Chapter Text
Mari has her hands wrist-deep in the garden soil when the phone rings. It's high summer, early morning and the grass is still a little damp. From where her cottage is, she can see that the valleys are filled with thick fog that slowly travels upwards. She wipes them onto the work pants and picks up the offending machine which sticks out like a sore thumb in her quaint abode.
"Yes?" She hears a screech, wooden clack, and a hushed whisper. "Ah, Donna, dear. How are you? Up early I see."
"I'm...I'm doing fine." The soft voice rumbles out of the upper half of the phone.
"That's good to hear. Now, did you want to talk?" Sometimes, the dollmaker called in to ask about the garden, which really meant she was feeling bad and needed a distraction other than her dolls.
"I wanted...um...I have a question. You--you've worked with Sal, right? With the bile? And the mould?"
"Yes, I did." Sometimes Mari wishes the woman would speak faster, but then she remembers how lucky she is to get a call from her at all and quickly gets that way of thinking out of her head.
"Well um. I...I had a similar symptom recently." Mari can feel all her muscle strain at the sudden wave of nausea.
"Are you ill? Should I go see you?"
"No-no! Just...What herbs did you use?"
"Donna if I'm to treat you I'd rather deliver them myself."
"Don't!" The dollmaker yelps and Mari blinks. This is strange.
"Donna..." she starts, somewhat annoyed. "What is this really about, love? Has someone else fallen ill?"
"...Yes." The guilt bleeds all the way through the cable to Mari.
"Is it awkward, is that why you don't wish to speak of it?"
A carefully chosen "No."
"The person simply doesn't wish to be known?"
"Mhm."
She's losing her. Mari knows that if she keeps this up, the woman's anxiety will simply make her shut down and end the call. "Okay. I'll tell you the herbs, but Donna, I want you to call me should they get worse, yes?"
"Okay. Thank you, Mari."
"I love you, dear, now get a paper, the list is a little complicated."
---
Mari couldn’t shake the feeling of something being wrong since then. She's tempted to call but knows that she'd probably seem overbearing. She sighs, stretching her back and sighing as it cracks under the released tension. Then she goes back to her tomatoes.
"Mari?" Oh! Her eldest daughter! Unannounced! And alone?
"Here, Bela!" she calls, her lips lifting in a smile.
It was high summer and the girls were practically free to move between the castle and her cottage. Sometimes a visit blessed her time and sometimes they stayed overnight. Alcina was around rarely, as it was a busy time for her with the vineyard, but she called often and never begrudged her for having the girls over. "It's time they get to know their mother." She joked the last time Mari brushed by the matter. The three women never called her that, but Mari didn't need them to.
"Have you heard from Donna lately?" The flies reform next to her, dressed in a white blouse and fitting pants, worry etched on the woman's face.
"Well, yes? She asked for a cure. I asked if I should stop by but she insisted I shouldn't." She didn't ease the woman's worries by the looks of it. The blonde head lands on her shoulder with a sad huff and Mari kisses her brow mindlessly.
"I'm worried. She has not come outside in a long time and she doesn't pick up when I call." Mari sighs.
"Me too. But I hope she knows to call." The blonde nods, hugging Mari and letting out a frustrated sigh. Then she eases off and grabs her own gardening apron.
"Thank you love." Mari smiles as the woman stands next to her, fixing up the plant next to her. Bela smiles weakly and gets to work.
---
Bela goes home just before the dew falls and Mari sits at her table, eating her vegetable salad and leafing through a book. Her dear daughter had picked a few and brought them over 'to make her happier when she misses Alcina', bless her heart. All of them were romances and some were rather...raunchy. Mari skipped over those pages usually, the second-hand embarrassment catching her right as she read anything barely sexual. She's at the start of a new one now. The girl is doomed to repeat the same day over and over until a true love's kiss frees her. It's rather good.
The phone rings. Mari freezes and then drops her toast, rushing over. "Donna?"
"Mari." Oh dear. She can hear the exhaustion.
"Mari I... I need your help. Please come."
"Thank you for calling love, should I bring you anything?"
"Herbs. But please hurry I can't--."
"Okay. I'll be there soon, hold tight."
"Thank you, Mari." "Thank you for calling, Donna." She puts the phone down and just grabs her satchel and coat, running into the slowly slipping sunlight.
---
"It's me, Donna." She knocks, hearing a patter of wooden feet. Angie peeks out, jaw clicking.
"Mari!" She smiles, lowering herself so that the doll could jump into her arms, and carries her back in, shutting the door.
