Villainess 7: Janet’s Night Training
Red Pill 31: Clubs, Slaves
After Viscountess Durham’s exit from the room and a muted talk with the Sydney brothers outside (and after two clones followed both brothers down the hallway and out past the double doors of Mariana House, as per the orders of their ex-suicide captain), Janet and her friends slumped in their chairs around the tea table. If going back to school was anything like this, Janet wondered if she was better off skipping school altogether but perished the thought. If Lady Dorian was trying to pin the apparent disappearance of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton on Janet and her friends, then neither she nor her friends could afford to ditch school.
Janet said, “What time is it?”
“It’s fifteen minutes past five,” DeeDee said.
“Then we still have forty-five minutes left for our club,” Janet said, getting up and stretching. “DeeDee, are Kevin and Ridley there at Elba House?”
(So DeeDee said, “Are Sir Sydney and Lord Woodberry in the clubroom at Elba house?”
“They’re still there,” one clone said.
“And Baron Underwood’s with them,” another clone said.
“What’s keeping you?” yet another clone said. “We’ve been waiting here for over two hours!”)
“We’ll be there shortly,” DeeDee said.
Then Janet walked over to the mirror between the armoire and vanity table and viewed herself in its reflection. At first, she removed the veil from her head, yet it dissipated from her hands and reappeared over her head like a magic trick, so she removed her gloves, but they both dissipated from her grasp and reappeared over her hands like magic. Then she heard voices and faced her sniggering girlfriends by the tea table and her laughing clones, two smiling guardians, and three darkness affinity users cupping their mouths with their hands around the vanity table.
“Not funny!” Janet said.
“I’m sorry, honey,” Rowena said.
“It’s good to laugh sometimes,” DeeDee said.
“Ugh, fine, whatever,” Janet said, “but how do I take off these clothes?”
“Very naughty, Janet!” RuRu said.
“I meant, change clothes, not get naked!” Janet said.
So Rowena, ever the protective mamma goose, grabbed RuRu’s ear and yanked her over to her side and said, “Jokes are fine but not the sexy ones, got it?”
“All right, I’m sorry,” RuRu said.
“Don’t apologize to me,” Rowena said. “Apologize to my daughter,” and she pointed her out.
“I’m sorry, Janet.”
“It’s fine, Mom,” Janet said.
“That’s good,” Rowena said, letting go.
While Janet’s friends and clones burst out laughing again, RuRu touched at her ear and winced, then went over to Janet and said, “If you wanna change out of that getup, you can use the same thought process of me pushing you into your fountain but with different intentions for different clothes. For instance, if you think of going to bed, you’ll be in your dressing gown, and if you think of going to school, you’ll be in your school uniform, and if you think of taking a bath, you’ll be buck naked.”
“That’s it?” Janet said.
“Try it out, and you’ll see,” RuRu said.
Janet thought of going to her clubroom in her school uniform, and after blinking her eyes, she found herself out of her battle outfit and in her school attire, but the beret was on backwards over her head, the knotted bowtie was undone around the collar of her bolero, and her bolero was still damp under the armpits and over the wrists of the sleeves, for it had yet to fully dry on the clothesline. Also, her uniform dress was on backward and still damp and cold from just above her knees down to the hems over her calves, and her socks were still damp and cold against the skin of her calves and feet. Yet in spite of the wardrobe malfunction, her shoes were the only items on her that required no immediate attention.
At first, Janet blanked on why her clothes were damp, till she realized something and deadpanned at a smiling and sniggering RuRu, saying, “I have two pairs of uniforms ready to use, but why am I wearing yesterday’s?”
“There are limits to what your affinity can do right now,” RuRu said, still smiling. “Excluding your battle attire, you can only clothe yourself with items you wore last time. And it looks like you need to work on your mana control, because you’re a hot mess right now.”
“Don’t rub it in, geez!”
