Cain, Michaela, and Riff: The Hanged Man (Sacrifice, Surrendering, Contemplation)
Cain's pride screams as he kneels before Michaela. The Earl of Poison bows to no one, certainly not to this monstrosity who has stolen Suzette's face. Yet here he is, on his knees.
It's for Riff, he tells himself again and again. It's for Riff. Only for Riff would he be here, degrading himself. He thinks of Riff as he was when Cain left him, weak and raving.
This can't be the way their story concludes. Cain doesn't believe in happily ever after, but Riff deserves a better ending than to die so ignobly.
Disgust curdles within him as he kisses Michaela's foot. He closes his eyes and remembers the look on Riff's face right after the tarantula bit him. Riff didn't hesitate for the tiniest moment before throwing himself between Cain and danger. If Riff can so readily sacrifice his life, then surely Cain can sacrifice a little dignity.
Cain thinks he's won when Michaela's spiders drop dead around her, only to have everything come crashing down as the antidote spills uselessly over the unforgiving stone. In that moment the world ends, as Cain tries to imagine his life without Riff.
He should wonder how Riff made such a miraculous recovery. He should question why the doctor would save Riff's life when he hates them both so much. But Cain can't think any of that. All he can do is take in Riff's miraculous presence, going so far as to offer a prayer of thanks to the God he hates.
Cain and Riff: The Lovers (Passion, Heart, Connection)
There are words for what Cain is feeling. Words like "I missed you," or "I was afraid." But Cain has never learned those words so instead he snaps and scolds. It's easier to hit Riff with a pillow than to admit how frightened he was.
But of course Riff understands anyways. Riff always sees through Cain's bluster and little cruelties straight to Cain's heart.
"I'll accompany you to hell."
Cain lays his head down on the bed, and for several long moments they stay like that. Then, as if a spell were breaking, Cain climbs onto the bed and clings to Riff's arm. "You mustn't do that again." His voice is barely more than a whisper. "You mustn't get hurt like that."
Riff draws him close and strokes his hair. "I had to protect you."
"But you might have died!" Tears prick at Cain's eyes, and he does his best to force them back. "If you die to protect me, I'll be all alone." He looks down. "I don't want to be alone." The words are almost too soft to be heard.
Pain and sorrow mix in Riff's expression. "I... I don't know how to not protect you," he says haltingly. "When I see you in danger, I have no choice but act. I'm sorry my lord, but if you order me to stand by and watch you suffer... that is an order I cannot obey."
Cain rests his head on Riff's shoulder. "All right," he accedes. "But you must always return to me. Even if you die, you have to come back. Do you promise?"
Riff pulls Cain into an embrace. "I promise. No matter what it takes, somehow I will return to you. Always."
Merryweather, Cain, and Riff: The Hermit (Introspection, Deep Understanding, Isolation)
In her room, on a high shelf, sits Merryweather's favorite doll. It's a pretty thing, soft blond curls and bright blue eyes. Merry doesn't talk to the doll. She doesn't bother to tell it what's going on around the house, or what people are doing, or how they're feeling. Why would she? It's only a doll.
Sometimes, Merry feels very much like that doll. A nurse told her that Riff was sick, but Merry knew it was worse than that. Growing up in the slums, Merry had seen plenty of death, and Cain's panic made it even more clear: Riff had been dying. Cain quickly ran off, and none of the doctors or nurses had time for a sad little girl, so Merry sat in her room, frightened and confused.
Then Cain had returned, and Riff had been well just as suddenly as he had been ill. Now Merry hovers outside the sick room, peering inside through the keyhole. She wants to rush into Riff's arms and tell him how worried she was. However, while Merry is told very little, there is much that she understands. So, instead she watches silently while Riff and her brother have their reunion.
It's impossible not to feel a little lonely, watching them cling to each other. Never has it been more clear that Cain and Riff live in their own world, one that Merry can stand at the edges of, but never truly enter. But mostly she is glad. If the two people she loves most in the world are happy, how can she not feel the same?
She doesn't know how long she stands there waiting, but finally Cain and Riff's grips on each other relax slightly. She takes that as her cue to open the door slowly and as noticeably as she can. They pull away quickly, and Merry feels a little guilty, but she can't bear to stand out there alone any longer. "Riff, you're better!" She flings herself into Riff's arms, just like she wanted to.
"Did I worry you, Miss Merryweather?" Riff smiles at her gently.
Merry scowls. "Yes, and nobody would tell me anything."
Riff ruffles her hair. "I'm sorry." And he does sound genuinely sorry, so Merry's hurt begins to lessen. "I'm all right now."
"Good." Merry affects a pout. "But I won't forgive you until you make it up to me."
"How will I do that?"
