[Suletta's a good daughter, and so she never gripes or complains. She never protests or raises her voice. The smoke makes her cough and makes her eyes water, though she doesn't try to take anything away from her lady. Instead she waves the smoke away, then briskly moves to open a second window. Light streams through, sending a bright beam of warm sunlight directly onto the center of the bed where Zero was sequestered. The air is clean and fresh, and if Suletta grips the sill of the window with white knuckled fingers, no one sees it. Her back is turned, after all. She just needs a minute to think. She wasn't upset or angry, not at all. Simply working out the puzzle of her new responsibility in her head.
The King wanted his woman to come down for meals. Her mother waited until teary eyed maids and servants made their frightened procession downstairs, each one sent away by the monster they'd captured. Suletta sat beside her, her head lowered. Her mother's hand on her shoulder was almost too tight. Painfully so, though Suletta hadn't flinched. She'd instead watched the procession in mild curiosity, her eyes wide and guileless. This was a lesson: she would not offer help until she'd been asked. Her mother told her to never be too eager to offer help to royalty. They always expected for servants to jump and do as they were told without so much as a nod in their direction. Instead the two of them sat lingering over their meals until the King had asked — nay, begged — for one or both to come to his aid. Prospera barely looked up, but she'd smiled a funny little smile, and in her silvery voice asked:
"Suletta? Won't you go upstairs to see what troubles our guest so?"
Only then had Suletta stood to eagerly offer her assistance.
Back in the present, Suletta turns and steps in front of Zero, her eyes worried and her brow crinkled.] You missed dinner yesterday too. Are you sick? [...] If you aren't then... ah, I'm sorry, but, um. My mother and the King, they would really prefer that you come down for meals.
[a pause.]
If you don't want that, I'm happy to bring something up to you, miss.
[ Like some demon mid exorcism, Zero hisses and shields her eyes from the light. She gets ashes all over the bed and the cigarette she'd so carefully rolled falls against the sheets, singing the cloth. Her eyes have only just adjusted to the light when Suletta returns.
She is delicate in plucking the cigarette from the bed. ]
Your mom and that man can eat shit for all I care.
[ She brings the cigarette to her mouth like she's going to take another puff from it. But instead she parts her lips and presses its still burning end against her tongue. The flame sizzles and smokes before it finally burns out; it leaves behind a red, gooey gash.
If this hurts Zero does not show it. She flicks away the remains of the cigarette and they land lifelessly at Suletta's feet. ]
They don't care if I eat, but you already knew that— don't play dumb in front of me girl. I'm not your mother.
[ She begins to slide off the bed and with her come the sheets, slinking behind her like the tail of the snake.
It's all wrapped around her, like a hood and a robe with an impossibly long train behind it. ]
It's a power play, that's why they want you to drag me downstairs.
[ she's standing in front of the window now but far away enough to not directly be in the light. The change happens almost instantly, the anger and spire gone so quickly— it's like Suletta isn't even there, her attentions focused solely on the sea. ]
[Zero's language is crass, but it's what she does to herself with the cigarette that makes Suletta gasp. Horrified, she nonetheless seems to collect herself far more quickly than one of the maids or other servants might. Instead of fainting dead away, she stares down at the dull red embers at her feet as they cool to gray ash. She too goes away a little watching this — away from her task and this room too big for this shackled woman. Away from everyone and everything.
By the time she returns, her charge is staring out the window. Suletta dimly wonders if she'll jump, though they both know it would do no good. Her mother's spellwork was absolute, stronger than any enchanted iron or stolen selkie's pelt. Stronger perhaps than the siren's voice. All she would succeed in doing was creating a situation that Suletta would be forced to explain as she tried not to squirm beneath the cool regard of her mother's gaze and the weight of her disappointment.
She moves to stand beside Zero, twisting her hands in the fabric of her dress. It's a dowdy, severe looking thing, the color of gray dishwater with a high buttoned collar. It's meant to be worn when doing drudgery, and it only suceeds in making her look taller and more ungainly.]
M-maybe so, but I care if you eat or not. [This is meant sincerely.] You've hurt yourself again. At least - I'll get you something cold. Ice chips or... ah! Dessert. Do you like sweet things?
[ It looks like Zero doesn't even hear her. After what is a moment too long she finally responds.
The wound on her tongue has already begun to heal, an ugly, gooey scab forming to hide the burned red meat underneath. ]
I'm going for a swim. I'm allowed to do that thanks to your mommy.
[ In explanation she drops the sheets wrapped around her body. She is almost nude underneath, save the strange suit adorned to her like an all encompassing corset that went as far as to wrap around her lower half, around her thighs and bottom. It's made not from cloth, but a gleaming sort of ivory, maybe polished and fused bones or tusks from some great beast. It's held together with gems and metal, leaving enough opening only to view the space between her breasts and confirm that her heart still beats.
Along the edges the bones narrow into points digging into her skin, a permanent, pinprick of blood forever pooling on her pale skin. It kept her from going too far and it kept her powers dulled— voice, strength and regenerative abilities. Even so she could fell another human easily, but not Suletta.
That was why she was here after all.
Zero is shrugging on a proper robe. This one is made of a soft pink silk and offers little warmth in the face of the sea breeze. ]
Let's go. You can tell the witch and the cuck where we're going on the way out.
[Her meek protests might as well be air for all the good they'll do. She knows this.
Her mother's handiwork had afforded Zero some degree of freedom and so tempered the sting of imprisonment, or so she claimed. It's an elegant bit of cruelty to Suletta, who can feel the unnatural aura of the magic coming off of it in waves. This is in spite of the fact that she hadn't been the one to cast the spells, nor was she the one suffering under them. Her lady doesn't know she possesses this skill. The King didn't know it either, and as long as her mother plied him with her honeyed words and she kept herself patient and quiet, he would never know.
She hates the sight of the thing that her mother referred to as a cage. She's grateful when Zero covers herself again. It does nothing for the prickly needle feeling of all that spellcraft in one place however, and so Suletta keeps her distance as she walks behind Zero until the feeling abates. If she thought that touching her would be met with anything other than revulsion and aggression, she would place a gentle hand on her back and relieve some of the pressure of her mother's work. But she knows better, and so she stares down at her feet instead as they make their way to the beach. They do pass her mother on the way out, who seems unconcerned and even amused, even as Suletta shoots her an apologetic look. Her shoulders hunch when her smile widens. She can feel her gaze on her back.
The beach brings her little relief.
Suletta was agreeable and strangely pliant with almost everything. Her exception was this chore: she normally wouldn't venture into the water beyond tentatively dipping a toe in it from time to time, and could not be swayed from this habit though she knew how to swim. As always, she stays as far away from it as possible without losing sight of Zero — the air is brisk and her mother had pushed a shawl on her, advising her to stay warm in the chill of the morning. Suletta wraps herself in it like she wants to hide in it. Her eyes are the same color as the sea as it was today — an inviting blue green. Instead of admiring it though, her gaze flickers down to the sand and she draws little shapes in it to distract herself as she ponders over the ongoing task she'd been given.]
Doesn't like sweets...
