Autumn came and then winter.

Florina and her mother had spent the warmer months clawing their way back into society's good graces, but now the chill and darkness confined them to the house. Florina, finding herself suddenly deprived of the social engagements that she relished, stalked the halls moodily and lashed out at me worse than usual.

As the dark months stretched out my visits with Ariane were rare and precious. For weeks at a time, the only real contact I had with her were the books she lent me. She began scrawling letters to me and hiding them among the pages and I would compose my own responses for her to find.

She still provided me books with the epic romances that I loved, but interspersed were now more subdued stories, tales of longing and forbidden love.

I devoured them all.

I reread that first novel again. It was painfully subtle, but I realized what I had taken for a frivolous romance might actually have been meant as a distraction from the true love story. I relished the reread and found myself yearning for more.

I found myself imagining that I was one of the heroines in the stories. I imagined the knights and ladies of those stories coming to my rescue and taking me far away from here. Sometimes I even imagined it was me rescuing them, armed with nothing but my wits.

I slowly, reluctantly began to imagine myself falling in love.

 

---

 

I was engrossed in one such fantasy when disaster struck. Florina, seized by a cruel impulse as I cleared the table, decided to trip me. Over the years, I had grown quite adept at avoiding this particular assault, but she had clearly noted my distraction and taken her opportunity to strike. I stumbled awkwardly and rolled my bad ankle as I tried to catch myself. There was a stab of red hot pain and I nearly collapsed.

Ariane was out of her seat in an instant.

"Florina! What the hell?"

"Language," her mother admonished from the head of the table and Ariane froze.

Elisabetta's gaze was fixed on her daughter, examining, weighing, and Ariane crumpled slightly under the scrutiny. She pressed her lips into a thin line and sank back into her chair.

"Get up!" Florina snapped at me.

Florina then glanced at Ariane, who was staring at me with naked concern on her face. A wicked smile crept onto Florina's face.

My left ankle throbbed, but it seemed able to bear my weight. I hobbled painfully as I went about the rest of my duties.

As Florina rose to leave, Ariane tensed. She closed her eyes and counted a few seconds before bolting for the door after Florina.

I hefted my tray of dishes and followed as quickly as I could, lest Ariane do anything reckless. She had just caught up with her sister when I entered the hallway.

"Florina, what the fuck is wrong with you?" She hissed.

"Such vulgarity!" Her sister gasped mockingly. "Don't tell me you've grown a soft spot for the creature."

"So what if I have? She doesn't deserve that kind of cruelty."

"It is a monster. It is the reason why we're nearly bankrupt. Not that you would care… you just skulk around here in the shadows while mother and I have worked tirelessly to stave off complete ruin."

Ariane clenched her jaw and her eyes flicked back to me. Florina followed her gaze and that wicked grin was back.

"So you do care for the creature," she crooned. "Father's little freaks have formed their own social clique."

Ariane's face reddened and she clenched her fists. She was about to do something incredibly ill advised.

I shook my head and mouthed a silent "no". She stared at me, almost pleadingly, but after a moment her shoulders slumped and she walked away.

 

---

 

By the time I was settling into bed that night, the throbbing pain in my ankle had faded to a tingling numbness that was somehow more concerning.

There was a tap at my door, a tentative sound I had only heard once before.

"Come in," I said.

Ariane let herself in.

"Ari, what are you doing here?"

She snorted. "You say that like secrecy matters any more... I came to check on you, of course."

"I'm fine," I said, despite the curious lightness in my chest.

"No, you're not. I saw how you landed. You've been limping all evening… I… there was something in his notes that I wanted to check."

I felt myself tense at the mention of the notes and the light feeling was banished. This was soon followed by a cold trickle of fear as I parsed the implications of her words

"What is it?" I asked, unable to keep the waver out of my voice.

She eased herself onto the rickety stool next to my bed. There was so little space in my room that our knees were almost touching.

"May I?" She asked softly as she gestured to my injured leg.

I eased myself back on the bed, stretching out my leg for her to examine.

"Oh…" was all she said. She hesitantly reached out to probe my ankle.

"How does it feel?" She asked as she probed.

"It doesn't hurt… not anymore."

"Has it bothered you before? Like a pins and needles feeling?"

I nodded.

Her brow furrowed, and she hissed through her teeth.

"Ari, what is it? What did you read in his notes?"

"The surgical joint is weak. I think he made a mistake. Why he decided to use legs and feet from different sources is beyond me. The fact is, you were never meant to toil the way you do, not with the amount of rest you get between chores. Here, look."

I looked and discovered that the surgical scar around my ankle had darkened to a sickly gray. The panicky fear inside me crystalized into dread.

"What does that mean?" I asked shakily.

