Marienne's life was completely undone when her village went up in flames. Badly burned and her eyesight lost, she awakes in a strange place, with no knowledge of how she arrived there. Her savior was the enigmatic and alluring Victor, the Lord of Az...
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Excitement had been knotting my stomach since we first left the castle, and it had only grown in intensity at Genevieve's. I badly wanted to ask Victor about the questions Genevieve had been asking in his absence. My thoughts were buzzing incessantly inside my skull, driving my hunger for answers. He was tense, insisting on walking nearly on top of me on our way back to the carriage. Amelia had taken one look at Victor's face and her own had gone drawn, her anxiety written large across her face.
This worried and frustrated me at once. I was growing tired of all the secrecy that had surrounded me from when I first awakened in the castle. Neither of them wanted to spare me even a word before we left the town, so I sat sullenly, listening to the clip-clop of the horses' feet and the clinking and squeaking of the carriage.
Instead of following the road we had taken home, we'd gone down a back way, onto a much less developed road. It was worn more thoroughly, the cart ruts inescapable for the carriage's wheels. Once well outside of the town's limits, and when there were no people around us either, I decided to try and broach the cloud of conversational miasma that had settled around the three of us.
"So, where are we headed now? Is it somewhere exciting?" I asked, trying to sound cheery. I smiled brightly at Victor, hoping to wipe away the gray storm clouds that had settled around him. He was so foreboding sitting there in silence, his face fixed like a statue. His coal black eyes flicked up to meet mine, and a pained look crossed his face. I couldn't fathom what I had said wrong.
"I hope you won't be made too uncomfortable by our destination." He started, drawing the words out slowly, pronouncing each one clearly, so they could not be misconstrued. "But, we are headed to your old village. A problem has arisen related to the investigation of the fires. I believe I may know the cause, and I'm going to be looking for evidence to support my hunch."
His words settled like a rock in my stomach, and my smile fell from my face. I managed a nod, then collapsed back into my seat, lost in the ravines of my own mind. I wasn't sure how I felt about returning to my village. It felt too much like returning to my own grave. What would be left, I wondered. Would my home still retain enough of its structure to stand? Would I be able to wander down the main road, and remember the names of everyone I had ever cared for? See the children running around whom I had helped bring into the world?
More importantly, did I want any of those answers?
The rest of the carriage ride to my village passed in silence. I didn't have the heart in me to make conversation, and clearly neither did Victor nor Amelia. Still, she clutched at my hand, looking at me on occasion sympathetically. Unfortunately, I felt my dear friend couldn't fully understand, as if she were to go back to her old home, her family would be awaiting her gladly. I had long since buried my mother and father, but the village had become a surrogate family all the same. It could hardly be any other way, when my duties had been so essential to its growth. My heart ached with the thought that everything I had ever worked for had been wiped away in a single day.
