((take your time Heather, I know you're busy lately.))

The alley was deserted save for a few disused crates and rats. Emme looked around for what seemed like ages before stepping out of the shadows. She could make out the sign above the door, just barely - Offices of the Kingsway Post. This was the place.

She was dressed in a ragged cloak that covered her face and head, pulled tight around her, though the evening was warm. The faint light from the phosphor lantern above the door shone onto the raindrops that clung to the sackcloth fabric. The haggard witch knocked on the door with white knuckles.

"Hesta," she whispered, desperately. "Please, someone let me in."

*(I can spare a moment for a friend in need )*

Annie smiled as she typed the final period on her article. Hey, it's nothin special, but it'll pay the bills. Here's hopin it passes the gauntlet.

She stretched and started getting ready to leave, but paused; there was a noise. A knock at the door? Annie looked around the empty office. Everybody else's gone home already, looks like it's up to me to play secretary.

As the reporter opened the door, she inwardly groaned and outwardly sagged. Great. Another hag lookin fer a job I we don't have. "Look, lady, we ain't got no need for trash takers or mail runners, so you might as well go home and--" In a strange cosmic turn of events, Annie's eyes simultaniously narrowed and widened. She lunged forward, grabbing the woman by the shoulder. "Get inside right now!" she hissed, and pulled her indoors, checking to be sure that nobody saw her. The coast was clear, so Annie quickly shut the door behind her.

She took a breath and turned to look at the familiar face. "Emme. Where in Gods Clocking name have you been?!"

Emme gasped as Annie grabbed her; the light blinded her as she entered the warm room. Annie - a familiar face, at last! She was overcome by gratefulness to see the witch again.



Emme bit her lip. She looked around the office, checking to see that no one was there; once satisfied, she turned back to Annie.

"I...I was taken in by some folk who wanted to keep me safe," she whispered. "Least that's as they say. But I'm not fully sure of it my own self, Annie. I'm only even here tonight 'cause they let me be...they got people everywhere...they want me to ask you for something..."

Annie pursed her lips, crossed her arms and cocked a hip out to the side. "Ask me fer somethin? They got some nerve! Kidnappin my friend, keepin 'er locked away in some hole somewhere, and then only sendin her out as a favor grabber? I got half a mind to say no and smuggle you outta town in my trenchcoat."

Annie pulled out a chair for Emme. Gods knows she looked tired enough to fall over. Still crossing her arms, she leaned against her desk. "What sort o' favor, anyways? I ain't killin nobody, if that's what they're askin."

Emme sat down heavily, crossing her arms and pulling her cloak tighter.

"That's not important," she said quietly. "Haven't any mind to ask it from you, anyhow. They think I'm in here asking you to print a story 'bout how I'm High Judge Azmus' daughter an' get everyone all riled up, but..."

She turned red; it was awful asking for help like this, and Annie had already done so much for her.

"Look, I ent got the right to ask this of you, Annie," she said desperately, "but I ent got a lot of time. I need to get out of here. Out of Vienda."

Annie laughed. "I wouldn't do that even if High Judge Whatzimahoozits came in here and asked me to do it himself. Ain't nobody got a need to know the personal business of anybody else, no matter who they are. Besides, we've got this new golly fella here what stamps 'censored' on anything but birthday announcements and personal ads. He'd prolly smell me thinkin about it and cut the story before I had a chance to hit the first key on the typewriter."


Poor kid, Annie thought. So much trouble goin on, and she still thinks it's her doin'. "You got every right in the world to ask me for anythin you want. None of this woulda happened ifn I hadn't been so hot 'n' heavy over a gorram news story. It's my fault they know who ye are cuz I plastered your face all over town in this stupid newspaper." Annie closed her eyes, her head hanging in shame and sadness. Too many years had been wasted on trying to write the next big story to shock the world, rather than telling the people what they really needed to hear. Maybe it's time I turn in my trenchcoat, she thought dryly.

Trenchcoat! That's it! Had Annie known what a lightbulb was, it would have gone off over her head.

Annie snapped her eyes open, a sly grin creeping across her face. "I an't got half a mind to sneak you outta town in my coat, I got a whole one!"