[She mumbles to herself. Another thing on a long list. Her lady hated flowers. She hated being around others. She rebuffed the instruments she'd been given to practice songs. She'd been given all manner of pretty silks and dresses and barely wore them. There had to be something Suletta thought. Something that wasn't the sea. There must be.]
[ She hardly even feels the transition from marble, to stone to sand underneath her feet. She doesn't even care for the ocean, truthfully— but it's a reprieve from that prison, even if she'd had to don a new one in return.
It's hardly been a week since this contraption had been forced upon her. They'd forcefully sedated her during travel and once she awake Zero had found herself staring up at that witch's mask. For a few brief seconds, for the first time since this curse had bloomed within her, Zero felt fear.
She'd thrashed and gnashed her teeth, pulling her shackles from their brick base through sheer strength alone. They'd gagged her to quell any attempts at utilizing her song as well.
While the other soldiers cowered in fear the witch seemed unmoved. With a chilling casualness she called her daughter forward; Suletta has to fight with all her strength to keep Zero still, almost wavering at some points. But once the clasps were clicked into place there was nothing else to be done.
Zero lays floating in the water, staring up at a cloudy sky. She lifts her head once and when she is sure Suletta's gaze is else where Zero dives underwater.
She swims and swims until she reaches the bottom of the sea bed. The air in her lungs is almost gone— an unexpected boon from this slowed state of regeneration was that she could wait it out, find death under the right circumstances. She searches desperately for something heavy, racing against the prospect of passing out and floating back up to the surface.
A blessing shows itself in the way of an old rusty anchor; likely a relic of some fishing boat that had lost its way. It takes some effort but she manages to find against the water and lift it just high enough to slam it down against her ankles. Here, far enough down where the sun could not reach her she cries out in pain but does not stop— striking metal against her bones until they are limp and crushed by the weight of the anchor.
She couldn't escape even if she wanted to and that brings her peace.
With the anchor to weigh her down it was just a matter of waiting.
Zero shuts her eyes and finds herself smiling out of spite. ]
[The humans like the king and his ilk would call the sudden coldness that falls over Suletta a sixth sense. To her, it is nothing so absurd: all feelings had a source, her mother once told her. And so all magic had a source. It starts as a warning tingle at the back of her neck — Suletta looks up from her boring work of drawing lines and doodles in the sand. Over time these images have taken shapes that would confuse the human eye to look upon: squiggles and symbols that only mean something to herself, her mother, and all those like them.
Suletta looks up and scans the water for the sight of her lady's pale hair, a spot of brightness among the waves. Nothing. She stands like she's been jerked alive by something.]
Miss?
[Standing, stumbling, running, running — Suletta kicks off her shoes mid-run and hastily tugs off the top layer of her dress, leaving her in a white slip. The fabric would bog her down.]
Miss? Miss! [Her voice rattles in her throat and shakes. She thinks of the symbols in the sand, thinks as hard as she can until one burns itself behind her eyelids. The water hitting her is so cold it almost shocks the image out of her head but she holds it even as her teeth chatter and her face sets into a grim resignation.
She inhales deeply, and then she dives into the dark water. The symbol in her head glows, shimmers, becomes a solid thing that she can hold, that makes her lungs strong and her movement flowing and quick. But she had to move fast, so fast, and she had to find her in this horrid ocean.
There. A spot of color in the dark: not her lady's visage but her mother's magic wrapping and coiling. Sparks of color like light from a flame. It's a warning beacon. Suletta swims until it hurts, then she grabs the woman's arm and pulls until she feels a joint pop out of place. She keeps pulling until the anchor falls away with a groan she can hear even underwater. Then she grabs her by the waist and swims so fast and hard that the symbol in her mind wavers and turns to spots of fuzzy blackness along her vision. She should have made it stronger. Blood would have helped, drawn from the special knife in her boot, but she hadn't had the time...
She wasn't going to make it. The surface is far away, and her lungs burn. The symbol flickers like a dying candle and gutters out.
...
Later, someone's hands will drag them out of the water. Strong hands. Familiar hands. Her mother pulling them back to the surface. Before long Suletta is retching up salt water, expelling it from her lungs. She sees the fuzzy image of her mother's back and strong shoulders before she forces herself up. "No more adventures in the water, hm?" Prospera says sweetly, and then her voice changes and loses all its warmth. "The warning called me too. Irresponsible, Suletta. Foolish." Teeth chattering from the cold and from fear, Suletta nods. She's too afraid to say anything at all.
The tide has swept away all of her writing in the sand. It takes it into the water with greedy, grasping fingers. The castlegoers will marvel at it later in amazement: such a strong swimmer Lady Prospera's sweet and mild-mannered daughter was! And so very brave too, to go into that treacherous sea that deceived even veteran sailors. A hero by any measure.
When Zero awakens in her quarters again, warm and safe, Suletta hasn't bothered changing out of her drenched slip. Her lips and fingertips are blue with cold; her hair is caked wetly to her back and against her face. She stares at the rise and fall of her lady's chest with dull eyes. Barely even blinks.]
You're awake.
[Her voice is still raspy from her almost-drowning. The smile she manages is so automatic that it seems mechanical, and does not reach her eyes which bore holes into Zero.] That's good.
[ As someone who has been on the brink of death more time's than she can count being content with her own life, Zero has no illusions of what's occurred when she wakes. She feels no pain, save the ever present misery that her bone bodice provides.
She sits up slowly and rubs the sleep from her eyes with delicate hands. Like this, she suits her features better- matches the image their Kingdom has projected of her, some dainty goddess sent from the heavens to bring prosperity to their kingdom and lay waste to all who stood against them for no reason other than some manifest destiny commanded by heaven (and therefore, morally sound and righteous in whatever violence she assisted in).
Zero stares back at Suletta, unblinking, features softened by drowsiness.
'That's Good' - that's what brings the life back to her.
Zero lunges across the bed on all fours like an animal mad with disease. She launches herself off of it and at Suletta pushing her onto the floor. Her hands wrap around Suletta's neck and she squeezes with intent to kill, though she has no certainty about succeeding- it's an impulse. ]
One day- one fucking day, I'm going to kill your mommy. I'm going to do it nice and slow and slice that pretty pink smile off her face with that knife she uses to skin fruit. And I'm going to make you watch the whole thing.
[Suletta is damp, she's cold, she's tired. Moreover, she is meant for this — to be an easy punching bag for this otherworldly being's rage. So when she is lunged at so viciously, she is ill-prepared but ultimately unsurprised. Her back hits the floor hard enough to make her bite her tongue. She stares up at her charge with the same sorrowful resignation that she usually did when they were in a situation like this. The uncanny serenity holds even as she touches the hand wringing her neck. She has to force the words out in a whistling gasp.]
No, [She manages breathlessly, her throat still burning with saltwater and the copper earthiness of her own blood.] n-no - you won't.
[This isn't said to plead, not out of desperation. No. It's stated as simple fact. She knew this as surely as she knew the magical signature keeping Zero bound.
