trigger warning: mentions of self-harm, suicidal ideation
They felt eyes on them; Jeremiah's, Shiloh's, Temperance's. Alexis could see behind themself, after all, and there was a flicker of harsh pity -- Shiloh was so tired, because he had to take this all on himself the way he saw it, didn't he? Alexis had been Alois', and he in turn had been Ezra's; there was no found family here. Only the ever present desire to break Alois' fingers, to crack each bone, to press smoking iron to skin; impossible, impossible for so many reasons, but they entertained it. It'd do no harm.
"It's what I do, Lord Beaumont," and they didn't smile at him; with the Spinel Lady's dismissal, something in their face had gone a little dreamy, a little disconnected. They couldn't say they were sorry to her for things they didn't know -- and nobody else would let them continue to throw themself upon the blades, because nobody got it, not really. They knew, they knew -- it was hard to pinpoint. Sorrow for Shiloh, sorrow for Melany, and an ugly-hot sense of duty with no aim.
Alexis sat, one ankle crossed over the other, back straight. "I'm afraid that won't be possible," they said, very quietly, and their hands were layered in their lap.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 2:33 pm
"If you continue to disrespect me," said the Spinel Lady very flatly to Alexis, "there shall be consequences, and you shall not like them. When you speak to me, you will call me My Lady or Madame."
The expression in her eyes was queer as she turned back to Temperance. "Hardly," she said. "I make those who come to me better. If I fail them in their trials, I care for them. Ask any of these fetches here: do they fear me? Do they despise me? No. They love me. I protect them, I give them purpose. I would never raise a hand to them. My cruelty has purpose, a design behind it. I do not disclaim and pretend it is regrettable, or hide behind declarations of morality."
"She protects us," said Silk. "And we protect her." She looked to her sisters and brothers. "Any one of us would destroy our own patron if the Lady required it."
As if Silk had not spoken, the Spinel Lady continued, "Obviously your patron has done wrong by you that you don't know to hold your tongue in the presence of your betters. Be silent or be gone, tithe."
She looked back to those nobles whose trials had been completed. "You might be able to unwind the sigil if you were able to grind the sigil from my bones. If every person, or most of them at least, whose fingerprint is upon that Charter were willing to bleed for it."
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 5:41 pm
Rabbit's brows rose slightly, more of a wibble than a sign of shocked disbelief or defensiveness, and he dropped his focus to the floor, unable to glare at Hart once his mind had started spinning the future. Temperance would lose, the fetch would win, and it would all be his fault. He should have stepped in and told Temp to stand down, but that would mean admitting that he was the one who had failed to teach her control. He didn't really want to try commanding her to do anything anyway. It wasn't his place.
Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 6:13 pm
I know what I lost.
Was it his imagination or did the words feel as if they reverberated within the very walls of the Court? It was not too much of a stretch, not given who and what she was. The Spinel Lady was what all their power was pulled through, what enabled them to have it in the first place. It was also why she could, with a touch, strip it all away.
He met her gaze, head inclining once more in respect. "We have no desire to see harm come to you further, Madame. Would such a method see harm to your person?" Did she actually mean, quite literally, grind it from her bone. Then, of course, another thought that came to him and they were here already. This moment was upon them and there was no reason to not ask.
"We were also told that once it was carved into your bones, the Sigil was washed in blood from a jar. Was that the blood of we who blooded the Charter?" From Jeremiah there would be no denying it, not from him. It was a fact and it was something that they needed to rectify.
"Your cruelty is still suffering, regardless of the design behind it." Temperance glanced at Silk. She held no doubt that the fetches loved Melany with a fierce devotion, but that didn't mean what she did was right. The inflection on her words implied something that Temperance couldn't quite understand. "My patron allows me words in this space, Lady." Which was more or less true; Rabbit had never tried to stop her, after all. She rearranged the pale layers of her skirt thoughtfully.
"How would we need to bleed for it?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 7:44 pm
Shiloh was getting tense again. Beel, rather faithful, placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's true." The fetch affirmed, "We were not the ones who built this Court upon the bones of the innocent. We see to the Lady who bears the burden of all your magic." Beel was young for a fetch. He was learning. But he understood.
"I see..." Shiloh said, not to Beel but to Melany herself. He couldn't blame her; what they had done to her was absolutely unspeakable, unimaginable. His gaze drifted over to Silk as he pondered—oh how she screamed—and his lips went taught, pursed. He didn't want anymore death, but he couldn't say he didn't agree with her. He didn't want Noeh to die, but every time he thought of her face he heard One for many, one for many. He hated it. It was nearly palpable. To Alexis, he sighed, "It is possible." His jaw was set at the Lord Beaumont, "Please don't call me that." He seemed distressed.
