There is a sharp gasp that managed to escape her lips then. An unexpected pain lanced itâs way through a wing and down into her back like a gluttonous inferno. Acting quickly, Miranda yanked the offending bit of metal skewering one of her precious wings and promptly tossed it away from her and hopefully, HOPEFULLY out of harms way.
Should she forgive this incompetent behavior? No, doing so would likely to encourage the currently foolish Lord before her that was beginning to make her believe was not good enough to fill the shoes left behind by a bloodline far greater than his and yet somehow, unfortunately, entertwined.
Clenching her jaw tightly and fixing Heisenberg with a glare that would make even the mighty tremble, she closed her wings against herself with a loud âSNAPâ and began to replace the equipment that was so carelessy tossed about in this shitshow of an experiment.
â I suggest you be OBEDIENT and follow me, there is perhaps something here you may excel at yet, but it will be far from pleasant.â
Perhaps it was time to really double down on her research, cutting open conscious bodies was always quite therapeutic.Â
This is the first thing he realises, and it is the thought that will carry him through the torments to come: she can be hurt.
Even above the terror, the not-quite-guilt, the dread, he thinks it over and over:
If she can be hurt, she can be killed.
âMother Miranda,â Karl starts to say. Heâs already following her, staring hard at the black mass of feathers against her back, trying to find where heâd struck her: would there be blood? A thick, black ooze? Did it hurt?
âI didnât mean--it just happened, it flew out of my...â
Out of your what, Karl? Your control? You think sheâll go easier on you for being too WEAK to CONTROL YOUR OWN IMPULSES?
(no, I just, maybe if she thinks--)
Whatâs worse: that you did it on purpose, or that you didnât? Which one makes you more of a WASTE in her eyes, Karl?
(I donât fucking KNOW--)
Karl is still behind her, nearly at her side, jaw set like heâs phyically forcing himself not to keep talking. It doesnât last long, of course: he never can keep his mouth shut, even when it might serve him better.
âI apologise,â he says. He can count on one hand the number of times he has apologised in his whole life, and each of them have been to her. âIâm sorry, Mother. It... wonât happen again.â
Yeah, something dark and seething scoffs in the back of his mind, Like thatâs gonna help you now. Idiot. THINK next time.