Instinctively her hand tightens around Zero's wrist as she fights to breathe. She struggles beneath her as she tries to unclasp the viselike grip around her throat.] Please—
She pays no mind to the way Suletta's nails scratch and scrape trying to pry her hands away. If she cared about fairness she would have peace of mind that with her bindings this was a fair fight. None of that matters, not in the face of some instinctual desire to see Suletta's eyes bulge out of their sockets, red vines scaling every corner of the whites. ]
You know what? I think I hate you more than I hate her- let me tell you a secret.
[ She leans down so close she could plant a kiss on the bridge of Suletta's nose. Her hair, still water-logged and full of the oceans stink-- salt, brine and whatever else lurked down below- cascades around them, thick and solid like walls. ]
My mommy was just like yours. She loved herself more than she could ever love me.
[ Her hands squeeze tighter her knuckles so white they turn blue.
The gem set in the middle of her chest is where all the connecting parts of her ornate cage connect like some luxurious spider's web with a blood sucking insect at its center. Sparks fly off of each white bone of her lived-in cell and the smell of burnt flesh begins to waft through the room. Zero, so fixated on the singular task of squeezing the life from Suletta's eyes seems to hardly notice. ]
Sold me to a whore house for a few cents and a goat, if that. Watching you pull at her skirts and pray she'll throw you a crumb of love.. it makes me sick. I'll put you out of your misery if you'll let me, and we'll all be better for it. What'll it be sweet girl?
[For the second time this horrible day, black dots fill her vision. Other colors too: spikes of angry red and bruised, ugly green. The woman, the monster atop her, is all fuzzy white space and bleached bone underwater, her pretty face twisted in a furious caricature of itself. The hand around her neck is like iron. It doesn't budge even when she digs bloody scratches into her skin. Suletta can't speak any longer. Her chest burns: her head buzzes, every cell in her screaming for oxygen. Gradually her struggling begins to slow, go sluggish. She thinks dimly that it will take some time for her lady to kill her, though unconsciousness beckons her. She wonders, in a cold and detached way, in a voice that did not sound like her own, if her mother's spellwork will kill this thing that only looked like a woman before it killed her. What she says is worse than any physical pain she could possibly inflict on Suletta though, and the awful, poisonous words hit their mark: her eyes fill with tears. They are not tears of fear or of pain, but grief.
She was lying, the cold voice says. Liar, remember what her mother said. The creature was as beautiful as an angel, her mother had told her, but she would do anything to escape her imprisonment. And yet she had nearly drowned trying to save this woman today. For what?
For her mother. Of course.
She watches the pulsing gem in the center of her chest and wishes for her mother, begs, pleads. Help, help, help. Please.
Her mother doesn't arrive in person. Not yet. But perhaps the thought of causing her disappointment is enough, or else she's given another boon: her hands tighten punishingly around her lady's slim wrists, and through the burning pain in her chest and the horrid cold, the stink of seawater, she finds a point and focuses. She thinks of breaking, bone snapping like kindling, and wrenches the hands away from her throat with all of her strength.
Air, at last. Suletta gasps like she's been held underwater for too long. A thin trickle of blood pours from one nostril. Her neck is covered in bruises, gouges in the shape of Zero's fingernails.
There is the sound of footsteps rushing down the hall.]
[ The pain shoots up her arm. She feels it even before the grotesque sound of cracked joints fills the air- the sounds she makes are somewhere between a snarl and the groan of some felled prey animal. The pain shakes the intoxication violence has offered her and suddenly she becomes very aware of the sounds thundering down the hallway and the consequences that may follow.
A meek watchdog and this combination of bodily torture and some deranged fool's wetdream was better than whatever could come after this. She'd taken a misstep and she refused to pay for it.
In an instant she's on her feet, ignoring the pain in her already swelling wrists to grab a blanket and her robe. She throws the former over Suletta and the latter over herself. With her mangled hands she pulls Suletta up into a sitting position and adjusts every part of her posture to suit the vision in her mind. ]
Don't say anything and I won't either, what Mommy Dearest doesn't know won't hurt either of us.
[ When the doors open a comical amount of soldiers enter. The two of them, in this state especially, hardly look capable of being a danger to anyone. They stare at the scene in front of them, unsure of what to make of it.
Zero dabs at the blood dripping from Suletta's nose with the sleeve of her silk robe. She turns to them, frowning. ]
What the fuck are you all staring at? Make yourselves useful- get warm water bottles and a change of clothes for the girl.
[ They look at one another, confused, their commands likely at odds with what Zero has demanded of them.
She takes a deep breath and with the whole of her diaphragm yells. ]
NOW.
[ They shuffle away like shaken chambermaids, rushing down the hallway just as quickly as they'd arrived. ]
[It happens so slowly in her mind, though her charge moves quickly to hide all evidence of the violence they'd inflicted on one another. Flinching when she's touched by Zero, Suletta's head lolls uselessly to the side and her body will not respond to her when she's yanked up into a sitting position. Her lashes flutter. She tries to speak but her throat feels as if it's been rubbed raw by copper wool, left in bloody strips.
By the time the guards burst into the room, they are the picture of serene camaraderie. Suletta has to fight the urge to shrink away from the hand so carefully wiping away blood from her nose. Zero bellows out an order in a voice loud enough to make the room seemingly jump around it, and it swallows up the sound of her tight and panicked breathing.
When they are alone again at last, Suletta pushes her way away from Zero like her touch burns. She can only barely manage to squirm halfway out from under the blanket before the strength leaves her, wanting to create as much distance between the two of them as possible. She manages at last to speak in a voice that is weak and throaty, racked with pain. The bruises on her neck are already livid. They'll begin to look worse in a few hours.]
-Please... please don't touch me.
[It's the first time she's openly expressed any actual distaste, the first time she's really asked Zero to do anything at all on her account. Her tone is apprehensive rather than disgusted, as if she's afraid she'll be harmed again as soon as the mood changes. Her shoulders slump in defeat and her eyes screw shut. She covers her face with hands that tremble. Don't cry, she thinks, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. That would just make it worse. This woman would mock her, or snap at her, or else make the whole situation more nightmarish than it already was.] I-I won't say anything, just don't- [Shock and panic are beginning to set in as adrenaline from the morning and everything after fades. She trembles all over, tucking in her knees to her chest and pressing her head between them.]
[ Guilt, despite everything she feels guilt. Zero wishes this feeling was just another curse put upon her; the realization that she still hasn't been able to cast away this pointless sentiment makes her angrier than the witch or her daughter ever could.
Zero grants the girl her wish and stands up. She's a flurry of targetless anger, pacing, kicking, tearing down whatever fabric managed to be within reach of her bruised and broken fingers. The pain will subside but no matter what she'll wake up in this place tomorrow staring into the same pitiful wall of aquamarine. And their captor (because she realizes now, finally, that they are both being held captive) will go on blissfully and happily. Her path of destruction ends with her sitting at the foot of her bed. Zero hunches over, her head dangling between her knees. ]
Why won't you go away.
[ Her hands are semi-functional again; she digs her fingers into her hair as if trying to find the source of some incessant itch. ]
What do I have to do.. what can I do to get you to fuck off?! What does that woman have on you that you'll let me do this- I almost killed you and you still won't FUCK OFF.
