A Tale of Shadows - THE OUTDATED VERSION

Chapter 20 - A Risky Plan

The following day, Griselda woke up with a letter right next to her. After laying in her bed for a bit and getting rid of her drowsiness, she picked up the letter, put her shoes on, and went into the study to read it out loud to herself just in case her mother woke up early.

She got there in several minutes, gently closing the door behind her and locking it immediately. When she opened the letter, she threw the envelope onto the floor without thinking, shocked to see who the letter was from. A few seconds later, when the overwhelming silence became too much, she read the letter to herself:

"Dear Griselda,

I heard from Madam May yesterday, and I must say that your situation is quite alarming. That is why I made sure to respond as soon as possible, just to let you know how I am planning to help you. Things are rapidly getting more and more urgent, which is why we do not have a lot of time, and thus we must not hesitate when it comes to anything. I am returning to regular teaching because I have begun to regain my credibility, and I always provide housing for my students, for the system I had worked in for years functions somewhat like a boarding school. I have been made familiar enough with students who have had parental situations such as yours, and whose parents have hardly ever been able to find them. Your mother may be pretty good at it, and her evil may be keeping her abnormally determined all the time, but I consider myself to be very determined as well, willing to do anything to end her reign of terror as soon as I can, which is why I am going to try my best to protect you so I can give you enough time to prepare yourself to make a stand against her. I will come tomorrow at dawn to pick you up because your mother's sleeping schedule is absurd, so make sure to get ready as unnoticed as you can. This one decision could change everything.

Best wishes,

Maria Thorne

Before she could close the letter, her mother used magic to break the door of the study. Having forgotten about that spell, Griselda let out a loud gasp as she stood in place like a statue. She did not move even as her mother marched over to her, forcefully snatching the letter out of her hands.

Only when she set her eyes upon the letter did Griselda make a move to retrieve it, but Melinda raised her hand, her facial expression making it clear just how disappointed she was in her for thinking that she would not notice her approaching. Sighing deeply, Griselda returned to standing like a statue, her blood freezing as she wondered what her mother's reaction would be.

However, she did not at all expect her to start throwing everything in sight. She threw the large mirror, threw the vase full of white roses, threw the books, threw the writing supplies, and also threw the papers. The noise she made at every second terrified Griselda so thoroughly that she began shaking with her entire body. Those several minutes felt like an eternity until her mother stopped at last, clinging her body to the nearest shelf as she breathed heavily.

"No one ever understands how I feel," she said, still breathing heavily. "They only care about how they feel, which is to be expected in this cruel, uncaring, selfish world. I always have to put on a facade of feeling great because I cannot afford to be weak. If I were to show my weakness in front of my citizens, they would never forgive me for it. I have weaknesses none of them could ever imagine. They will never know the pain of losing everything that you love and feeling worthless because you are the hero of your country and should have done better, not deserving of your place, not having an opportunity to ask for help, but having the duty of helping everyone. The duty of helping everyone made me sick after all these years, especially after I lost so much, having only my dark desires to cling to. It doesn't sound easy, now does it?"

She said the last sentence in a particularly hateful tone of voice. It disgusted Griselda all the more, mostly because it was a tactic she often used. Even with being completely aware that she was in the wrong, she always tried to martyrise herself, ignoring how other people felt since she believed that they were unworthy of her compassion. It both amazed and horrified Griselda at the same time, leaving her to be confused about what she should say. After a few seconds of overwhelming silence, she tried her best to continue the conversation, letting out a deep sigh before speaking.

"You're right about one thing, mother. You definitely should've done better," she said coldly, marching towards the door, only to be stopped by her hair being pulled tightly, in the same way it had always been throughout her childhood.

"Do you really think that I'm going to let you go after all of this?" Melinda said in a high-pitched yet venomous voice. "To let you go into the den of a traitor? I hate her, and I hate you even more for respecting her, but I realise that I'm not being rational when it comes to my hatred and that you simply have no idea what you're doing. You have too much of your father's blood inside you, believing those who clearly aren't to be trusted because of your pitifully kind heart. It's also apparent that a heart as kind as yours, which is incredible in your circumstances, must have strong feelings about what I'm doing, but it might just calm down after grasping that I do indeed have a point. Perhaps you should wait for a little before you make your final choice, Griselda, for if you're not careful, it could potentially result in your death."

Finally grasping that, just like she wasn't going to be convinced by her mother, her mother wasn't going to be convinced by her either, she thought of what to say so that she could leave the room at once. Obviously, it couldn't be truthful because her mother would then continue talking about the world being cruel and her father being naive and all that stuff she was tired of hearing. Maybe the world was indeed cruel, maybe her father was indeed naive, but she wanted to discover everything for herself, having no idea how she'd had faith in one now so plainly biased person.

But upon remembering that her mother's biased viewpoints were the sole viewpoints she ever knew, it all made sense. The solution to all her problems came within herself, within viewing everything from an objective standpoint and forming her own opinions based on what she saw, within thinking with her own head and not someone else's. The art of having one's own thoughts now seemed like a miracle to her.

"I'm not going anywhere," Griselda lied without a hint of remorse. "I'm merely returning to my room to get ready for the day, and I'm not going to do anything out of the ordinary, I promise. My only goal is to have a nice day, and I hope you too will have a nice day."

Melinda smiled warmly. "That's great to hear. I'm not pressuring you to sit in a corner and do nothing or anything like that, but I'm glad that you won't be making any rash decisions. Just have fun and think about the serious stuff later. You're still going to have enough time to save your life, after all."

Griselda smiled warmly as well. "Alright then. See you!"

The moment Griselda left, somehow managing to not slam the door behind herself this time, Melinda was left to use her magic to clean up the mess she'd made. She reminded herself of a theatre cleaner, cleaning the stage once the play was done. She noted that she was rather good at pretending to be angry, scaring Griselda for a while, which, unfortunately, didn't seem to last too long.

It must have been due to her getting used to it, but at least it was surely a facade, and at least she was still in control of Griselda's life. With a bright smile on her face, she walked out of the study the moment everything was repaired.