Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.
Uploading two chapters at the same time, so go back and read the last one if you haven't.
A bit of a different chapter, totally switching perspective. I'm considering making a chapter like this for anyone with a significantly different enough quirk as a bit of a showcase of who they are. Tell me if you like it or not.
This chapter is about a succubus. Adjust expectations of the content matter appropriately (nothing graphic or drastic, just... be aware there are elements of non-con in this chapter).
Marianne can't focus on her notes. Friday is always awful for getting anything done. She knows Professor Eisner is going over some new concept for small-unit tactics, and that she should probably be paying attention for the test on Wednesday, but it's difficult. She's just so hungry...
It's not the sort of hunger food can slake. Marianne would know, she's tried. No matter how much she gorges herself regular food and drink can't make up for it. She could eat and drink until she's sick (and has done so before), but it makes no difference. Once a week, every week, she needs to feed. Nothing can delay it.
For that reason, Friday and Saturday are the worst days of Marianne's week. Those are the days she has to pick a target and find a way to isolate them before attacking.
You know, like a panther... or a sexual predator, which is basically what she is.
To say she's "not happy" about what she has to do would be an understatement. She remembers the days when she was younger when she didn't have to do this. The extent of her cravings amounted to just needing frequent hugs. Simple, inoffensive hugs. She could cling to her mother or her father and the hunger would go away. Now, unfortunately, she's too old for that, and her parents are both gone.
The bell rings and snaps Marianne out of her thoughts. Everyone is packing up their things, and she hurries to do the same.
"Remember, there's a test on Wednesday." Professor Eisner says in monotone. "Marianne, please stay for a moment."
A few sidelong glances are directed her way, and Marianne cringes internally. Ignatz, ever kind, gives her a sympathetic smile of reassurance as he scuttles out of the classroom.
Marianne forces her eyes not to follow him as he leaves. She directs her attention to Professor Eisner, then the ground when he walks up to her. Her stomach curls and aches, and she swallows the saliva pooling in her mouth. "Not now, not here."
"You were not focused." He says flatly.
"I-I'm sorry..."
"This is not uncommon. This happens every week." Byleth says. His eyes bore into the top of her head as Marianne keeps her head bowed. "Is there an issue?"
"N-No."
"I do not believe you." He responds bluntly. "If there was truly no issue, this would not be happening. Is my class boring Marianne?"
"No..."
"Is it too easy? Too difficult?"
She shakes her head.
"Are you worried about something?"
Marianne says nothing, not wanting to admit that yes, she is. Her silence is enough of a giveaway for Byleth to realize it anyhow.
"What are you worrying about?"
"It's nothing..."
"That's a lie."
Marianne wilts in place and clasps her hands together in a silent prayer for strength. "P-Please Professor, it doesn't concern you."
"You can deal with it on your own?"
"Y-Yes."
"Then why are you distracted every week?"
"Because I wait as long as I can between feedings." She thinks. "So I don't have to inflict more distress than necessary."
She can't tell him that though. That would be a dead giveaway. She wants as few people as possible to know what a monster she is. It's not like he could help even if she did tell him anyhow. This is her curse to bear, alone.
"You can't do anything about it Professor." She murmurs instead. "I'm sorry to be such a burden."
"I refuse to accept that as an answer." He replies firmly. "Tell me."
Marianne wishes she could, but she can't. He can't help her, she won't allow it. There's only one way a person could help her with her problem, and she wouldn't wish it on anyone. She doesn't want anyone to offer themselves to be a feeder for her. The entire reason she doesn't go after Ignatz every week is because it makes him tired the next day. She doesn't want to make someone deal with that every single week, much less more than a week, which is how often she should be feeding if she's doing it the long way (which she is).
"I can't Professor."
"Yes, you can. You're just choosing not to."
Marianne's body droops, and her expression falls into a sad stare at the floor. Her hands come up to clutch her necklace. "Professor..."
"Yes?"