"Hi, Angie. How are you?"
"Good! But we need your help!"
"Okay. Donna is in her room?"
"Nope! Up in the guestroom! Did you bring the herbs?"
"I did." She doesn't ponder on why Donna is in the upper levels of the house since she's going to know anyway. They ascend the wooden stairs and pass the hall.
Mari knocks. She hears two voices, her face falling into a frown. Someone is begging and Donna's voice speaks soothingly and slowly. "Donna? Am I okay to enter?"
"Yes." She slowly does so, Angie in her arms. Her eyes widen at the sight. There's a young girl, barely twelve wrapped up in bed and staring at her in terror. Donna stands in front of her, one eye nervously glancing between her and Angie.
"Oh. Hello there."
"That's Mari, little one. She's like us and can heal a lot with flowers. Hello Mari."
"Hi dear. Is that my patient today?" Donna glances behind her and nods.
"That's Evie."
"Hi, Evie."
"Hi." The child mutters, still staring at her with the biggest mistrust she's seen in a child. And she healed some of the villagers in the winter. The only one who barely feared her was little Elena, whose mother she saved from the common cold. The child was stuck to her heels every time she visited that year. She must be older now.
"She's been puking mould ever since she woke up and I can't get her fever down. She also complains about growing pains." Donna mutters. Mari slowly advances and pats the woman's arm.
"I'm sure you've done everything you could. I'll take a look at her." She smiles as Donna rubs her face.
"Now, puking huh? You must feel really sick."
"Yes. It's worse when I try to eat, even if it's spaghetti."
"Oh no, even spaghetti? That's terrible. Have you tried raw meat dear?"
"Human?"
Mari's brain immediately stops in its tracks. She stores the question into her brain for later.
"No dear, it doesn't have to be. I heard lamb tastes well though." She waits for the girl to put her hand into her palm, taking her pulse. She's so bony it makes her inwardly weep.
"I haven't."
"I have venison in the fridge." Donna butts in, already halfway out the door.
"If Angie could bring up the meat diced that would be great. You should stay." Mari hums. Putting a hand onto the girl's forehead, feeling for the temperature. She was warm.
"How did you come by the fever?"
"We found her on a walk by the river shore."
"Oh, that explains it then. I'll make you a tea to bump it down. And I'm sure you'll feel better once you eat as well." She smiles, sitting further and watching as Angie barrels in with a ceramic bowl in her hands.
"Food delivery!" Donna takes the bowl and a fork. Slowly, she offers a cube to the child.
"If you feel bad, just spit it out." Mari smiles softly. The girl bites down.
Mari watches as her face goes still before she lunges at the woman to take the food from her. Donna would let her, bless her heart, but Mari springs forward and in the end, is faster.
The girl wails, spitting and cursing, her frail body barely containing the tantrum. "Evie enough." Mari speaks firmly. The girl redoubles even louder, now even Donna is looking her way angrily. Mari simply sits down, puts the bowl on her lap, and offers another bite. The girl stills.
"I'm not taking it from you. But you will eat slowly and with caution even if you don't like it."
She is familiar with the urge to eat anything she sees. The overbearing hunger. And not just from the descriptions of her daughters.
The girl bites her hand when she goes to fix the tears on her cheeks. Mari stills and sighs. It hurts. The child's teeth are sharp, sharper than they should be, but even so, she barely reacts and instead puts the bowl in Donna's hands. The child is still latched on. She has to pluck her nose to make her let go.
"Slowly." She says to Donna who nods. The child is much calmer then. She eats half the bowl before leaning back.
"Bitch!" She spits at her and conks out.
Mari chuckles. Donna eyes her with disappointment. "You didn't have to do that."
"She would hurl it back out if she had eaten it as fast as she wanted to. But I should’ve been kinder. I'm sorry." Donna sighs. "She's a spitfire."
"I've been dealing with her mood swings ever since she woke up. She's terrified of everyone and everything and ready to tear everything apart. She would try to fight you for the meat."
"I'm sure. Well, slow and patient will be best. Alcina could help with this. She handles Cassandra quite well."
"I tried. But every time I mention someone coming over, she gets angry and pukes."
"Oof. Like, from spite or just from the emotions?"
"Both I think, but perhaps second one more." Mari sighs.
"It sounds like an unstable Cadou. Her teeth are almost as sharp as Dani’s." Mari snorts and shakes the bleeding palm.
"It must be. I can't imagine the pain she's in."