Then again, he had been distressed this entire time. Maybe he seemed calm in the tone of his voice, but his hands were shaking. It's why they hadn't moved very much. He kept matching his thumb against the fingerprints present on the Charter, like he was trying to reassure himself of his own innocence. Still, he wasn't completely innocent, not really, because he was a Noble and participating in this just as much as anyone else.
I know what you lost, he seemed to want to say back, but he didn't. Was it his place? Not really. Of everyone here, did he consider himself the closet to understanding? Sure, yeah, actually. His back had not been splayed open, but he couldn't count the amount of times him or Thorne or Lady had suffered in these halls. He'd spilled blood in this Court far more than he could keep count of. Nothing had ever been ground into his bones, but he had suffered.
"Mercer," Shiloh continued to speak evenly, "Do you have results for the others who blooded the charter? You only mentioned the ones in this room." He looked as if he wanted to say something to Temperance, but he stopped himself a second time. She wasn't his tithe. It wasn't his place to say anything. He looked to Rabbit and took note of his silence, wondering what was going through his head.
"But Mercer is right, Madame." He sighed, "If you would hurt more for it, then I'm not interested." His lips pursed, "And if there was anything you could teach me, I would learn it." Maybe if he was stronger, then people wouldn't have to hurt like this anymore. No more senseless suffering. No more wanna-be martyrs. "If it provides a better outcome, I mean." His fingertips traced the edge of the charter. The hopelessness was still there, but he was relieved to see that Melany was... speaking with them. Not so much that she was clearly being antagonized. Even if it was unfair, he wished people would bite their tongues. "Even if we're running out of time. Some is better than none."
And finally, "Someone dear to me is in possession of such a schema." He seemed adamant, "But I would never take it from them unless they were willing to use it for this. All I'm saying is that it's viable." His fingers kneaded between his brow, "I spoke with Noeh some time ago. She said that was initially what she had wanted—to anchor the sigil to a schema like that—but, well," He laughed, the sound harsh and sarcastic, "I feel like she's lied to me, so take that for what it's worth. Still, if it's a possibility..."
Conceptually - no, no, no - but everything's fuzzy and bright, a little, and there's a tear they don't understand welling up in one eye - a weapon does not speak at court, but Alois isn't here to put a chain around their neck and pull back, to tell them to heel.
It's. It's. It's.
"My lady," Alexis said, with their chin high and their eyes distant, and it was hard to tell if they meant it or if they were just parroting her; because like this, it was the easiest thing to do. Listen to what was said to them and say it back, the same inflection, the same way.
"People --" their brow furrowed, and they went almost silent -- "people will hurt. Regardless." They weren't looking at Shiloh, or indeed, anything in particular. Their gaze seemed to skim Hart's shoulder, her bared neck; Rabbit's bowed head, the real Temperance's ardent stare, her fingers in her pale skirts. But never for more than a second.
They were so still.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:15 pm
Jeremiah remembered the words Rabbit had said. He was not tithe-whipped but he did allow Temperance freedoms neither of them had experienced as tithes themselves. His gaze flicked to Fell and she inclined her head towards him. "Before any of you, it was her who cared for us. We live and breathe for her, Lord, such that we are able."
His head nodded and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards. Jeremiah understood, he did. It was not the same as when Ezra had arrived and she had turned to him bright and hopeful but more than that. When no one else was there for those who had fallen, these fetches, the Spinel Lady had been.
In his hand, as Shiloh asked, was the printed paper with the results. It smoldered in his grip before his fingers flicked to hand it over, the paper going straight to Shiloh. (It was only a hesitation because of some of the names he knew to be on it but Shiloh carried himself well and he had faith in him.) "It was not just those who are Nobles but also those who are currently moonwalkers and wargs as well. Whether they had the spirit-bond or not at that time is unknown."
The harsh laugh, the bitterness in Shiloh's voice as he spoke of Noeh, was echoed in the unease he felt in his stomach. "It is why I inquired as to a schema being a possibility, Madame," he confirmed, "but then we learned the truth from Silk of the creation of the Charter."
