I sit, curled up in my little secret room, as if the world can't find me here. That rude friend of Serena's was right, this is a ridiculous place for a hideaway. It's bound to be stumbled across by anyone putting in the effort to try and find it! It’s a ridiculous concept even, stashing things for a get-away in case I might need them. I don't even know how to use the medical kit, or the carbine on the wall.

The only thing in here of any use to me is that fucking painting, and I don't even like it! ... Really, the only valuable thing that has ever been in here was Serena. And I just sent her away, didn't I?

My poor, enchanted Serena. She speaks so highly of me, of my little smiles and visits, of my kindness and my visage's presence in her dorm room. She speaks as if I did this to support her, to help her. It's where her naive sincerity begins to really sting, where she doesn't realize why I did these things. To make her emotionally depend upon me. To make her serve me. To make her worship me...

If the Comrade Witches had their full four years of training, if they were subject to my manipulations for the entire period, would they all be as devoted to me as dear Serena is? Somehow, I doubt it.

She's too kind not to be exploited. She's too honest not to be lied to. She's too loveable to not love others in turn. She's broken. She's not made for this world... Much like me, perhaps, but the difference is that she doesn't try to force it. She is willing to do the most 'Serena' things for the people she cares about. I truly believe she would have killed everyone in Alesia to keep me safe had she the ability. I really did turn her into a monster. Someone so beautiful, so earnest, so worthy of love and happiness, and I made her into a monster.

"And I couldn't stop her kissing me."

I knew the entire time, of course, of the amorous and salacious nature of her devotion to me. But somehow, her acting on it had been a surprise to me. And... My reciprocation was another. I didn't even know I felt that way about women! Maybe I don't and it's simply Serena that excites me, but it might explain some things in retrospect. Phillip and I's eternally distressing marriage for a start... I really don't know much about myself, do I? Ever since I came to this gods-forsaken country and became its gods-forsaken Queen, my life has been one long series of disappointments and aggressions. There hasn't been time to be myself, or even to figure out who that person is.

Not that my home in the Carpathian Basin treated me much kinder. I was trained to be sold off to some important man someday, and then I was. And was then instructed to find and steal The Heart while I was here... My life amounts to a dead husband I don't care to mourn, two children that are being torn from me by the state, and one out of three of these stupid fucking paintings.

"If I had run away with her, would that have been the most alive I'd ever been?"

We wouldn't have made it far. I doubt we'd make it to the next town over, let alone to Burdigala. To my shame I regret not allowing her to throw her life away just to let me have a glimpse of a life for myself. I really am a shameless, horrible woman. Perhaps a Grove of Steel is what I deserve. Both for brainwashing her like this, and for breaking her heart after.

"... She has other friends. She has whoever that Renee person is. I think she'll be okay."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, 'Your Majesty'."

A voice?! I scramble to my feet and find a young blonde woman dressed for an Icenian opera casually standing outside my window, as if there wasn't a 20 foot drop directly outside it... A secret room with a window really was the stupidest of ideas, which I guess tells me one thing I can definitively say about myself.

The woman opens the window from the outside and steps into my secret room, giving me something of a mocking smile, before giving that fucking painting a look. "So this is where you've been hiding. If I'd only known a week ago."

I scramble for the carbine. Whoever... Whatever this person is, I cannot allow her near that painting! I always keep it loaded, I'm not even sure I can reload it if my first shot misses. But at this distance, surely even someone as useless as I can point and shoot.

The figure doesn't look in any way fazed by the gun in her face, giving a bored yawn. "I had thought we could get past the pageantry, but if you think this little bit of theater will in some way help then please, pull the trigger."

I do so, and am almost deafened by the sound of the powder striking. My shoulder feels sore from the recoil, and my heart is racing... And the ball is now floating in the air between the figure and I. Even with as little as I know about guns, I am fairly certain that this is not meant to happen.

The figure casually plucks the shot from the air, dropping it on the floor with a bored expression. "One day I would like to meet someone who doesn't break the ice with a lead ball. But I'll be waiting a while longer, it seems."

"W- Who are you?!" This... This can't be real, right?

"Well, that’s a slightly more polite welcome. I'm Rivauld, supervillain extraordinaire. And I've come to help you in your darkest hour." She gives a little bow, and a flourish with her top hat. "I figure you might need it, given you've broken the heart of the only other person in this city that would ever help you."

"How... How do you know about that?!"

"She's a wonderful kisser, isn't she, Katje?"

I throw the carbine at the figure. I barely even realize I've done so until I see it floating in mid-air in the space between the blonde woman and I. Guns surely aren't meant to work this way! The blonde figure grabs the floating firearm and throws it out the window, where I swear it skips across something invisible before finally falling. This... This isn't fair!

The blonde figure... Rivauld simply shakes her head. "If this is how you treat people trying to help you then it's no wonder you have so few allies."