No sooner had Janet said that when the servants’ door opened outside, and a pair of voices and footfalls resounded in the hallway, and the double doors burst open, revealing Janet’s maids Susan and Marin coming in and asking if anyone else had seen one of Janet’s uniforms lying around.
Then they stopped before the tea table and stared at Janet’s wardrobe malfunction in front of the mirror, both maids opening their mouths without saying anything.
“Don’t ask,” Janet said.
Both of her maids closed their mouths.
“Just get me a dry uniform and please shut the doors behind you,” Janet said, so Susan and Marin nodded their heads and sprinted back through the double doors and had the guards close them, then rushed back into the servants’ quarters. Meanwhile, Janet looked over at Mindy and Jean and Saraya loitering around the tea table and added, “Just go on ahead of me. I’ll be there as soon as I’m done here.”
Now they left through the double doors, making sure to have the guards outside closed them till Janet’s maids came back in (while the nine clones followed Janet’s friends, leaving behind four clones, including her ex-suicide clone, with Janet and the other ghosts in the room).
“Mom, DeeDee,” Janet said, glaring at RuRu with red flashing eyes that made her flinch, “after I’m done here, can you two do something for me?”
“Sure,” DeeDee said.
“What is it?” Rowena added.
Their eyes flashed green and blue.
“Please punish RuRu for me,” Janet said.
“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute! Wait a minute!” RuRu said, backing away from DeeDee and Rowena, both women now approaching her as she raised her hands in a placating gesture. “I didn’t make her do that on purpose, I swear!”
With the sun blazing low over the horizon and extending the shadows of juniper trees lining the boulevard across their path, Mindy Kessler and her friends and Janet’s clones rounded the sun-drenched Mariana House and entered the side street leading to Elba House. Like before, the dorm house stood facing the perimeter wall in the shadow of its own facade, but the sun’s rays against that wall cast a warm glow over its facade and reflected the sun’s glare against its latticed casement windows on the first floor. And as the trio entered the walkway and approached the double doors, Mindy noticed them left ajar, and a sudden flourish of cracks and thuds and a waft of many voices reached her ears as they pushed the doors open and passed the threshold into the foyer.
The chandelier lit up above their heads as if greeting them, and the floorboards no longer creaked beneath their steps, and the all the wall sconces lit up as if leading the way through the central hallway like a manservant guiding them and saying, ‘This way, your Ladyships.’
By the closed double doors of each room stood Janet’s silent clones greeting them with nods and smiles, their lamps in their hands giving off bright green accent lights against the blue ones in the wall sconces. More voices fluttered upstairs, then another set of cracks and thuds resounded, and as they ascended the half-turn stairs into the second floor, Mindy saw an open pair of double doors next to their clubroom and heard male and female voices coming from there, then heard another set of cracks and thuds and another flutter of voices.
Before those doors stood the suit of armor that was Sir Abram of the Gate, now turning his helmet and waving his gauntleted hand at them and saying, “Ah, there you are, your Ladyships. Care for a game of billiards?”
“There’s a billiard room here?” Mindy said, realizing that all those sets of cracks were billiard balls hitting each other on a billiard table.
“Indeed,” Sir Abram said. “I asked the tenant next door if he could lend his billiard room to three bored gentlemen waiting for their club mates, and he obliged. When the five busts and three statuettes caught word of it, they wanted to play or see them play, so I let them in.”
“How long have they been playing?” Saraya asked.
“About an hour and thirty minutes,” Sir Abram said. “Care to join in?”
“Sure,” Saraya said.
“Sounds like fun,” Jean added.
“I’ve never played billiards before,” Mindy added.