Merry grins. "We have to go on a picnic. All three of us."
Riff looks at Cain. "Can that be arranged, my lord?"
"I think it can." And then Cain laughs, and Merry can't resist joining in.
Her family is back together.
Michaela: The Devil (Ignorance, Anger, Obsession)
Alone in her room, Michaela screams. It's not fair! Cain is hers! Why did everything go wrong? She screams until her voice gives out and nothing can come out but furious rasping. Then she starts to throw things. Vases, pictures, books, whatever she can get her hands on. emHe's mine!/em she tells herself as glass shatters and paper rips. She repeats it over and over in her mind, a mantra that slowly becomes just a jumble of words.
It wasn't supposed to go like that. Cain was supposed to love her. Isn't she his love reborn? She's just like Suzette, except better because she loves Cain properly. Why didn't he see that?
It was that man's fault. That filthy, lowborn servant. Cain didn't see her because he was too busy looking at him. She'll kill them. She'll kill them both.
Michaela takes a breath. No, she won't kill Cain. The servant yes, but not her beloved. She'll have to teach him a lesson, of course. He'd rejected her, called her names. (She tries not to think about how much it had hurt when he called her an inhuman copy.) Such cruelty can't go unpunished. But she'll forgive him, after he has been properly chastened. And he will be sorry, so very sorry. She imagines how he'll look, bleeding and at her feet, nothing but love in his eyes. Yes, she'll forgive him then.
She rubs her throat, feeling foolish. Now she'll have to wait until her voice has returned to go see Alexis. Alexis will understand how she feels, and he'll know exactly what to do. Alexis always knows what's best.
Until then, she'll entertain herself imagining all of the lovely, brutal things she's going to do to Cain once she has him at her mercy. Then he'll love her. He just has to.
Cain: The Tower (Disillusion, Downfall, Ruin)
It has to be a lie. Or a dream. Perhaps this a nightmare, and Cain will wake up any moment. He'll call for Riff, and Riff will come, and everything will be all right.
Cain has never been good at lying to himself. It's a pity that he can't start now.
He should have known. Did his father ever give him anything without intending to take it away in the most painful way possible? The toys, the pets... he should have known. He had been so sure that Riff was safe, that despite everything he could count on one good thing in his life. What a fool he had been.
He can't stand the way they look at him. Oscar, Crehador, his uncle, they all act as if they expect him to break down sobbing at any moment. Idiots. If they don't trust him to stay strong, then they should get out now. They can leave, and he won't care at all. Everyone can leave.
Even worse than the distrust is the pity. As if Cain needs anyone's pity. He hates being pitied. Riff never pitied him. That was sympathy, it was different.
He doesn't want to think about Riff anymore.
Even Merryweather is skittish and nervous around him these days. He doesn't have it in him to be angry with her though. He knows he should talk to her. She loves Riff too. He should push aside his own pain in order to comfort her. But he can't. He can't push the pain away, because while he may laugh, grin, and banter, inside there is nothing but the pain. The pain and the love that he just can't seem to kill.
What would he say to Merry anyway? How could he possibly explain this to her when he doesn't even understand himself? There are no words for this.
Cain schemes and plots, and when the time comes, he will grant Riff freedom the only way he knows how.
Because you still belong to me.
Merryweather and Michaela: Strength (Kindness, Compassion, Inner Strength)
Michaela has never met anyone like Merryweather before. Which is a good thing, because Merryweather's an idiot. A foolish little girl who thinks that she has the right to lecture Michaela about love.
Michaela's still trying to figure out her trick. Because there must a trick. Bringing her water? Changing her towel? No one would do those things if they didn't want something. Being with Delilah has taught Michaela that everyone is out for themselves.
Merryweather seems so earnest though. When she spoke of protecting Cain, it should have been ridiculous, but instead she seemed so strong and sure. "No one desires a love that is forced upon them," she had said. Was she right? Is love about giving to the other person, not taking for yourself?
Michaela fingers the knife Jezebel gave her. If Merryweather is wrong, then Michaela will kill her and take Cain for herself like she always intended. She will go back to Delilah and have everything she ever wanted. If Merryweather is wrong, then Michaela will be happy.
If Merryweather is right, then Michaela isn't sure what to do. She won't be able to go back to Delilah. She won't be able to kill Merryweather, won't kill Cain's beloved little sister. If Merryweather is right, then Cain will be happy.
Michaela knows what Alexis would say, and she has always counted on Alexis to have the answers. However, if what Merryweather told her is true, then Alexis was lying when he claimed to love her. Didn't he leave her to die?