"Don't talk about Serena!" I'm tempted to throw a punch next, but I don't know if whatever is happening to physical reality will abide that. "You know nothing about Serena! Whatever twisted scheme you have in mind-"

"I'm trying to help her too, you know! You left her in quite the state after your little rejection. If I hadn't intervened, she may well have drunk herself to death."

She said she couldn't live without me, didn't she? "... She has a life to lead outside of me. People she can love for real, rather than the fake, devotional love I filled her head with. I don't deserve her, and she deserves so much better than me-"

"Oh fuck off with that." Rivauld gives me a glare, as if I'd somehow offended the intruder in my home. "Take some fucking responsibility."

"I... I am! I'm letting her go, even though I don't want to-"

"You're saddling her with the heartbreak of your choices. You're leaving her to deal with it alone, without you. And to what end? For you to die alone, unloved, under the jeers of a mob of psychopaths? Come on, your Serena deserves better than that, surely."

I swallow audibly. Who does this woman think she is, coming in here and... And demanding that I... What, that I just keep Serena? That I let her die for me with a smile on her lips and love in her heart? That I take her entire world away?

"And that's why I'm here. With a better way. One that allows you to take responsibility for the terrible things you've done, and live. And live with Serena at that! A win for everyone. Well, everyone except everyone else in the world, but you don't care, and I consider that just another win for me."

I blink. A way out of all this? One where Serena will be safe, one where I don't have to die? ... One where I might even live with her? One where those sick freaks in Alesia get what's coming to them, and can never threaten us again? It sounds like a dream…

"... I can't possibly deserve that. Not after what I've done-"

"Who gives a fuck what you deserve?!" Rivauld pinches her nose, clearly impatient with me. "You groomed a teenager! You deserve to be dropped into a vat of God's Fire, to scream until your lungs melt and your body burns away to nothing! But that won't do Serena, or the world, any good, now will it?!"

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"I... Surely that's not quite what it was-"

"Maybe you weren't quite intending the exact kind of devotion that you got, but you still acted to make it happen. And not just on her! You are a villain, Katje. Not even a supervillain like me, just a regular old villain!" She takes a step toward me, her eyes seemingly piercing through my very soul. "No god will forgive you for what you've done, just because you do 'the right thing' now."

I step backward, up against the wall of my secret hideaway... Oh gods, Serena pressed me right up against the walls of my chamber, didn't she? I let her, didn't I? I wanted it, I craved it... And so did she, because of my conditioning. Why does being bad have to feel so right?

... And why does this woman want me to do bad so badly? "... If, hypothetically, I accepted your help... What would it entail? What are you planning?"

This finally breaks the endless disapproval of the blonde figure, who produces a pair of rolled up paintings from her opera cloak. "I am planning to give you The Heart, of course. Not your masters in the East, but you specifically."

"You were the one hunting down these paintings? ... You almost got Serena killed! Multiple times!"

"And she is why I didn't have you drugged, beaten, and made the victim of a fake political assassination, yes. But that was then, this is now! And I have a much better plan than I had before."

"What plan?! What could justify all this?!"

"Simple. The instrumentalization of the entire world." She takes another step forward, almost pinning me against the wall, still offering the paintings. "They'll never try to hurt you, try to separate you and Serena again, if they're all your puppets, right?"

I swallow. World domination. This blonde stranger is actually suggesting world domination! This woman who hurt Serena so badly, who almost had me tortured and killed, is suddenly floating the idea of actual, literal world domination! ... Supervillain is right, this sounds like a plot from one of my daughter's silly little fairy tales, something an evil wizard would come up with!

"... And why give it to me? Why not take it over yourself?"

"Because I have no desire to rule this world. I have business elsewhere."

"Then why do you even care?!"

"Revenge." She speaks simply, it’s impossible to think she isn't being entirely honest. "I am going to end the world as we know it to rub spit in the eyes of the Gods."

"... That... That can't possibly be it?!" I feel like I'm trying to convince myself more than anyone else.

"If you're truly so distrustful, surely you could just read my mind and know for certain. Right?"

How did... "How did you know-"

" 'I know what you're thinking', 'I know what you're thinking'. If you were any easier to read, you'd be a text prompt."

"A what?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Katje. Worry your pretty little head with nothing more than ruling the world. And getting the girl at the end."

I feel like I'm being goaded... But I want to know- I have to know what's going on inside her head. How can someone have a grudge against an entire planet? How can someone be in such personal conflicts with the actual gods?! I take a deep breath, I fixate on Rivauld, and I snatch just a little piece of her mind, a seed to replicate her brain and search it for whatever information is relevant.

I fall immediately to my knees before her, screaming.

Plush altars in white rooms filled with knives. An empty black void containing an ever-dwindling number of struggling specks of light. Cotton themself, a mortal person, with a smile on their lips and a needle in their hand. An endless sea of melted life below a forever burning sky. A million worlds with a million million starving peasants, cheering for the bones of a small child, which sit upon an ivory throne and are covered in gold finery. A ship, a vessel, sailing through the endless abyss, ready to burn another world to glass, to melt another billion people at the order of 'The Undying Regent'.

