#my servant devil

Bart is waiting in the village with the carriage. Abigail, Kathy and Finn board it and continue their journey to the barrier. Abigail keeps thinking about what’s happening at the warehouse and how everything might be connected. 

After about half an hour of travelling, the shape of large stones in form of a circle on top of a hill can be made out. Bart stops the carriage and helps them outside, pointing to the huge stone structure in front of them, announcing that that’s where the barrier is.

Abigail takes a deep breath, clutching her staff, walking up the small hill to the structure. As she approaches the stones, she notices a figure tied to one of them. He has beautiful white wings, tousled and tinted in blood, his arms raised above his head and tied by golden chains like Jesus on a cross, his head is hanging down, his eyes are closed… “No…” Abigail breathes out quietly, running to him with tears in her eyes. “Hello Abby,” Ambrose’s voice greets her as he steps out from behind one of the stones, before she can reach Lucian, blocking her path. “I am so glad you could make it. And just in time too.” He glances at his pocket watches. 

Anger lights up inside of her. “You. What are you doing here?! What’s going on here?!” Abigail asks furiously, marching to him. “What am I doing here? You break my heart with your tone. I have come here to properly propose to you!” Ambrose announces to her with a bright charming smile. “What are you doing with him?!” she glances at Lucian’s body. Ambrose grins: “I caught him for you! Now you don't have to worry about him anymore, we can finally break your pact.” He walks up to her and takes her hands in his: “My dear Abigail, my love, for centuries this barrier has been driving a wedge between your world and mine. It's time to finally break the seal. And make our two world one again.” His world? Who is he? Is he a magical being? “Who are you?” Abigail asks, narrowing her eyes. He cups her cheek and continues in his sweet voice: “I am the creator of the new empire. Together with me, you can be the queen to rule over this new world we will be creating. Finally everything is set up. There is nothing left standing in my way.” On his cue, small creatures begin appearing in flashes of light around them. “My little minions are finally ready. Together with their power and your help, we will finally be able to shatter the barrier! Make our worlds one again.”

“Wh-what? No! We can’t do that! That would destroy this world!” Abigail opposes him and looks at him as if he’s crazy. “No, don't you see? All this time you have been told lies. Your beautiful mind has been twisted by the Devil. You can see it for yourself. How the worlds are suffering. Your life, the life of your father, the job of Maglockes is made up just to fix the mess that the barrier has been creating. Human world and magical world, they are one. And they should be one. Finally, all the magical creatures can come out of the shadows the humans have forced us to live in. It is our time now to rule over humanity and take our rightful position!” Abigail stares at Ambrose as he excited explains. “Abby... my lady, don't listen to him!” Lucian says weakly. Abigail turns to him, relieved. He’s alive. “Silence!” Ambrose shouts at Lucian: “You have twisted her mind with your words enough. Together, you and I, we will be the king and queen to rule over our new empire. We will create a beautiful new world. A one where magical creatures don't have to hide anymore. Humans and magical creatures will life together in peace!”    Lucian tries to oppose him: “No, that is impossible! The worlds cannot exist together, it will end in chaos! The magical beings will overthrow humanity!” Ambrose grins: “Yes, exactly! As is the rightful course of nature! Humans have ruled over this world long enough. It is time for us to restore the natural balance. The stronger will take over the place of the weaker, how it is meant to be. Please Abby, you have to see it too. I had time to get to know you, I know you are different than them. You understand.” Abigail looks up at him, no less concerned: “You still haven't explained why you did what you did to Finn and the children and all the creatures in the warehouse!” “It was a necessary procedure. I needed the strongest and most loyal magicians to help me  break the seal,” Ambrose explains dismissively.  Abigail looks at him in disbelief: “You made them all suffer and killed them. “ Ambrose shrugs: “It was necessary. Individuals have to die for a beautiful new vision to be created. It has always been like that. I know that you understand this... I am sorry Abby, I had to do it. It's for brighter future.” Lucian tries to oppose him some more: “My lady... don't listen to him. In his bright vision everybody will die. Humans and magical creatures all together.” “Don't listen to him. Don't you recognise how he is lying to you?! How do you know the barrier is protecting this world, hm? Who told you that? He did! He, who left you alone without any word of excuse to chase after another woman. He has been lying to you Abby. How do you know what else he has been lying to you about?!” “No, that is not true, my lady, you know that I cannot lie to you! I would never leave you, my lady…   You have to stop him.” Lucian sounds very weak. Abigail looks at Lucian with tears: “Where did you disappear to then? You just.... left. And left me all alone.”

Lucian blinks confused: “I did not, I would never! No, no please my lady. I would never do such a thing, you know I would not. You are the only one...  my heart belongs to you and you alone.”

Ambrose shouts: “Lies! You see? LIES! He is a liar, he is the Devil! What do you think why he has to suffer in Hell?!” Abigail mostly ignores Ambrose at this point, just staring at Lucian sadly: “But I saw you… You left and then I heard you with her…”

Ambrose urges Abigail: “Now is your chance. Kill him. It's the only way to break your pact. Kill him and together we will break the barrier to create a new world. Together we will rule as king and queen.” Abigail turns to Ambrose: “But Henrietta and Kaerion said that the barrier needs to stay there too…” Abigail tries to avoid the topic of killing Lucian. Ambrose snorts: “They are supporting a system which suits them. They don't even realise they are just standing in the way of a better world, a world in which they don't have to hide any longer.” Lucian pleads weakly in the background: “No... please my lady. Don't you realise that he is the one lying to you?! He is the one who killed your parents. And he is going to kill you as well if you fall for his little games. I know it's hard but you have to do it. Kill him.” “Pah! Bollocks! Don't listen to this traitor! Abby, I would never lie to you, not like him. My dear, I love you.” Ambrose confesses with big eyes. Abigail measures him with her glance. She is very sure that he is lying to her. There is no love in his voice, only contempt. He is going to kill her like he killed her parents and all those children in the warehouse, if she misbehaves just slightly. She looks at him scared. He makes a step closer and leans down to kiss her: “Join me Abby. Become my wife. Let us create a beautiful new world together.” He then pulls her into a passionate kiss. She kisses him back, while reaching out to grab her gun, she aims at his stomach, pulling the trigger. Ambrose notices her reaching for the gun, but only after she has already pulled it out, just enough to avoid getting shot lethally. Abigail ends up hitting his leg and he cries out in pain, letting go off her. 

“You little bitch. I knew I should have killed you back on that boat!” You did! He jumps back and conjures a fireball in his hands, throwing it at her. It hits her arm, burning it, making her drop the gun. She grits her teeth, aims her staff at him and says: “Dealanaich.” A cloud appears above her head and a single strike of lightning shoots out, hitting Ambrose in his head. The light flashes around her, reminding her of the little elf in the warehouse as Ambrose cries out in pain and falls over backwards, smoking. She stares at his body lying on the ground, not believing it. Has she really done that? 

Oh look at that... nearing the end...

After about a day of travelling in the countryside, spent by Abigail by looking out of the window, thinking about her dream and Lucian, they reach a small village which can barely be named as such.It's just a small cluster of cabins around a dirt path. As they approach the village, Finn is getting restless, he is jumping up and down on his seat, rubbing his thighs nervously, looking terrified. He keeps rubbing his neck as if something had been strangling him, and recoiling from some sort of torture he seems to remember, looking like he has been hit and tortured with electric shocks. Kathy puts her arm around him comfortingly. “Please, don't take me back, I don't want to go back!” he begins to cry and hide to Kathy. Abigail comforts him and promises to him that they aren’t taking him back to where they did pain to him, that he can come with them home afterwards again. “Do you remember the place? I know it hurts to think back but it might be our only chance on saving the dwarves…” Abigail asks Finn, perhaps Finn’s past can shed more light onto the case. 

Finn remembers things but warns them that it’s very dangerous. Abigail doesn’t care about that - everything is dangerous right now, and gives Bart an order to stop the carriage and wait in the village while Finn leads her and Kathy to a forest, which is getting darker with ever step until suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a big massive stone warehouse appears in the middle of the forest. It seems very misplaced there. It looks new, like it was only build about a year ago. Desperate cries can be heard coming from inside, but there’s no trace of any guards around. Finn stops and doesn’t want to get closer. Abigail doesn’t force Finn to continue and instead turns to Kathy, telling her that they are going in. Finn eventually joins them too, not wanting to stay behind alone. 

They walk to the warehouse and try the door - which is locked. Finn says that it’s the only entrance and that there is a big man with a key who comes every morning and every evening. They decide to hide in the forest and wait for him to show up. 