[ She's pulling at her hair now, wracking her overheated brain for some new plan that might lead to escape. This girl was incessant and she couldn't kill her in this state- she was the world's most pathetic but unmovable warden, somehow capable of filling her with shame despite being Zero's captor. ]
Don't look at me like that- don't pretend I'm the monster.
[ She looks up fingers still tangled in her own hair. In this moment she looks more like a beast (like a caged animal) than she ever has. ]
You're the one keeping me here.. watching while your mommy and her liege do this to me. And you can't even face it, you're a part of it but you look away every time. Did she tell you about their favorite part of this thing? It's such a neat little fucking feature.
[ Zero stands, throwing off her robe again. She reaches down to where the lines of ivory snake down and connect as a knot and she tugs on it, hard enough to pull it down just slightly and reveal the bottom of what looks to be a shaft of long stone, penetrating her in perpetuity.
When she lets go it slides back into place. Her fingers are red and blistered again. ]
Asked for by your highness, designed and executed by your mother. Not even necessary, you know. Just for fun.
[Trembling, fighting the urge to sob or vomit, Suletta rocks herself in an attempt to self-soothe until the terrified, miserable feeling abates into numbness. Gradually, her head lifts to regard Zero with dull and bloodshot eyes. Her mother's handiwork is regarded with an abnormal serenity. Resignation, but - strange. Not surprise.
She sinks her head down again.]
Four kingdoms, north, south, east, west.
[Her voice is small and crackly. Each word brings with it pain to her ravaged throat.] North, south, east, west... north, south, east, west..
The first time, I told Mom that she was making the princess sick. I thought - thought it was an accident. At first the magic was good. It helped the princess walk again, and the queen and king were so happy. B-but then she got sick, so sick. And she started to forget things. She got - got mean. She would only listen to my mother. When it was done...
[Suletta shudders all over.]
I tried - the second time I tried to tell the prince not to - I tried to get him to run away. The queen there was cruel, and she wanted to build an army. When the prince asked Mom for power to stop her, I begged Mother not to, but she wouldn't listen. When she decides to do something, she never listens to anyone. It burned. Everything... everyone...
The last time I tried to run away. But the people blamed me instead for what happened in the castle when my mother was away. T-they...
[She swallows, doesn't finish. Instead:] Mom saved me. She made all the water swallow them up. That place doesn't exist anymore. None of them do.
[Suletta lists over on her side on the bed, still damp. Tired. She wanted to sleep. Instead she stares at Zero in weary resignation.]
She says that you're special. Don't worry. It'll be over soon. You won't see us after that.
[She closes her eyes.]
Please don't make me go into the water ever again. If you die... if you die she'll bring you back anyway.
[ If her own mother had been anything more than a penniless whore would she be like this? Zero surprises herself when she realizes this is the first thought she has. The second is that she was right: these two could in no way be human. She's heard about all these things in passing, different reasons for all of these misfortunes depending on who you spoke to— wives tales and half truths spanning across decades of history.
She feels the cold pinpricks of fear all along her back at Suletta's promise. It's like being told a ghost story.
The severity drains from her face and suddenly she is just a girl again: pale and sick, stuck with this magic infused chronic pain. ]
That's why you're afraid of the water, huh?
[ she wants to spit. ]
Your mother didn't save you. She threw you into the ocean and held your head underwater.
[ She doesn't promise anything but decides for herself that she won't do it again unless the girl gets in her way. ]
Were you trying to comfort me? There's no comfort in being someone's prisoner, their tool and scapegoat. I will kill her, or I'll at least die. I'm going to spend every waking moment thinking about ripping that smile off her face.
[To the question, Suletta says nothing. She merely lies there, exhausted and wan, her eyes still closed. Out of the severe and unflattering clothing she wore, with her hair down and tangled, the strands coated in drying sea salt, she seems older somehow. This effect is not helped when her eyes open again and she stares at the woman in front of her. She looks exhausted in ways that seem beyond her near-drowning and their fight.]
That's not true. [She'd heard this before from other people, so many of them. And all of them, like this creature, had hurt her in the end. Only her mother loved her. Only her mother cared. She was the only one who understood.]
It's not comfort. You'll only hurt yourself more if you try. There are worse things than what you feel right now.
[A pause. She considers something.
The cage was some of her mother's more inventive spellwork, though like all things, Suletta had needed to find her way around it at one point or another. If asked, she'll say that the pain drove her lady to madness, and while death could be cheated, insanity could not. She would say this to explain what she does, say that she was afraid that it would break her.
She'll say, I wanted to be kind, and her mother would look over at her for a long long time. Then she would nod, unsmiling, and their work together and separately would continue as it always did.
In the present, Suletta limply extends an arm, beckons for Zero with waving fingers.] If you could please come a little closer? I won't hurt you.
[ She sneers, clearly dissatisfied with that answer. How many times would she be confronted with this same scenario: trapped by someone who endowed her with humiliating misery, refusing to let her die with any dignity?.
She snaps, angry and quick, like a thread pulled too taught. ]
You don't need to tell me what I already know! Your mother isn't the first freak who got something out of torturing and humiliating me- hell, she probably won't be the last.
[ Suletta's hand is so far away but Zero pulls back regardless, shying away from it as if it were a strike. Despite her posturing she is just as much of a jittery, easily spooked animal as Suletta; her suspicion is apparent.
She considers it for a moment and decides to relent: if it's a trap they are equal in strength, if it isn't it may be an opportunity later- she would need to assess whatever help Suletta claimed to offer.
Zero seats herself in front of her, as far away as she can possibly be while still within range of Suletta's hands. ]
Whatever you're about to do.. just remember there's a tub in the bathroom over there and I'm willing and able to make good use of what you've already told me.
[The acknowledgement of everything Zero has told her, the threat included, is given without so much as a twitch of her mouth. It isn't flippancy — quite the opposite. She understands the situation they are in will guarantee mutually assured destruction if one or the other has a misstep. In a way, this is a relief: how many people had been convinced of her kindness before? Her gentleness. How many of them had pitied her and vowed to save her even as she begged them to stay away, to run, to leave her to the fate she'd chosen?
This is easier. She is a loathsome creature, and so is the woman in front of her. At last she has an equal.
When Zero seats herself in front of her, Suletta finally sits up. Her posture straightens as she folds her legs in front of her. She closes her eyes.
Her mother will immediately know she's tampered with the cage. What she will do falls under a list of possibilities that are unpleasant but manageable. She'll be able to explain it. The bruises on her neck would do the job that her voice couldn't.
She breathes in and out slowly. She speaks with her eyes still closed.]
Try to relax your body. Think of... a tree branch swaying in the wind. Breathe in when it sways left, out when it sways right. You have to be calm or I won't be able to do what I need to do without hurting you.
[She waits until she feels her advice has been taken. Slowly, the gem encased at the center of Zero's chest begins to glow — not red, but blue. Suletta's body tenses infinitesimally. She sees it in a place in her mind — the ugly red spiderwebs connecting themselves to Zero's nerves, to the muscle and bone beneath the cage. Gradually, the pressure crushing her ribs and spine begin to abate. Not enough to free her, no. But enough to be a reprieve from the constant agony. To the last bit of degrading sexual cruelty, she removes entirely. It takes the longest, and so it's the last thing she does.