I slam my head against the floor again and again and again, desperate to be free of these things. I can't take it, I can't hold onto this knowledge, a world of worlds governed by death and insanity. The entire universe is but a playground for the most wicked evils imaginable, with Lutice being the saddest miracle in all existence. At least here we are spared the sight of this unfathomable cruelty endlessly writhing above us.

"Yeah, it's a lot to take in, admittedly." Rivauld leans forward, patting my head. "But you get used to it. Well, you develop the right coping mechanisms."

"You... The Gods..."

"You can see why I have no love for them. And what better way to mess with them than to ruin their little experiment, destroy their little petri dish. That is what I want from you, Katje. That is what I want from you and Serena."

"I... She... She can't ever know about this. This world of worlds above our heads, she can't ever know-"

"She won't. Her knowing is not important to my plan, all we need for it to work is for her to trust you again. And for you to acquire The Heart." She presses the paintings against me again... And I accept them.

"That part might be tricky-"

"Your husband's 'performance' during his sacrifice has turned public sentiment against The Convention. You can leverage that, maybe provoke a mutiny in the name of your son. If you move quickly and decipher the paintings in time, you could get royalists in the Avernian Army to deliver The Heart to you before The Convention can react. From there you simply have to cast the spell. Well, you and Serena do."

"That... Sounds risky."

"Katje, you were never going to find The Heart on your own, even if you didn't have me opposing you. You're simply too cautious! Move fast, break things, there's no other way to get what you want out of a world like this."

"Right... And this spell. Doesn't it only instrumentalize one person at a time? Surely it would be impossible to get the entire world under that power, even if I was at it for an entire lifetime!"

"See, that's a thing about Hearts that no one knows. No one but the Gods, and me." She's giggling, this Rivauld person seems to enjoy knowing things that other people don't. "You see, The Heart may allow anyone to use the magic of the witch who died to produce it, but something interesting happens when another witch uses one. Its power increases immensely. Two hearts beating as one are simply far more powerful than a single heart alone. You, holding this Heart, your heart and it beating together? You'll be instrumentalizing thousands of people at a time, enough to dominate Alesia in short order."

"Thousands... But, Lutice must have millions, maybe even billions of people upon it! That's still just a drop in the bucket!"

"That's where Serena comes in, Katje. Two hearts are better than one, and this, to me, implies something. That three hearts beating as one would be better than two. If the increase of power is exponential then surely it's possible that the two of you holding The Heart could instrumentalize millions at a time!" Her eyes shine with the possibility of making the entire world bow to my and Serena's whims in a matter of weeks. "You can make the whole world celebrate your love, have them all serve you hand and foot. You can use the politicians of The Convention as furniture, or even kindling if you so desire. You can leave an eternal empire of peace and prosperity behind for your children, and your children's children. Surely that's a world worthy of your Serena, right? Surely that's a world that will fulfill your desires."

... She's right, isn't she? This is the only way I can make Serena happy, that I can give her what she wants. Maybe I decided for her what she wants, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to... No, that I must give it to her! What we have must be more intense, more important than what she has with her little friends. Surely she deserves to be had by me, and only me!

And in a world of worlds that produces nothing but evil, my ruling this world is a lesser, excusable evil, right? A better person than me would die alone, killed by a violent mob she's never even known, let alone wronged. So why be a better person?!

I stand. I smile. I offer my hand to Rivauld to shake.

"I think I might be grateful to you, Mademoiselle Rivauld."

"Heh, first time I've ever heard that." She considers my extended hand, before deciding to not shake it. "Let's not imply we're partners in this. Everything I've given to you, the power to instrumentalize the world... All this is me making you into my very own instrument, you know."

"Well... Fuck you then." I can't help but smile, perhaps this is who I’ve always been, the person I never got to discover I am until now. "I suggest you get off of Serena and I's world in that case. Or you might get caught in our spell."

"I have created a monster." Rivauld cackles, I think she might finally respect me... A little bit. "I've created a monster for Serena.”

The figure takes a step back, gives another bow, and leaves via the open window. Standing again on air, she opens a door in the empty space in front of her, revealing a white interior, a room I can't even begin to understand. She gives me a wave, slips inside, closes the door, and the space is completely empty again. She's gone entirely... If the other two paintings weren't left behind I'd be convinced that this didn't happen at all, that my sick and twisted mind simply invented a fantasy to appeal to it. But this is real. This is unstoppably, undeniably real.

"... This is really going to happen."

I'm grinning. I'm grinning from ear to ear. It hurts, but I can’t stop. I'll have Serena, I'll have an entire world. I'll become a monster so she needn't be one for me any longer. She'll forgive me, won't she, for foolishly pushing her away? ... She'll kiss me again, won't she? ... She'll touch me again, won't she?

I laugh, unable to stop, my sudden and overwhelming mirth cannot be contained. It must be expressed. I'm just so happy! ... I'm just so warm…

What are my hands doing?