They wait for a while until they spot a big human figure walk towards the warehouse. He walks to the door, takes out a key, unlocks the door and enters the building. Abigail soon sneaks towards the warehouse as well, others following her. They make it inside unnoticed. 

The light inside the warehouse is very dim, everything feels damp and a disgusting. The smell of faeces, sweat and decay hits them. There are cages standing on both sides, containing various magical creatures - there are fauns (like Finn), but also tiny fairies, creatures looking like a mixture of animal and human, and normal human children. They all look very malnourished, covered in their own faeces and blood. Everyone is wearing a collar, even the tiniest fairy, and a yellow label with a number pierced through their ear. Abigail watches them horrified as she walks through the corridors. She looks at Finn concerned. No wonder he was so terrified… She asks him how he managed to run away and to her surprise, she finds out that the cages are open. But the creatures inside are just sitting there, their eyes empty, they don’t seem to recognise anything, shying away like wild hurt animals. 

“Has anybody ever come here besides that big man?” Abigail asks Finn. Finn nods: “The crow faced woman, the slender man, mister hunchback and Lord Ambrose.” Abigail freezes and stares at him: “A-Ambrose? W-What did he do here? Was he trying to free the trapped creatures?” Finn shakes his head: “He comes to check up.” Abigail stares at him in horror, her head spinning. Ambrose? He knew about this place? And was ‘checking it up’? What is that supposed to mean? He must have had some good reason to do this, right? She looks around at all the horrible looking creatures, no, there’s no reason good enough to do this. Finn continues: “Lord Ambrose always talks with the others about us - who should go in the room or who should go through the back door  - nobody ever comes back from the back door.... Sometimes Lord Ambrose also picks some of us. Usually the dwarfs or the elves.” “Pick you? What for? Is it to set you free?” Abigail asks hopefully. Maybe he is secretly undermining this place. Fin shakes his head again: “No, he always brings them back.” He doesn’t seem to know more about that though because Ambrose has never picked him. The dwarves… Abigail walks swiftly through the corridors, looking for the dwarves or possibly even the dwarfish prince. 

It doesn’t take her long to find him, lying curled up in one of the cages. He is barely recognisable. His face is sunken in, his eyes empty. There are deep wounds and cuts all over his face and naked body. Abigail opens the cage and crouches down, reaching her hand out to him but he just shies away. She tries to speak to him, get to him but he doesn’t seem to recognise her. There’s a difference between him and a girl Abigail looked at before. Her eyes seemed to be white and empty, a bit like Lucian’s on the night he drank the potion from Lady Lichtenburg. The eyes of the dwarfish prince, on the other hand, seem clear and fiery but he doesn't recognise her. Finn says that he’s probably hurting, a lot - it never stops here. 

Abigail turns to Finn again: ”D-do you know if the other people were forcing Ambrose to do things here?” Finn looks at her confused and frowns: “No, no, Lord Ambrose always tells the others what to do. He was the boss here.” Abigail shakes her head, still unwilling to believe it. He’s not a bad person, right? but… now it looks like she might have been wrong about him… And she got engaged with him! And might even be carrying his child…

They continue exploring the warehouse which seems to be filled with cages, only in the back is a tiled room with a metal door. A boy’s scream of pain can be heard from inside and lights flashing can be seen. The door is leant open. Abigail peeks inside. The big guy is leaning above some sort of medical chair On it sits a little elf, his head trapped in some sort of apparatus from which light bolts are coming out. The boy is screaming in pain. At the back of the room is a lot of flasks and apparatuses one needs for making drugs. There are potions and flowers - among them, the moonflower. Abigail moves away from the door. “I think we should go,” she whispers and the trio makes their way out through the warehouse. 

On their way out, Finn pulls her sleeve and points at a black door on the back wall of the building. The back door. Place where nobody comes back from. Abigail stops and walks to them, carefully opening them and peeking inside. There’s a small white empty room. The nasty stench of burnt flash hits Abigail immediately. She quickly pulls back and closes the door. No. Abigail quickly realises what’s happening there. NO. “How many creatures were sent here, Finn?” she whispers, fearing the answer. “A lot.” Finn answers grimly. Abigail gasps and begins to walk again, swiftly, upset, highly disturbed, to the exit of the warehouse. Kathy and Finn are right behind her. 

Aaaaaaa.... So many nat 1’s and low rolls on insight on Ambrose in this session… 

Seirus and Aenon take Abigail back to the water surface, bid her goodbye and dive back in. It’s freezing cold and Abigail is shaking, her heavy dress is drenched. As she attempts to climb out from the water to the shore, she trips few times, scratching her hands on the rough stones. She wraps herself in her new towel and walks to the carriage. Bart is standing outside of it, smoking a cigarette. The moment he spots her, he wraps his coat around her and helps her inside the carriage, driving her home. 

When they arrive, Ambrose is standing at her front door, waiting. Abigail gets out of the carriage and walks to the entrance, still cold and shaking. “What happened to you?!” Abigail invites him inside and explains that she was swimming in the Themes to meet the people living in the river and the ringmaster. Meanwhile, Bart has light up a fireplace in her bedroom, so they move there, Abigail warming herself up, eventually getting rid of her wet clothes. Ambrose questions her about the meeting with the ringmaster and Abigail explains that he grant her more power and wants her to travel to the barrier. Ambrose’s face is very unreadable, except for the fact that he seems unbothered by her taking her clothes off, or at least until she has reached her undergown and asks him to wait outside, so she can get changed. He doesn’t leave the room and instead helps her get out of all her clothes but then also seems very happy that she’s putting new dry ones (I really can’t roll). 

He agrees to accompany her to the barrier tomorrow morning and traps her in his embrace, while his eyes wander to the staff resting against the wall of her bedroom. She remembers that she was supposed to read up about the new powers when she gets back but Ambrose doesn’t let her  leave, holding her tight. Instead he drags her over to the bed to “warm her up”, sitting down and pulling her on his lap. 

Abigail quietly tells Ambrose that she’s been thinking and that he deserves a chance.  “A chance? And what does that mean?” Ambrose asks, flipping them around, pinning her down, eyeing her like a predator watching his prey. “What chance do I deserve?”  Abigail fails to avoid his questions: “To be taken into consideration.” Ambrose bites her neck: “Taken into consideration? Don't you think I deserve more than that?” Abigail chuckles, trying to mask how scared of him she is: “Of course you do. I’m just messing with you.”  He looks at her dangerously: “Don’t do that.” He pins her down with his whole weight: “You don't want to challenge me, Maglocke.” He then leans down and presses his mouth forcefully against hers, thrusting his tongue between her lips and into her mouth. 

[...]

Ambrose lies on the bed next to Abigail, trapping her in his arms, pulling her to his chest and holding her imprisoned in a tight grip. He gives her a kiss on her cheek but soon he slowly drifts off to sleep next to her. 

She watches him, for a moment thinking that he looks kinda cute when he’s asleep. She would like to sleep too but there’s still so much to do. Tomorrow morning she must travel to the barrier. She needs to read the book and tell everybody to get ready for the trip. She tries to get up stealthily, escape from his grip without waking him up. Unfortunately, as soon as she starts to move, he tightens his grip on her, making it impossible for her to get out. She sighs and gives up, letting herself get some sleep, deciding to just deal with everything in the morning and read on the way. 

That night Abigail has a different dream than usually. She’s not on the ship anymore but instead in a labyrinth made out of stone, with walls so high she cannot see the ceiling. At her sides are massive metal doors, all locked. She wanders through the labyrinth, the corridors seem to never end, until she finally finds an open door. 

Inside she finds Lucian, hanging from the ceiling, hands above his head, risen on golden chains, his beautiful white wings beaten and stained with blood, he looks like he is asleep... or worse... But as she walks up to him and reaches out a hand to touch his cheek, he opens his glowing blood red eyes and asks her a single question: “…Why did you do this to me?” 

Abigail wakes up from the nightmare with a jerk, feeling incredibly sick. She tries to get up but is still captured in Ambrose’s grip. Surprisingly enough she manages to get out and tries to run for a bucket placed by Kathy to her room, unfortunately to the other side of bed. She doesn’t quite manage this and instead throws up on the side of the bed, waking Ambrose up. “Abby? What’s wrong with you?” he asks while rubbing her back. He suggests calling a doctor but Abigail shakes her head, apologising, telling him that a doctor was already here. Ambrose looks at her surprised as she shyly announces to him that she’s pregnant. He jumps up at that, hugging her: “Oh Abby! That’s wonderful!” She is quite surprised at his reaction but eventually she realises why. “Whom have you told about it? You cannot tell anybody! We should marry quickly before it shows. If we marry soon, it will still be able to pass that it happened on our honeymoon.” He gets up and starts rummaging through his pockets. He gets out the little box with the ring and opens it for her and looks at her with a sweet smile: “Well then, Abigail Maglocke, are you ready to marry me?” 