Emme's face brightened with hope. "You'll do it? Really? Oh Annie, mujo ma, thank you..." She smiled a little, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes, but she resisted the urge to cry again. She'd done enough of that.

"I need to get to somewhere they won't suspect," she whispered. "And it's got to be tonight, they expect me back. What do you think we should do?"

Her thoughts strayed to Hania and Jott, and she wondered briefly where they were, if they missed her...she was certain they would be all right, capable wicks as they were. She was less sure about herself.

Annie shrugged out of her coat and removed her hat, handing both to Emme. "Well, first thing we're gonna do is make you me. Here, put these on, and make sure your hair goes under the coat. It's kinda obvious I ain't a blonde. Now," she bent for a moment, scribbling an address down on piece of paper. "This is the boarding house where I live. Go there and wait for me in the kitchen. I'll have to change clothes and go the back ways outta here, but I'll be there as soon as I can. If anybody asks, tell 'em you're droppin my hat and coat off cuz I forgot 'em somewheres."


Annie put her hands on Emme's shoulders. "Remember how things were at the ball, how confident you were with that camera? 'stime to remember that confidence and keep yer chin up. This is your time to be brave. I believe in ye, you can do this. We're gonna get ye outta town quicklike before anybody can say anything, so long as ye keep a level head and don't start thinkin too much. No snifflin, ye hear? You're Annie now, and Annie ain't the type to get weepy; she gets mad and gets even." The reporter turned Emme towards the door. "Keep yer collar up an' yer head down, walk fast and don't stop til ye get to the boardin' house. I'll be there as soon as I can. Now go!"

"Wait!" Emme threw up her hands to catch the doorframe before Annie forced her out. "Which boarding house? Shouldn't I go out another door? They...they could be watching..." She bit her lip, ashamed to be so scared; she really wished she could be more like the reporter, decisive and brave, acting without hesitation.

*(Yknow...I don't think I've ever said which one she lives in. I just sorta reffer to it as 'the boarding house'. I'm sure there's more than one in Vienda. Is there a list of them somewhere? I think I may have missed it. For the post's sake, I'mma make one up, but it can most certainly be changed if necesary.)*


Annie thought for a moment. "If they're watching you, they prolly watched me fer a time as well. This is the door I normally go in an' out of, but I guess we could make an exception and take ye out the back way. As fer the boardin house...well, it's the only bright red thing in the city what has a giant rooster on the door. 'Scalled The Coop. Mildred's the lady what run's the place. She won't ask questions if'n ye say yer waitin fer me."

"Oh," said Emme bemusedly, trying to recall the building in question. She delivered hot bread there on more than one occasion, but after a couple weeks in captivity, the city seemed strange and alien to her.

At the backdoor, she paused and embraced Annie earnestly.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I'll go quickly."

Pulling her hood up over her head, she ducked out the door and disappeared into the darkness.

Emme's hug stopped Annie in her tracks. She barely had time to reciprocate before the young wick was out the door and quickly on her way to The Coop. It took a few seconds for Annie to shake off the shock and close the door. Nobody had ever been grateful for her help before. Most people took it as a sign of trade, or were wary of taking 'gifts' from a reporter, in case she come calling again in search of a return favor. But Emme...that girl's a whole differ'nt cuppa soup!

Annie leaned back against the door and closed her eyes, doing something she'd never done before in her entire life. "Look," she pleaded to the mona, "I know I ain't never asked nothin of ye before, and I haven't really ever wanted to 'fore now. You know I'm an independent person, able to take care o' m'self an' all that. I only know enough magic to work a camera." She paused, taking a deep breath. "But I'm askin' ye fer somethin now, not for me but fer somebody else. That girl. Keep 'er safe, don't let nobody catch her on her way to The Coop, and help me get her outta the city in one piece. This one's special, but I think you know that already." What do you say when you're tryin to end a plea to the mona? "Uhm, thanks ahead o' time, I guess."

With that, she went to her desk and pulled out the extra set of clothes she kept just in case. It was time to resist the Resistance.