Voltaire's Lessons
Disclaimer: I do not own Now You See Me. I only own the character Clarissa Sinclair and her original plot lines and dialogue.
IMPORTANT A/N AT THE END, PLEASE READ
When Clary was little, she had always been told by her mother that she was a princess. Dylan had always told Clarissa that she didn't need a prince because she wasn't a princess – she was an empress, a woman who could hold her power alone.
Clary had once been described as a ghost – cold and invisible – by her own mother. Granted, Lillian had been half asleep, drunk and had thought she was talking to her sister, but still, it stung the six-year-old's heart. Dylan told her when she had come crying to him that even if she was a ghost, it didn't mean she was cursed to remain that way.
As a child, Clarissa Sinclair always loved the work of the French writer Voltaire. She found his work to be inspiring and full of lessons she could use in her life. It was something that Clarissa could remember her French mother reading to her and it was one of few moments with her mother that Clary remembered. Lillian had died when Clarissa was only nine, so she didn't remember much of her.
The green-eyed girl still had the book composed of Voltaire's writing, her mother's handwriting in the borders, analysing the quotes of Voltaire and how important they were. The book lay in the bottom of the girl's closet, in a box that she didn't allow anyone to see.
Lillian Sinclair had died in a car accident and Clarissa remembered, at only nine, waiting at her door for her mother to come home and tell her a bedtime story. And the words of the story she had heard over and over for years still swirled around her mind.
"Once upon a time there was an empress, trapped as a ghost in the ruins of a jeweled palace, cursed to find another soul to take her place. At least, that's what the empress heard. But, as it turned out, stories can have any ending you like."
Kirsty Logan had written that piece and Lillian Rhodes had always finished the story with, "Finally, after years, The Empress found a soul, but not to take her place, instead they fell in love. And with her ghost love, she ruled happily for the rest of her immortal life…the end."
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God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.
~ Voltaire
Clarissa believed that she was alive and deserved to live her life to the fullest. She wasn't going to let silly things keep her from being around the people she loved. In all honesty, the only thing Clary really had left was her family and she held them close.
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Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
~ Voltaire
Magic was what people wanted to believe and Clary was more than happy to allow the people who watched her little illusions to believe that magic was real. And the sappy part of Clary always said that magic was real, it was only known as love.
Clarissa Sinclair, who had yet to embrace the Shrike name, had once promised herself that she was never going to let her family members down. She had obeyed her mother's every instruction to keep herself safe, she had followed her father's directions for enacting revenge on Arthur Tressler and Thaddeus Bradley but Clary was far from a rule-abiding child. She had a rebellious streak, much like her parents had had, and she'd be damned if she allowed anyone to squash the fire in her heart.
She was strong, she was powerful – Clarissa Sinclair was The Empress.
And she didn't need anyone telling her what to do.
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Oh my God, the support I got for the last chapter was amazing! Thank you!
Anyway, The Empress has sadly come to an end, BUT: I will write a sequel that will follow the plot of Now You See Me 2 and all you wonderful readers have to do is FIVE DIFFERENT PEOPLE NEED TO COMMENT 'SEQUEL PLEASE' OR SOMETHING SIMILAR and then I will post the first chapter / prologue of the sequel to The Empress.
Thank you again for all the wonderful support during The Empress! If I post the sequel, it will be called The Emperor and the title will make sense during the book.
I love you all my wonderful readers and please review! Constructive criticism, like always, is highly appreciated!
~ Raven