Abigail stares at him for a moment but she just comes to a conclusion that she doesn’t really have much of a choice. It doesn’t matter whether she wants to or not, she has to marry him. So she gives him a weak smile: “Yes. Yes, I am.” He grins and kisses her and quickly slips the ring on her finger before she can change her mind. The ring weighs on her a ton and while kissing Ambrose, she get a flashbacks of her dream and the picture of Lucian suffering. No… You’re not suffering, right? You’re somewhere out there, making out with some other girl, having fun, not caring about me, maybe even forgotten about me. 

Ambrose pulls back and smiles at her,  disturbing her thoughts: “You’ve made me a very happy man.” Abigail says, as if only now realises: “Oh! The barrier! We need to get going!” He frowns a bit, holding her close: “You’re pregnant! You can’t go to the barrier in your current state! It's too dangerous.” Abigail protests, she has to. She’s not that pregnant yet. “Nonsense. You cannot save the world on your own, Abby. You are just a little girl. You should let me deal with this and stay at home where you belong.” She shakes her head. “No. This is my responsibility. I am Maglocke. I must deal with this. I”m going. And you cannot stop me. If you want I can stay home after this.” He narrows his eyes at her and to Abigail he looks very shy and so smitten by the possibility of marrying her that he just can't believe his own luck. Abigail doesn’t let him say anything else. She grabs her staff and walks to Kathy’s room. 

Kathy opens the door and makes a curtsey. Abigail announces to her that they are leaving in an hour which absolutely shocks her, that’s impossible. Abigail discards her surprise and instructs her to let Fynn and Bart know about this and prepare a carriage. And also send the maids to her room to clean up. She grabs a pastry for breakfast and returns to her bedroom. Ambrose is gone and the maids have cleaned up. They help her get dressed for the journey. Abigail then looks around for Ambrose who seems to be gone. She equips herself with the gun, carrying her staff around. 

She then walks to the office to pick up the book so she can at least read it along the way. But the book is… gone. Abigail goes into panic as she searches for the book but it’s nowhere. Just gone. After about two hours, Kathy finally comes to tell her that they are ready for the journey. Abigail sighs. She will have to cope without the book. She walks downstairs and boards the carriage with Kathy and Fynn, telling Bart to first drive to the Whitlocke mansion to pick up Ambrose, who probably went home. 

Abigail lets others wait in the carriage as she knocks on the large entrance door, asking for Ambrose. To her surprise and disappointment, she is told that Ambrose hasn’t been home since yesterday, when he left to visit her. 

Abigail’s sleep is tormented by horrible dreams once again after a while of peaceful sleep. She is back at the ship, this time Lucian is by her side, guiding her through the smoke but then suddenly he sees someone else in the smoke, calls out to them and disappears. She wanders through the smoke trying to find him but he’s gone. She wakes up distressed and hugs her knees. Oh Lucian, where are you? Maybe it is all just a misunderstanding, maybe you could explain if you were here… She gets up and gets her book about demons, listing the description of the summoning ritual. 

She takes a chalk and draws a circle with a pentagram and several  runes on the floor, lights candles around it and says the indentation precisely like the book says. But nothing happens. Abigail checks everything again, in the end she sighs. It’s not working. Maybe she’s pronouncing it wrong? But she needs Lucian to tell her the correct pronunciation and she can’t get Lucian without knowing how to pronounce it… 

There’s a knock on the front door. She lies the book down and looks up surprised, wrapping herself in a dressing gown and running to the door, could it be…? She opens the door and Ambrose is standing outside, handing her pure white rose. She looks at him surprised, feeling disappointed inside. 

She takes the rose, thanking him. “Yesterday you declined my proposal because you said I haven't given you a reason to say yes. So I am here to give you one. And I will give you another one every day from now on until you say yes,” he explains and gives her a cute smile. She smiles back at him and leans up to give him a soft kiss. “I didn't just bring you the rose. As you mentioned, I do owe you a few dresses. So I thought I would escort you to town to get you few.” She looks at him even more surprised and invites him to wait inside while she gets dressed to go to the town. It’s hard without any maids and she ends up looking horribly. She gives up and walks downstairs, not wanting to let Ambrose wait for too long, He frowns a bit when he sees how untidy she looks. “It's not my fault that Lucian is gone…” Abigail explains and apologies. Ambrose offers to send two of his maids over later. He leads her to the carriage waiting outside. He sits down close to her softly strokes her thigh but doesn’t do anything too inappropriate.

They walk to the shop where Abigail used to come with Lucian. The shop keeper greets her with a smile but stops when she notices that she hasn’t arrived with Lucian but with a new man. She quickly masks her emotion and gives Abigail a fake smile and shows her all their dresses. Ambrose glances at them and very quickly dismisses all the dresses, deciding that they should go to a different shop and drags Abigail outside. 

They ride into a different part of the town to a much bigger store. The moment they come in, a seller is at their side, leading them to their best collection of dresses. Ambrose goes through them together with Abigail, rejecting many for various reasons. Abigail gets two of the dresses which Ambrose decided to be suitable. He looks at her surprised that she is getting only two and picks six more for her, then he pays and the seller carries the dresses inside the carriage. They leave and ride back home.

Ambrose helps Abigail out of the carriage and bids her a goodbye with a smile. As soon as she enters the mansion, Bart is at her side, excitedly announcing to her that he has prepared a dinner for her, all her “favourites” as she hasn’t been eating properly recently. He gives her no chance to protest and drags her to the dinning hall. Kathy is already waiting there. She is also worried that Abigail hasn’t been eating much recently, so she decided to order food from a nearby pub, to have another option, besides Bart’s cooking. They stare at her as she sits down and starts to eat, starting with the dishes from the pub, trying to avoid Bart’s burnt…something. Suddenly, she starts feeling sick, so she quickly gets up and makes her way to the bathroom, Kathy and Bart right behind her, concerned. She doesn’t make it to the bathroom and throws up in the corridor. This makes Kathy and Bart only more worried.They take her to her bedroom and Bart leaves to fetch a doctor. 

The doctor arrives soon and makes all sorts of checks on her, while Kathy and Bart are watching. Abigail gives Kathy a cue to shove Bart out of the room when he’s too oblivious to realise it himself, as the doctor continues the examination. At the end, he announces to Abigail (and by-standing Kathy) that she is about three months pregnant. He promises to not tell anybody but advices her to get married soon to avoid any problems in the society. He bows and leaves. 

Abigail sits at her bed, shocked. It makes sense of course but… “Whose…?” Kathy asks out loud the question which has been going through Abigail’s head, and sits down next to her. Abigail looks up at her and shrugs, not knowing the answer. “Do you mean it could be his?! Is that even possible?!“ Kathy hisses. Abigail doesn’t know either. Kathy grabs her chest: “The Antichrist… We should kill it!” Now Abigail looks at her mortified: “No! Lucian is not evil! And maybe it’s not even his… But… maybe it would be better if I wasn’t pregnant…”  she sighs. Kathy shakes her head in disbelief: “But what are you planning to do? You won't be able to hide it forever. Your best option would be to accept Lord Whitlockes proposal…” Abigail nods sadly: “Yeah… I know…” But do I really want to? Ambrose? I wish Lucian was here and I could just marry him but… he’s not here… he’s gone. Maybe gone for good. Not to mention that he probably wouldn’t even want to marry me. Who would even let us get married? I don’t have much of a choice, do I? Kathy eventually leaves the room and Abigail hits her head with a pillow. 

She decides to get some sleep but struggles to fall asleep for quite a while, thoughts running through her head. In the end, when she finally manages to, her sleep is haunted by nightmares. She’s running through the smoke, trying to find Lucian. She opens a door and finds him there, naked, his beautiful wings out and fucking some other girl, her hands dug into his wings.

She wakes up feeling incredibly sick again, throwing up. Kathy brings her a letter from the Queen - invitation for a tea to discuss an urgent manner. 

Two maids sent by Ambrose arrive and help Abigail get dressed. She then spends the rest of the day in the office, going through the books, trying to find some information about pregnancy and children. The best she finds is a book explaining pregnancies of several various species such as dwarves, elves, fauns and merpeople and comparing them to humans, hence also briefly talking about humans. 

