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"Give it backto me!" Anand yelled as she tried to wrestle their father's Oxter out of Macha's hands.

"Papa charged me with it," Macha said, clinging to the bag. "He insisted we not play with it."

Babd rolled her eyes. Fionn hadn't exactlytrustedMacha with the Oxter—but he did tell her to be sure no one played with the damned thing. Macha included.

"But he'll never know!" Anand replied, again attempting to yank the Oxter out of Macha's hands.

Macha looked at Babd with urgency in her eyes. "Tell Anand what Papa said, Babd."

Babd shrugged. "He told all of us to leave it be."

"He did not! He told me to keep you two from messing with it."

"That's not what he said!" Anand insisted.

Babd rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter what Dad said. The point was that none of us were supposed to touch it. He didn't mean you should hold it, either, Macha."

"How else am I supposed to keep you two from messing with it if I'm not holding it!"

Anand and Babd exchanged glances. Anand wanted to experiment with the Oxter. Macha wanted to prove her worth to her father—to show that she was trustworthy, that she was more than a pretty face. And Babd couldn't give two turds either way.

"You both realize what that bag can do, right?" Babd asked.

"Papa said that if you reach into the bag you can retrieve anything you wish, but that there's always a cost," Macha said.

Anand rolled her eyes. "He just told us it came with a cost so we wouldn't play with it."

"The point is that it belongs to Dad," Macha said. "Cost or not, we shouldn't be messing with it because it'shis."

"Then why don't you prove it?" Babd asked. She wasn't typically so devious, but her sister needed to be taken down a notch. Babd didn't know what the cost was, but she understood more about magic, more than her sisters did, to realize her father wasn't telling tall tales when he said using the bag would have consequences. "I mean, hasn't Dad changed since he got the Oxter?"

"It wasn't the bag that made him so angry all the time," Anand said. "It was losing Mom. The bag is harmless."

"But Dad said..." All it took was a momentary distraction and Anand made her move, ripping the bag from her sister's hand. "Why do you have to be such a daddy's girl all the time, Macha?"

"No Anand!" Macha yelled as Anand reached into the bag.

A half-second later she pulled out a small ball of reddish-brown fur. The miniature puppy quickly turned to Anand, licking her in the face. The fair-haired girl giggled. "You see," Anand said, "this thing is great!"

Macha sighed. "Just wait. Using this thing always comes with a cost. That's what Papa said."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Anand asked, now rolling around on the floor with her newly acquired puppy.

Macha continued lecturing her sister. Meanwhile, Anand ignored her and continued playing with the puppy. The girls' giggling, however, was suddenly silenced as Anand's body stiffened.

"What's happening?" Babd asked, trying to shake Anand back to her senses.

"It's the Oxter!" Macha said, looking in horror at the bag as red energies emerged from the bag and enveloped Anand.

Anand's eyes sprang wide open, but where her irises should have been there was only black.

"Babd, do something!" Macha shouted.

"I don't know what..." Babd said, as another voice—Grainne's voice—interrupted.

"Girls, step away from her—now!"