This takes place on a previous mission that Rime undertook before "Welcome to the Show" Season 4 began. Enjoy.
The stench of rotting flesh and the screams of the dying still electrified her senses as she sprang off her pillow in a cold sweat. Panting, she checked herself; she was still in one piece, not withering away, not dying. With a flick of her wrist, she illuminated the room she was staying in, though the candles remained extinguished and the lamps remained unlit, and she scrambled over to the mirror on top of the vanity.
"Thank the gods," she breathed, seeing her carefully sculpted features in complete disarray staring back at her. Her crystalline icy-blue eyes had dilated, panicked pupils, and her high almond-colored cheeks were flushed with fear. Her lips, normally full, smooth, and seductive, were cracked from the ragged breathing she had done while asleep, and her luminous and wavy ebony hair was damp with sweat at the roots. She gripped the edges of the vanity with her delicately cared-for hands, her nails digging a little into the wood, and she forcefully slowed her breathing.
"You are fine, Rime Bowerstone," the woman whispered forcefully to her reflection, "That was twelve years ago. Twelve years. You are alive. You are the most powerful sorcerer Directian has seen since her. You are here to do a mission, and you are fine."
Familiar meowing from the bed calmed her, and she looked into the mirror to see her orange and black calico blearily waking up. Tantomile yawned and stretched on her side, arching her back and lengthening her stomach in a way that looked incredibly relaxing, and let out one last little purr before speaking. "What's wrong, Princess Rimey?" she asked.
"Withering dream again," Rime replied quietly, still not looking directly at her only friend. Tantomile gracefully hopped down from the bed and leaped onto the vanity under Rime's right arm. The elegant feline began to groom herself, primping and straightening the bow she wore in order to pass as Rime's cover's cat.
"You are a silly sorceress, Rimey. You are here with me! And I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you," Tantomile assured her in her normal chipper nonchalance. Rime let out a small smile; ever since she had gotten Tantomile, blind with infection and near death, and nursed her back to health, she had been amazed at the cat's ability to remain perky and positive no matter the situation. When she had bonded with her as her familiar, Tantomile had made it her personal mission to be Rime's guardian angel kitty, only leaving her side when it was necessary for a mission. Luckily, the situation they were currently in welcomed Rime having a pet cat, so Tantomile didn't have to skulk around in the dungeons like an alley cat as she had done before.
A knock on her door caused both human and cat to jump. After a split second to compose herself and praying that whoever it was wouldn't notice the magical light, Rime asked, "Yes?"
"Your Grace, are you all right? We heard a disturbance," one of the guards that had been assigned to her protection detail in Sabaton called out.
"I am fine, sir, I merely had an unpleasant dream. It happens to me fairly often," she replied through the door.
"I understand. I hope you have more pleasant dreams, Baroness Wildgarden," the guard said assuredly, and she heard him step slightly away from the door. Rime quickly sighed with relief before turning back to her mirror. She was thankful that, this time, she hadn't had to take on completely different features. All she had needed to do was apply the Wildgarden family crest in the proper place (on the back of her left shoulder), so with the help of her old neighbor, Alder Combs, who could sketch out the tattoo she needed to copy with her magic, she was ready to go.
Her latest mission had her don the guise of Baroness Winifred Wildgarden, the daughter of a noble family in Erneon, so that her colleagues could stall the real Baron Wildgarden and persuade the family to aid them in their efforts rather than Sabaton. It had been quite the task infiltrating the house of Sabaton's Duke of Ames and proving to some of the lesser nobles that she was who she claimed, but she had pulled it off with aplomb and the negotiations were going slowly, as she had planned. All she was waiting for at this point was another sorcerer – Willem Mistpeak – to send a message through his owl familiar Forrest and she would be able to wrap up the false negotiations. Hopefully this mission would end without too many murders, but she didn't rule it out.
After one more long soothing inhale and exhale, she magically made the light extinguish and crawled back into the plush bed, Tantomile following close behind. Even after doing this sort of work for three years, Rime still was not used to how the beds of the nobility felt. She had grown up on thin mattresses when she had lived with her parents, and then similar cots when she was in the orphanage with Tantomile. The excess cushiness of the beds of her more modern life was still as surprising as it had been on her first mission, a reconnaissance mission to one of the richest merchant families in Gatless Town.
Rime pulled the covers up to her chin and sank uneasily back into her warm cocoon. It was on cold winter nights that she was happy to be doing the jobs she did. Thick covers and hot water bottles and bedroom stoves were luxuries she and her family had not been able to afford when she was young, so the winter months had chilled her to the bone. When her parents were alive, they'd all cuddle together in their bigger bed to keep warm and fall asleep telling each other stories…
She shook her head vehemently and stuffed a pillow over her face as if to block out the memories, but it did little good. Her chest began to spasm, but as usual, no tears came out; they had dried up long ago. She hadn't been able to cry in twelve years, not after the first night, not after the demons came and ravaged their home, not after she had been trapped under burning debris and had been pulled out of the rubble by her neighbors and their sons, not after the fate of those in the arena had been revealed to the city.
Tantomile eagerly moved from where she had initially begun to settle in between her princess's legs up to her shoulders. Gently, she pushed the pillow covering Rime's face off and curled up in the crook of her neck, placing her cheek on Rime's.
"It's okay, fairy princess," the cat gently cooed, licking Rime's cheek with her scratchy tongue, "Milly's here, and we are safe, and we are strong." Tantomile's assurances soon turned to purrs then into light sleepy breathing as she dozed off on Rime's shoulder. Rime did feel better – Tantomile was good at that – and she felt sleep creeping up on her. She closed her eyes and, as she did every night, she murmured her mantra to herself.
"I am Rime Bowerstone," she whispered into the darkness, "and they never see me coming."