And so, while the nine clones accompanying them all said they wished they could join if they could grab physical objects, the three girls entered the room during the closing turns of a game amongst Sir Kevin Sydney, Lord Ridley Woodberry, and Baron Simeon Underwood, each holding a cue stick. With his bust on the shoulders of a mannequin’s body, Martin Keystone held a bridge stick for their use in case the players needed one, and the three statuettes of April and May and June all stood over the shoulders of the designated assistant. Along with the four other busts of Christopher Malory and John Day and Daniel Van Weaver and Thomas O’Reilly hovering—yes, hovering—over the four corners of the billiard table under some kind of levitation spell and overlooking the playing surface with wrapped attention, nine other clones in the room stood watching and giggling at the players’ repeated failures to sink a certain billiard ball into the pocket for the umpteenth time.
They were going by numbers in ascending order, and there were three balls left on the table, all of them close to the edges, because Ridley had screwed up his latest attempt before Mindy and the others arrived. He had managed to get the cue ball to hit the thirteen ball towards the corner pocket, but the blasted ball had bounced off the side of the corner pocket and scurried across the table to the other side, stopping by the edge like a disobedient child saying ‘No!’ to his face.
So poor Ridley grimaced in agony and stood aside, letting Kevin approach the table and squeezing his cue stick like he was about to crack it over someone’s head.
Thus, it was Kevin’s turn as he bent over the table’s edge and aimed his cue stick against the cue ball, lining himself up for an attempt on the same thirteen ball on the edge. He drew back and released, but he screwed up his stroke, and the cue ball missed the thirteen ball and bounced off the corner pocket and rolled all the way over to the other corner pocket and went in like another ‘No!’ to his face.
“Scratch again,” Simon Underwood said.
“That ball must be cursed, I swear,” Kevin said.
“Or we just suck at playing billiards,” Ridley added as the now-nine pairs of clones and the five talking busts and three pesky statuettes all laughed in concert.
“Then should we start a new game?” Simeon Underwood said, nodding towards Mindy and the Drevis sisters also laughing at their hang-ups.
Then the nine clones accompanying the ladies joined the other nine accompanying the gentlemen and informed them of all the developments on their side, including but not limited to Countess Valentines harrowing graduation story, the Prince’s engagement with Lady Dorian, the Prince’s direct involvement in Lady Dorian’s schemes against Janet, and Viscountess Durham as an agent of the Information Guild. All of that intel stopped the players from complaining, and the laughter around the room now settled into silence.
Then the other nine informed the visitors of what had happened with Sir Sydney and Lord Woodberry and their club advisor Baron Underwood on their side, including but not limited to all the flak Ridley received from his peers in Classroom 1-3E: in fact, Ridley’s classmates kept pestering him with questions about his relationship with Lady Fleming after he helped carry her to the infirmary during lunch yesterday, some even saying that she had seduced him playing the sympathy card. For Kevin, though, his classmates in Classroom 1-3G peppered him with questions about Janet’s health when she was absent from their class, providing a stark difference of options from the other classrooms in school. As for Baron Underwood, he had yet to be subjected to any kind of rumors, yet he just stood there staring at those clones with his mouth open, his face ashen and his temples slick with sweat, Mindy noticed, as if he had something to hide. Then she recalled the viscountess having Baron Underwood become their club advisor in her stead, creating yet another connection—
Which made her ask, “Professor?”
“What is it?” he said.
“Are you also an agent?” she said.
Baron Underwood grimaced and averted his eyes, then faced her again and said, “I am, but don’t tell the viscountess about it, unless she asks you first. Got it?”
Mindy nodded.
When Janet (and her spectral entourage) arrived at Elba House, Janet asked the two guardsmen to stand guard at the double-door entrance, to which they did, standing guard by the doors like the other guards at the other dorm houses.
Then Janet and her four clones and Celeste and Maxine and Rowena and DeeDee and a wincing RuRu (still in pain from DeeDee and Rowena double-teaming her, in which DeeDee restrained RuRu as Rowena pinched her sides over and over) entered into the foyer, while Janet’s guards closed the double doors behind them. The chandelier lit up again in salutation, and the floorboards no longer creaked beneath Janet’s footfalls, and the blue lights in the wall sconces in the central hallway were accented with the bright green ones emanating from the lamps of all the silent clones standing guard by the closed double doors in the hallway, who all greeted the new visitors with nods and smiles. And on reaching the half-turn stairs at the end of the corridor, Janet heard the tell-tale crack of billiard balls and more laughter from men and women’s voices.
