Chapter Text
Life was bad. There was no point in hiding it- life was really bad. Nora had almost stopped caring. Freedom had almost been within her reach and for a while she had thought that liberty was at hand. Capricorn had vanished into thin air one particularly cold winter day. He had been there one moment, overseeing Mortola's instructing over the working girls and the next moment not. Basta had gone too.
In the chaos that followed Nora had tried to take advantage of the situation. A few of the other girls exchanged quick glances and left the courtyard in various directions. They can't catch all of us, that was the idea. That turned out to be true.
Nora followed Elisa and two others to the nearest gate where all the men had left to see what the shouting at the castle was about. They had all gotten to the other side of the large wooden door when a strong arm caught Nora from behind and pulled her back. She stumbled and fell into the owner of the arm, Cockerell.
"Oh, no, you don't!" he said and kept her down. Nora did not manage to get free, just manage to yell a goodbye to her friends. They were soon gone and order was swiftly put into place. Cockerell had the gate closed. Nora felt like she had just passed her only chance at ever having a life. She no longer fought back and when Cockerell told her to get to the woman's quarters she did.
How bleak the world felt. She didn't even feel any glee for having lost the awful fire-raiserlord. The only joy she felt was for her friends, which she prayed had gotten to safety, that was it. Guess the fire- raisers finally had choked her of her life.
Six years went by. They were odd, even for a woman familiar with fairies and glass people.
The first year went by like Capricorn was around the corner and able to return any time. It took time till it slowly dawned on even his most loyal henchmen that there was not going to be any return and that they were on their own. Right after that some of them tried to overthrow the castle. Enough of the loyalist still insisted on supporting their missing leader and the power stayed where it was.
Still, the fear that Capricorn had carved into people's hearts grew softer as the years went by and rumours begun to spread that there was nobody giving proper orders. Even if that was only a half truth (Mortola for example certainly did her share of it) much less valuables and pricey materials were freely given out of fear, peasants slowly begun resisting, and black jackets could be seeing fleeing by the cover of night, like black crows leaving after the feast was over. The state of the fire- raisers fell into disorder.
Around this time Fulvio formed a habit of following Nora around and seeing as the group was only about a quarter of its original size he used this as an excuse to make sure she didn't run away. He stood about as a bigger and clumsier version of Basta, leaning onto everything he could and wiping the sweat of his brows. But gods be good, even he disappeared one morning. Just as he was leaning nearer to "help her with some dirt on her nose" he dissolved like one of Mortola's nasty powders when poured into liquid.
Right after that more of them went. Nora begun to feel things again, maybe hope that some higher power was feeling pity for her, when she too felt the earth grow distant under her feet and the air change. Then she was there, in that great hall with that familiar tone. The face of scared stocky man was right besides hers and he seemed ready to faint. He didn't look like the men that had ogled her and threatened her all these years and as such she immediately categorized him as dangerous as a butterfly.
A clapping came and the voice that followed made her veins turn to ice. She turned her head and there he was- as alive as ever. Capricorn was clapping, just in that revolting manner he did everything. The scared man hunched evermore for every clap as if they were slaps to his face.
"Good one, you bothersome fool. Looks like you finally managed to get one right!"
Nora felt her dignity dropping to the floor as Basta caught her gaze swiping over the hall. He grinned as widely as his mouth would allow. Whichever magic had once spared Nora did not any longer. Fulvio was annoying, even so he did not carry knives around in the same way Basta did and Basta had six years of intimidating to catch up on. Nora stumbled out of fear for what was happening.
She unwillingly got caught in the arms of the scared man and even though he had helped her he looked like he hated himself for it, like she was the dangerous one in this room. She couldn't make sense of it and tried to straighten herself and failed.
"No, no. You really are useless. Leave his supper out for the dogs tonight," Capricorn said.
Nora stumbled in an attempt to walk away. Her left foot wouldn't respond. It felt like it didn't belong to her and when she hit the side of her leg in fear she couldn't feel the impact.
Absolutely terrified she hit herself again and again, forgetting that she was being watched. She heard the fist hit the flesh beneath her dress yet the leg might as well have been someone else's. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and when she began to scream some far off voice commanded that someone shut her up. She felt someone tug violently at her and then an even more violent pull as one of the men dragged her to the side of the hall. Someone, perhaps the same person and perhaps someone else, kicked her.
