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True to her word -- well, her implied word, anyway -- Zircon hadn't supplied Hvergelmir with any food or water since the knight had refused to answer her questions. She'd expected that. It didn't exactly make it pleasant -- after however many hours, her stomach was churning acid in the hopes of something being sacrificed to it; and after she'd been singing to herself on and off for as long as she had, her throat was feeling fairly parched.

Little Astrophyllite, poking through the door with a plastic bag in hand, was like a tiny pink dream of spring in her hour of hunger. Even if the girl was some sort of half-sleeping dream, or just a nervous hallucination, Hvergelmir smiled.

"Astrophyllite," she said, her voice a little bit dry, with a sort of tacky feel to it. "God, it's so nice to see you. I'd hug you, but they've got my hands chained." To the legs of her chair. Presumably so she couldn't do any funny business like trying to summon help. "I -- I don't want to get you in trouble, but -- "

Cut my chains and get me out of here. Kill the guards. Set me free. Help me, don't let them corrupt me, I don't want to die --

But even if Astrophyllite could. Even if she could do any of that -- it'd be a death sentence for her if she didn't get to a royal fast enough, Chaos could just rip her back into its clutches and kill her from there.

"If I could just have a sip of something to drink. It would mean so much."

Astrophyllite was a sweet, gentle child, and she'd risked a great deal -- her whole life -- to be here. Hvergelmir couldn't possibly keep her long. A few sips, maybe a bite of something to eat -- God, maybe two or three really big bites, she'd just eat quickly -- then she'd send her little guardian angel back on her way. That was all. Much more than that was too dangerous.

A sandwich. An apple. A twinkie. Good lord, Astrophyllite had stolen her an entire little balanced meal, knowing what it might cost to bring it to her. (It sounded delicious.) The young girl had an impossibly pure heart, for a place like this.

Hvergelmir latched her lips around the little straw with much gratitude and few manners, taking a long, relieved drag. She swore she could feel every drop soothing her throat, cool and sweet. It had been a very long time since she'd last eaten, dancing carefree and gay between the chocolate fountains with Xanthus alongside. "Thank you," she mumbled around the straw, a little bit of apple juice trickling over her chin in overzealousness. "You're a saint."

With a little bit of willpower, she forced herself to stop drinking momentarily.

It was a tiny detail that stuck in Hvergelmir's mind, alongside the blissful feeling of being thirsty and having something to drink which had mostly taken precedence. It was that Astrophyllite had said they were keeping everyone chained up, which meant there were more of them here. Hvergelmir wasn't the only one who'd fallen to their -- their trap, she supposed.

A trap. It had to have been. The Negaverse had been draining their energy, but -- they'd stopped after a while. They hadn't wanted to bleed them out entirely; they'd left them enough energy to still be willing to transform and fight -- just disadvantaged. And it had worked.

"Do you know anyone else they captured?" she asked. "About how many of us -- was there a man in red, and armor with a bull's head on the chest and shoulder?"

She bent her head down and made quick work of as much of the rest of the juice as she could while she waited to see what Astrophyllite could tell her. Hvergelmir had to hurry -- the longer she let the other girl linger, the greater the chance she'd be caught. Maybe punished.

"You're a great friend," Hvergelmir told her. "You're such a great friend. If someone comes in here, I want you to tell them you were asking me questions. Tell them I told you there are at least two people I know with markings like they described. Tell them the other one's a knight."

If Astrophyllite managed to get away clean, Hvergelmir hoped she wouldn't pass on the information she'd just been given. Hvergelmir didn't have many details she was willing to dole out in order to buy herself more time, and she wanted to have those two handy, if she could.

"The sandwich next," she suggested.

Hvergelmir took huge, profound bites of the sandwich as Astrophyllite talked. She finished most of it, crust and all, in about three good chomps -- and when Astrophyllite tucked the last corner delicately between Hvergelmir's teeth she didn't object. Hvergelmir was going to have to send her away now. Astrophyllite couldn't be allowed to die for an apple and a twinkie.

Rust and leather. Cold and lightning and green.

Astrophyllite had some kind of gift to be able to sense -- and read -- auras that clearly. It was fascinating, if she'd had more time.

"Rust and leather," she agreed. "He's a friend. The others, I don't . . . lightning must be Jupiter. Cold could be -- Mercury, maybe? Green, I don't know. I'm not sure."

She frowned. Did she even know any knights of Jupiter? She'd barely met one -- once, at the BlackWatch meeting. Who else had they captured?

"Glowing marks on their skin," she explained. "A senshi with them can't be corrupted -- they were asking me about her. Listen, sweetheart, you have to go now, okay? I need you to hurry and go. You've been so brave."

Will you be okay? she asked. How was Hvergelmir supposed to answer honestly to a question like that?

"I'll be fine," she lied with a wink. "I'm already working on a plan."

But she had to make sure Astrophyllite had the information she needed. For when they executed or corrupted Hvergelmir and it became clear that she'd never had a plan at all.

"There are people who can help you," she told the younger girl. "Knights can send messages to anyone. Camelot, Iris, Polaris, Chronos, Cosmos -- " She left out Castor, untrustworthy given his campaign to slaughter the weak to make statements. "Any of them can help you. Most any knight you find will help you, they'll carry your message. They'll protect you. The royals will help you, I promise."