Chapter 3

Marionette’s gaze softened towards her. Victorique hated showing weakness in front of anyone, of being so vulnerable and pitiful. The last time that she opened up her heart to anybody, she was betrayed. And Marionette was a mere puppet, after all, she wasn’t a real person. She was crying to someone with no sense of emotions or soul. This was so appallingly stupid, and Victorique hated stupidity, especially in herself. There was a chance that she couldn’t trust this master of Death and Shadows…but what other choice did she have? She was so desperate to live a semblance of a normal life again that she would willingly traverse Hell for it. Talking about the legend of Gilgamesh and Enkidu…she didn’t care about immortality, whether it was living way past her expiration date or being a hero sung through ballades by the bards, she didn’t care.

This would be the case if Victorique really were a weak-minded girl. But alas, Victoriuque was neither stupid nor weak-minded, and it was unfortunate for Marionette and the Masters of Shadows and Death, but Victorique would play the role of the good girl for now. Victorique loved wearing the guises and skins of other people as much as she changed clothes, bedecked in lacy dresses with ribbons and frocks and bonnets. She was like a chameleon, taking on the qualities and consistencies of other people while keeping her real facade hidden underneath. It was under there, beneath the surface, but all the world’s a stage, or so they say. Victorique didn’t care so much for comedies and tragedies, but rather the spectacle. She wanted flash and bangs and fireworks. She wanted to watch the world slowly burn down around her.

Victorique wanted to laugh in this gullible girl’s face. She thought that just because someone shed crocodile tears that meant they could be trusted. Well, tears like these were pretty convincing; Victorique learned how to cry on command a long time ago to get whatever she wanted. It was too easy, really. If someone saw a pretty girl crying, they wanted to help her. Just a few shed tears and pretending to be vulnerably opened up people to others. It was pathetically easy, and she thought people with their good-hearted natures were weak and soft and maybe a bit dunderheaded. Why be good when you could take whatever you wanted with your own power and cleverness? Smart people didn’t follow the rules; they MADE their own rules.

“Please, Marionette,” Victorique said as she clutched Marionette’s hands within her own, holding her tears in slightly just so they spilled a little. “Won’t you help me find my redemption? I think that…you’ve opened my heart and eyes. I thought the way that I lived before was normal, but you’ve shown me a new path that I could walk. I solemnly swear that I will become a good girl, now.”

“Mistress Victorique,” Marionette said, the pleasant smile on her face returning. Victorique liked how empty her eyes were though, but she was sure the poor thing was trying to emulate her emotions in return. “You speak truly. I have a feeling that you wouldn’t refuse our Master’s offer. I promise I will do everything to protect you and make sure that you have a safe journey to meet him. I’ve traveled far to Saberia to find you, Mistress.”

“Hmhm,” Victorique said before she lifted a hand to wipe away a tear. “Marionette, you’re so kind. You’re like…the big sister that I never had. I truly hope that we can become friends.”

“I’m sure that we will,” Marionette said, blossoming towards Victorique as though she were a flower rising to the sunlight. “Will you say goodbye to the villagers before you go?”

Victorique stretched her limbs and said in a cheerful tone. “I guess I should say my final farewells. Saberia was my home, after all."

Even though the people are miserable shitheads that don’t think for themselves and pray to ‘God’ for all their problems instead of working things out on their own.

Victorique walked down the cemetery path and made her way towards the Church, where she found the Mayor looking gloomily eyed at the crows. He would die soon. She could sense it. But he was clinging pitifully to life so that he wouldn’t face regrets in an afterlife that he thought where shining heaven awaited him in all its glittering gold gates and silver clouds. How funny! It was hilarious! She could meet him again in the afterlife if she so wished, or use his body as a plaything. She liked when people were dead. They were easy to talk to and they didn’t talk themselves unless if she willed it. That was the best part.

“Oh, Victorique,” the Mayor said with some relief. “I’ve lived in this town for quite some time…grateful that we didn’t have to participate in the war outside.”

