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beginning of the end

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Looking back, there were signs.
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She had been working at Good Thymes when a Sybaris witch had walked up to her.
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He does not look at the plants as he passes. Instead, he goes straight for Xiomara. With a cigarette in his mouth, acrid against the lush flowers in the store, he leans on the counter, "Are you that Tremerie girl?"
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Xiomara had leaned forward with a bright smile, one that doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Sorry, we only sell plants here." She says. Meaning, fuck off.
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He burns the cigarette out on the counter and leaves without another word.
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----
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Another day, she had been walking home when the hairs on her neck suddenly stand up.
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Someone is following you. Grumpy says.
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She takes the long route around, but the feeling doesn't stop. She closes her eyes, sensing the ground and the soil--there are reverberations that do not stray too far from her presence, the vibration of the ground that tells her that this person has been walking in her direction for quite a while.
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Xiomara decides to loop around to the Lamia Towers instead; sheltering herself in Kasi's office until he could walk her home. They do not sense the presence then.
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"Maybe they saw my bag and wanted it?" She had reasoned to Kasi, but there's still a voice in her head telling her that something was wrong. She ignores it, and thinks to water her plants instead.
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----
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One evening, she wakes up to someone trying to open her door. Xiomara races to the entrance and points a trembling hand at the assailant. She imagines choking someone with her vines, or paralyzing them with poisonous spores.
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"If you don't leave right now, I'll kill you." She says, trying to the fear in her voice.
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"S'orry, wrong address." A man says, and she hears him stumbling away.
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There are always bandits on the loose, especially in the slums, she thinks. But alone, with only Grumpy as company, she doesn't sleep for the rest of the night.
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The next day, Xiomara cancels her plans, and reinforces the locks on her house instead. She lays out enchantments for intruders, and lines the house with poisonous ivy.
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It is important to be prepared, she thinks. Just in case anything happens.
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That didn't matter much though, in the end.
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---
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The day before the Silverwing Gala, Xiomara finds the door broken open and the enchantment dismantled.
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"No no no--" She drops the dresses in her hands and races into the door, only to be met with an explosion. It sears her clothes and skin, and she lands in a heap outside of a burning house. The blast leaves her with ringing ears and blurry vision. Her limbs are weak but she wills them to crawl anyways, desperately wanting to salvage what remains of her belongings. But her body is too weak, and darkness overtakes her vision.
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When she wakes, there is nothing but ash.

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