Eventually, it’s time to go see the Queen, so she gets Bart to prepare a carriage and drive her to the palace. The Queen is waiting in the Winter garden, as always, nursing her cup. Two people have come to speak to Abigail. She hasn’t even noticed them standing in the room until the Queen pointed them out. They are two bearded man, wearing very nice suits, however their hair seems wild, long and untamed and very not fitting their fancy clothes. It has a strange teal colour and their eyes are a bright blueish green. They introduce themselves as Seirus and Aenon, and need to speak to her about urgent matter and had to call her to the palace because it’s difficult for them to travel. They want to speak in private and invite her to come as quickly as possible to Canary Wharf. They bow and walk over to a little pond inside the Queen’s winter garden and jump into the water. The Queen continues nonchalantly drinking her tea during the whole conversation. The Queen releases Abigail and advices her to bring a towel. She bows and leaves. 

Abigail gives Bart instructions on where to go and along the way they stop to buy a towel. No time to loose by going home. Eventually they reach a river shore. The Themes is grey and restless. As Abigail approaches the water, she notices two heads pop up from the grey water and swim towards her. It’s Seirus and Aenon. They thank her for coming so quickly and ask her to follow. She hesitates but eventually gathers courage and jumps into the water. It's freezing cold, her entire body tenses up in a shock, making it hard to breathe. While Abigail tried not to panic,  the two men have disappeared. She looks around confused and scared, when suddenly something grabs her leg and pulls her down into the water. She screams and her lungs are filled with ice cold water, nothing but darkness around her. She immediately starts panicking, getting flashbacks to the night she died. 

Inside her head, she hears a voice, asking her to stay calm and breathe. She protests that she cannot breathe under water while  she is still held firmly underwater. She tries and surprisingly, the water runs through her lungs like air, allowing her to breathe. Next Seirus asks her to take his hand and something touches her hand. She takes his hand, feeling webbing between his fingers. They hold her tight and pull her further down into the darkness of the water. 

It’s getting darker and colder and Abigail is getting scared. Maybe she shouldn’t have trusted them so blindly. They descend until eventually there is a little greenish light at the ground of the river, breaking through the darkness. After a while they reach a dome, looking like a giant bubble resting on the ground of the lake. Her two guides pull her through the skin of the bubble and pull her upright. As they enter the bubble, the temperature suddenly rises to a cosy level and she is pulled down to the ground so she can walk and stand, like on land. She can also speak normally now. There is a little stones path, everything looks foreign, tainted in a faint green light coming from “torches”, illuminating the way. The way is decorated with shells and bushes made out of seaweed. They lead the way to a temple decorated with gold and seashells, which faintly resembles ancient greek. Sierus and Aenon stop right in front of it and instruct her to go inside, the ringmaster is waiting for her. 

Abigail is confused but walks inside, climbs up some stairs and reaches a big portal surrounded by white pillars, which opens as she gets closer, inviting her in like a big mouth. Behind the portal is another long path, illuminated by the same strange green torches, at the end of which stands an altar underneath a dome, which seems to be illuminated from above. Next to the altar stands a man, watching her, waiting for her. Abigail is surprised that the ring master is not an old grandpa but instead a young, very handsome man with the same wild teal hair like the other two and very bright blue eyes. He has only a very faint stubble instead of an unruly beard like the other two. As soon as she approaches him, he falls to his knee and bows his head in front of her. Abigail makes  a curtsey in a response. 

He introduces himself as Kaerion and says it’s an honour to finally meet her. He explains why he has called her: “I am sure you are aware of what is happening. All across the globe Maglockes have been attacked and murdered, including your parents. I knew the views of your father, unfortunately this situation now proves me right - he should have educated you about your heritage. This would have surely helped in your situation now. I wanted to give you more time to adjust, but time is running out. I know you have been investigating the cases of missing children, you have talked to the dwarves. However this is much greater than you might be aware of.” He walks around the dome, Abigail following him, listening carefully. 

The dome is divided into seven sectors, with seven empty altars, all in front of different coloured murals. “It's the task of you, Maglockes, to protect the portal separating the two worlds. Your staff gives you the ability to seal the barrier. It needs a very strong magical power to break it, nonetheless I think that someone is trying to collect a task force with magical powers strong enough to do precisely that, to open up the portal between the two worlds.” Abigail isn’t too surprised to hear this… It has always been one of the options on what’s happening. But who would want to do such thing? Kaerion doesn’t seem to have the answer to that question either.

He continues explaining: “Of course for opening the portal to work, the most important thing would be to make sure the portal won't get sealed again right away. As today, you are the last Maglocke still alive, I have to tell you that you are in grave danger. So far my servants, and yours too, have managed to make sure nothing bad has happened to you, but current circumstances make me worried.” Abigail asks about what circumstances he means to which he simply replies: “Your servant has left you.” It…hurts. Why does he say it so nonchalantly? Right, because that’s exactly how it happened. He just… left. Kaerion never minds Abigail’s inner disruption and continues: “I am sure it hurts you to hear this, but I don't think you are strong enough to withstand the attacks without his help.” Abigail cannot argue with that assessment. If the attackers attack again, she will be dead in a minute without Lucian. The only solution which Kaerion sees is to start making moves. He urges her to travel to the barrier and stop them. She must attack soon, for the enemies are growing stronger with every minute. It won’t be easy but there’s no other choice.

He further explains that he is the secret barer and will now grant her the full powers of the Maglockes to make her stronger. He asks for Abigail’s staff which she hands him. He holds it up and walks into the centre of the room, then closes his eyes and starts chanting in a strange deep voice in a language she cannot understand. Then, one by one, a light comes out from a gem stone in the centre of each mural and instead is being sucked into her staff. Abigail watches it in awe. 

This version is slightly censored but it’s nothing great in the first place, so you’re not missing that much here, but Wattpad is the place where the smutty things are.

Next day Abigail is woken up by her upset tummy. She runs to the bathroom, in time to manage to get her hair and dress out of the way before emptying her stomach into the toilet. She washes herself afterwards, gets dressed in a neat way without any help. 

Her stomach is empty and growling so she tries to eat a bit of Bart’s food but that just makes her sick again. Where is Lucian now? Kathy gives her a letter which has just arrived. It’s from a director of the Globe theatre, begging for help with wardrobe which is “eating actors”, asking her to stop after the evening performance. Abigail decides to spend her time productively before heading to the theatre and searches the library for some information. She is lucky enough to stumble upon a book talking about a cursed cabinet, which people enter never to return. It has unknown origin and  last was reported to be stored for safety in the castle of a king in the orient. During her reading, she is disturbed by Kathy again who announces the arrival of Ambrose.

Abigail meets Ambrose in the tea room. He pays her compliments and gives her kiss, looking at her with his predator look, just waiting to eat her again. She quickly changes topic and mentions the new task, asking him to accompany her to the theatre, describing details given in the letter. Ambrose  just chuckles: “Is this your way of telling me to take you to theatre?” Abigail disagrees but in the end is defeated and Ambrose tells her to be ready to leave to the theatre in an hour. He pulls her into a passionate kiss and leaves. 

Abigail calls Kathy for help with getting appropriately dressed for the theatre, Ambrose comes exactly on time in a fancy grey suit. He helps Abigail board the carriage and sits down close to her. He places his hand on her thigh, slowly sliding it up, letting it get between her legs, running his fingers up her arm, which causes her to shiver. Abigail tries to make up excuses why this is a bad idea but Ambrose counters all of them. “Just... try to be gentle and don't you dare to do anything to my dress!” With that Ambrose pulls her up on his lap. 

[...]

The carriage arrives far too soon, giving Abigail barely any time to recover after what they just did. She quickly gets off Ambrose’s lap and tries to make herself somewhat presentable while he closes his trousers. As they climb out of the carriage, Abigail notices a wet stain on Ambrose’s pants. She looks up and he offers her his arm and leads her to the theatre. The moment she looks down the second time, the stain has disappeared. She questions him but he gives her no answer, pretending to not know what she’s on about. 

He leads her to the posh entrance to the theatre, where a person guarding the entrance bows to them and lets them in. Ambrose guides her in and helps her climb up the stairs by walking behind her and steadying her bum, until they reach the upper ring, the only place with available chairs. They sit down, Ambrose holding her hand and doing more inappropriateness throughout the play. 

After the play has ended, Abigail finds her way to the backstage. Some actors aren’t happy about outsiders being backstage, other usher them to shut up and bow to such noble lady. Eventually she finds the director she’s been looking for. He immediately recognises her and leads her through the backstage to the mirror, Ambrose following them. 

