it’s about how fucking derogatorily Salem says “that semblance of yours” because it’s not even real magic, it’s a semblance of magic, it’s beneath her, Emerald is beneath her, none of these people are real aside from her and Ozma and yet Emerald was able to trick her just like she could anyone else and she never saw it coming, for the first time in the series someone got Salem off her game, got her scared, and it was Emerald Sustrai
whispering “no” while reading a book because you know that the character's about to make a fool out of themselves and kill you with second hand embarrassment