Fix release.
Her forehead is covered in a fine sheen of cold sweat by the time she's done. She sways unsteadily. She had used more magic today than she had in a long time, say nothing of undoing her mother's work without killing the girl in front of her outright, and like any underused muscle, it brings with it pain and exhaustion.
The gem returns to its blood red shade as the last of her own magic leaves it.]
[ It gets worse before it gets better. The shackles, briefly imbued with a new more forceful life constrict around her like a hungry snake and steal the breath from her lungs, threatening to crush her bones into the same sort of ivory splinters that had created the cage itself.
And then, suddenly its gone.
Zero gasps for breath, her desperate need for oxygen at odds with the burning pain in her lungs. In the process of it all she's fallen against the floor. The cool marble on her face is some sort of relief all of this feels like a terrible fever being broken. The pain is still present but it's more an annoying, persistent electrical zap rather than scorching suffocation.
Belatedly, she notices the most humiliating part of it is gone.
Zero lifts her body first though her head feels too heavy to pick up and stays against the floor. She has to twist her head to look at Suletta, it looks almost like her neck is broken when she's like this. ]
You got rid of it.
[ She is of course, referring to the worst part. ]
[ Suletta’s closed her eyes again, her throat still aching and now exhaustion taking over to fill in what spaces the pain did not. She is close to drifting off when her work is complete when Zero speaks up. Her eyes crack open slowly: a moment’s flash of dulled-over turquoise in the gloomy dark.
Her gaze tilts sideways when she is done with her perfunctory observation of Zero, seemingly disinterested.]
That part is gone. It won’t come back.
[She has not stammered in some time. Not since she’d begun the work.] The rest will be a few days… a week or so. It takes a while for the spell to bind to you again.
[ For some time they both sit there, breathing in time, struggling to funnel air into their bodies. Zero stands first, pushing herself up with both hands before standing up, feet wobbling.
Without warning she reaches for Suletta and picks her up with an ease that someone of her stature should not be capable of. She throws her over her shoulder with a grunt, walking just a few steps forward so she can fling her onto the bed- it is plush enough that there is no impact, just a bit of bounce.
Silent still Zero leaves Suletta so she can rifle through her dresser, flipping through lace and chiffon until she finds something suitably simple enough to be comfortable. She returns with a simple night gown: soft cotton, enough to keep her warm. ]
[It had been her expectation that she'd be left alone until, exhausted from the burden she'd amassed with her overuse of magic, she'd be allowed to float restlessly into unconsciousness until her mother inevitably arrived. She can feel her magic even at this distance, can almost see — provided she focuses hard enough — the tumultuous smoky red of it flaring in angry and jagged arcs around her as she speaks with another silhouette, one that doesn't shine nearly as brightly. She was livid even from floors away. It was like heat coming off a furnace.
Suletta is distracted by her growing unease when her Lady lifts her with no problem at all. She tenses, as terrified as a hunted rabbit and still soaked to the bone with salt water. When Zero tosses her unceremoniously on the bed, she's surprised it doesn't hurt. She forces herself up to take the night gown with hands that twitch and shake like an old woman's.]
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The King wanted his woman to come down for meals. Her mother waited until teary eyed maids and servants made their frightened procession downstairs, each one sent away by the monster they'd captured. Suletta sat beside her, her head lowered. Her mother's hand on her shoulder was almost too tight. Painfully so, though Suletta hadn't flinched. She'd instead watched the procession in mild curiosity, her eyes wide and guileless. This was a lesson: she would not offer help until she'd been asked. Her mother told her to never be too eager to offer help to royalty. They always expected for servants to jump and do as they were told without so much as a nod in their direction. Instead the two of them sat lingering over their meals until the King had asked — nay, begged — for one or both to come to his aid. Prospera barely looked up, but she'd smiled a funny little smile, and in her silvery voice asked:
"Suletta? Won't you go upstairs to see what troubles our guest so?"
Only then had Suletta stood to eagerly offer her assistance.
Back in the present, Suletta turns and steps in front of Zero, her eyes worried and her brow crinkled.] You missed dinner yesterday too. Are you sick? [...] If you aren't then... ah, I'm sorry, but, um. My mother and the King, they would really prefer that you come down for meals.
[a pause.]
If you don't want that, I'm happy to bring something up to you, miss.
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She is delicate in plucking the cigarette from the bed. ]
Your mom and that man can eat shit for all I care.
[ She brings the cigarette to her mouth like she's going to take another puff from it. But instead she parts her lips and presses its still burning end against her tongue. The flame sizzles and smokes before it finally burns out; it leaves behind a red, gooey gash.
If this hurts Zero does not show it. She flicks away the remains of the cigarette and they land lifelessly at Suletta's feet. ]
They don't care if I eat, but you already knew that— don't play dumb in front of me girl. I'm not your mother.
[ She begins to slide off the bed and with her come the sheets, slinking behind her like the tail of the snake.
It's all wrapped around her, like a hood and a robe with an impossibly long train behind it. ]
It's a power play, that's why they want you to drag me downstairs.
[ she's standing in front of the window now but far away enough to not directly be in the light. The change happens almost instantly, the anger and spire gone so quickly— it's like Suletta isn't even there, her attentions focused solely on the sea. ]
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By the time she returns, her charge is staring out the window. Suletta dimly wonders if she'll jump, though they both know it would do no good. Her mother's spellwork was absolute, stronger than any enchanted iron or stolen selkie's pelt. Stronger perhaps than the siren's voice. All she would succeed in doing was creating a situation that Suletta would be forced to explain as she tried not to squirm beneath the cool regard of her mother's gaze and the weight of her disappointment.
She moves to stand beside Zero, twisting her hands in the fabric of her dress. It's a dowdy, severe looking thing, the color of gray dishwater with a high buttoned collar. It's meant to be worn when doing drudgery, and it only suceeds in making her look taller and more ungainly.]
M-maybe so, but I care if you eat or not. [This is meant sincerely.] You've hurt yourself again. At least - I'll get you something cold. Ice chips or... ah! Dessert. Do you like sweet things?
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The wound on her tongue has already begun to heal, an ugly, gooey scab forming to hide the burned red meat underneath. ]
I'm going for a swim. I'm allowed to do that thanks to your mommy.
[ In explanation she drops the sheets wrapped around her body. She is almost nude underneath, save the strange suit adorned to her like an all encompassing corset that went as far as to wrap around her lower half, around her thighs and bottom. It's made not from cloth, but a gleaming sort of ivory, maybe polished and fused bones or tusks from some great beast. It's held together with gems and metal, leaving enough opening only to view the space between her breasts and confirm that her heart still beats.
Along the edges the bones narrow into points digging into her skin, a permanent, pinprick of blood forever pooling on her pale skin. It kept her from going too far and it kept her powers dulled— voice, strength and regenerative abilities. Even so she could fell another human easily, but not Suletta.
That was why she was here after all.
Zero is shrugging on a proper robe. This one is made of a soft pink silk and offers little warmth in the face of the sea breeze. ]
Let's go. You can tell the witch and the cuck where we're going on the way out.