“Is someone playing billiards?” Janet said.
Celeste nodded and said, “For the pleasure of my tenants and guests, yes. To keep myself from getting tired reading books all the time, I play billiards with the tenants once or twice a week when the outside world is asleep.”
“Oh, I see,” DeeDee said. “No wonder.”
“What do you mean?” Janet said, leading the way up the stairs, where another crack of billiard balls and the laughter at the players complaining about cursed billiard balls fluttered past Janet’s ears.
“There’s a rumor that ghosts gather at Elba House to play billiards late at night,” DeeDee said. “It’s said that some light sleepers get woken up by the commotion of a late-night game of billiards in the wee morning hours,” and looked at a blushing Lady Celeste Graves, “but I never thought that was due to one of your hobbies.”
Janet was about to say something about that, but on clearing the top step, she spotted the suite of armor that was Sir Abram of the Gate standing guard before an open set of double doors, who turned his helmet their way and waved his gauntleted hand at their approach.
“Care for a game of billiards?” he said.
“Some other day, Sir Abram,” DeeDee said. “We’re here for a club meeting.”
“Club meeting?” he said.
“Our ghost-hunting club,” Janet said.
“Oh, oh, I see,” the talking suit of armor said, then called out to the players and observers, saying, “Everyone, your club meeting is at hand.”
So thirty-two individuals came out and greeted the newcomers with smiles: first was Mindy and the Drevis sisters, then Ridley and Kevin and their club adviser Baron Underwood, all of them holding clue sticks; then all eighteen of Janet’s clones, still sniggering at the pool players’ hang-ups over a certain cursed billiard ball; and then the four other busts still floating—yes, still floating—under a levitation spell and Martin Keystone, his own bust sitting atop a moving mannequin body, accompanied with three pesky statuettes standing on its shoulders.
“Sorry for being late,” DeeDee said.
“We had something to take care of earlier,” Rowena added, and Janet caught a glance of RuRu’s pained grimace at her mother’s massive understatement.
“Did you have fun?” DeeDee said.
They all nodded their heads and said they did.
“Then get ready for some more ‘fun’ tonight,” DeeDee added, smiling and unnerving Janet at the hint of devilry in her eyes. “Tonight you will all go incognito around the Student Commons Town and spread rumors about the presence of the Black Saintess in this kingdom.”
“Incognito?” Mindy said.
“No way!” Jean and Saraya added.
Kevin and Ridley and Baron Underwood traded glances.
Then Baron Underwood said, “Wait, you’re not making us do anything illegal, are you?”
“Only if you get caught tonight,” DeeDee said, “but even if that happens, you have the protection of two guardians via the contracts you signed with us last night, which means the High Court and even the King have no jurisdiction over your actions. Since only the Queen and the four abbesses have jurisdiction over divine matters, RuRu and I will talk with our younger sisters on your behalf, and they’ll put in a good word for you should it come to that.”
Now Mindy and Jean and Saraya and Kevin and Ridley and Baron Underwood all deadpanned at her words, and Mindy Kessler added, “Doesn’t that sound like nepotism?”
“That’s because it is, but we Guardians call it divine favor,” RuRu chimed in. “We single out those we choose with blessings, and we expect them to do our bidding in return.”
“Do you understand?” DeeDee said.
“Yeah,” they all said with averting eyes.
“Good,” DeeDee said. “Now, to counteract what Lady Dorian and her followers have been saying about you at the Academy, you’ll infiltrate the underground slave market in the Student Commons Town and spread word of the Black Saintess amongst the captives there. And should the Queen bring up your actions tonight during this Friday’s title confirmation, tell her and the congregation the truth: that you have been given a divine mission to spread the good news amongst the slaves in this kingdom, that the Black Saintess is helping them, and that Lady Fleming will free them. Do you understand?”