“Oh, Mayor Cromwell, you’ve been ever so good to me,” Victorique said wide-eyed innocence. Whenever Victorique wore this expression, which she practiced in the mirrevery dayday by lifting up the corners of her mouth with her fingers, she could look genuine and sweet. That’s the fact that she’ll wear now. “I hope that you are doing well. I just wanted to let you know that I’m going on a journey. Yes…I’m going to join the war effort.”

The Mayor looked surprised. “Victorique, I always knew that you were a good girl, and it’s honorable that you want to help out the soldiers, but it’s tragic to see women on the battlefield where they could be killed or other unsavory things.”

“Don’t worry, I have someone accompanying me,” Victorique said with a curtsy, but inside she fumed at this man’s stupidity. How simple-headed. What a dunderhead, wasn’t he? But gosh, she couldn’t help but think that sometimes it would be better if she were as dunderheaded as the whole lot of them. Stupidity is bliss, or so they say.

Cromwell put a hand on her shoulder. Victorique bore a smile through it all.

Don’t touch me, old man.

“You remind me of my granddaughter,” Cromwell said somewhat fondly. “She was a good girl, just like you. I’m not going to stop someone doing the Will of God, though I do wish that you would be careful. The world outside Saberia is a dangerous place.”

Victorique’s eyes widened. Her grin grew slightly sharper.

“Yes, I am…doing God’s work. Yes, that’s my mission statement. That I’m going to reform this world so that there is peace. That there is no more war. My only wish is to see a peaceful world with no violence.”

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“Off you get, Miss Victorique. I pray you have a safe journey.”

Victorique then skipped away from the Mayor. It was so tiring smiling like that, especially when these people in the village displeased her so. The whole lot of them were sheep, none of them had a mind of their own. Just God this, God that, the war effort, helping others and being rewarded in Heaven just for being ‘good’. She knew the secret vices of this town, but she would depart from it soon enough. Everywhere was reeking with corruption.

Marionette was waiting for her through the outside gate. She folded her hands in front of her and bowed to Victorique when she approached.

“I said my goodbyes,” Victorique said sweetly. “I will miss this beloved town of Saberia. But the Mayor was right. I am…doing the Lord’s work…"

“You found your faith, Miss Victorique?” Marionette said with widened eyes, and that smile appeared on her face. Eyes still seemed soulless though. There was no way that this Doll could ever become a human. “It must be nice to have faith in something. I do everything for my beloved Master, and he promises me that I will become real and have a heart one day. I would so love to have a heart and become human. I do not wish for Mistress to lose her humanity.”

“Oh?” Victorique said, clasping her hands within Marionette’s. “You are looking after me, dear sister Marionette.”

Marionette smiled kindly.

“You are a good girl, Victorique. Shall we go on our journey? We will have to traverse through the Elfwood Forest. It certainly doesn’t look like what it used to though, does it? I’ve seen pictures of the Elfwood Forest when it was full of life and vibrant. It was so beautiful.”

“The Elfwood Forest?” Victorique said before her smile grew sharp. “You mean there used to be Elves and Faries in this forest, right? That was just a legend.”

Marionette shook her head.

“It wasn’t just a legend, Miss Victorique. This world was so green and verdant, full of creatures and life. It’s a shame that it’s all gone now, though.”

“I would imagine that war does that,” Victorique said, suddenly caught in the throes of passion. “I want to bring back the magic of the forest and the world. The war has been going on for so long…I think that God finally delivered a message to me that I would be the Savior of this world. Even if it means sacrificing myself to do it, I will bring peace. I do so love the thought of a sinner rising up from the pits of hell to redemption.”

“Well…” Marionette said while bowing. “I believe it’s about time that we get going.”

“Marionette…” Victorique said as she huddled closer to the Doll. “You said that you would protect me?”

“That is indeed what I said, Mistress.”

“Do you have a good sense of direction? The forest has misdirectional spells within it to prevent enemy soldiers from finding Saberia.”

“Directional spells don’t work on me,” Marionette said with a faint smile. “I’ve an unerring sense of direction. I can find anyone and everyone. It’s all a matter of observance and mindset.”

