Melinda's walk back to her room was more than a little difficult after the initial feeling of triumph. Her body was overcome with fatigue mere seconds after that, and Huxley quickly walked in the opposite direction from her, having many other errands to run, not caring in the slightest about what was going to happen to her afterwards. She had to pass through countless hallways and climb countless stairs, which made her wonder if she was going in circles for a monet, but then she recognised her room all of a sudden, and everything became better. It was a rather slow and painful walk, but at least it was over. She could rest now.

"Oh my God, what happened to you?!" Agatha exclaimed just as she was about to sit down on the floor, seeing the horribly limp state her body was in immediately.

Melinda let out a deep sigh. "It's not much, it's just some consequences for my actions, but I can't lie and say that it didn't hurt at all. I was tortured because Amanda told her superiors about what I'd done. I'd do it all again, though, for it didn't even cost me that much. The real issue here is Amanda. I know that she doesn't have much of a choice if her narrative about having been deceived is true, but I don't know how I'm supposed to trust her. Everything's complicated. All I need after all of this is rest and for Maria to answer as soon as possible. We're all counting on her."

"I know that Amanda can be trusted," said Agatha, placing her right hand onto her chest, where there was still dried blood on the magenta overcoat from the mysterious wound, as she noticed from a mere glance.

"How do you know that?" said Melinda, raising an eyebrow. "Do you have a connection with her that you haven't told anyone about, perhaps? Don't think that you've been subtle. You behave suspiciously when you think that no one's watching, but I'm ever watchful, for in my position, there's always something to be watched because nothing is certain anymore. It doesn't mean that I don't trust you anymore, but it seems to me that you're hiding something."

"Fine!" Agatha shouted desperately, sickened by what she perceived as an invasion of privacy. "I'll tell you if you want to know so much! The reason I'm here in the first place is my being caught with Amanda after our attempt to steal the book for ourselves had failed. Finn had it, and he was supposed to send it back to his family permanently, but Amanda, pointing her musket at him, ordered him to surrender the book, which he did, and then he stole the musket, giving me a near-fatal shot in the chest. 

Luckily, when Patrick came onto the scene, the book had already been hidden, but he knew what I was going to do, and so he took me here because I couldn't cause Amanda any trouble. Finn had already escaped. To make up for it, Amanda has helped me very much, and we've become closer ever since. What does that warrant if not trust?"

Melinda gasped, truly surprised by this turn of events. She couldn't have expected this from Agatha at all, but it explained so much. She finally had her answers to many questions she'd wanted to ask her, but strangely, she partially wished that she didn't have any of them now. Pale as ghost, she stared at Agatha with widened eyes for what seemed like an eternity, causing her to shiver with her whole body. This was all so different from what she'd anticipated. She thought she'd have a peaceful day with her friends while waiting for Maria's letter, but it looked like she'd wished for too much. That feeling was more harrowing than the torture itself.

"How could you?" she uttered after quite a while of silence. "This isn't trust, and I'm talking about both of you. You don't know what her agenda could be, and I don't know what your agenda is. You fell for the spell of the book so thoroughly that you almost killed an undeserving man for it, you, a woman who, above all else, used to advocate for peace and understanding, now surrendering yourself to a lifetime of indulging in perilous power amongst various obstacles. I still love you, but I don't know how I'll ever recover from the shame you've brought unto not only me, but also yourself."

"You don't understand-" Agatha began before Frank glared at Melinda, preparing himself to talk.

"Miss Grey, you're a pretentious, philosophical woman who only knows to judge others," he said coldly after a few seconds of silence. "You only do what the system tells you to do, and you think that anyone who goes against it is evil. That is in itself one of the greatest evils I could ever imagine. Indeed, there is evil, but nothing is as simple as it appears. The book could be of so much use to our country. If you'd only accept that as a possibility, you'd see so many stellar opportunities for progress like we haven't seen in decades to be achieved. Think about it."

Melinda snorted. "You're seduced and possessed by dark magic so overwhelmingly that you don't even know you're being influenced."

Agatha and Frank both proceeded to stare at her blankly without flinching, as if what she'd just said was too unbelievable for them to comprehend. Letting out yet another deep sigh, she sat in a remote, dark corner of the room away from the two of them, not having anything to do until sunset, when they were supposed to sneak out and search for clues. That improved everything, at least in the beginning.

"Where do you think we should go first?" whispered Agatha to Melinda the moment they closed the door behind them as they left the room.