[ She's already on the move. ]
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[Her meek protests might as well be air for all the good they'll do. She knows this.
Her mother's handiwork had afforded Zero some degree of freedom and so tempered the sting of imprisonment, or so she claimed. It's an elegant bit of cruelty to Suletta, who can feel the unnatural aura of the magic coming off of it in waves. This is in spite of the fact that she hadn't been the one to cast the spells, nor was she the one suffering under them. Her lady doesn't know she possesses this skill. The King didn't know it either, and as long as her mother plied him with her honeyed words and she kept herself patient and quiet, he would never know.
She hates the sight of the thing that her mother referred to as a cage. She's grateful when Zero covers herself again. It does nothing for the prickly needle feeling of all that spellcraft in one place however, and so Suletta keeps her distance as she walks behind Zero until the feeling abates. If she thought that touching her would be met with anything other than revulsion and aggression, she would place a gentle hand on her back and relieve some of the pressure of her mother's work. But she knows better, and so she stares down at her feet instead as they make their way to the beach. They do pass her mother on the way out, who seems unconcerned and even amused, even as Suletta shoots her an apologetic look. Her shoulders hunch when her smile widens. She can feel her gaze on her back.
The beach brings her little relief.
Suletta was agreeable and strangely pliant with almost everything. Her exception was this chore: she normally wouldn't venture into the water beyond tentatively dipping a toe in it from time to time, and could not be swayed from this habit though she knew how to swim. As always, she stays as far away from it as possible without losing sight of Zero — the air is brisk and her mother had pushed a shawl on her, advising her to stay warm in the chill of the morning. Suletta wraps herself in it like she wants to hide in it. Her eyes are the same color as the sea as it was today — an inviting blue green. Instead of admiring it though, her gaze flickers down to the sand and she draws little shapes in it to distract herself as she ponders over the ongoing task she'd been given.]
Doesn't like sweets...
[She mumbles to herself. Another thing on a long list. Her lady hated flowers. She hated being around others. She rebuffed the instruments she'd been given to practice songs. She'd been given all manner of pretty silks and dresses and barely wore them. There had to be something Suletta thought. Something that wasn't the sea. There must be.]
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It's hardly been a week since this contraption had been forced upon her. They'd forcefully sedated her during travel and once she awake Zero had found herself staring up at that witch's mask. For a few brief seconds, for the first time since this curse had bloomed within her, Zero felt fear.
She'd thrashed and gnashed her teeth, pulling her shackles from their brick base through sheer strength alone. They'd gagged her to quell any attempts at utilizing her song as well.
While the other soldiers cowered in fear the witch seemed unmoved. With a chilling casualness she called her daughter forward; Suletta has to fight with all her strength to keep Zero still, almost wavering at some points. But once the clasps were clicked into place there was nothing else to be done.
Zero lays floating in the water, staring up at a cloudy sky. She lifts her head once and when she is sure Suletta's gaze is else where Zero dives underwater.
She swims and swims until she reaches the bottom of the sea bed. The air in her lungs is almost gone— an unexpected boon from this slowed state of regeneration was that she could wait it out, find death under the right circumstances. She searches desperately for something heavy, racing against the prospect of passing out and floating back up to the surface.
A blessing shows itself in the way of an old rusty anchor; likely a relic of some fishing boat that had lost its way. It takes some effort but she manages to find against the water and lift it just high enough to slam it down against her ankles. Here, far enough down where the sun could not reach her she cries out in pain but does not stop— striking metal against her bones until they are limp and crushed by the weight of the anchor.
She couldn't escape even if she wanted to and that brings her peace.
With the anchor to weigh her down it was just a matter of waiting.
Zero shuts her eyes and finds herself smiling out of spite. ]
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Suletta looks up and scans the water for the sight of her lady's pale hair, a spot of brightness among the waves. Nothing. She stands like she's been jerked alive by something.]
Miss?
[Standing, stumbling, running, running — Suletta kicks off her shoes mid-run and hastily tugs off the top layer of her dress, leaving her in a white slip. The fabric would bog her down.]
Miss? Miss! [Her voice rattles in her throat and shakes. She thinks of the symbols in the sand, thinks as hard as she can until one burns itself behind her eyelids. The water hitting her is so cold it almost shocks the image out of her head but she holds it even as her teeth chatter and her face sets into a grim resignation.
She inhales deeply, and then she dives into the dark water. The symbol in her head glows, shimmers, becomes a solid thing that she can hold, that makes her lungs strong and her movement flowing and quick. But she had to move fast, so fast, and she had to find her in this horrid ocean.
There. A spot of color in the dark: not her lady's visage but her mother's magic wrapping and coiling. Sparks of color like light from a flame. It's a warning beacon. Suletta swims until it hurts, then she grabs the woman's arm and pulls until she feels a joint pop out of place. She keeps pulling until the anchor falls away with a groan she can hear even underwater. Then she grabs her by the waist and swims so fast and hard that the symbol in her mind wavers and turns to spots of fuzzy blackness along her vision. She should have made it stronger. Blood would have helped, drawn from the special knife in her boot, but she hadn't had the time...
She wasn't going to make it. The surface is far away, and her lungs burn. The symbol flickers like a dying candle and gutters out.
...
Later, someone's hands will drag them out of the water. Strong hands. Familiar hands. Her mother pulling them back to the surface. Before long Suletta is retching up salt water, expelling it from her lungs. She sees the fuzzy image of her mother's back and strong shoulders before she forces herself up. "No more adventures in the water, hm?" Prospera says sweetly, and then her voice changes and loses all its warmth. "The warning called me too. Irresponsible, Suletta. Foolish." Teeth chattering from the cold and from fear, Suletta nods. She's too afraid to say anything at all.
The tide has swept away all of her writing in the sand. It takes it into the water with greedy, grasping fingers. The castlegoers will marvel at it later in amazement: such a strong swimmer Lady Prospera's sweet and mild-mannered daughter was! And so very brave too, to go into that treacherous sea that deceived even veteran sailors. A hero by any measure.
When Zero awakens in her quarters again, warm and safe, Suletta hasn't bothered changing out of her drenched slip. Her lips and fingertips are blue with cold; her hair is caked wetly to her back and against her face. She stares at the rise and fall of her lady's chest with dull eyes. Barely even blinks.]
You're awake.
[Her voice is still raspy from her almost-drowning. The smile she manages is so automatic that it seems mechanical, and does not reach her eyes which bore holes into Zero.] That's good.
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She sits up slowly and rubs the sleep from her eyes with delicate hands. Like this, she suits her features better- matches the image their Kingdom has projected of her, some dainty goddess sent from the heavens to bring prosperity to their kingdom and lay waste to all who stood against them for no reason other than some manifest destiny commanded by heaven (and therefore, morally sound and righteous in whatever violence she assisted in).
Zero stares back at Suletta, unblinking, features softened by drowsiness.
'That's Good' - that's what brings the life back to her.
Zero lunges across the bed on all fours like an animal mad with disease. She launches herself off of it and at Suletta pushing her onto the floor. Her hands wrap around Suletta's neck and she squeezes with intent to kill, though she has no certainty about succeeding- it's an impulse. ]
One day- one fucking day, I'm going to kill your mommy. I'm going to do it nice and slow and slice that pretty pink smile off her face with that knife she uses to skin fruit. And I'm going to make you watch the whole thing.
