Wyndle ran around her in a circle, a little lasso of vines sprouting leaves on the floor, looping her again and again.  Darkness stepped up close.

Go!  She leaped to her hands and knees.  He seized her by the shoulder, but she could escape that.  She summoned her awesomeness.

Darkness thrust something toward her.

The little animal was like a cremling, but with wings.  Bound wings, tied-up legs.  It had a strange little face, not crabbish like a cremling.  More like a tiny axehound, with a snout, mouth, and eyes.

It seemed sickly, and its shimmering eyes were pained.  How could she tell that?
The creature sucked the awesomeness from Lift.  She actually saw it go, a glistening whiteness that streamed from her to the little animal.  It opened its mouth, drinking it in.

Suddenly, Lift felt very tired and very, very hungry.

Darkness handed the animal to one of his minions, who made it vanish into a black sack he then tucked in his pocket.  Lift was certain that the viziers - standing in an outraged cluster at the table - hadn't seen any of this, not with Darkness's back to them and the two minions crowding around.

"Keep all spheres from her," Darkness said.  "She must not be allowed to Invest."

Lift felt terror, panicked in a way she hadn't known for years, ever since her days in Rall Elorim.  She struggled, thrashing, biting at the hand that held her.  Darkness didn't even grunt.  He hauled her to her feet, and another minion took her by the arms, wrenching them backward until she gasped at the pain.

No.  She'd freed herself!  She couldn't be taken like this.  Wyndle continued to spin around her on the ground, distressed.  He was a good type, for a Voidbringer.

Darkness turned to the viziers.  "I will trouble you no further."

"Mistress!" Wyndle said.  "Here!"

The half-eaten roll lay on the floor.  She'd dropped it when the cudgel hit.  Wyndle ran into it, but he couldn't do anything more than make it wobble.  Lift thrashed, trying to pull free, but without that storm inside of her, she was just a child in the grip of a trained soldier.

"I am highly disturbed by the nature of this incursion, constable," the lead vizier said, shuffling through the stack of papers that Darkness had dropped.  "Your paperwork is in order, and I see you even included a plea - granted by the arbiters - to search the palace itself for this urchin.  Surely you did not need to disturb a holy conclave.  For a common thief, no less."

"Justice waits upon no man or woman," Darkness said, completely calm.  And this thief is anything but common.  With your leave, we will cease disturbing you."

He didn't seem to care if they gave him leave or not.  He strode toward the door, and his minion pulled Lift along after.  She got her foot out to the roll, but only managed to kick it forward, under the long table by the viziers.

"This is a leave of execution," the vizier said with surprise, holding up the last sheet in the stack.  "You will kill the child?  For mere thievery?"

Kill?  No.  No!

"That, in addition to trespassing in the Prime's palace," Darkness said, reaching the door.  "And for interrupting a holy conclave in session."

The vizier met his gaze.  She held it, then wilted.  "I..." she said.  "Ah, of course... er... constable."

Darkness turned from her and pulled open the door.  The vizier set one hand on the table and raised her other hand to her head.

The minion dragged Lift up to the door.