Nachfolgia wrote:..."By the way, how is that fragile little mind of yours, Bushra?" Friederike said as she glanced at the Ottoman witch.
Bushra recoiled slightly at Friederike’s shot, shocked out of her anger temporarily by the question. It returned even more forcefully, however. She wasn’t insane. Her mind was just fine! Who the hell was Friederike to suggest otherwise? She hadn’t been the one picking fights and refusing help. It was Friederike’s fault.
Bushra began to respond to the barb, happy her emerging familiar ears were hidden below her headscarf. She did not even notice the sound of a car pulling up behind them.
I’M NOT IN CONTROL!Bushra jerked around in the air as she felt herself rise and get pushed away from Friederike. Unsure what was happening, the girl whipped her head left-and-right as if searching for an assailant. She quickly found it in a familiar face behind her. It became apparent what was happening from who it was.
Bushra froze in the air. Feeling at once her inner discomfort at the castle disappear in an ocean of fea—discomfort and…concern at the Princess’ presence. She’d been told—perhaps ‘warned’ would be a better descriptor—Hanna would ‘probably’ be here, but had just assumed when the Karlslandic noble hadn’t immediately shown up she’d been safe. That had clearly been incorrect.
A very soft, almost inaudible, whimper escaped Bushra before she could stop it. Hanna could
read and control her mind and she was entirely in control of her body, what if she remembered…Bushra managed to stop that line of thought before it could betray anything further.
Not to mention she had to sit through some kind of fancy-dress garbage with the noble-born mind-reading-freak girl in some other Brittanian noble’s
castle and…and…and…
Bushra clamped down on the whimper and gritted her teeth against the rising panic. Instead, she focused on the twisting anger at Hanna’s childlike treatment of her and Friederike’s baseless accusations. Friederike treated her like some kind of nutcase, and Hanna was treating her as if she were a child. It wasn’t FAIR. What had she done? Offer to help Friederike and then get called insane by her?
I’m fine. Just fine. I’ll show them! I’ll show all of them! They’re wrong, not me! I’m FINE.
I am fine.Bushra bit her lip, recalling the feel of the trigger as she’d been about to shoot Princess Hanna over Greece. Or the spike of pleasure and anticipation she’d felt on the verge of hitting Anastasia in her burned legs back on the Yeager. Or the mad happiness she’d felt thinking of dismembering Princess Hanna and Ljiljana on the Yeager and watching them bleed all over the deck. Or the absolute joy she’d felt punishing her former ‘teacher’ with slow physical pain and then death. Or even the dismissive humor she’d found in ripping off his servant-witches finger. Or the pleasure she’d had at the thought of killing Nuray…
Well, I’m fine anyways, aren’t I? I’m still here, and haven’t killed anyone that didn’t deserve it. And now that teacher’s gone I can focus on killing Neuroi. I’m fine. I might have had some…trouble adjusting…But I’m fine.Friederike said something in Karlslandic. Unsure what had been said, Bushra shot a glare at the other girl anyways. It was undoubtedly about her, and undoubtedly unkind.
“Well then, if you’re done being a condescending…witch just because I tried to help one of your countrymen and she can’t accept it…”
Bushra gritted her teeth harder and took a very obvious breath to calm down. Still glaring at Hanna, Bushra’s voice became somewhat less heated.
“Would you be so kind as to Put. Me. Down.” Bushra didn’t let a trace of her rage enter her voice, instead speaking as if disappointed. She too was perfectly capable of treating Hanna like a petulant child, and she deserved the label more than Bushra. Bushra wasn’t the mind-reading freak.
“Please? Prinzessin von Mind-Reader?” Bushra finally shot, smirking slightly. The front was entirely false, as Bushra knew an almost paralyzing fear and panic sat behind it at the powers Hanna had. But it was all she could do. She had to just try and ignore the girl’s powers, which was rather hard to do when floating in the air because of them.