He shows them the wardrobe, which looks exactly like the cursed cabinet from her book. It’s a plain wardrobe with a large mirror inside, gift from her majesty Queen. He explains how people disappear when nobody is looking, few actors agree, few think that he’s crazy. Abigail speaks with the actors who talk about their friends suddenly being gone, while Ambrose inspects the mirror. The actors talk the most about recent victim (five in total) - Dave, who claimed that the mirror has been speaking to him and he has fell in love with the mirror. Or did he just want to be special and everybody was drunk? 

When Abigail turns around to Ambrose, he’s gone. disappeared. She looks around and decides that it’s her time to follow her, this won’t be solved from outside. She gives the director instructions to summon Kathrine, in case Abigail isn’t back by morning and stares into the mirror, asking everybody else to turn around. 

As she looks into the mirror, she can see her reflection, nothing out of ordinary… but then her reflections starts to smile and winks at her, reaching her hand out to her, luring her to come to her. Abigail follows on and reaches her hand out as well, touching the mirror. The image weaver like a water surface after pebble stone was thrown in. The mirror seems like a liquid and sticks to her fingers tips, trapping her, pulling her inside. 

Suddenly she is inside a mirror labyrinth, seeing her reflection everywhere, hundred of Abbys looking back at her. Eerie chuckle sounds from afar. She shouts and tries to break the mirror but nothing happens and she just hurts her hand. She walks, runs through the maze, trying to find a way out. Eventually she notices one of the reflections behaving oddly - not moving like all the others, just standing there. Abigail stops and observes it, reaching her hand out, the reflection grins manically and starts to attack Abigail. It’s a solid person now, Abigail’s twin, jumping out at her, throwing her on the floor, grappling her, strangling her. Abigail tries to escape her grip but is too weak. Reasoning with it doesn’t seem like an option either. 

Suddenly a small rock hits her at the back of her head, she looks up surprised and gets distracted, letting Abigail escape. She slips out and runs through the maze, her twin behind her. Just as she’s running off, she sees three men, probably where the rock came from, shouting: “You need to kill her, it's your only chance! They aren't real!” 

Abigail keeps on running, staying out of the reach of her twin. She takes her gun out and loads it, trying to shoot her while running. Unfortunately both her shots miss. Abigail speeds up a bit to get ahead, then stops, spins around, aims and shoots her twin right in her chest. She stops in her track, looking down. Instead of blood, her chest seems to be shattered, like a bullet hitting through glass. Abigail stares at her panting. She tries to move but as she does, the shatter is getting bigger. She cries out frustrated, trying to reach her but cannot move. The men now catch up with them, handing Abigail a stone: “You have to finish her.” She takes the stones and throws it at her reflection, which shatters like glass. 

The men introduce themselves to be actors from the theatre who came when they heard her shout. They have been trapped here for a while, haven’t found the ending, the reflections hunting them, already killing two of their colleagues. Abigail and the three men then get moving to search for Ambrose. 

They walk through the endless maze for a while, as they suddenly find Ambrose standing calmly between the mirrors, not moving. Abigail exclaims excitedly but soon stops. Is this the real Ambrose? “Oh Abby, there you are! Finally. I found the way out,” he turns to her with a smile. Suddenly a second Ambrose, much more distressed looking one, comes rushing through another alley. “Don't listen to him Abby! He's an impostor! Come with me, I found the way out!” Abigail looks between them confused. Oh no. She questions them about their ways out. Ambrose1 calmly explains: “Well, I touched the mirror and got pulled in. It's a pretty obvious little charm. A nice trick, but nothing unbreakable. I have seen it many times before. The trick is to not look for the exit, then it reveals itself for you. But who trapped inside a maze would do that?” Ambrose2 reaches his hand to Abigail: “What? No, that is nonsense! You need to run, if you stop moving they will find you. There are monsters inside here, trying to catch you. Please Abby, we need to hurry and run! The exit is this way!” 

Abigail takes out her gun pointing at one, then at the other. She asks them questions but both seem to know the correct answers. She then asks both of them to cooperate, to not try to dodge the bullet, promising to not hit a lethal shot if they are real. Neither wants to do so, more questions are asked, both Ambroses answering correctly. Eventually she just tries to  distract them and then take the shot. She hits Ambrose2 in his thigh, making it shatter. He cries out in pain and tries to get to her but Ambrose1 is instead handed the stone from the men and nonchalantly finishes him off.  “Well then, if you are ready to leave you should give me your hands,” he reaches out his hands to Abigail and the men. 

Abigail approaches him but just before taking his hand, she shoots his foot. He cries out in pain and starts hopping on his other foot, blood staining his shoes. “What did you do that for?!” Ambrose looks at her in horror. Ooops… kinda deserved it though for all the main he has been causing me… She gives him a smug smile: “To check if you don't have two reflections. So, where's your way out so we can tend to your foot?” Ambrose stops jumping and growls. “If you want to get out of here, you have to give me your answer. No fainting will help you here.” She stares at him. Then she looks at the poor men behind her, sadly back at Ambrose. “I don’t really  have much of a choice, do I?” Abigail sighs and very weakly nods. "That doesn't sound very convinced at all,” Ambrose looks  at her, crossing his arms. 

“Well you haven’t really convinced me,” she looks at him challengingly. 

He frowns: “So your answer is no?”  Abigail nods. 

Ambrose growls frustrated: “What has he that I don’t?! He’s not even human!” 

Abigail looks at Ambrose, tilting her head: “He’s nice to me and cares about me” …usually, she thinks but leaves that unsaid. “And doesn't make me feel like I'm just a whore to him!” Ambrose frowns a bit, opening his mouth few times: “You’re not… argh, I will prove you that I am much nicer!” Then he holds his hands out again, defeated. 

Abigail takes his hand, the actors make a chain and take Ambrose’s other hand. “Let's all close our eyes and relax. Now forget where you are at. Forget that you are trapped. Forget the labyrinth. Instead try to concentrate back at the theatre. What it looks like. Imagine the corridors, your wardrobes. How the wood cracks when you step on it, the smell of it, the sounds…” 

Suddenly they can hear the hustle at the theatre backstage, the director excitedly shouting their names. Abigail opens her eyes again  and indeed, they are back. She looks at Ambrose impressed. She asks the actors to bring a first aid box while the director thanks them for their help. Ambrose watches the cabinet: “This cabinet shouldn't be here. I will have the Queen informed to have it removed. I should be locked away from public.” Abigail suggests to completely destroy it, so Ambrose quickly pulls her aside. “Well yes, we could destroy it, but don't you think it's a handy tool to have at hand for emergencies?” Abigail frowns at that and disagrees. Ambrose spends a while convincing her to leave it existing until eventually she sighs and agrees and allows him to inform the queen to lock it away and put a big warning on it. 

Finally, one of the actors brings some bandages and Ambrose lets himself fall down on a chair theatrically and raises his foot up to Abigail. She kneels down in front of him, takes off his shoe and sock carefully. Everything is soaked in blood, there’s a hole through his foot, the bullet fortunately no inside. She wraps the bandages tightly around it to stop the bleeding. 

He thanks her but is still very annoyed that she has done it in the first place. They leave the theatre, Ambrose promising to take care of the cabinet tomorrow. The director thanks them once again and they board the carriage and in awkward silence ride home. 

Abigail thanks Ambrose and finishes him goodnight as she exits the carriage. He merely nods at her and rides off. 

This session once again contained mature content at the very end, which I have cut off here. For those interested, check out My servant Devil on Wattpad. 

They all travel together to the holy spring again. Abigail and Lucian theorising that it could be somehow connected with the cases in London, maybe the somebody who is stealing the flowers here could be using them on drugging and controlling the dwarves. Henrietta leads the way through the cave, now to a different tunnel than where the bath is, there is a small hole in the stone through which a soft ray of light falls through, which illuminates a perfect circular patch of greenery. She explains that they only bloom once a month when the moonlight touches them. It’s inside a perfectly round cave, smaller than the other one. In the middle is a little pond, the water is the same perfect turquoise mirror. There are no other entrances. Abigail searches the cave but fails to find anything suspicious. 

Henrietta and Wolfgang take Abigail and Lucian back to the village, Abigail going to bed to catch up on the sleep she missed previous night. Lucian sits down next to her and pulls her on his lap, softly petting her hair as she dozes off. 

Abigail has a very lovely deep sleep, dreaming about Lucian. She wakes up on Lucian’s lap, he is smiling down on her. They discuss their next approach - deciding that they cannot stay another month to catch the attackers, so instead they come up with a different plan. Lucian helps Abigail get presentable, then they go see the mayor and ask him for a carriage, and to gather the villagers in about two hours. 