They all nodded that they did.
But Mindy said, “I thought the Black Saintess—”
“—will help them escape,” DeeDee said, looking over at Janet, “but Janet is the one setting them free. Don’t worry about the details. Just do your part, and RuRu and I will put in a good word to our sisters for you and your friends.” DeeDee glanced at Ruru and Rowena amongst their peers after that, then faced Mindy and her peers, saying, “After Celeste and I perused the profile books of Lady Childeron and Lady Felton this afternoon, Rowena and RuRu and I had checked the profile books of their fathers, Count Childeron and Count Felton, before we came over here,” and DeeDee glanced at RuRu.
“Long story short,” RuRu said, “we found out Count Childeron and Count Felton have reestablished an illegal slave market in the Student Commons Town, trafficking mostly demi-human slaves at the Lotos Bordello to their favorite customers. There must be a secret entrance.”
So DeeDee faced Mindy and Jean and Saraya and Kevin and Ridley and Baron Underwood again, saying, “That’s where you come in. You are to find and infiltrate that bordello, gather what you can about the goings-on there, and report it all to the Internal Affairs Office at the Information Guild. I know this is a lot to ask, but can you do it?”
They were silent for a moment, but one by one, all three women and all three men nodded their heads, saying that they can and will do it.
“Good,” DeeDee said, while Janet stared at their pale faces and pensive expressions.
Then four black voids appeared at the feet of Maxine Diddly and Rowena Fleming and Celeste Graves and RuRu, so they crouched to the floor and dipped their arms into their shadow storage and took out items: Rowena pulled out three pairs of black domino cloaks, and Maxine pulled out three pairs of half-masks of the same sort she wore over her eyes, and Celeste pulled out a small stacks of paper talismans, and RuRu pulled out an empty scabbard attached to a double-wrap belt. With these in hand, Rowena and Maxine gave their items to Mindy and Jean and Saraya and Ridley and Kevin and Baron Underwood, but Celeste held onto the talismans.
With a domino cloak over their arms and a domino mask in their hands, Mindy and Jean and Saraya and Ridley and Kevin and Baron Underwood all stared at RuRu and Janet, who eyed the scabbard and belt, saying, “Is that for me?”
“It is. Now raise your hands,” RuRu said, and when Janet did so, she wrapped the belt around Janet’s waist once and then twice with the scabbard hanging above the middle of her right thigh and buckled it over her stomach. Now RuRu crouched over her shadow storage again and pulled out a buckler and an arming sword and hung the buckler by its handle over the top of the scabbard on the belt and sheathed the sword, holding the buckler in place. “Lower your hands now.”
Janet did so and looked at her sheathed weapon and buckler hanging over her thigh.
“How does it feel?” RuRu said.
“A bit heavy,” Janet said, “but still comfortable.”
“Draw your sword and buckler,” RuRu said. “See how they feel.”
So Janet drew her sword and took up her buckler in both hands, then noticed the menacing gleam of the blade’s edge and stared at RuRu, saying, “It’s not a practice sword?”
RuRu shook her head and smiled, saying, “It’s the real deal. Sheathe your sword and try putting your mana into it before drawing it out again.”
“How do I put my mana into it?”
“Remember that night, Janet,” RuRu said. “Besides me pushing you into your fountain, what else do you remember? Use that memory to help you.”
Janet sheathed her blade, imagining herself reaching her whole arm into the dark red reservoir of her huge fountain, its green phosphorescence shimmering over its teeming surface, and pulling out the sword that RuRu had thrown over her shoulder into its watery depths last night. At the same moment, she drew out her sword and saw a blackish red corona with an outer edge of bright green shimmering off the blade.
“Where did you get this?” Janet said.
“The Blaise royal family inherited the one that once belonged to Lady Avalon Jeong, for whom I engraved the original,” DeeDee said. “I found a spare, and RuRu and I engraved it for you, so it can harness both of your affinities.”