Silently she cried, careful to muffle her own sobbing. That was the start of what she later would learn was a new world.
It seemed no better to her than her own world had. There were men in black jackets that ruled over her. Capricorn ruled over them once again. Even Mortola was somehow there thanks to that insidious magic the weakly man had - Darius he was apparently called. For every week more spells were performed and although Nora was careful to run errands when she saw Darius walk to the church (they had no castle this time) she could not avoid seeing its results later on.
The women's quarters were busier by the week. Nora tried not to look at them, not to look at anyone actually, and it was terribly hard not to hear the cries at night. There were many like her, all affected by that unnatural force. Twisted faces, lacking limbs, blind eyes and deaf ears.
Her heart almost overflowed with the sorrow she felt for them all. She never spoke to any of them in fear that she might love them one day and that the world would change again and her loved ones whisked away. Elisa and the others had never been read out, as the ritual was called. Nora doubted she would ever see them again.
Instead she focused on her work and learning to care for her body. With time she managed to walk upright instead of by cane. Mortola could not give her certain tasks, especially the ones requiring walking in stairs. So many stairs and slopes Nora had never noticed before. Now had too.
There were some highlights though, simple as they might sound. For once this world had a magic called eltricity or something akin to it. As far as Nora could understand it was made of something really dangerou. Nobody bothered to explain it in detail to her, particularly Mortola, whom many of the girls suspected of not understanding it herself.
The most important thing was that it enabled them to use machines to ease the work load. Some of the machines could cast light even at night and some could even sew.
One late evening Nora had been ordered to mend some torn jackets by the magic machine and she could not get it working. Fulvio was passing by and saw her struggling, yet he just smirked and left her to her own devices. The rest of the girls were gone off to other work or off to their beds, so Nora had no one to ask for help.
Mortola will give me some fine punishment if I give up, Nora bitterly thought and gave the machine a proper smack with her hand even though she didn't necessarily think it would solve anything.
Suddenly she felt someone gently touching her side and she jumped.
It wasn't Fulvio this time. It wasn't Basta nor any other blackjacket at all. It was a woman and she had to be the most radiant woman Nora had ever seen. There was a sense of genuine kindness in her deep blue eyes and she was making gestures as if to say she hadn't intended to scare Nora.
Nora didn't mind. The woman smiled and leaned over. For a moment Nora felt her heart beat really fast, then she realized the woman had connected the attached white rope of the machine to the wall. Now she felt embarrassed.
"I always forget that part," she admitted with a flush. The woman laughed and it seemed to fill the air. It had been a while since Nora had heard such a joyful laugh, she had almost forgotten what it sounded like.
The woman left smiling after having waved a gentle good- bye. Not being able to stop herself, Nora looked out the corridor to see the beauty disappear behind a corner. But there was someone else in the corridor as well. The wonder Nora had felt just moments ago turned to ash, grey and dull.
Basta stood leaned against the wall. He was staring right at her, one dark eyebrow raised. In his fingers there was a knife, one she immediately recognized as his favourite. He flung it into the air as casually as children did with pebbles and caught it without even looking. There was a darkness in his eyes and Nora understood the message. She was not going to let him know the unease she felt though.
"You are better off going after someone on your own level. Flatnose perhaps," she said.
Basta stopped moving the knife and instead just looked at her. For a second she believed he was going for revenge for rejecting him, but then he threw the knife up again.
"I would have taught you some manners if it weren't for the fact that I just sharpened this babe," he said, meaning the blade.
Nora thought that would be the end of it and was turning to go back to her work when she heard him speak again.
"She's mute, that one. You won't get her to say a word."
Nora crossed her arms over her chest. "And how do you know that?"
Basta laughed. "Darius read her out some days ago. Capricorn liked her and he liked her even more when we saw that the wizard had fucked up her tongue. Her name is Resa."
Resa... It was a beautiful name. How fitting.
"How would you know her name? You just said she can't talk," Nora injected.
Basta was smiling now, a huge wide grin that reminded of a predator opening its mouth to scare a prey. His breath filled the space between them with a stench of concentrated peppermint.
"Oh, haven't you heard darling? She knows the letters. Tried to take the damned book out of the wizard's hands. Reminds you of someone?"
After seeing her shocked face Basta seemed to have gotten what he wanted and with an ugly smile he left her alone with her thoughts.