Journey of a Girl

The Purple House: Chapter Nine

Of course the water Credence drank was doused with poppy.

Lilith continued to supply the increasingly unsteady girl with small doses, at some point giving up all care of masking its scent. Credence showed no signs of emotion, pliant or otherwise, but moved through the day in a blank, silent trance. She knew she was being drugged, but she could not muster the energy to argue. She wasn't happy, or sad, or angry.

She just was.

She allowed Lilith to bathe her, not protesting for modesty as the old witch scrubbed until her skin was sore. Every so often Lilith would pause to say something like, "You remember now, when you sit on a throne, what I've done for you," or "No one but me took you in and cared for you. No one else told you the truth. Don't forget that."

Lilith tugged at the knots in Credence's hair, brushing it to a glossy shine before twisting and braiding it. She left Credence's side only once, and returned with a dress, pale and old but not without its own beauty.

"Got this from a bride in the woods," Lilith said. "Don't you fret, she doesn't miss it, not in the state I found her in." 

Credence nodded.

Lilith instructed the girl to step into the dress, then buttoned a row of pearls up the back from Credence's waist to her neck.

When she was finished, Lilith pulled the girl into her bedroom, and for the first time Credence saw where the witch slept and took her comfort. It was a shadowy place filled with plants and cobwebs. There were books and skulls and bottles filled with potions and flowers. Boxes, most of them shut and locked, a few opened to reveal stashes of sticks and dyed candles, were spread haphazardly, like Lilith had thrown them about the room with her eyes closed. In one corner hung an iron cage that held an aged raven, who seemed uninterested in anything going on around it.

For all its oddities and macabre knick-knacks, the most unexpected thing in the room was a tall length of glass standing near Lilith's bed.

What use did Lilith have for mirrors?

The witch ushered Credence before it, and for the first time in a long while Credence saw herself.

She wasn't certain she recognized the person reflected back.

Her hair shaped her face with a lovely frame, and the dress that appeared slightly ill-fashioned in Lilith's hands hung on her beautifully, clinging to a body that had a whisper of a woman's curves.

Credence was a stranger to herself, not the child she knew she was on the inside, but a girl who ever-so-slightly resembled Ma, only younger and—dare she think it?—prettier. Credence had never thought much about her appearance, but now, seeing herself this way, she thought for the first time that she might actually be—

Beautiful.

"Aye, go on," Lilith said with a chuckle. "No harm in admiring yourself."

Credence turned her body to look at the back of the dress, marveling at the buttons and lace that fell around her hips to enhance her shape.

"You see?" Lilith whispered. "How can you deny that you were born to be royalty?"

Royalty.

The title was foreign, and Credence felt unworthy of it.

"Keep looking," Lilith commanded gently, "while I fetch a little something for you."

The witch scurried out of the room, leaving Credence alone once again. The poppy water had done its work and Credence felt lazy and eased, and the world around her seemed nothing but a dream.