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No, [She manages breathlessly, her throat still burning with saltwater and the copper earthiness of her own blood.] n-no - you won't.
[This isn't said to plead, not out of desperation. No. It's stated as simple fact. She knew this as surely as she knew the magical signature keeping Zero bound.
Instinctively her hand tightens around Zero's wrist as she fights to breathe. She struggles beneath her as she tries to unclasp the viselike grip around her throat.] Please—
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She pays no mind to the way Suletta's nails scratch and scrape trying to pry her hands away. If she cared about fairness she would have peace of mind that with her bindings this was a fair fight. None of that matters, not in the face of some instinctual desire to see Suletta's eyes bulge out of their sockets, red vines scaling every corner of the whites. ]
You know what? I think I hate you more than I hate her- let me tell you a secret.
[ She leans down so close she could plant a kiss on the bridge of Suletta's nose. Her hair, still water-logged and full of the oceans stink-- salt, brine and whatever else lurked down below- cascades around them, thick and solid like walls. ]
My mommy was just like yours. She loved herself more than she could ever love me.
[ Her hands squeeze tighter her knuckles so white they turn blue.
The gem set in the middle of her chest is where all the connecting parts of her ornate cage connect like some luxurious spider's web with a blood sucking insect at its center. Sparks fly off of each white bone of her lived-in cell and the smell of burnt flesh begins to waft through the room. Zero, so fixated on the singular task of squeezing the life from Suletta's eyes seems to hardly notice. ]
Sold me to a whore house for a few cents and a goat, if that. Watching you pull at her skirts and pray she'll throw you a crumb of love.. it makes me sick. I'll put you out of your misery if you'll let me, and we'll all be better for it. What'll it be sweet girl?
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She was lying, the cold voice says. Liar, remember what her mother said. The creature was as beautiful as an angel, her mother had told her, but she would do anything to escape her imprisonment. And yet she had nearly drowned trying to save this woman today. For what?
For her mother. Of course.
She watches the pulsing gem in the center of her chest and wishes for her mother, begs, pleads. Help, help, help. Please.
Her mother doesn't arrive in person. Not yet. But perhaps the thought of causing her disappointment is enough, or else she's given another boon: her hands tighten punishingly around her lady's slim wrists, and through the burning pain in her chest and the horrid cold, the stink of seawater, she finds a point and focuses. She thinks of breaking, bone snapping like kindling, and wrenches the hands away from her throat with all of her strength.
Air, at last. Suletta gasps like she's been held underwater for too long. A thin trickle of blood pours from one nostril. Her neck is covered in bruises, gouges in the shape of Zero's fingernails.
There is the sound of footsteps rushing down the hall.]
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A meek watchdog and this combination of bodily torture and some deranged fool's wetdream was better than whatever could come after this. She'd taken a misstep and she refused to pay for it.
In an instant she's on her feet, ignoring the pain in her already swelling wrists to grab a blanket and her robe. She throws the former over Suletta and the latter over herself. With her mangled hands she pulls Suletta up into a sitting position and adjusts every part of her posture to suit the vision in her mind. ]
Don't say anything and I won't either, what Mommy Dearest doesn't know won't hurt either of us.
[ When the doors open a comical amount of soldiers enter. The two of them, in this state especially, hardly look capable of being a danger to anyone. They stare at the scene in front of them, unsure of what to make of it.
Zero dabs at the blood dripping from Suletta's nose with the sleeve of her silk robe. She turns to them, frowning. ]
What the fuck are you all staring at? Make yourselves useful- get warm water bottles and a change of clothes for the girl.
[ They look at one another, confused, their commands likely at odds with what Zero has demanded of them.
She takes a deep breath and with the whole of her diaphragm yells. ]
NOW.
[ They shuffle away like shaken chambermaids, rushing down the hallway just as quickly as they'd arrived. ]
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By the time the guards burst into the room, they are the picture of serene camaraderie. Suletta has to fight the urge to shrink away from the hand so carefully wiping away blood from her nose. Zero bellows out an order in a voice loud enough to make the room seemingly jump around it, and it swallows up the sound of her tight and panicked breathing.
When they are alone again at last, Suletta pushes her way away from Zero like her touch burns. She can only barely manage to squirm halfway out from under the blanket before the strength leaves her, wanting to create as much distance between the two of them as possible. She manages at last to speak in a voice that is weak and throaty, racked with pain. The bruises on her neck are already livid. They'll begin to look worse in a few hours.]
-Please... please don't touch me.
[It's the first time she's openly expressed any actual distaste, the first time she's really asked Zero to do anything at all on her account. Her tone is apprehensive rather than disgusted, as if she's afraid she'll be harmed again as soon as the mood changes. Her shoulders slump in defeat and her eyes screw shut. She covers her face with hands that tremble. Don't cry, she thinks, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. That would just make it worse. This woman would mock her, or snap at her, or else make the whole situation more nightmarish than it already was.] I-I won't say anything, just don't- [Shock and panic are beginning to set in as adrenaline from the morning and everything after fades. She trembles all over, tucking in her knees to her chest and pressing her head between them.]
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Zero grants the girl her wish and stands up. She's a flurry of targetless anger, pacing, kicking, tearing down whatever fabric managed to be within reach of her bruised and broken fingers. The pain will subside but no matter what she'll wake up in this place tomorrow staring into the same pitiful wall of aquamarine. And their captor (because she realizes now, finally, that they are both being held captive) will go on blissfully and happily. Her path of destruction ends with her sitting at the foot of her bed. Zero hunches over, her head dangling between her knees. ]
Why won't you go away.
[ Her hands are semi-functional again; she digs her fingers into her hair as if trying to find the source of some incessant itch. ]
What do I have to do.. what can I do to get you to fuck off?! What does that woman have on you that you'll let me do this- I almost killed you and you still won't FUCK OFF.
[ She's pulling at her hair now, wracking her overheated brain for some new plan that might lead to escape. This girl was incessant and she couldn't kill her in this state- she was the world's most pathetic but unmovable warden, somehow capable of filling her with shame despite being Zero's captor. ]
Don't look at me like that- don't pretend I'm the monster.
[ She looks up fingers still tangled in her own hair. In this moment she looks more like a beast (like a caged animal) than she ever has. ]
You're the one keeping me here.. watching while your mommy and her liege do this to me. And you can't even face it, you're a part of it but you look away every time. Did she tell you about their favorite part of this thing? It's such a neat little fucking feature.
[ Zero stands, throwing off her robe again. She reaches down to where the lines of ivory snake down and connect as a knot and she tugs on it, hard enough to pull it down just slightly and reveal the bottom of what looks to be a shaft of long stone, penetrating her in perpetuity.
When she lets go it slides back into place. Her fingers are red and blistered again. ]
Asked for by your highness, designed and executed by your mother. Not even necessary, you know. Just for fun.
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She sinks her head down again.]
Four kingdoms, north, south, east, west.
[Her voice is small and crackly. Each word brings with it pain to her ravaged throat.] North, south, east, west... north, south, east, west..