“But I don’t see any engraving.”
“Of course, you can’t see any,” DeeDee said.
“You’re still getting used to your powers, silly,” RuRu said.
After sheathing her sword, Janet turned to her friends and club advisor trying on their black domino cloaks and half-masks, then looked back at Celeste handing RuRu the stack of talismans. As RuRu poured her own power into the stack, engraving a set of foreign characters that fluoresced a blackish purple hue on the paper, Janet said, “What are those for?”
“While your friends are spreading good news,” RuRu said, “you are to give these to as many slaves as possible in tonight’s slave auction.”
“Wait, slaves? Slave auction?” Janet said, then to DeeDee: “Didn’t you say my training starts tonight?”
“This is part of your training,” DeeDee said, “but I’ll let RuRu handle this,” and she turned to RuRu. “This is your chance to redeem yourself, Little Sister. All you have to do is to keep Janet out of trouble for tonight, and we’ll forget what happened earlier. Got it?”
RuRu deadpanned, saying, “Got it, Big Sis,” and she crouched over Janet’s diffused shadow on the floor and placed the stack of talismans right there before standing up again. “There are some more for you to try.”
“Like what?”
“Think of those talismans I placed in your shadow,” RuRu said, “and imagine one in your hand.”
Janet did just that, and one talisman appeared in her hand out of thin air.
“Now place it on DeeDee’s person,” she said.
“Why?” Janet said.
“Just do it,” DeeDee added.
So Janet did as she was told, placing it just below DeeDee’s collar bone above the swell of her aproned bodice, and said, “Okay, now what?”
“Janet, turn around and don’t turn your head,” RuRu said, and when Janet did just that, RuRu turned to the others in the room, from Janet’s friends and her club advisor to her clones and the other ghosts in the hallway, and said, “The rest of you, go into the clubroom and close the doors.”
With that, the suit of armor that was Sir Abram went over and pushed the double doors open into the former dorm room and let Janet’s friends and club advisor and clones and the other spirits and the floating and mannequin-walking busts and statuettes all file into the room, then walked in himself and pulled the doors closed, leaving Janet alone with the two Guardians and her silent clones standing guard at the other double-door entrances.
“Close your eyes,” RuRu said.
So Janet closed them and said, “Now what?”
“Whatever you see, don’t voice it out,” RuRu said. “Just do what I tell you afterwards.”
So Janet waited for whatever was going to happen, waiting for a time—
Till she felt sensations over her body, followed by images popping into her mind when she moved her hand to the affected areas: first it was a caress down her cheek (and she moved her hand there), followed by an older masked man in masquerade clothes caressing a girl’s cheek in a private room; then it was the pudgy softness of someone’s lips on her own (and she moved her hand there), followed by the same man kissing the girl’s lips and whispering pretty nothings to her; and then it was the intrusive touches over the mounds of her breasts (and she moved her hand there), followed by the same man fondling the girl’s breasts over her bodice and getting it undone as she prayed in her mind to keep herself strong through the onslaught to come. This last moment seemed to drag on forever, and even as these sensations and images faded from her mind, the horror of that experience did not, making Janet cup her hands over her gaping mouth and shed tears from her eyes and say, “I don’t wanna see this anymore!”
RuRu said, “Open your eyes and turn around.”
Janet did so, sniffling and wiping away tears and saying, “What the hell was that?”
But once she was finished, Janet spotted DeeDee’s limp body on the floorboards, her limbs splayed out like those of a discarded life-sized bisque doll, her glassy eyes staring out at nothing. DeeDee’s unfocused thousand-yard stare made her remember the first time she had encountered DeeDee’s motionless mannequin body inside her Shop of Curiosities.
But then Janet looked back at RuRu and spotted her holding a lamp glowing bright green and said, “RuRu, what’s going on? Why is she like that?”
“It’s another test of your powers,” DeeDee’s voice said, blinking the light of the lamp in RuRu’s grasp.