She thinks she might burst out laughing when Merryweather stands between her and the arsonist, as if emshe's/em the one who needs protecting. But the stupid girl looks so serious and acts so brave. Maybe the bravery is catching, because Michaela isn't at all afraid as she goes to stab the arsonist, even knowing that she might as well be plunging the knife into her own flesh. She may be weak and foolish, but she can still protect the one she loves.
The end is inevitable, no matter how much Merryweather cries and carries on. Michaela looks down at the charred bodies of her spiders, her true friends, and understands them for the first time. She knows what it's like to die for someone you love.
Merryweather is safe, Cain will not have to cry. And Merryweather has promised that Cain doesn't hate her. Michaela isn't sure what to call the strange, warm feeling that comes over her as she dies. She thinks it might be happiness.
Cain: Death (Loss, Sadness, Goodbyes)
Cain sits on the bed that belonged to Michaela for such a very short time, cradling her finger bone in his hand. It's such a morbid little keepsake, but he can't bring himself to throw it away. Not when it belonged to both Suzette and Michaela, two women who met such tragic ends, two women who loved so hopelessly. Two women he should have protected.
He tries to think of a way he could have saved Michaela. Something he could have done, or said, or found. But he knows that it was truly hopeless. The doctor he called had known of no way to save her. Michaela's death warrant had been signed the moment her spiders came to Cain's aid in Delilah's headquarters.
He wishes he could have returned just a few seconds earlier. Even if he couldn't have saved her, he could have been with her in her last moments. He could have said something to her. He would have even told her he loved her, if that would have made her happy. It would have been the least he could do in return for protecting Merry.
He runs a finger across the hilt of Michaela's knife. Merry had told him she didn't know where Michaela got it. Cain thinks he knows. The pieces come together in hindsight. Jezebel coming and vanishing, yet not going too far. The Trump Card's convenient timing. It's clear to him what it was all meant to lead up to, what Michaela was supposed to do. He wishes he could ask her why she didn't. He wishes he could thank her.
"Don't let him create another girl with a destiny like Michaela's," Merry had begged him. He had promised her, but it was not just a promise to Merry. I have no flowers to lay at your grave, he thinks as he set the bone aside, but I promise you this: no one else will suffer like we have.
Cain and Riff: Judgment (Forgiveness, Hope, Salvation)
It shouldn't be this easy, Riff thinks. He is a failure. He did not stay by Cain's side as he had promised. Instead he had allowed his body to be stolen away from him, allowed Cain to suffer unimaginable pain. There should be no forgiveness for his crime. Cain would be well within his right to curse him, beat him, toss him aside to be forgotten. Instead, Cain throws himself into Riff's arms like the child he once was.
Horror grows in Cain's eyes as he watches the flesh melt from Riff's bones. Riff can only apologize. Apologize, and use what little is left of his life to save Cain from death and free him from his burdens.
Cain has other ideas.
"You will not face this alone!"
Riff should protest, but if this is what his master wants, then he can do nothing but obey. He wraps his arms around Cain and holds him tight. Whatever comes next, they will face it together. Perhaps they will walk into Hell, side by side. But Riff hopes for better. He has never truly believed that Cain belongs in hell. Perhaps they will find the land of Nod, where the Biblical Cain eventually lived peacefully. Perhaps Riff can dare to dream of Heaven.
Wherever they go, they will go together. So Riff feels neither fear nor sadness as the world comes crashing down around them.
Merryweather: The World (Prospering, Contentment, Wholeness)
When she sees the tea party, laid out so neatly, Merryweather knows that her brother isn't coming back. If he were alive, he would be here, lounging in a chair like a prince on his throne. He would have a wicked smile on his face, and he would ask what had taken her so long. His absence can only mean that he could not be here, that he is dead.
Only five minutes ago, Merry would have told anyone who asked that the slim possibility that Cain was alive was the only thing that kept her going. This should be a fatal blow, pain beyond measure. Instead, Merry finds herself smiling. Her brother is gone, but this proves that he will never truly leave her. And now she's sure that wherever Cain is, Riff is there too, faithfully at his side. It wouldn't be a proper tea party if one of them were missing.
She allows the tears to come and allows Oscar to comfort her. There is sadness here, a painful truth she must now confront. She will have to mourn Cain, and Riff as well. She will have to live without even the faint hope that she might open her door one day and see them there. But that's all right. It's time to close that chapter of her life and open another. She will be a mother soon, and when the time comes she will tell her children stories of their clever Uncle Cain and his steadfast Riff.
That's all a long way off though. Right now she has an ever rounding belly and a very meddlesome husband. She has a loving aunt and uncle. And somewhere beyond her reach yet very close by, she has the two people she loves the most looking over her.
Merry takes a deep breath and looks at her husband. "It's going to be a beautiful day," she tells him.
And it will be.