Lucian drives the carriage to Henrietta’s castle, where Wolfgang opens the door for them, leading them to tea room to wait for Henrietta, who walks in in a few moments, surprised to see Abigail back so soon. Abigail teaches Henrietta how to perform the ritual, so that if people get cursed, she can easily heal them. Then she tries to persuade her to get help from the villagers: “Maybe we could talk to the people of the village and they could help with guarding the flowers. Maybe they could protect them or at least see what's happening and you could then send me a letter about it. Of course we don't have to tell them about your... heritage, if you don't want to. I'm not sure how they'd take that.” Henrietta is hesitate at first, not wanting to get anybody involved in her problem but in the end she agrees that she cannot run and hide forever and they could help. 

Henrietta accompanies Abigail back to the village where the mayor has gathered the people inside the pub. 

Abigail leads the way to the pub and to the little stage they have there. Henrietta and Lucian stand next to her. “Good evening everybody. I’m sure you all wonder, what’s happening. I know, it’s difficult times, for everybody. The curse is awful but… we have a solution. Well, temporal one. But it requires your cooperation and understanding. The truth is, the curse has always been here and there is no way to get rid of it, however the countess here has done her best to keep the curse in check. Unfortunately, she cannot do that so well anymore because she needs special flowers for this and somebody has been stealing them from her recently. Therefore, she needs you to help protect the flowers and try to find the thief. Also, she now knows how to perform a special ritual which can save the cursed. Like Hanna was saved.” People ask whether the flowers are required for the ritual, Henrietta answers that: “Not directly but it’s important that we protect the flowers. We believe that somebody from outside is stealing them, that’s why Lady Maglocke came to visit us and help us.” People start whispering, surprised to learn that Abigail is a noble lady. This eventually leads them to conclusion that the flowers must be really important if a foreign noble lady came to investigate. The people agree to help and celebrate that there is a solution to the curse. 

Abigail spends the rest of the evening and night by drinking beer and celebrating with the villagers. During the night, Hanna stops by for a moment to thank Abigail for saving her. Lucian is watching from nearby, not disturbing the fun, not really joining either. 

The party stops only early in the morning, Abigail says her goodbyes to Franka, Karla, Hanna, Henrietta and Wolfgang. Lucian then leads Abigail to her room, half-carries her because she cannot walk properly herself. He tugs her in and wishes her goodnight. 

Abigail’s dreams are haunted by her parents’ screams, ship on fire and Franka drowning her. However they don’t last long. Way too early, she is woken up by Lucian: ”My lady? We have to go. We have to leave now to catch the train.” She is very hangover, everything is spinning, she’s also incredibly tired because she got barely any sleep. Lucian gets her ready, they say goodbye to mayor Bongart and leave the village in a carriage. Abigail falls asleep during the ride.

Next, she wakes up on a train, on Lucian’s lap. Abigail is confused by that, Lucian explains that he carried her because he didn’t want to wake her up. He then leaves to bring her breakfast while she makes herself more presentable. She thinks out loud and realises that she’s heading home now and remembers the mess in which she had left. She knows what to do with Oliver now  but what about Ambrose. “What’s the deal with you and Ambrose? You and Ambrose have hated each other since the first moment you saw one another.” Lucian says that he doesn’t trust him and doesn’t think that she should choose him, further expands: “I don't think you should be marrying him. I am sorry I am so direct and telling this to you and I know I should not influence your decision but... I think he is lying to you. Well I don't have proof for it, but I know your well-being isn't his number one priority.Don't put your trust in him. I don't want your heart to get broken. He wants to use you. He needs you, he is trying to manipulate you.” Abigail listens carefully, slightly worried. She isn’t planning on marrying him, she knows that now, but it’s still disturbing. 

She thinks for a moment, remembering Lucian’s question from when they went on the trip and she smiles because she knows the answer now: “I think I have already made my decision on what to do with all this. I... I have found somebody else than the Whitlocks.” “And... is that person worthy of your hand?” Lucian asks carefully, estimating. “I- I think so… if he'll want it... otherwise I'll have to change my plans again.” Abigail answers, observing his face. Lucian is quiet for a moment then suddenly he gets up and falls down to his knee in front of her, taking her hands in his and looks up to her: “So, will you do me the honour to... choose me as your partner?” Abigail stares at him surprised. She didn’t expect this, definitely not this fast. Slowly, she unfreezes and smiles. “You... aren't saying anything. Am I too bold?” “Yes!” Abigail answers in the same moment. “Yes? I am too bold?” Lucian asks sadly, pulling his hands back. “No!”  she says quickly, trying to fix it. “No?” he looks down dishearted. She sees him struggling, so just grabs him and pulls him into a kiss. Eventually she pulls back with a smile: “Yes, I will.” He smiles back at her happily: “I promise I won't disappoint you. I would never lie to you or break your heart. I will never leave your side.” He then sits down next to her, holding her hands. 

…A huge monster, tall like a horse, with glowing yellow eyes jumps out of the forest to attack Abigail, who tries to dodge it but her body doesn’t listen and she’s left paralysed on spot, staring up at it. In the last second, she’s pulled back, trips over and lands on her bum, tiny splash hitting her face. Lucian is standing in front of her, his tall figure blocking the view, the monster with yellow eyes has its teeth sunken into his arm. 

The monster looks like a horrible amalgamate of things from nightmares. It has a wolf snout, pointed ears, long limbs which makes it as tall as Lucian and a strange humanoid form. On it are shreds of Hanna’s ripped clothes which now barely cover the faintly haired body. Despite its entire monstrosity it strongly resembles Hanna. Lucian and the beast have started to wrestle now, Lucian trying to pin the creature down and immobilise it, the creature trying to bite his head off.  It’s unclear who has the upper hand - Lucian seems stronger but he is struggling not to hurt the creature which in return is not scared to dig its long fangs into his flesh. Abigail takes out her gun and tries to shoot the creature without hitting Lucian. She misses few times but in the end she manages to shoot its shoulder, the beast now crying out in pain. Then it locks its yellow eyes on Abigail instead of Lucian, running very fast to her. 

Abigail makes the run for it, heading into the cave, hoping to reach the pool but doesn’t get even nearly as far, as she’s soon roughly hit from behind and pushes face down to the rough ground. The beast is sitting on her back, pressing her down. It prepares to strike just when Henrietta’s voice comes shouting: “Stop! Let her be!” The beast freezes and turns around, obediently letting go of Abigail. Lucian comes running to her to check up on her. Henrietta can control her but she’s unable to force her into the water, Lucian will still have to do that. 

Abigail, Lucian, Wolfgang, Henrietta and the beast which used to be Hanna make their way to the bath. The beast stands there torn between avoiding Henrietta and the water. Lucian grabs her and forces the beast into the water. Abigail and Henrietta soon follow, Abigail citing the incantation to perform the ritual, however nothing happens.The sacrifice is still missing. Henrietta offers to do that herself since it’s her responsibility. “I am sorry I have done this to you. Please... forgive me, Hanna. You deserve better, you have the kindest of hearts, I hope God will show his mercy for you and perform a miracle.” Henrietta tells Hanna while cupping her cheek, she then takes knife and slices her own hand, drops of blood falling into the water. Suddenly, the water starts to lighten up and glow golden. The light from above is getting stronger, blinding everybody around, then abruptly it disappears again. Lucian is now holding unconscious human Hanna in his arms. Abigail watches it surprised. It actually worked… 

Everybody gets out of the water, Lucian suggesting to take Hanna to the village. Outside is Henrietta’s carriage waiting, Lucian places Hanna inside. As he’s about to help Abigail inside as well, the clouds move and the moonlight illuminates the little clearing in front of the cave. Wolfgang gasps in panic. Henrietta has turned around, grabbing her chest. Wolfgang roughly pushes Abigail inside of the carriage, slamming the door shut, smacking the horses to move. Henrietta falls over, standing on all four now, a shudder runs through her body. Then suddenly, at the place where the tiny girl kneeled before, now stands a wolf, not a beast like the monster Hanna turned into, but a very majestic wolf the size of a big horse. It watches the carriage with red eyes.The carriage dashes off as Lucian is standing, facing the large wolf. 

