**TW Below the cut: Murder, Violence**
RP Snippet with @somberset
"Do you honestly think I had a choice? Your father deceived me into thinking he actually loved me." Sarah sat up with her spine straight and chin held high. "Your father doesn't even know what the curse does much less know the truth." Little did she know that everything Nicholas had told Vera had been all true. She merely thought she had the upper hand at the moment.
"The moment you put the tiara on, your power became linked. That means, as long as the item exists, no one can take it from you." Then why didn't she have any? Why hadn't she used her heritage against her father and gain freedom? Sarah's shoulders lowered down and she stared out the small window that barely let in any light from outside. "Your father cursed me also, you know." She lifted up her hand to portray the wedding band still on her finger. "He learned of the curse on the trip back. How, I don't know. All I know is that he promised to purchase the ring when we landed. It's the reason I've been stuck under this roof all these years. Not that you care or ever did. Where is Dimi? Where is my son?"
"AND YOU CLAIM YOU LOVED HIM?" Vera shouted louder than she ever had before in her short life. She may have had a sharp tongue at times and been a little high handed, but she had never raised her voice at anyone. "You knew the curse of that tiara when you married him! It's YOUR fault that I am the way I am! How could I ever believe in such a farce when you tricked him into it?" She had planned on never touching Sarah but her anger was without bounds and now she had reached for Sarah's wrist. Vera hoped it hurt. It would be a small victory in having to stay her hand in ending her mother's life. "Dimi isn't here, so don't bother calling for him. You were so anxious for my power to be linked," she tightened her grip around Sarah's wrist and twisted it cruelly. "Now you get to taste it firsthand."
Sarah flinched when Vera took her wrist and twisted. She picked up one of her knitting needles before it could slide off of her lap and raised it up as a weapon. She stabbed down hoping Vera would let go of her before it made contact, giving out a cry in pain.
"Vera let go of me! VERA!"
Vera reached out and grabbed the knitting needle before it could find purchase in her skin. Her eyes bore into Sarah's and wind began to billow around them as soon as she uttered the first syllable of the incantation she had been working on the previous night. "Per mare tua fata signari! Et erit interitus fragilitate contraximus, tua tantum oscula cutis aruit!"
Her hair whipped around her head from the violent wind, but she didn't release the grip on Sarah's wrist while she recited the incantation four more times, each time over with an intensified fury. Finally, she released her hold on the woman and stepped back, the wind vanishing instantly as she did. Her chest heaved from the exertion that the curse had demanded of her to cast. Even though she was winded and exhausted, she felt euphoric. In control. They were even now and soon enough Sarah would feel the pain that her daughter had harbored for years.
"No." At the very beginning of her chanting, Sarah tried to pry her wrist loose. The more she tugged, the worse the pain became from the twist to her limb. "NO!" she shouted hearing the flowing words. Sarah went pale and began to claw at Vera's hand to gain release but to no avail. The ring on her finger prevented her from accessing her heritage but it did not protect her from magic done onto her.
When the spell was complete, the woman's head fell back with her mouth opening wide. The pain was so great that no sound came out of her throat she was screaming so hard. Sarah's eyes rolled towards the back of her head. It wouldn't last for long, just a taste of what was to come. Where her daughter's touch left her, the bones in her wrist were crushed.
There was a sense of exhilaration that was running through Vera’s veins at her success that she couldn't shake. And she wasn't entirely sure she wanted it to go away. The smile on her face was nothing short of victorious and there was not an ounce of remorse for her actions as she watched her mother scream in silent pain. "You're weak," she practically snarled and ended on a laugh. "You will spend the rest of your miserable life knowing that I never loved you and that you will never see me again."
The clattering of the wooden door behind her against the wall made her whirl around and look at Laura. Sarah’s humble, mute servant come to defend her mistress. But there was nothing that could save her Lady from what had been set in motion.
Vera smirked, still riding on the high of her victory and threw her hand forward, freezing her mother's servant and companion in her place. "Your services are no longer needed." She looked over her shoulder at Sarah, smiling evilly at her; any semblance of her innocent daughter was long gone. Even if her mother couldn't move from the pain, Vera knew that she could still hear and see her surroundings. She had made sure of it.
An invisible tether made Laura move closer at Vera's beckoning with her feet hovering two inches above the floor. "Look upon the fruits of your sins, Mother." Her fingers flexed and with a flick of her wrist, a resounding CRACK! sounded through the room while Laura's head bent at a horrifically wrong angle. To add insult to injury, Vera made sure that the fresh corpse of Sarah's handmaid collapsed on top of her legs. In her weakened state, there was no chance her mother would be able to move from her morbid trap.
With one last look at Sarah, Vera's smile was sickly sweet. "Have a safe journey home, Sarah." She clasped her hands together below her waist and turned on the balls of her feet, walking out of the room with her pride palpable from every corner of the manor.
“If you asked most people whether they believed in love or not, they’d probably say they didn’t. Yet that’s not necessarily what they truly think. It’s just the way they defend themselves against what they want. They believe in it, but pretend they don’t until they’re allowed to. Most people would throw away their cynicism if they could. The majority just never get the chance.”
