sickening crunch. How did Abigail deal with this? But of course, seeing as she was a dark mage, she probably had night vision. The wall fell away from her fingers, and she looked around hurriedly. She had come to the end of the corridor, and it turned left. How much of the base was covered in her magic? Harriet, herself, was quite powerful, but she'd never seen a magic user with this much control and this much power at the same time.

"Harry?" A voice shouted into the darkness, and she whipped her head around, ginger hair falling into her eyes. Mina.

"Mina?"

"She's 'ere!" Footsteps. Hurried. Two pairs.

"Guys, don't just run." She shouted, feeling herself rising to her tiptoes.

"Keep talking then, idiot." Caleb.

"Okay, fine. I'm talking. Happy?"

"Goddamnit. It'd be so much easier if we had phones." Mina said, sounding annoyed.

The footsteps were getting louder, and she could now hear it was indeed Caleb and Mina.

"Over here, guys." She said, softer than before. A hand reached out of the darkness and landed on her shoulder. Pale skin, bony arm. Caleb, again.

"Harriet, it's you, right?" Caleb asked, and she nodded, putting her hand out to check if the rest of him was there.

The darkness seemed to swoop backwards, into the hands of a honey-haired woman.

"Hi, sweetheart." She wiggled her fingers at Harriet and gave her an infuriating grin.

"Who's this?" Mina asked, appearing beside her other shoulder and cracking her neck. In front of Abigail, the rune master looked like a child, dwarfed by her height. Then again, Mina was dwarfed by everyone. Still, she was not to be messed with.

"She's with me."