The Doll lay awake in Malina’s bed, finding herself unable to fall asleep with the cold air freely hitting her as a consequence of Malina having stolen the blanket. To her side The Doll could hear Malina lightly snoring, unaware of her actions. Rolling over, The Doll took a moment to watch Malina, who slept peacefully with her back turned to The Doll, her hair spilling over her shoulders.
With a sigh The Doll closed her eyes and attempted to find sleep without the comfort of a blanket. It had been two days since The Doll had begun her private lessons with Jilkan and Madame Aziza. In that time the only thing The Doll had gained was a constant ache in her arm and further reinforcement of her inability to use magic.
Pushing the disappointment of her lessons from her mind The Doll thought about how she had practically become Malina’s roommate in every aspect but name. Following through on her promise to keep an eye on The Doll at all moments, Malina had helped The Doll collect clothes and homework from her own room in order to move them to her room. The Doll herself hadn't put up much resistance to the idea, knowing that it would likely have been futile.
Regardless, The Doll figured that having a roommate wasn't the worst thing.
A particularly cold gust of wind washed over The Doll causing her to open her eyes with a jolt and attempt to grab the blanket from Malina. Slowly and quietly The Doll moved her hands towards the warm blanket that Malina was tightly gripping in her sleep. The moment The Doll’s hand brushed the soft fabric on Malina’s blanket, it was immediately pulled from her hand. Watching Malina pull the blanket even closer to her body, snuggling up to it The Doll suppressed an involuntary smile.
Resigning herself to a sleepless night The Doll rolled over onto her back and thought of what she could do while up. For a moment The Doll considered simply waking Malina in order to take back her half of the blanket but hearing her snore The Doll hesitated. Malina was still recovering from her use of magic after all.
Allowing her mind to wander to other alternatives The Doll decided she needed a moment alone from Malina to clear her head. Slowly The Doll sat up and quietly stepped out of bed, careful to not wake Malina, knowing she would likely disapprove of her leaving alone.
The Doll’s bare feet touched the cold ground as she maneuvered towards her pair of silk slippers, effortlessly slipping them on. With her slippers on, The Doll crossed to the closet she now shared with Malina and grabbed a slim fur coat she had brought from Gelun, slipping it on over her pajamas to protect from the late-night breeze.
The dark color of the coat contrasted greatly with her light-colored pajamas, making for attire that was hardly proper for going out. The Doll figured it was unlikely that anybody else would be out at this hour considering it was well into the night. But if anybody did see her in this attire The Doll could simply explain that she was only out for a nighttime stroll.
Though The Doll would prefer to avoid the conversation all together if it did come to that.
With the matter of her attire decided, The Doll stealthily walked to the door that led out of Malina's room and reached her hand out to grab the metal knob. As her hand touched the metal The Doll turned around, taking one more fleeting glance at Malina before opening the door. With everything that had been going on lately The Doll needed this time alone.
Stepping outside of Malina’s room The Doll carefully closed the door behind her, making as little noise as possible. Once The Doll was sure the door was closed tightly, she stood in the hall of Lunarie, basking in the moonlight that peeked through the windows.
Taking a deep breath The Doll began walking through the hall, listening to her steps echo against her empty surroundings. While she walked The Doll did her best to keep her mind from wandering to one of the many problems she had. Instead, she tried her best to simply walk quietly, embracing the silence around her. The Doll knew that simply not thinking of her problems wouldn't make them magically go away, but just for a moment she wished to pretend they weren't present.
Content with her decision to avoid thinking of her problems The Doll aimlessly walked down the hall until she reached the door outside. Upon reaching the door The Doll froze for a moment considering how far she wanted to go. The Doll knew she wasn't forbidden from going outside at this hour, yet doing so felt more like betraying Malina than simply wandering through House Lunarie.
Shaking these unreasonable thoughts from her head The Doll pushed the door to the outside open, taking in the fresh air that washed against her skin. The Doll wouldn't even walk that far, only to the end of the path that split towards the dueling grounds. Resolved in her destination The Doll began walking along the main path, taking in the comforting darkness of the night sky.
After a peaceful walk The Doll eventually reached the split in the pathway that would lead to the dueling grounds. Turning for a moment to look down the path The Doll could see the faint outline of the Dreadwood tree in the distance, its shadow running along the grass, pointing towards her. It was as if the moonlight made the tree perfectly stand out against the darkness, emphasizing its every feature.
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While The Doll stared at the outline of the tree, she felt the strings on her wrist begin to itch. It was almost like they wanted The Doll to walk towards the tree as if it were calling out to her. Denying the strings of this temptation The Doll put her hand on the sleeve of her fur coat and turned around, facing away from the tree.
The Doll knew better than to listen to the desires of these strings, especially when they served no potential benefit to her. Yet as she made the choice to face away from the Dreadwood tree, the itch on her wrist intensified tenfold. Doing her best to ignore this itch The Doll took a step back towards House Lunarie.