Dozens of candles illuminated the interior of the mausoleum that had become her own personal haunt. Away from Nicholas and Carlin’s prying eyes, here she was liberated from the expectations and manners that came with her birthright. Vera leaned back against the marble of a tomb with letters etched in the stone naming Analise Holt as its eternal resident. Vera had never met the former Matriarch of the other notorious noble family that had resided in Duskwood, nor did she feel deprived of such an opportunity. Her own grandmother was sufficient in being formidable even if with well-placed intentions.
Three months ago, two tombs had been added since she started coming here. She recognized the first name of the woman now entombed among her ancestors, but the man’s name was one she didn’t recognize. Those two weeks had thrown a wrench into her private studying and solitude. Here was the only place she knew that Nicholas’s eyes didn’t follow, the last place he expected his baby girl to be. The scratching of her pen against the pages of her book were the only sounds that filled the crypt until the wrought iron gate at the top of the steps opened. She went still despite there was really only one person that it could be. The last person her father would expect her to be esconding with here.
“Vera?”
She closed her book and stood up with a small smile gracing her visage as Landon came into view with his copper-red hair still clean and neatly combed. The lack of dirt on his face and clothing told her he was working overnight this time, seeing as it was perhaps only an hour before sundown. “I was beginning to wonder if I’d see you tonight,” She smirked coyly at him and walked to the marble altar in the middle of the crypt with the words WITH FEROCITY & PRIDE WE PREVAIL engraved around the edge. And where exactly did that ferocity and pride get you?
She enjoyed the way his smile was reminiscent of boyish innocence but there was something dark behind those earth-colored eyes that made them understand each other. Perhaps if she hadn’t been highborn or tainted by the failure of her parents' marriage, she would have truly fancied him. She might have giggled with flushed cheeks with the way he winked at her.
“Mr. Burbridge wouldn’t stop blabbing on about the shortage of pears this year. He’s under the impression that Sylvannas is personally using her blight to kill the pear orchards.”
Vera gave a short derisive laugh through her nose and rolled her eyes. She knew for a fact those pear orchards had been quietly bought up by her cousin to be replaced with an expansion of her family’s orchards. “How unfortunate for him,” she mused as he came in closer behind her and pushed her dark hair over her left shoulder. “I suppose no one told him that apples sell more per pound than pears will?”
“Are we really talking about apples and pears, Vera?” Just as she was going to give an answer, she felt his calloused hand take her left wrist into his grasp and hold her hand up. “New ring?”
She looked at the golden lily that Nicholas had given her and that she had stupidly forgotten to take off before coming down here and looked then up and over her shoulder at her secret lover. “It’s just a present from Daddy,” she replied quickly while attempting to take her hand back from out of his grasp, but he didn’t let go. “Landon…” He stared at it and she didn’t know if he understood the symbolic nature of the ring. He most definitely wouldn’t understand why her father had given it to her. Finally, he released her wrist and let his arms snake around the front of her waist.
“You know…” Landon began with his voice quiet and measured as he leaned in to rest his chin on her shoulder. “You could have a life where you don’t have to hide in a crypt to escape. One without the expectations your family puts on you. One… one where you and I could actually be together.”
It should have made her breath catch in her chest, made her knees go weak or something along the lines that were written in those silly romance novels. But all it made her do was stare ahead at the opposite wall where more members of the deceased noble family were laid to rest. She had suspected for some time that her friend was beginning to blur the lines of the arrangement they had made. “You know we can’t.” She said rather flatly, suddenly feeling claustrophobic in his embrace. “It’s not what we agreed to, so why are you ruining it?”
“Ruining it? Vera, I’m trying to help you see there’s another option available.” Landon stepped back to give her space, knowing she didn’t appreciate being touched when she was upset.
“No, there’s not!” She stepped away from him and spun around facing him with her crystalline blue eyes ablaze with something he hadn’t seen before. Fear. “Why can’t you just be happy with being with me like this? Isn’t that enough?”
The groundskeeper folded his arms and shrugged. “Is it enough for you? Can you look me in the eyes and honestly tell me that you are fine with the sneaking around and all the secrets? Do you even know how much I would love to be with you in a bed instead of a pile of blankets in some crypt? How I want you to meet my mo--”
“Stop.” Vera shook her head, refusing to hear any more of what was starting to turn into a confession. “I can’t Landon. I can’t. Do you want to know why this has worked so far? It’s because of the secrecy. If my father ever found out about you, do you know what he’d do? He’d make you leave Duskwood forever, or kill you. I don’t get the luxury to love who I want.” Even if she believed such a thing existed. She watched as his face seemed to wilt, succumbing to the inevitable truth. It wasn’t the first time they had argued about the same subject, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. How much would it crush him when he learned of what she was being tasked with doing?
Daring to step closer to him, she took his hand into hers. “Trust me on this, won’t you? Let’s... let’s just enjoy what time we have together. You will come to understand in time.”
favorite character meme [½ colors] → Black
“The color black represents strength, seriousness, power, and authority. It is a formal, elegant, and prestigious color. Authoritative and powerful, the color black can evoke strong emotions. ”
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