Albie

ungentlemanly times

I wanted that golden heart more than anything, but I suppose that I wanted it with this heart.

And Ludmila waited. Out of love (not hope, because hope lies very still in a Scrapsylvanian gutter beneath the shroud of endurance), she waited by the door that she was able to ascend to because of love. Because of the very thing she feels was betrayed.

The queen wants vengeance in the same way Straka is made to avenge. She has no idea how Marya was physically prevented from saving Ludmila, or at least suffering/dying alongside her. She doesn't know that Marya has dedicated her life to righting what she sees as the wrong of her own survival. Marya's never given up on Ludmila and, even now, refuses to see her as a lost cause no matter how corrupted and broken the queen may appear as to everyone else. There's still life in Ludmila, there's still potential, and I think Marya will sooner perish than give up on that hope (because I think there is a secret hope that lies buried deep beneath the heart of everything she stands for and believes). Everything is redeemable in the eyes of a Scrapsylvanian, especially the person you love.