"But how did she come across it? Surely "Evie" and "Eva" is not a coincidence." Donna shakes her head and sighs.
"Somehow she got here from America. Stowed away maybe. I think she was after Miranda."
"Hm. And does she know of her death?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'm afraid we circle back to Alcina. She has the most knowledge on cadou operations. Maybe there is a way to stabilize it. And maybe, but you'd decide that better, it'd be good to simply put her in front of all of us once her fever passes. See that we've gone through similar things. Karl would love her." Donna chuckles, shaking her head.
"I dread the way Alcina would react to the two of them teaming up."
"Me too. I'd have to move in permanently to keep her from throwing her furniture from the windows." They giggle and leave the girl's room.
---
Mari feels something staring at first. Then a mold on her heel and then she's slammed into the ground by a looming black figure.
"Evie!" Angie screeches, feet tapping out of the room. "Donna!"
Mari feels it ground her, but she'd be damned to let something like this kill her. The child stands on the stairs, glaring down at her in disdain.
Mari spits a French curse and bites into the offending figure. It screeches and she finds that it tastes as she expected it to. Mould. But she gulps and her cadou springs into power.
Thorns rip through her sleeves and as she pulls at her arm, the monster screeches even more, rolling off of her now, nursing its wounds. Mari shoots toward the child who screeches and starts running. It's no race and the child is slammed against a wall in bare seconds. She's screaming again, trashing, but Mari holds her there and waits the tantrum out. The girl just stares then, waiting.
"I draw the line at unprovoked violence, child. Donna was so kind as to take care of you and this is how you repay her? Do you think we have not suffered just as you have? Everyone in power around here is willing to help you get through your changes, simply because you are like us, but you have to start acting that part. You are not a wild animal, nor are you someone above us. We all have that damned parasite in our bodies, and we all are the single survivors out of hundreds." She seethes, settling the child back down.
"Now you are going to apologize to Donna with me for staining her floors and then we're going to mop it. And for fucks sake, call that goop off or I'll eat it." The child looks at the floor, frowning and positively chewed out.
Mari sighs, feeling a little bad, so she kneels down and shakes the kid to look at her. "This is probably nothing like the place you ran away from. You will live freely here, so you need to learn how to do so. But it's not all fun and games and while kindness is freely offered, it will be taken away just as quickly. You're probably scared and that's fine. If you don't like something that's fine. But you can't keep acting like this. Okay?" The child sniffles, nodding.
"Okay." Mari offers her hand and nods as the child takes it. She was a little worried she would get a matching bitemark.
Donna watches them anxiously. Her hands dance along her forearms, Angie next to her hiding behind her skirt. Mari nudges the girl, who shies away. Mari sighs. "I am sorry Donna..."
"I'm sorry..." the girl mumbles.
"That I stained your floors."
"That I stained your floors. And attacked Mari."
"I won't do it again."
"I'll never do it again."
Mari looks at the ravenette who blushes and smiles shakily. "It's fine... I'm glad you're both okay." The child looks at her pensively.
"Really?"
"Yes. Just don't let it happen again. Mari?"
"That would be preferable. I had to ruin my blouse." The girl blinks.
"You ate my soldier," she says accusingly.
"Mould, even in that form, is still nature dear one. And all of that is mine."
---
Mari huffs and watches as Donna and Evie leaf through a book about kittens. One for children, good for when they're learning to read. She dials up Alcina meanwhile.
"Dimitrescu residence, Alcina speaking. Donna?"
"Alci, it's me."
"Oh! Darling! This is a nice surprise, but why are you calling from Donna's house? Is something wrong?"
"Well, probably not how you think it is. Donna is well. The thing is, she found another one of Miranda's experiments. The girl's cadou is unstable and is making her sick. And you helped Sal with his so I was wondering if you could offer your expertise?" She stops her word vomit and lets Alcina process everything.
There's a growl and a whine mixed in one.
"Fine. Yes of course. But I'll call Karl as well, to see if he can find anything on her. What is her name?"
"Evie. She's from America." A groan. "If Karl tries to somehow blame the child you'll knock him around, right?"
"Of course. Come see me before you go back? Donna can bring the girl as well. Let's kill two birds with one stone."
---
Evie spent the next day pestering them about Alcina, which Mari was quite happy to talk about. Funnily enough, she seemed excited at the prospect of a tall queen (she insisted it was the same as countess) who lives in a castle, wears big hats, and has three daughters. Mari felt her ego bruise at that but resigned to probably never be seen as very cool in a child's eyes.
