Author's Note: Hey, look at that, a new chapter! How did this get here? I may add some to this note at a later date. As always, please review. I hope you enjoy it (sorry Zarrian, no deadly cotton candy). ZOMG. I reread Qualms and noticed I had "..Boq licked his lips as a pool of bleed began to spread out underneath her head." I'm a genius. I apologize for my word failures. They sadden me since I'm typically hilariously grammared. Yes, grammared. It's a word as of right now. No more ridiculousness. Here is a somewhat serious angsty bit of fiction.

Heartless

Boq realized, a bit too late to save the entire country, that the Madame Governor was quite insane, and that, to save what remained of his crumbling country, he had to take matters into his own hands. His own hands being the hands of a well received doctor visiting from a neighboring country whose skills in healing the lunacy of people was renowned. Admittedly, arranging this doctor appointment for the Madame required several weeks of intense letter exchanges and several days of equally taxing face to face conversations that detailed how the Madame would suddenly cease to be awake for a convenient twenty-four hour period.

It was a sacrifice Boq was willing to make.

And, on that night which would ring in a new year for his country, Boq disguised strychnine to taste like peppermint, and the small dose was just enough to induce convulsions after a few silent moments of Boq standing and Madame sitting. He yawned. She choked. The doctor knocked, and Boq led him to a prepared room of straps and machines. The doctor, being a master of his craft, checked the lines, stroked the buttons, and glanced once at the woman on the bed who had just finished convulsing thanks to the diazepam Boq had snuck into the mansion. It had taken two weeks to find on the underground market and shops.

Another necessary sacrifice.

"Miss Nessarose Thropp, I am going to attach these to your body so that the electrical currents may pass through your skin and stimulate the areas of your brain that have been lacking in activity and causing a small bit of insanity. It is perfectly safe and you have nothing to fear. Your upstanding servant Boq here has even made you a bit of tea for when you wake up and are feeling perfectly refreshed." Boq nodded. "This needle contains something to help you relax. Now, you won't feel a thing…"

Sliding the needle beneath her pale skin into the dark vein that Boq's eyes were fixed upon, the doctor glanced up at his patient. She was unconscious, and she had been completely separate from the waking world since her last bit of peppermint tea. "Now, begin counting backwards."The doctor nodded at Boq. Boq nodded back.

They had to keep up appearances and do things all proper like even if it was just the two of them. It meant less lying in the end.

"Very good." He handed a padded strap to Boq for the patient's mouth. "Now, this will keep her from biting off her tongue." Boq tossed it to the side table. "While the rest will keep her from flopping off the table." The doctor brandished a small electrode at Boq and began strapping her in. "She needs to stay attached to these for it to work." Boq rolled his eyes. He was always strapping her into things.

The things he did.

He watched from a chair in the corner as the doctor went about the room placing things on her skin, and for once brief and fleeting moment his fingers curled into a fist when the doctor slid several sticky slips of silver paper onto her thighs and chest. Boq bit the inside of his cheek and imagined his family. The doctor was done and pressing some button with his fingers. The Governor twitched once, and the doctor tapped the button three times in quick succession. She was shuddering now.

The things he did.

Her body was shaking and striking the table with enough force to snap her wrist, and Boq tightened his teeth on the inside of his cheek. There was no more room for pity. This was necessary. Her legs moved for the first time in her life, but she was in a world of pain and lightening too far away from this world to notice. Nearly snapping the table in two, her spine struck the silver work station and a bit of blood hit Boq's face. He licked his mouth as her teeth bit through her lip.

Oh gods, the things he did.

His hands were shaking as her body stopped moving. The doctor didn't bother to touch her neck.

"Time of death, 2:38 on the morning of the third day of the new year." He shook Boq's hand, congratulated him on a job well done, and left Nessa strapped to the table. Boq shook the doctor's hand and vomited in the corner.

"Oh gods, Nessa, the things I did."

-END-

There's only one more thing Boq never did. The final chapter will be what he did do to Nessa.