Tallis had taken Gianna up to the rented two-room flat that she shared with Cezar. She’d called a doctor who’d looked the unconscious Gianna—her “neice”—over with a tutting tongue. The physician, perplexed by the woman’s condition, had left instructions for care and a healing tonic that Tallis stashed as soon as the man left. Cezar would heal the girl upon his return, so long as the nasty little thing cooperated. Tallis was yet undecided whether this was a waste of time an whether she should just dispose of her and the endeavor altogether.

She sat at the Gianna’s bedside, reading, stealing glances at intervals to see whether the girl would come to. Tallis wouldn’t see that she was coming to until she shifted and a scream started to burble on the air. Tallis would toss her book and drop forward, clamping a hand over the girl’s mouth and holding her down like she would an unruly filly.

And yes, she was still very naked, but at least there was a blanket to cover her.

“Now we can either talk like civilized adults,” Tallis hissed, “Or your ankle can become the least of your worries. You decide.”

If Gianna struggled, the pain in her ankle would spread.

Gianna clenched tightly at the blanket over her form, eyes widening impossibly as her scream was stifled and the woman from before imparted her threat. And to think she had liked this woman for a second. Now here she was, a prisoner, likely to be sold as a slave. Panic rose in her chest and tears welled in her eyes. When her mouth was released, assuming it was, Gianna would whine through a sob,

"Please don't hurt me. My father will give you anything."

Tallis did release her once the tears started leaking onto the girl’s cheeks. For an orphan, the girl was surprisingly hysterical. A far cry from the sharp-tongued brat Tallis had originally met. But that was rich coming from the woman who was the cause of her distress.

“From what I saw,” Tallis replied smugly sitting up on the bed and looking down at Gianna, “Your Papa has nothing to give that would be enough to tempt me. From what I can tell…” She shrugged, “I already have one of the more useful things at his disposal.”

Tallis crossed her arms.

“So… transfiguration of some sort, yes? That’s what you can do?”

The line between true emotion and manipulation was certainly blurred for Gianna. She pretended so much that often what she imaged became her reality. She was truly scared about what would come of her, but whether the hysteria was authentic was...well, yet to be determined.

When she was released the sobbing deescalated to sniffles. She avoided looking at the woman, keeping her face tilted down and her eyes cut in the opposite direction.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm...I'm not..." She shook her head. She couldn't say the words. She'd spent her life hiding, denying, because to be gifted was to be a prisoner. It wasn't about to roll so easily off her tongue now.

Tallis laughed, one surprisingly good-natured instead of mocking—though there was no telling how it would be received. She smiled at Gianna with warmth, though the curve of her smirk made her nowhere near friendly.

“Gifted?” Tallis offered, cocking an eyebrow, “It’s not a dirty word, you know. Despite what you’ve been led to believe.”

Gianna was confused, afraid, and still in pain. She didn't know what to make of the woman's laugh, nor the words that followed. To many it was a dirty word. Only those with gifts or their sympathizers didn't cringe away, it seemed. But this woman had kidnapped Gianna. Surely her intentions weren't pure. The young woman's brow furrowed.

"Are you...a friend?" She still couldn't bring herself to say 'to those with gifts', but perhaps the way the air lingered in her open mouth even after she finished talking was enough for that last bit to be deduced.

Tallis tipped her head to one side, an amused smile still dancing on her lips. She didn’t care that Gianna was in pain. If Tallis’s father had taught her one thing was that pain was a necessary part of change. The trade-off for evolution. And this little girl would either evolve or, most likely, die. Tallis reached nonchalantly for an apple in her bag.

“A gifted? Yes.” Tallis took a bite of the apple, chewing as the rest of it decayed in her hand, first into a wrinkled mushy puddle, then crumbling until the dusted soil that remained dropped to the floor.

“As for a ‘friend’...” She toyed with the word, chewing as she did before swallowing the bite. “I suppose that depends on you. I could be."

A gifted. Gianna's eyes grew round and her lips parted as if to speak when in fact the breath was stolen clear from her chest. It should not have been strange to hear, and it should not have struck her so; the combined relief and shock did little in the way of making her a better conversationalist. Her gaze stumbled to the apple as it became dust. She stared into the space where it had been for a long moment.

Assuming Tallis left her to her awe, Gianna would eventually recover. Her mouth would close and she would turn her big browns to Tallis, wetness giving them a beautiful gloss.

"I don't want to die." The confession left her in a haggard whisper.

Tallis raised her eyebrow in a practiced, exaggerated arch as she crossed her arms to contemplate the girl before her. It was not the girl’s blubbering or brown doe eyes that captured her, but rather the possibilities that lay behind them Tallis spun up in her imagination.

“And is that all?” Tallis asked, exceedingly unimpressed, “To stay alive seems a small dream for a girl with such power at her fingertips.” It wasn’t flattery. This was an interrogation—though it was unclear exactly what Tallis was looking for.

Gianna had expected sympathy. Maybe reassurance. Maybe even, dare she hope it, freedom. Instead her plea was met with…a challenge?! Despite her fear, desperation, and pain, a flare of rebellion reared its pubescent head, igniting her pride and turning her flight to fight.

“That’s not all.” She suddenly snapped, dark gaze flickering over the woman, finding every flaw to later exploit in angry thoughts. “I want…” she huffed, the weight of her desires sometimes too great to articulate, “…a comfortable life. I want status. Power. Wealth. Love. Stability.” Her gaze turned from lusty to angry to judgy.

“Things you clearly have and likely take for granted.”

As Gianna went on, Tallis’s smirk curled into a grin. She waited for a moment to ensure there was no more team Gianna needed to before speaking with a satisfied hum.

“Much better.” Tallis stood, going to the dresser and looking for something, keeping Gianna in the corner of her eye lest she try to escape again. “It seems you have two options, little one. First, you could make an escape, and I could let that rot in your ankle spread to your bloodstream and kill you. Second, you could come and work for me, and I help you get all those things you want. Wealth. Stability. Power. Take your pick.”

Tallis turned, a dress tucked against her chest like an impatient mother.

“Which will it be?”

Gianna did consider making a run for it once the woman’s back was turned. But her ankle…she knew she wouldn’t get far. Maybe she could turn into something inconspicuous and wait the woman out…

As I’d aware of her thoughts, the ultimatum was given. It was an easy choice, though the lady would find herself disappointed by Gianna and give her back to herself, surely.

“What kind of work?” Gi asked skeptically. “I’m nobody’s whore.”

Tallis laughed in what sounded more like a joyful bark and rolled her eyes. Maybe she was only seeing in Gianna what she wanted to see, but for now, it was a fantasy of potential she was going to indulge. She tossed the dress to Gianna so that it draped across the bed.

“I’m not in the whoring business,” Tallis said with amused exasperation, not turning her back but waiting for Gianna to get dressed, “My husband and I honest people of business. Shipping. Ranching. But it never hurts to have an extra set of hands—gifted ones at that. So…” She crossed her arms. “You put your gift to use for us, I’ll ensure you have decent wages, a roof over your head, and opportunities for…betterment.” Tallis tilted her head.

“Can you read? Do your arithmetic?”