"Mari!" She laughs as Daniela rams into her, cooing and shaking her.
"Hi, Dani. Where is the rest of you?"
"Marianne." Cassandra enters the room next, nodding.
"Hi Cass, good to see you."
"Donna!" Bela swarms in, leaving the child miffed that the dollmaker's attention has gone away from her. A soft 'bellisima' is heard and the blonde giggles, hugging the woman tight.
"How does it feel to be the third best now, hm?" Cass snickers. Mari shrugs, chuckling.
"I think I'll have to get used to it. You got bumped up a place." The brunette grins, punching her arm.
"Who's this?!" Dani, still perched on her back yelps, pointing at the child. Cassandra’s jaw latches open. Bela turns to her lover.
"Is she yours?!" She asks Donna genuinely, which makes the poor woman's brain fry itself, leaving her with a gaping jaw and a blush. The kid scowls at the three.
"I'm Evie and Donna is mine!"
"We went over this, kid, you can't own her." Mari sighs.
---
Alcina lets her sit at her desk, writing into the file and sighing. Karl found something in Miranda's computer and printed it out for them. Mari, untouched by most electronic devices, was still a little confused about it. "It's said that she was surrendered as a baby at six months."
"Mm." Mari hums, looking over the photos.
"That would explain the behavior."
"Donna did mention she attacked you. Are you unharmed?" Alcina leans closer and Mari kisses her forehead.
"Yes, not a scratch, believe me. You and your daughters taught me well." She had learned to fight properly over the winters she has spent at the castle. Cass was eager to teach and Alcina eager to see her sweaty, apparently. She chuckles as one strong arm rolls under her and pulls her close. The woman blinks slowly and smiles.
"You're tired." She states the obvious and Mari smiles back, eyes softening.
"I can stay awake a while longer."
"Let me take care of you?"
Mari snuggles close to the woman, chuckling as a rumble leaves the woman's chest. "You're glowing." Alci smiles and Mari snorts.
"It's summer. Of course I am." The countess chuckles, kissing her forehead.
"I missed you in our bed."
"I did too. Your mattress is very soft." Mari giggles and Alcina shakes her head in mock disbelief.
"My own wife left me for a piece of furniture." Mari giggles, breathing in the woman's perfume and nestling deeper under the covers.
"Are you going to read?"
"Mhm."
"Goodnight then. Love you."
"Sleep well, lovely."
---
The next day they take a look at Evie. Alcina is humming, letting the child examine her hat, smiling at her when she giggles and puts it on, effectively covering her face.
"Now there are two Alcinas. I wonder which one is mine." Mari giggles, looking at the little figure and at her wife who wore an unamused smile.
"I'd say it's the one with the hat." Donna chuckles.
"Of course." Mari laughs, bowing in front of the little girl.
"If you're this cheerful now, I hope it'll stay through the meeting." Alcina snipes, making Mari wince and busy herself with lifting the girl up onto the table, fixing the hat so that she could see.
"We'll see how long it'll last." She smiles and Alcina laughs at her.
---
Evie holds Donna's hand, even while asleep. It's funny to see the three of them, Angie in Evie's arms and Evie in Donna's, curled up on one of the settees. Karl is quiet for once, smoking his cigar and staring at the child.
"Maybe she was getting some medication to stabilize it?" Moreau mumbles, webbed fingers twirling a handkerchief in his hand. Now that the tumour on his neck was gone, he was intelligible again.
"Probably, but we can't expect her to remember it. She's twelve."
"Plus, if those cunts really had her in a lab, they probably pumped her full of all kinds of shit." Mari's lip curls up at her wife's eye twitch.
"But we've found that she doesn't have a cadou. Not physically at least. Perhaps a serum."
"Could it be that it is trying to grow inside her? Or just trying to age her up as fast as possible so that it has food." Moreau speaks up again, Mari's eyebrows shooting up.
"Yes! Or it's in constant shock because of the lack of physical form and feeding off of her. Good point."
"So if we do give it physical form then..." Karl motions with his hands and Mari sighs.
"The way she is now, her body wouldn't be able to handle it."
"It's true. One thing is an illness, and one is being close to withering away. And the results of Miranda's experiments showed that physical fitness matters more than health when talking about the patient's survival."
"Don't tell me little stickman lady over there was buff as fuck when she went under the knife." Karl points at Donna who frowns at him, clearly at least a little insulted. Mari sighs.
"Well, I wouldn't survive if I didn't put half...my cadou into Angie..." Mari looks at her wife and back at Donna.
"Half of it..."