"It's probably fine!" She said quickly, trying to reassure me.

It was a terrible lie.

"You just need to be careful not to risk serious injury," she finished.

The dread was welling up inside me, as if all the despair that lurked in the dark corners of my soul was worming itself to the surface, metastasizing.

"So this is it then? Am I just going to toil away until I literally fall apart?"

"No! I'm not going to let that happen!"

The vehemence of her response was startling. Judging by her face, she found it startling as well.

She cleared her throat and blushed.

"I mean… look, your construction is remarkable, the fact that your body can heal itself as well as it does is a testament to my father's brilliance, misguided as it was. At the end of the day, you're still human and humans break if we're not taken care of. I might have some ideas to help."

She resumed her prodding, quiet except for an occasional mutter. The hesitancy in her touch faded as she became engrossed with her examination.

It was the most I had been touched since the last time Victor had examined me. His hands had been soft too, but he had lacked Ariane's gentleness. To him I was more of a thing, his perfect creation, his life's work. Ari saw me as a person, a friend…

The gentle touches of her cool fingers sent a strange thrill through me and I felt my pulse quickening.

"I'll make her pay for this," she said under her breath, derailing my treacherous train of thought.

"What?"

"Huh? Oh… Florina, she crossed a line. We can't just let this go unpunished."

"Yes, we can," I replied.

Her eyes snapped up and I shied from The sudden eye contact.

"What? But-"

"Anything you do to her will just come back to me," I interrupted. "That's how it's always been, ever since I arrived here."

She paled slightly and looked away guiltily.

I sighed and took her hand in mine.

"And all that was before she knew about our friendship," I continued. "If you do anything to her, she'll hurt me worse just to punish you. Please just let it go, for my sake."

She swallowed and nodded.

"It's still not right," she mumbled.

"I know, but that's how it is. I've survived this long by keeping my head down and doing what was expected of me."

"It shouldn't have to be about surviving!" She said in a rush. "You deserve to live. You could shine so bright if you were given the chance."

I didn't know how to respond to that.

She looked down at our joined hands, then to where her other hand still rested on my ankle, her examination forgotten. And then, for the briefest instant, her gaze began to slide up my exposed leg.

Her eyes widened slightly and she jerked both her hands away. Her face flushed and she made a small cough.

Oddly, I felt my own face heating. I withdrew my leg and tugged the skirt of my night dress down.

"It should be fine for now," she said, looking anywhere but at me as she scrambled to her feet. "I don't think you're in any imminent danger of serious injury. I'll see what I can come up with to help."

"Thank you, for coming to check on me," I said as she opened the door.

"Goodnight Ella"

"Goodnight Ari"

 

---

 

The thaw finally came and one day in early March, and we finally found ourselves alone together once more.

We burned Victor's journals that day, as Ariane had worked tirelessly through the winter to distill them into a single volume of her own notes. I felt a weight lift off me as I watched the pages curl in the flames. The spidery script depicting the tale of my creation became nothing more than ash and smoke.

As we watched the flames, she surprised me by taking my hand in hers. She smiled at me and we stood in silence for a long while, savoring each other's company.

After the last sheet disintegrated into nothing, I asked her, "Did you get everything worth saving?"

She nodded.

"It… it was difficult. Some of the things he did were unspeakable. He committed such terrible acts in the pursuit of…"

She trailed off and her eyes widened.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean…"

"It's fine," I told her. "I know what I am. I can't change any of that. All I can do is just… move forward.

She nodded, but she didn't meet my eyes. I saw it then, the horror she felt that was directed inward. She had read his journals and she had seen herself in his words.

She was just as much his creation as I was.

I pulled her into an embrace. She made a small noise of surprise and stood stiffly in my arms before she relaxed into it.

"Listen, you may be his daughter, but you aren't him. I've seen you work, I've listened to the way you talk about how this can be used to help people. You will do great things, things he never dreamed of."

She let out a shuddering breath.

"You say that," she said, "but I don't see how that's possible. I'm trapped here just as much as you are. You think mother would ever just let me leave? Go off into the world on my own? She'd never pay for any kind of formal education."

I released her and stepped back to look into her eyes.

"But what if you didn't need her permission or her money? Ariane, you are clever and brilliant. You have your notes. If you just gave yourself a chance, you could do the things you were meant to do. You could show people what you're capable of and they would ask you to come and share what you know."

Her eyes were shining and her lips quivered a little.

"If I left," she said softly, shakily, "then you'd be alone. I couldn't do that to you."

Another strange feeling rose in my chest. I knew part of her was terrified of change, of the unknown, but she was genuinely concerned for me.

"I…"

I didn't know what to say.

"If you left then at least one of us would be free-"

"Ella, you deserve freedom too."