“And your fortitude,” RuRu added.
“What do you mean?”
“Janet, you put a seal on me that imitates the conditions of a slave contract,” DeeDee said from the lamp, blinking it again. “Do you remember what we saw last night?”
“Of course, I do,” Janet said.
“When the Prince killed your clone in that classroom,” DeeDee added, blinking the lamplight, “his actions not only broke the slave contracts over all of the students there: without his knowing, he might have granted your clone the power to control slave contracts. Since Lady Dorian had established these slave contracts with the help of an unknown entity, she could have tampered with your clones’ profile book to keep the other clones from finding out about it. As such, I want you to test it out by manipulating the seal you placed over me.”
“I see,” Janet said, then added, “But, RuRu, those images—”
“—are culled from the memories of one slave that had to endure such treatment and worse,” RuRu said. “I’ve witnessed all kinds of atrocities against my people from beatings, rapes, and forced amputations to murders, executions, family separations, and even mass genocide. I’ve had to bear all of their sufferings on my shoulders, which makes the darkness the heaviest of the seven affinities. What you felt and saw a moment ago was just one of the atrocities darkness affinity users have had to endure as they thought of me in their worst moments, often their final moments, and all I could do was be there for them like a mother for her crying children.”
When tears started trailing down her cheeks, Janet went up to RuRu and hugged her, saying, “I didn’t know!”
“It’s okay,” RuRu said.
“No, it’s not okay!” Janet said, shedding tears of her own as she remembered her first encounter with RuRu and her big bottle last night. No wonder she had a drinking habit: anyone would start drinking after dealing with stuff like that all the time. “All this time, I thought you were just a loafer with nothing to do, but . . . but . . .”
So RuRu wrapped her free arm around her shoulders and said, “Thank you, Janet.”
Janet looked up at RuRu smiling through her tears, so she wiped the tears away with the cuff of her sleeve and said, “I promise I won’t let you down, RuRu.”
“I know,” RuRu said.
“All right, enough with the mushy stuff,” DeeDee said from the lamp, blinking its light again. “We don’t have all night, so let’s get on with it.”
“Ah, right,” Janet said and coughed.
“Do you see something on my person?” DeeDee said.
And she did as the characters of the talisman fluoresced over DeeDee’s forehead and even around her neck that gave off a blackish purple hue like a slave’s collar.
“Yeah,” Janet said.
“That’s a slave contract,” DeeDee said. “Use whatever means you have to control it.”
“I’m not gonna hurt you, will I?”
“Janet, nothing you do to that mannequin body of mine will ever hurt me,” DeeDee said, blinking the lamplight, “but it’s different for slaves. Whether or not they suffer during your intervention depends on you. Got it?”
Janet gulped and nodded.
“Good. Do it now,” she said.
Janet then crouched over DeeDee’s body and placed her fingers over her forehead where the characters glowed, feeling RuRu’s power through her fingertips. A slave contract was just a method of control over someone else: one over the body as is the case of this contract; and one over the mind as are the cases of the Prince and the other students in Classroom 1-3C. Then Janet thought of Lady Dorian’s Obedience Skill to take control of Gavin O’Neill and Mindy Kessler’s bodily movements in last night’s experiment with the use of words.
So Janet said, “Let me try something,” and she got up and copied Lady Dorian’s movements last night, stretching her hand over DeeDee’s body and fisting it tight in a trembling grasp and saying, “Get up.”
And independent of DeeDee’s will, her mannequin body sat up on the floor and raised itself onto its feet and stood at attention with expressionless face and eyes.
“No way!” RuRu said.
“Interesting,” DeeDee added, blinking the lamplight yet again. “Instead of controlling the movement of fluids in the body with the Obedience Skill, you’re imitating it to control the contract itself with your darkness affinity.”
“That’s what I call sneaky,” RuRu said.
“Is there a way to break it, though?” Janet said.