The first time, I told Mom that she was making the princess sick. I thought - thought it was an accident. At first the magic was good. It helped the princess walk again, and the queen and king were so happy. B-but then she got sick, so sick. And she started to forget things. She got - got mean. She would only listen to my mother. When it was done...
[Suletta shudders all over.]
I tried - the second time I tried to tell the prince not to - I tried to get him to run away. The queen there was cruel, and she wanted to build an army. When the prince asked Mom for power to stop her, I begged Mother not to, but she wouldn't listen. When she decides to do something, she never listens to anyone. It burned. Everything... everyone...
The last time I tried to run away. But the people blamed me instead for what happened in the castle when my mother was away. T-they...
[She swallows, doesn't finish. Instead:] Mom saved me. She made all the water swallow them up. That place doesn't exist anymore. None of them do.
[Suletta lists over on her side on the bed, still damp. Tired. She wanted to sleep. Instead she stares at Zero in weary resignation.]
She says that you're special. Don't worry. It'll be over soon. You won't see us after that.
[She closes her eyes.]
Please don't make me go into the water ever again. If you die... if you die she'll bring you back anyway.
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She feels the cold pinpricks of fear all along her back at Suletta's promise. It's like being told a ghost story.
The severity drains from her face and suddenly she is just a girl again: pale and sick, stuck with this magic infused chronic pain. ]
That's why you're afraid of the water, huh?
[ she wants to spit. ]
Your mother didn't save you. She threw you into the ocean and held your head underwater.
[ She doesn't promise anything but decides for herself that she won't do it again unless the girl gets in her way. ]
Were you trying to comfort me? There's no comfort in being someone's prisoner, their tool and scapegoat. I will kill her, or I'll at least die. I'm going to spend every waking moment thinking about ripping that smile off her face.
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That's not true. [She'd heard this before from other people, so many of them. And all of them, like this creature, had hurt her in the end. Only her mother loved her. Only her mother cared. She was the only one who understood.]
It's not comfort. You'll only hurt yourself more if you try. There are worse things than what you feel right now.
[A pause. She considers something.
The cage was some of her mother's more inventive spellwork, though like all things, Suletta had needed to find her way around it at one point or another. If asked, she'll say that the pain drove her lady to madness, and while death could be cheated, insanity could not. She would say this to explain what she does, say that she was afraid that it would break her.
She'll say, I wanted to be kind, and her mother would look over at her for a long long time. Then she would nod, unsmiling, and their work together and separately would continue as it always did.
In the present, Suletta limply extends an arm, beckons for Zero with waving fingers.] If you could please come a little closer? I won't hurt you.
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She snaps, angry and quick, like a thread pulled too taught. ]
You don't need to tell me what I already know! Your mother isn't the first freak who got something out of torturing and humiliating me- hell, she probably won't be the last.
[ Suletta's hand is so far away but Zero pulls back regardless, shying away from it as if it were a strike. Despite her posturing she is just as much of a jittery, easily spooked animal as Suletta; her suspicion is apparent.
She considers it for a moment and decides to relent: if it's a trap they are equal in strength, if it isn't it may be an opportunity later- she would need to assess whatever help Suletta claimed to offer.
Zero seats herself in front of her, as far away as she can possibly be while still within range of Suletta's hands. ]
Whatever you're about to do.. just remember there's a tub in the bathroom over there and I'm willing and able to make good use of what you've already told me.
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[The acknowledgement of everything Zero has told her, the threat included, is given without so much as a twitch of her mouth. It isn't flippancy — quite the opposite. She understands the situation they are in will guarantee mutually assured destruction if one or the other has a misstep. In a way, this is a relief: how many people had been convinced of her kindness before? Her gentleness. How many of them had pitied her and vowed to save her even as she begged them to stay away, to run, to leave her to the fate she'd chosen?
This is easier. She is a loathsome creature, and so is the woman in front of her. At last she has an equal.
When Zero seats herself in front of her, Suletta finally sits up. Her posture straightens as she folds her legs in front of her. She closes her eyes.
Her mother will immediately know she's tampered with the cage. What she will do falls under a list of possibilities that are unpleasant but manageable. She'll be able to explain it. The bruises on her neck would do the job that her voice couldn't.
She breathes in and out slowly. She speaks with her eyes still closed.]
Try to relax your body. Think of... a tree branch swaying in the wind. Breathe in when it sways left, out when it sways right. You have to be calm or I won't be able to do what I need to do without hurting you.
[She waits until she feels her advice has been taken. Slowly, the gem encased at the center of Zero's chest begins to glow — not red, but blue. Suletta's body tenses infinitesimally. She sees it in a place in her mind — the ugly red spiderwebs connecting themselves to Zero's nerves, to the muscle and bone beneath the cage. Gradually, the pressure crushing her ribs and spine begin to abate. Not enough to free her, no. But enough to be a reprieve from the constant agony. To the last bit of degrading sexual cruelty, she removes entirely. It takes the longest, and so it's the last thing she does.
Fix release.
Her forehead is covered in a fine sheen of cold sweat by the time she's done. She sways unsteadily. She had used more magic today than she had in a long time, say nothing of undoing her mother's work without killing the girl in front of her outright, and like any underused muscle, it brings with it pain and exhaustion.
The gem returns to its blood red shade as the last of her own magic leaves it.]
no subject
And then, suddenly its gone.
Zero gasps for breath, her desperate need for oxygen at odds with the burning pain in her lungs. In the process of it all she's fallen against the floor. The cool marble on her face is some sort of relief all of this feels like a terrible fever being broken. The pain is still present but it's more an annoying, persistent electrical zap rather than scorching suffocation.
Belatedly, she notices the most humiliating part of it is gone.
Zero lifts her body first though her head feels too heavy to pick up and stays against the floor. She has to twist her head to look at Suletta, it looks almost like her neck is broken when she's like this. ]
You got rid of it.
[ She is of course, referring to the worst part. ]
How long? How long will it last?
no subject
Her gaze tilts sideways when she is done with her perfunctory observation of Zero, seemingly disinterested.]
That part is gone. It won’t come back.
[She has not stammered in some time. Not since she’d begun the work.] The rest will be a few days… a week or so. It takes a while for the spell to bind to you again.
[Her eyes close again.]
no subject
Without warning she reaches for Suletta and picks her up with an ease that someone of her stature should not be capable of. She throws her over her shoulder with a grunt, walking just a few steps forward so she can fling her onto the bed- it is plush enough that there is no impact, just a bit of bounce.
Silent still Zero leaves Suletta so she can rifle through her dresser, flipping through lace and chiffon until she finds something suitably simple enough to be comfortable. She returns with a simple night gown: soft cotton, enough to keep her warm. ]
You smell like a fisherman.
[ Is all she has to offer. ]
no subject
Suletta is distracted by her growing unease when her Lady lifts her with no problem at all. She tenses, as terrified as a hunted rabbit and still soaked to the bone with salt water. When Zero tosses her unceremoniously on the bed, she's surprised it doesn't hurt. She forces herself up to take the night gown with hands that twitch and shake like an old woman's.]
Ah... thank you.