The horses pull the carriage further into the depths of the dark forest. It's a very bumpy ride, Abigail is jumping on spot, Hanna is probably hitting her head very hard. Then the carriage starts to tilt dangerously. Abigail truest balance the carriage by moving to the other side, dragging Hanna with her but it doesn’t have a chance of working, the carriage is tripping over, landing with a loud bang on the ground, the glass of the window shattering. Abigail and Hanna are thrown on the ground, Abigail hurting her arm and ankle. The horses outside neigh in panic and dash away. Abigail tries to stand up, only able to stand on one leg and manages to unlock and push open the door of the carriage which are now on the ceiling. She tries to wake up and then lift Hanna up with her to get out, unfortunately Abigail isn’t strong enough for that, so she just climbs up herself, sitting on the top of the carriage, looking around. She can hear footsteps and a tall figure comes out of the darkness of the shrubbery. Abigail holds her breath but is relieved to recognise Wolfgang. He helps Hanna outside and says that they have to get to the castle because it’s not save in the forest. He carries Hanna and ushers Abigail forward. Her ankle hurts but she manages to grit her teeth and keep moving. However she’s much slower and soon looses  him in the darkness of the forest, only hearing his steady footsteps in front of her. 

Soon, she looses those footsteps as well, now all alone and lost in the forest. Everything seems to make noises, the bushes rustle next to  her, the leaves above her head too, the wind howls between the branches of the trees. The rustling gets louder, a wolf howls somewhere in the distance. She can hear panting behind her, she tries to keep on moving but it hurts and she’s slow. She tries to speed up but ends up just falling over, hurting her palms and the pain from her ankle gets stronger. She looks behind her and sees red eyes glow in the dark. 

Abigail cannot move, just staring at it in terror, begging for mercy. The eyes blinks and disappear and suddenly she’s being lifted off the ground. The wind pulls on her hair as the trees fly by her in terrifying speed. She shrieks and awaits the bite but it doesn’t come. Instead she is held in secure by familiar strong arms. She can hear flapping of wings and eventually see the moonlit sky above her as the trees stop blocking the view. Abigail holds onto her saviour, not saying anything, happy to know that she’s safe now. Lucian flies her to the castle however his landing is not as smooth as Abigail is used to, landing on his knee but managing to secure Abigail against his chest. 

Wolfgang comes running from the forest, carrying Hanna, ushering everybody inside the castle and locking the gate. Abigail asks about Henrietta, Wolfgang explains that she will come back safely in the morning and takes Hanna away. Lucian carries Abigail to her room in the castle, shivering, his beautiful white wings are now stained with blood. In the light of the castle, Abigail can see the damage done to them, they look rumpled and destroyed. He softly puts Abigail down on the bed, trembling. His clothes are soaked in blood, his hands red and wet. “I am so sorry I have failed you my l-lady…” He reaches his hand out to her cheek, looking very desperate, not touching her, his fingers trembling. Then he suddenly sinks down to his knees and falls over, sinking to the ground unconscious. 

No! Abigail kneels down next to him. He’s still breathing fortunately but his body is lying on the floor, not moving. Abigail examines him, finding deep cuts from claws, several deep bites on his shoulders and arms, his wings are torn. She limps to the bathroom and gets cloths and towels and a bowl with water. She spends the night tending to his wounds, cleaning them, tying them up but they refuse to stop bleeding. Outside the moon sets and sun starts to break through the darkness, yet Lucian is still unconscious, his wounds bleeding. 

Abigail can hear voices downstairs and footsteps approach the room. Henrietta walks in, looking very tired and unkept. She looks at Abigail and Lucian in terror. “We need to get him to the cave. The curse keeps the wounds from healing.” Abigail looks at him worried, unsure if the water can help him, if God can perform a miracle for him. Henrietta calls Wolfgang, then turns to Abigail: “You know, before yesterday I would have been more than happy to keep him here and let him bleed to death. I had no idea my teeth could even hurt him. But… He was ready to die for you. He wouldn't have hesitated even a second to. He could have just left at any moment but... he didn’t. I was wrong to mistrust you, I'm sorry.” Abigail watches Lucian with tears. That idiot! Why is he doing this?! Then she looks up at Henrietta, begging her for help with her eyes. Henrietta gives her a weak smile and together with Wolfgang, they carry Lucian to a less-fancy carriage. They sit Lucian inside, Abigail sits down inside with him, taking care of him during the ride as Wolfgang and Henrietta sit at the front and drive to the holy spring. 

When they arrive, Abigail gets out, then Wolfgang pulls Lucian out and together with Henrietta they carry him to the bath. They put Lucian down in the shallow water at the shore of the lake, the clear turquoise water is now being tainted by blood. Abigail gets into the water with him, sitting down next to him, holding hi pact-hand out of water with hers. Henrietta offers to sacrifice her blood again but Abigail stops her, saying that she has to do it because he got injured like this for her. Henrietta doesn’t argue and leaves them to it. 

She reads out the incantation, cupping his cheek with tears in her eyes: “Please... heal his wounds.... I know it's complicated between you two but... he doesn't deserve to end like this... not for me or for anybody.” She then pulls her hand back, grits her teeth and cuts her non-pact hand, letting the blood mix with the water and Lucian’s blood. But nothing happens. “Why is it not working?” she whispers, trembling. She looks up at Henrietta and Wolfgang but they don’t know either. So she turns her glance back down sadly, cupping his cheek with her bleeding hand, squeezing his pact-hand with hers. “Lucian…” Tears dropping into the water. “Please don’t leave me here alone…” Abigail leans down and softly presses her lips against his, pulling him a bit closer with her bleeding hand. For a sad moment nothing happens... then slowly, he kisses  her back, moving his hand up into her hair. He slowly opens his eyes, pulling back an inch to look at her, whispering her name. The water starts to glow in faint golden light. Lucian raises his hands to cup her cheeks holding her close to make sure that she is still there behind the light. Lucian speaks in quiet voice: “I need to tell you something. I... I'm sorry... about... everything that happened but... well... the truth is…” Abigail shakes her head: “It doesn't matter, it's all fine, you don't have to apologise for anything.” But this doesn’t stop Lucian from continuing, afraid of what’s going to happen next: “When I saw you that night in the water... I have been trying to tell myself that I wanted to be noble... that I wanted to save you from suffering in Hell for eternity because of your own guilt but the truth is… I just fell in love with you the first moment that I saw you. And I was trying to deny it, to tell myself that you are just a simple human girl but... you are so much more than that. And every day that I have known you for I just fell in love with you even more. I... I'm sorry if I shocked you that night I just... I couldn't hold back any longer… You're the most beautiful being I have ever seen.” He raises his hand to cup her cheek, then runs his fingers through her hair. 

The tear never leave Abigail’s eyes  but they are tears of happiness  now as she listens to him surprised. She looks at him with big eyes: “I- I know that you're the devil and are supposed to be evil and everybody says awful things about you but... I know that's not true. You are the exact opposite of that. You are the kindest, sweetest, most handsome man I ever met and although everybody is telling me against it. I disagree with them because they don't know you like I do and... I love you, Lucian.” She runs her thumb over his cheek, he smiles at her a heartbreaking, honest smile, looking very small and vulnerable. “So please, just be all fine…” she whispers pleadingly, hoping somebody will hear her out. 

He pulls her down into a deep passionate kiss, digging his hands into her hair, she can feel the longing in him, the desperation, he is pulling her in like a magnet, like they were just made to be together like this. They don’t see the bright golden glow all around them as they are lost in the kiss. 

Eventually they pull back and he looks up to her with the happiest smile and tears shimmering in his eyes. The light is gone together with his wings and wounds, just the mark from the pact still leaves an ugly mark on his hand. Lucian and Abigail get up, noticing that Abigail’s injured ankle has been healed as well. Now that nobody is in immediate danger, there is a lot to talk about, so everybody walks outside, board the carriage and gets back to the castle. 

Once arrived, Wolfgang leads Lucian away to lend him some of his clothes since Lucian’s have been torn apart. Abigail and Henrietta sit down in a tea room. “I owe you an apology. What you saw last night must have been... shocking. But you have seen right, I am the curse. The wolf blood has run in my family ever since we can remember. It's what brought us to our power and wealth. However it is not my intention to hurt my people, on the contrary, I consider myself their patron and protector. The things that have been going on these past months are quite... unfortunate. And what happened to the poor little Hanna and all my people before her breaks my heart. It's my fault and I will suffer my punishment for the pain I have caused.” She looks down sadly. Upon Abigail’s questioning, she further explains that Hanna was out on last full moon and Henrietta tried to hold back but the wolf is not always easy to control, especially during full moon the instincts are overpowering, and she bit her. Her family uses potion prepared from the moonflower to drug themselves on full moon nights to calm the beast inside but the flowers are disappearing. They only grow at the holy spring. They have been here as long as Lichtenburg's can remember. Cooking them creates a strong sedative, strong enough to affect the Devil. She believes that somebody is stealing the flowers, not anybody from the village, somebody from outside. She has already tried putting Wolfgang there to guard the flowers but they were there and then suddenly gone, without spotting anybody. Magic was quite likely involved. 