... and Noeh's words, what was truth and what was lie, came under question. With Alexis's words, their statement, he fell quiet and simply watched. Their actions, their words-
The Spinel Lady did not rise from her chair. She closed her eyes, long dark lashes across the glittery navy of her makeup. One hand moved, cracking her nails in an old nervous habit. She didn't seem to realize she was doing it. "Whichever one among you wishes to earn my favor, as Silk has, please take this tithe in hand," said the Spinel Lady, opening her eyes and looking at Temperance. Beside her, Silk's near-human appearance stood in stark contrast to the corpselike skin of her siblings. The Lady's focus was on Temperance. "If your patron will not discipline you, I shall."
To the fetches, she said, "Break her hand. The right one.
"And bring the insubordinate girl to me." Alexis, she meant. "Do not harm her. She is a member of my Court."
Two fetches assigned to her work, she turned her attention back to the nobles. "Yes," she said to Jeremiah. "To slow the healing and finalize the bond. The work had to heal naturally." She seemed to be confused by their insistence that she not suffer any further, glancing between the faces. Lady. Ezra. (They stared straight ahead, looking away from her, for different reasons.) Jeremiah, Algernon, Shiloh, Rabbit. "It is kind of you to respect their work that way, dear one," she said. "If you truly wish to avoid hurting anyone more, you must make a decision. What do you truly value?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 10:56 pm
He was always at his bravest when it was too late. Alwise, Mynn, and now his tithe. He had thought Temperance might surrender to reluctant silence after the first hint of displeasure, with Melany growing colder by the second and Hart, the good daughter, there to take Temp's place, but she continued her criticism and curiosity, digging a hole that she would only crawl out of broken. Rabbit finally stepped forward, raising his own hand to the approaching fetch.
"Please," he begged the creature, his voice low and dry. "Please don't." Rabbit turned then to Melany, waiting to speak until she had paused, even though the topic had moved on. "My Lady, not her hands. She needs... she healed you at the ball with those hands." Or had that happened at all in this world? He didn't know. "She needs them for our work. For her training here. She's sorry. It won't happen again."
Oroh, having crept close once more, reached out and squeezed Rabbit's forearm hard enough to hold him back, if need be. "This is for the best," she whispered. "Our Lady instructs where you will not."
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:10 pm
"Is she?" The Spinel Lady looked at Temperance. "Are you sorry for your impertinence?" Then she looked to Rabbit. "Would you take her punishment upon yourself, then, Lord Bennett? Shall I have your hand broken instead?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:16 am
Her mouth tightened into a frown. Frankly, Temperance wasn't sorry. But she also didn't want to lose the use of her hand for roughly 3 to 6 weeks depending on severity - more if she needed surgery, and she had no doubts about the fetches wanting to please Melany.
"I apologize," she said flatly, blankly. But then when Melany threatened Rabbit, she startled, half-rising out of her seat. "Absolutely not! Rabbit - don't hurt him." She held out her hands in front of herself.
It was the night of the red moon all over again. Except this time it was Temperance in the place of Alois, her hand to be broken instead of his. Part of him wondered why he drew parallels but then-
There were certain ways one had to compose themselves in times like these. It was a fine line but this type of punishment, these actions, were the exact thing that he wanted to see stopped.
What he should have expected was Fell disappearing from his side. The fetch had moved to Alexis, a hand coming down on their shoulder. Despite her small frame there was strength in her grip. "You would do well to learn respect," she said simply, "but if you cannot learn on your own ..."
Jeremiah’s expression went blank, lips pressed briefly together in a thin line. The fetches were only loyal until their Lady commanded.
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Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:24 am
It had been his job to teach her to deal with this place, but somehow he had never thought that would mean dealing directly with Melany. He had worried more about making Temp strong and keeping her safe, certain that she would never even see the woman until she was a Lady of the Court. Or a fetch. Rabbit swallowed.
"I should be disciplined for not being a more effective teacher." He spoke to Temperance directly, his eyes pleading. Physical pain wasn't more than an inconvenience for him at this point, but she needed to deal with her fetch sooner rather than later. If she was injured, she would be at a serious disadvantage.
Both Mercer fetches moved, near in unison, and while Fell clapped a hand on Alexis, Adze's strong claw of a hand closed on Temperance's shoulder and put her down into the chair with insistent, near digging strength. She was a tithe only, and a failing one so far as he could see, and didn't get a gentle touch.
"The Lady did not ask you to rise.." He said cooly. Above his Lord, The Professor, was of course Lady Melany and her wishes surpassed all others. She was, of course, the pinnacle to which all should aspire.
Algie simply frowned but knew his own place, to challenge Melany's rule in her own space was simply foolish. Any questions had seemed to have taken a sideline to this now.