After a few steps The Doll slowly felt the itching subside until she heard a voice that caused it to immediately flare back up. “Dear, what are you doing out so late?” The Doll froze upon hearing these words, allowing her hands to fall to her side despite the intense itching.
There was only one person who referred to The Doll as “dear,” and he should still be in recovery. Turning around to confirm her suspicions The Doll saw a familiar dark-haired boy standing in a perfectly pristine state.
Lukaz.
How was Lukaz here?
Even after the nurse had healed him so readily, he should still be bedridden from pure exhaustion after the intensity of the duel. Though The Doll supposed that Lukaz was far more trained in battle than she was, so perhaps he had recovered quicker.
Still, even if that was the case, why would he be out so late himself?
Far too stunned to speak The Doll stood still and stared at Lukaz as he approached. “I was expecting more of a joyful reaction from my fiancee, but I suppose you must be shocked.” Lukaz said while he approached, stopping only once he was inches away from The Doll.
Taking a step back The Doll said, “I'm relieved to see you're alright; your recovery just seems rather quick.” What The Doll said wasn't a lie; seeing Lukaz recovered put at least one of The Dolls worries from her mind.
Lukaz brought his hand out, intending to cup The Doll’s cheek, but she took a further step back, causing his hand to hit the air. Not being deterred by The Doll’s step back, Lukaz reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her closer and causing The Doll to feel a wave of disgust before Lukaz asked, “If you're so relieved I'm alright, then why do you always treat me so coldly?” Lukaz’s voice held a twinge of hurt to it that filled The Doll with guilt.
The Doll was never able to understand why she felt such disgust at the idea of thinking of Lukaz romantically. This was a confusion that was only amplified by her willingness to allow Malina to do far more intimate things without that same feeling of disgust.
Regardless of the reason The Doll knew that she didn't want to be this close to Lukaz but saw no way to escape, so instead she said, “Would you release my wrist? This is hardly proper considering we are yet to be married.” The Doll figured her request would be perfectly reasonable considering they still weren't set to be wed until her birthday in three weeks.
Lukaz frowned and tightened his grip, pulling The Doll closer before shouting, “YET YOU CAN SHOW SUCH INTIMACY WITH HER?” The Doll flinched at this sudden uncharacteristic outburst of Lukaz’s. Lukaz never acted this way when she rejected his advances previously. As if responding to Lukaz grabbing The Doll’s other wrist, the strings began itching violently, begging The Doll to reveal them.
Meeting Lukaz’s gaze, The Doll attempted to ignore the itching of her wrist and calmly say, “Lukaz, let go of me, please.” Despite her attempts to keep her voice level The Doll could already hear it shaking from a mix of shock and fear at Lukaz’s outburst.
Upon hearing The Doll’s reaction, Lukaz looked at his grip on The Doll’s wrist, and his eyes widened before he released her and took a step back. With her wrist free, The Doll immediately began massaging it with her sore arm. Fortunately, Lukaz hadn't grabbed the arm bearing the strings. The Doll wasn't sure what would have happened if he had.
Looking down to the ground, Lukaz bowed and began apologizing. “I—I'm sorry I would never hurt you. It's just that I've been speaking to Headmaster Nero a lot lately, and he said some ridiculous things.” Lukaz finished his bow and began shaking his head.
Worried about what the headmaster had told, Lukaz The Doll took a step forward and asked, “What did the headmaster tell you?” The Doll never knew what the headmaster was up to, but she doubted his intentions were good, especially if they caused Lukaz to act in such a way.
Lukaz only continued to shake his head. “No, it's nothing. I'm sure he was just…” Lukaz allowed his voice to trail off as he stopped shaking his head. “I think we should postpone our marriage for a few weeks.” Lukaz suddenly said, shocking, The Doll.
While the duel was plenty of reason to postpone the marriage, and The Doll herself was more than fine with the suggestion. The fact that Lukaz suggested such a thing didn't make any sense to The Doll. Lukaz had always been adamant about accelerating his marriage to The Doll if anything, she would expect him to use this as a chance to get married to The Doll sooner.
Keeping her gaze steady The Doll asked, “Why would you suggest that?” The Doll began to worry the headmaster may have done something to Lukaz while he was recovering.
Scratching the back of his head, Lukaz explained, “I’ve been trying to convince the headmaster to let me duel Darius again in your place, and he seems receptive to it.” Why would the headmaster seem receptive to this? He had been insistent that The Doll go through some form of metamorphosis.
Lukaz continued to explain while The Doll thought, “I mean, the headmaster knows you can't use magic, so there's no way he'd let you face Darius, and if I beat him, maybe you’ll see me as worth…” Lukaz's eyes widened. He abruptly stopped speaking and looked down at The Doll's chest.
As Lukaz looked down The Doll suddenly felt her chest sting with pain as a heat spread throughout it.
Following Lukaz’s gaze, The Doll looked down.
A cold metal blade protruded from The Doll’s chest, piercing through where her heart was.
The Doll coughed up blood as the blade withdrew, and her legs gave way beneath her.