🏁 To Love A Myth - Book 2: Mr. Higgs and the Lady 🎩🔨🤕🐌 ⏯ 🚩🔮 🐇

46

a/n: sorry, I accidentally skipped this!

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"Aren't you happy for me?"

Gretchen looked at Elizabeth without any expression, but inside she was appalled and repulsed. Elizabeth was putting something in her food that made her very susceptible to going along with whatever she wanted to do -no matter what- but Gretchen's mind seemed to always float in clarity in the back, seeing herself contribute to horrible things. Looking back on the downward spiral of her lady, she wished she could have caught things before it got to this point.

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When Elizabeth had discovered the merman at the fateful party five years ago, she had been quite curious about what other things the Northumberly family had to offer. She had been asking around for information, trying to figure out what other things they may have turned into and getting accounts from others about them. It seemed to spark a like of other mythologies and so she started to purchase books from travelers, reveling in their mystery and enchantment. Gretchen thought it was interesting that a woman as pretty and resourceful as her lady would be interested in such fantasies, but it made Elizabeth happy and Gretchen couldn't deny that... until she purchased a book from an Asian seller featuring alchemy.

At first, what seemed like interest in culture and fun facts soon seemed to spiral into obsession. The seller told her that if she followed the directions in the book, she really could make things happen. Of course, there were some things -like turning coal into gold, changing the structure of an object to make another object, or living forever- that didn't really work, but the majority of it used the energy and natural resources of the earth to cause things to happen. Gretchen read over the book a couple of times and realized it was just a glorified cookbook... until Elizabeth experimented on Higgs. Suddenly, what would have been impossible, seemed possible. She was using small doses of love potions on him and they worked, even if just for a short while, but seeing them actually accomplishing something made a change in her lady.

The love potions seemed harmless, although they were actually causing a lot of grief, but it wasn't Gretchen's problem. She figured that Merida and Elizabeth would duke it out somehow and if Gretchen stopped giving Higgs the potions after they got married or something, he would learn to love her. But when Merida and Edgar came to their home and she didn't even recognize the boy when she had worked with him just hours before, she knew that Higgs wasn't the only one things were happening to and that there may have been a more sinister plot. Gretchen didn't mention anything to her lady, but watched her as much as she could and then Higgs rejected her.

It was inevitable even from Gretchen's standpoint. Merida wasn't an idiot and she was Scottish, still believing in fairy tales and the mythologies beyond the veil; plus she was just a naturally astute woman and she knew Higgs Northumberly like the back of her hand. She knew that the bond between Elizabeth and Higgs was odd and she'd been fighting against it ever since it started. But the rejection -after everything Elizabeth had put into trying to make him love her- drove her lady over the edge and her obsession morphed into something else. At first it was fun, then it became habit, and when it failed, it became a dangerous craving. The ability to make things and people do what you want at any time just by feeding them certain herbs cooked in certain ways? The power was in her hands and yet it still failed her. How humiliating... how degrading... how dare some lowly woman from up in the wilds foil her perfect plan... but Elizabeth was a huntress and it didn't take her long to realize she could use her own good skill to her advantage.

But Gretchen knew and warned Higgs about it... so Elizabeth had to shut her up... but she couldn't enact her plan alone. So, Elizabeth used a different approach that worked the exact same way but without the fantasy adding a more impossible outcome. Since she needed to know about herbs and other things, it taught Elizabeth what they each could do in general and so for Gretchen it was easy to cause her to lose control of her thinking capacity enough to be manipulated into doing whatever she needed. All the while, Gretchen had to watch herself take part in the most atrocious things, ignore cries for help, and watch the poor man in front of her endure horrible treatment. This though, was the worst that had happened and she knew for everyone's sake, she had to figure out how to fight against whatever Elizabeth was doing to her and get him out of here.