Maphira had been dragged around the city of Melbourne for days on end. From buyer’s advocacy to buyer’s advocacy, the Conclave of Mechanists had moved their captive on a daily basis – often more than once a day, even. She was starting to get whiplash, and she was also starting to suspect that the Conclave had run out of buyer’s agencies to take her to.
After all, she was currently being held at the offices of a fine conveyancer based in Brighton, which was certainly a first. She wasn’t really sure what the point of moving her around so much was, but then again, nothing the Conclave of Mechanists did seemed to make sense.
Someone opened the door to the small room Maphira had been confined to, throwing a sandwich wrapped in plastic over to her, then quickly shutting the door and locking it. The sandwiches were always the same; peanut butter and strawberry jam. They’d always been Maphira’s favourite, but she pretended to hate them. When they’d first taken her captive, they had given her a cheese toasty, but when Maphira had expressed delight over the taste, they’d given her another sandwich the next day. It seemed they wanted her to be miserable. Perhaps they were trying to break her spirit.
Part of Maphira wanted to blame Rylee for putting her in this situation. After all, she wouldn’t be stuck at a property conveyancing firm if her sister hadn’t betrayed her. But Maphira knew that she only had herself to blame. If she’d just told Rylee the truth about Cole all those years ago, she wouldn’t have been in this situation.
Surely the Conclave had something in mind for Maphira. Vai had mentioned Project Bender, but that was weeks ago now. How much longer would they drag her from conveyancing firm to conveyancing firm? Or maybe she’d be back at another buyer’s agency again tomorrow. At this point, Maphira had no idea what fate had waiting for her anymore.