“I don’t think many people possess such an ability,” Victorique said with a light giggle.

Oh, so Marionette has more depth to her than a sheep.

Time to play up the good girl act, then. At least for now. Besides, it might even be fun being one of the sheep for a while. Though really, she was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. She will never truly be among the sheep; they grazed in green pastures thinking mindless things, though wolves pruned the sheep population and took what they wanted. Was it time that she did a little reaping and chafing of the wheat?

“Marionette!” Victorique gasped when she heard something crushing the fallen twigs and leaves in the underfoot of the forest. “What do you suppose that could be?”

“I’m standing on guard,” Marionette said as she took out a blade she inserted into her thigh high boot. “I won’t let any harm come to you, mistress.”

“My God,” Victorique said, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes widening as the brush rustled and quivered. Standing upright was a gigantic bear that roamed this forest. The bear was the reason why soldiers didn’t enter the forest or why people in Saberia left through the woods. Besides the misdirectional spells, this bear had a ferocity that was far beyond normal bears. It normally spent most of its time sleeping and eating fish in a brook that ran through the forest, but when roused from its slumber, the horrid thing became a terror that slashed down everything in sight, whether it’s trees, animal, or human alike.

Victorique pondered what Marionette could possibly do with that pathetic blade against the mighty bear. Maybe she had hidden combat prowess that she didn’t reveal until desperate situations? She did traverse this forest after all; maybe she had means of fighting against the bear. She didn’t encounter him on her first trek through the forest, fortunately; but what about now? Victorique pretended to tremble. She had nothing to worry about—but Marionette did.

Probably Old Man Severus’s work. They say that he had the ability to communicate with animals, and it was whispered that he would run wild with a bear in the forest. A cursed bloodline of his, to communicate with animals. People with the ability to talk to animals and summon them must be as simpleminded, she supposed.

Victorique wanted to know how Marionette would handle the bear. She wasn’t frightened, though being mauled by a bear would be a most unpleasant experience, she imagined. And Marionette had one life to worry about, as well. Why was the Doll so willing to risk her one meager life for the likes of her anyway? To score karma points? To have a guaranteed ticket to Heaven? What a laugh. Life was so pointless, death was pointless, so the only thing that you could survive. Even beasts had more self-preservation than Marionette.

Yet when Marionette brandished her blades, she swooped forth with blinding speed and rushed through the bear and past it. The bear seemed to be intact, though, after a while, various gouges ripped upon the bear’s skin through its mass of fur and hide. It roared in agony as blood splattered everywhere, and Marionette’s pleasant smile still remained on her face as she fought the bear, though her eyes seemed more fierce, somehow. Manic. Victorique’s grin only widened.

What a psychopath! She obviously loved to kill things. The savor of taking the life out of something, or watching it fall limp and gasp for its last breath in a pathetic, crumpled form. Marionette was a grim reaper of death in her own way as well; the angel that bestowed merciless death upon those who crossed her. The bear suddenly crumpled and fell on the ground, lying in a pool of its own blood. Victorique circled around it, examining it closely. Its eyes fixated on Victorique, before she heard the bear speak in a familiar voice.

“Victorique…” the bear said in Old Man Severus’s voice. “Your karma will only blacken. You may have killed the soul of an old man in a bear’s body, but you cannot do as you please for too long. My only wish was to see you die…”

“Old man Severus,” Victorique said pleasantly. “Rejoice, for I have turned over a new leaf. In your passing, I’ll be sure to harvest your body for nourishment. That’s the least you can do for us, Marionette and I, when your soul departs from the bear’s body that you shared.”

“You have no respect for life…or death…” Severus said, to which a sharp toothed grin appeared on Victorique’s face.

Victorique put her practiced smile for Severus’s sake. “Oh, old man, just lay down and rest, you poor thing.”

With that she laid Old Man Severus to rest. When Marionette came over, Victorique didn’t mention a thing. When Marionette gutted and skinned the bear, Victorique certainly had a wonderful time eating the succulent meat.

Absolutely delectable. What a feast for a Queen like me.