“If you’re strong enough, you can,” DeeDee said, “but humans are much too fragile to handle that kind of power on their own. Slavery is an unnatural state, for it subjugates someone’s will to a master as if that master was a god, and you mortals are not gods. The Church of the Holy Light can put their saintesses on pedestals and worship them as idols, but they too are not gods: they’re but intermediaries between us Guardians and you mortals through the blessings we confer on them.”
“Wait,” Janet said, following the drift of DeeDee’s words to a stark comparison, “are you saying divine titles are the same as slave contracts?”
“Yep, that’s it,” RuRu said.
“You’re sharp today,” DeeDee said. “Yes, slave contracts work the same way as divine titles, for they both rely on contracts, but that’s where the similarities end. Whereas divine titles elevate and distinguish you from your peers, slave contracts diminish and shame you in front of them. Think of what Lady Dorian’s been doing and what your friend will be doing later tonight: it’s the difference between defaming you and spreading good news about you. So in lieu of breaking slave contracts, what else can you do with them?”
Janet gaped at the gist of DeeDee’s question, a question not of trying to overcome an impossible problem but of looking at it from a different perspective that allows you to see the real solution, so she said, “You’re asking me to rewrite the terms of their contracts?”
“Yes,” they both said.
“How do I even do that?” Janet said.
“I made you the Black Saintess for a reason,” RuRu said.
“I know, but I’m not sure what you mean by that,” Janet said, searching her brain for a solution to the conundrum of turning a slave contract into a divine title.
RuRu then let out a sigh and said, “Geez, for someone who’s supposed to be ‘sharp’ enough to figure this out on her own, you’re so slow on the uptake. Do I have to push you into your fountain again?”
That’s when it hit her, and Janet said, “A baptism!”
“You finally get it!” RuRu said.
“Then why didn’t you tell me in the first place?”
“Because you need to be able to figure stuff out on your own,” RuRu said. “You can’t always rely on me or DeeDee or your friends or even your clones to help you.”
“Then why have you been helping me?” Janet said.
“Janet, please understand,” DeeDee said, blinking the lamp in a long string of words. “My sisters and I try our best not to intervene in human affairs, for people believe as groups and as individuals that saintesses are chosen ones, the mere favorites of us Choosers for them to cling onto in order to empower and enrich themselves. That’s why you mortals are rife with martyrs and murderers, innocents and liars, royals and slaves, nobles and commoners, heroes and villains, saintesses and witches, humans and demi-humans: they treat each other like gods and monsters when they are but children in our eyes.
“We’ve singled out others before you as our intermediaries to show these idiots our intentions, but their greed and hubris have blinded them into fools,” and she let out a sigh. “We’ve grown weary of seeing them act like animals, worse than animals, to each other and to themselves,” and then DeeDee paused before adding, “It’s been hard on all of us, but RuRu has suffered the most out of us Guardians.”
And RuRu added, “They’ve turned my blessing into a curse on my people, especially on Lady Graves, Abbess Diddly, your mother, and your clones, and so I’ve chosen you as the Black Saintess. I know we didn’t mention this in our contract with your friends, but you swore to me to uphold the duties of your title. So I’m begging you, Janet: set my people free.”
Janet stared at RuRu’s stern face and eyes that had shed tears over the plight of the persecuted dregs of society of all races and backgrounds, for suffering knew no boundaries. Then Janet caught her silent clones eyeing her with equally stern faces as if they knew the gravity of her task. She turned back to RuRu, still holding DeeDee’s lamp, and committed herself to what was required of her tonight, taking DeeDee’s mannequin hand in her own and leading the way down the corridor with DeeDee’s body and RuRu following, conscious of her silent doubles’ gazes following her. On reaching the half-turns stairs at the end of the hall, Janet and her spirit guides followed them up thirty-nine steps in a straight line past the landing and out of Elba House amidst their fading footfalls.
TFTC
Welcome!
cliff
Hehehehehe! I know.