There was some mature stuff happening at the beginning of this session, continuation from previous night. I tried to censor it but eh, not exactly easy to crop it out completely because it’s important for plot and related to what happens next, so beware. For those interested in full version, check out Wattpad.

Abigail wakes up in the morning well-rested, without any nightmares. Lucian is still asleep, his face heartbreakingly beautiful, there is a faint smile on his lips. His wings are still out, so she strokes them. He suddenly grabs her face and pull her up into a kiss, there’s a longing in it which wasn’t there yesterday. He digs one hand into her hair, softly massaging her scalp with his fingertips, as Abigail travels her hand lower...

A shudder runs through him as he slowly opens his eyes, looking at her with the happiest, most genuine smile, his eyes are now clear and blood-red again, the potion has worn off during the night. But then slowly, the realisation dawns on his face and the happiness turns into horror. He blushes, lets go of her, his wings are gone in a heartbeat. He crawls away from her, taking in his naked form and the white sticky liquid on his tummy. The horror on his face intensifies as he spots the liquid on her fingertips too. Oh no, is he regretting all of this? Did he not want any of this? Did he hate it? Does he hate me now? She quickly wraps herself in a blanket, as Lucian hides his crotch and body in panic. “My lady... I am d-deeply sorry I... I don't know what happened... what to say... I ... I…” he tries to apologise. Abigail tries to deny him and say that it’s her own fault but he stubbornly refuses. In the end he says: “I promise this... this won't ever happen again,” and picks up his clothes in his super speed, putting them on quickly. His words cut like a knife. Abigail loved it and him and… the words echo in  her mind. “How much do you remember?” Abigail herself is surprised by no stammer in her voice although her neck is slowly closing. “I feel like I have been drugged… I... I had a dream, about... about... well... about desecrating you in the most horrible way imaginable…” he describes his experience, looking up at her, begging her to confirm that it was indeed just a dream and not reality. She doesn’t say anything just hides herself more in the blanket. He sees her doing that, jumping to wrong conclusion, standing up and shaking in horror. He apologises again, bows and quickly leaves the room. 

Abigail stays lying in the bed, alone with her thoughts, feeling horrible about what she did, about using him while he was drugged, his words echoing in her mind. Eventually she gets up to get dressed, hitting her head with a pillow few times. When she’s dressed and dried her tears, she leaves the room, Lucian is standing outside the room, looking all cleaned up but also very small and insecure. She gives him a short sad look, then continues walking without a word, he follows her.

Breakfast is prepared in dinning hall, Henrietta is sipping on her tea. She greets them with a smile and a wink: “Ah finally. Did you have a good rest? I was about to send Wolfgang in to check if your devil hasn't eaten you alive after all. It sounded like you two had a lot of fun yesterday.” Abigail blushes sadly, tries to keep her pokerface as she sits down. “I do admit I wouldn't have expected the potion to have that effect!” Henrietta exclaims, snickering. Abigail looks at her upset, asking why she drugged Lucian. “Well I wanted to test if the potion works on him to have some weapon ready if he decided to attack. But seeing him now I guess he really is tied around your pinky finger, isn't he?” Abigail just stares at her without saying anything, not sure if she should agree with that or protest. Henrietta watches her reaction interested: “You are very interesting. You have a bond with the Devil himself, with my help you could make him do anything you want for you and yet you seem so... reserved about it. Almost as if you feel bad about it all.” Abigail quietly admits it but then quickly tells her that it’s none of her business. Henrietta then reassures Abigail that she has none of the potion left anymore. Abigail seems that as a good thing at first but Henrietta sighs and opposes, recommending Abigail to leave before the next full moon. 

Henrietta was using these potions to keep the curse in check, to protect the people but no there is none of it left. Abigail calls her stupid but she explains that doing this test on the devil was important and it shows that he’s not invulnerable but Abigail doesn’t care about that. It has ruined her relationship with Lucian and causes the curse to get out of control. Abigail offers helping to brew more of the potion for Henrietta if she promises to not use it on Lucian anymore but that’s not possible because Moon flowers, which used to grow at the Holy spring, are gone. They grow there and nowhere else: “They are the reason my family moved here. To keep the curse in check.” Henrietta then also admits that it’s not a curse but rather a heritable disease running in her family. Abigail asks if Henrietta is the “devil” possession the people to which Henrietta gets up, ending the conversation, telling Abigail to leave. Lucian leads Abigail out of the castle, making sure to keep his distance from her. Outside, Wolfgang is waiting for them with a carriage. 

They board the carriage together, Lucian sits down opposite to Abigail, as far away from her as possible, looking out of the window, away from her. Abigail sadly looks out of the other window. The ride now feels much longer in the painful silence. Back in the village, Abigail first goes to her room to get changed into simpler clothes, more suitable for a student. Lucian waits outside of the room at first but Abigail is unable to reach her ties and calls him in to help her. He does as he must as good servant, but pays attention to not touch any of her skin and make it last longer than necessary. Then he leaves the room again, leaving Abigail to herself, to think about the curse. 

In the end she decides to ask the mayor about peculiar things happening at the holy spring which would cause the flowers to die. In the middle of their conversation, a young man runs into the room, calling the mayor for an emergency, concerning Hanna. Mayor immediately follows the young man to Hanna’s house, Abigail right behind them. 

Franka, Karla Andrew other people from the village are standing outside the house. Inside the house, Hanna is tied up to her bed, a woman, presumably her mother, is weeping next to her, trying to calm her down, while Hanna is barking and crying and struggling like a mad person. There's some foam in front of her mouth, her eyes rolled back, she is trying to rip herself free of her ties and bite the woman next to her. The mayor knows what needs be done. And fast. Hanna’s mother starts crying and begging the mayor to not do it but everybody knows that there is no other way. The mayor orders the people around to prepare the pyre. Abigail learns from him that tomorrow night will be full-moon. He also points her to a local herbs-specialist. 

Abigail goes to see her but she doesn’t seem to know anything about Moon flowers, thinking that Abigail is talking about poppy [in German: Mohn (poppy) - Mond (moon)]. Abigail also gently questions Hanna’s mother about Hanna. She claims that Hanna was fine the previous day, just slightly absent during the dinner. After dinner, she has heard sounds coming from Hanna’s room, so she went to check it out and saw Hanna on all four, like an animal, looking at her with wild eyes, wanting to jump at her and bite her. Fortunately her husband was there and managed to tie her up. 

Abigail also decides to question Karla and Franka since they were with Hanna most of the previous day. They haven’t done anything special but Karla noticed that Hanna was limping recently. She would always say that it’s nothing but there was small wound, two little scratches, on her leg. It is strange that the holy water didn’t manage to heal such a small wound, it should be able to do so. Franka feels really guilty about the whole situation, like it’s her fault because of what she made Hanna do at the hot spring - sin and now the devil possessed her. Lucian rolls his eyes at that. 

Abigail then talks with Lucian about it, trying to stay professional and stay on case, not getting distracted. Lucian mentions that the people don’t know how to fully use the power of the holy spring, so Abigail gets an idea that maybe there is some sacred ritual which could help against the curse, beside the flowers. They go and see the mayor to show them the archives and old books where such ritual could be described. He doesn’t know about such rite but allows them to search his extremely messy office for such text. 

They spend the whole day going through all the documents, Lucian doing most of the work since he’s much faster than Abigail. Finally, Lucian shows Abigail some ancient looking papers. They describe a ritual to awaken the spring’s power - a ritual which has to be performed by a young maiden of pure heart. There is an incantation to be spoken while the maiden together with the person that needs to be healed, bath in the spring. It also requires a sacrifice, the maiden has to give her heart to the person who needs healing. 

They run to the mayor to stop the pyre, to save Hanna before it’s too late. The main problem seems to be bringing Hanna to the spring as nobody can touch her to not get infected. Lucian offers himself, believing to be immune to such curses since he’s immortal. Abigail is very unhappy about the idea but they don’t seem to really have much of a choice so she agrees. Abigail, Franka and Karla keep the people away from the house while mayor prepares a carriage for himself and Abigail. Lucian walks out of the house, holding the struggling and barking Hanna in a tight grip, then his wings appear behind him, magnificent and white, seemingly glowing in the dark. He sets off and disappears in the night.