"I think we should go to the room I talked to Amanda in yesterday," Melinda whispered back. "You know, the one with the unused furniture and wilted chrysanthemums. It's one of the more prominent rooms in this building, given that it's used constantly when something has to be done in secret, which makes me think that it contains some important clues we might've missed. It could be a decoy, but given its importance, it seems like a good start."

"Melinda..." Frank said awkwardly, pointing right in front of them. "You've got to see this. It's important."

"What is it?" she asked impatiently, not knowing what could be so important in the middle of an already important mission.

She gasped when she was a sleepwalking Amanda around the corner. She was mumbling something incomprehensible and walking slowly, but it was still too much of a threat to them. Not having any more time to waste, they turned back, walking on the tip of their toes. They knew that any amount of noise could spell disaster for them, which meant that Melinda knew they were doomed the moment she misstepped and caused the floor to creak. Frozen in place, they observed as she woke up swiftly, glaring them the moment she saw them, which was mere seconds later.

"What are you doing here?" she said, crossing her arms. "You know that you could all be killed soon if you continue disrespecting the rules at this alarming rate, along with Miss Grey's parents, right? Why don't you pay a little attention to the way you behave for once?"

"And why don't you pay a little attention to the way you behave for once?" Melinda growled, approaching her threateningly. "You bloody cultist. You won't stop justice from proceeding."

Agatha was clearly appalled by the manner in which Melinda spoke to her new friend, which Melinda felt sorry about, but she knew that there was no other way, and not only because she was angry. Aside from wanting to gauge Amanda's reaction, which had turned out to be pure shock, she also wanted to express her hatred of her, unreasonable as it may've been. 

After all, aside from causing her to be tortured, she was the one who permanently ruined Agatha's image of her in her eyes by making her resort to vigilante justice through forced assistance in what she couldn't perceive as anything other than a terrible atrocity. She couldn't see Finn as anything other than a helpless pawn in this game of wickedness, and she couldn't forgive either of them for their faults, and she was somewhat aware of her blindness and prejudice, but in the end, she still hated Amanda all the same. 

As she stared at her in utter contempt, she pulled a dagger out of a pocket on her dress, clenched the hand that held the dagger into a fist with thoughts of hatred on her mind, drew a circle in the air, swung the dagger in her target's general direction, and, finally, stabbed her painfully in the shoulder, causing her endless suffering, which was somehow even more horrible than the one she'd endured that day, or perhaps it was merely Amanda having less pain tolerance, or both.

A large facet of Melinda's wrathful and malicious nature that Amanda couldn't imagine before had now revealed itself right in front of her eyes. The unending well of hatred that was her soul at the moment, especially under the oppressive influence of the abominable spell she was casting, caused Amanda to witness horrors her mind couldn't fully describe to her.

Believing her to be evil, even if she knew that couldn't be true for sure, she wished on her nothing other than death and eternal agony in the void she'd be trapped in afterwards, cold, dark and uncaring towards all who inhabited it, silencing them in a cacophony of unnumbered screaming voices that could no longer truly conceive of simple things such as pleasure or happiness, or at least that was how she felt, and she wanted to believe that it was only Melinda's inexperience that had made her so unbalanced, but it all seemed too intentional for that to be the case.

As she began to scream, potentially alerting at least one person in the vast and populated house, Melinda pressed her mouth tightly with her left hand, holding onto it with such force that her face quickly became blue, after which she swiftly fainted from the fiendish torture that had been inflicted upon her. And, as her spell ended, Melinda had a look in her eyes and a smirk on her face that her friends would never forget.

"How could you?!" Agatha sobbed pathetically, marching back into her room as Melinda tried to pull her back, finally realising how unreasonable she'd been at that moment, despite her having had rather reasonable intentions in her head.

"Don't," Frank said coldly, yanking her hand. "She won't be able to understand what you've done because not even I am able to understand it, let alone her soft and gentle heart. You've behaved disappointingly, Miss Grey, and in a manner we never could've expected from you, in spite of your behaviour being unexpected pretty much every day. You want to know everyone's secrets, but you've never told us who you really were. I wouldn't either if I were capable of being so horrible to another human being. You're a liar and a hypocrite, and I don't think I'll ever be able to trust you again."

"How could you say that?!" Melinda moaned as he, too, marched into the room, slamming the door in her face, causing her to stand in silence like a statue for the next couple of seconds until she heard a pair of overly familiar footsteps, unable to do anything but panic as she listened to the movements of the person who was approaching her slowly but surely.