forgotten

[mute_pen]

It's past dark, but when you need the outhouse, you need the outhouse.

Isabel picks her way across the yard of her father's house in the moonlight, hoping to sneak back into bed without waking him.

Comments

[growcrooked]

"Are you going to?"

[mute_pen]

"Things would have to be worse than they have been so far. Or I'd have to be able to accomplish a lot by dying that I couldn't do any other way."

[growcrooked]

She shrugs.

[mute_pen]

"You really don't know what he's going to do with me?"

[growcrooked]

"I hear him shouting at them sometimes," she offers. "He does that a lot. To me, too."

[mute_pen]

"Why? What about?"

[growcrooked]

"He tells me I'm a baron's daughter and I need to act like it," she says. "You, he named after my mother, so maybe he'll scream at you for leaving him."

[mute_pen]

"He named me after your mother?". Etty does not have words for how twisted that is.

[growcrooked]

"I don't know if he'll want to fuck you, but it wouldn't surprise me," she adds.

[mute_pen]

"I - I - thank you for warning me," whispers Etty.

[growcrooked]

The baron's daughter shrugs.

"You're welcome, I suppose. Me, I wouldn't wager that it helps to know ahead of time."

[mute_pen]

"Perhaps, but - it would not be a pleasant surprise."

[growcrooked]

"True enough."

[mute_pen]

"Do you know - any details about how the curse works? If I am the first to do something so obvious as walk through an unlocked door there might be hope."

[growcrooked]

"Less than you do, I think. Except - when the Baron sent me to seduce that prince, I was supposed to make him say he loved me."

[mute_pen]

"Something about the unclaimed heart. Probably. If he said he loved you then his heart wouldn't be properly unclaimed for his Odette?"

[growcrooked]

"I guess. He didn't give me reasons."

[mute_pen]

"You said man, earlier - he didn't specify - his omission or were you just supposing...?"

Etty has known about herself for years and kept quiet, but here there is information to be gained and so little to lose.

[growcrooked]

"There's only ever been the one, and he was a man."

[mute_pen]

"But as far as you know the curse doesn't care."

[growcrooked]

"I don't know at all."

[mute_pen]

"Mm."

There is a question to ask of this (stark naked) girl, but it could offend; Etty will save it till she's sure there is nothing else she needs from her.

"Do you know what's the first thing to go when Odettes - deteriorate? And - is there any way I could get something to write with, and on?"

[growcrooked]

"I don't know anything about the early times," she says, shaking her head. "I can give you pens and inks and books, that's simple enough -" and she gets up, abandoning her sheets, and rummages in the drawers of an enormous oak desk.

[mute_pen]

"Thank you," says Etty, heartfelt. "...What do you know about the later times?"

She thinks of blank staring faces. And swan sounds. And shivers.

[growcrooked]

"I've been to the lake when he was out looking for a new one," she says. "I've seen what they're like when they're all used up."

She returns carrying a blank scroll, a pen, and an inkwell, all of which she hands to Etty.