"Could you lean down for a moment?" She whispers. "I can't risk anyone else overhearing."
The man's eyes widen just a fraction, and he quickly leans down to put his ear near her.
Marianne slips the necklace off her head, places it on the desk next to her, and grabs the surprised man on either side of his face. "Sorry Professor." She whispers, and allows her innate charm magic to flow into her voice and her touch.
###
With Professor Eisner sleeping at his desk (to wake up in a few minutes with a no memory of what happened at the end of his class), Marianne shuffles off to the cathedral. It's mid afternoon, so there's no service at the moment. She missed the one just before noon because of a different class, and the next one isn't until after dinner... and she's going to be busy after dinner.
So Marianne takes the time now to pray. She kneels down in front of the statue, ignoring how the hard stone hurts her legs, and whispers prayers under her breath.
"Goddess above, who is good and kind. Creator of all, the beginning of life. Please have pity on this poor soul." She begins quietly, and closes her eyes. "Please, help me be rid of this curse of mine. Of my crest, of my form, of my hunger. Spare those I hunt from fear, for I wish them no harm. Spare them of pain, of worry, and of any other effects. Spare those who would be kind to me the misfortune my crest, and therefore my life, brings to them."
She continues on like this for half an hour, often repeating prayers when she can't think of anything new to say, but never stopping her constant stream of wishes.
"-but please," she whispers, close to finishing, "do whatever it takes to spare others from my evil. Take my crest, my species... or my life, it it would help them. Amen."
Marianne has never gotten a response from the Goddess, and she doesn't expect to. She's too cursed, to inherently evil, to be worth the Goddess's attention. She's come to accept that a long time ago. The golden rays of sunlight may shine down on her through the stain-glass windows of the cathedral, but the sun a gift to all of the good people of the world, and she is merely a parasite enjoying what she doesn't deserve.
Slowly, the girl opens her eyes and stares up at one of the statues in the columns of the cathedral. Deceptions of the Goddess vary wildly, even within Garreg Mach. Some depict the Goddess as old and noble, the grandmother of all creation. Sometimes she is depicted as a strong, confident, beautiful young adult who is nonetheless wise beyond her years, but with a more playful side than her older depiction. The most rare view of her has to be the last, which is that of a girl barely as tall as Bernadetta with oversized jewellery who is petulant and haughty, though just as caring and wise as her other depictions.
Marianne doesn't put faith in one view more than the others. Who is she to say she knows of the Goddess's true nature? The statue in the cathedral is of the young adult version of the Goddess however, so Marianne supposes that must be what the church wants people to put the most faith into. Far be it it for her to judge their actions; after all, she is a lowly parasite who feeds on others, and the church does the glorious work of keeping the faith.
"You seem to have a lot to say to the Goddess." A soft voice whispers from beside her. Marianne blinks to awareness and looks at the girl next to her. The best way Marianne could describe is her is 'soft'. Soft features, voluminous hair, gentle eyes, and a kindly smile. Her nearly monochrome peach-cream color scheme, including skin and the color of her clothes, adds to her aura of gentleness.
"N-Not too much." Marianne mumbles. "J-Just some selfish requests."
"The Goddess hears those too." Mercedes smiles. She kneels down next to Marianne, not seeming to care about the hard stone. In fact, she doesn't seem to notice it at all. "I always wish for my next cake to turn out well, and people always like them, so the Goddess must be listening!"
Marianne wishes she could have the Goddess's favor like Mercedes, but she's never had any hint of the Goddess answering her requests. She must truly be damned. "That's nice."
"Isn't it? I'm making another today for Ashe. He's been feeling a bit down after Lonato."
"Yes." Marianne nods. She remembers hearing about that. She actually ran into him a few times at the cathedral in the nights after the Lion's return to the monastery. Ashe was staying up very late, sometimes praying, sometimes staring silently at the floor. Marianne eventually decided her powers could be of some use and would charm him to sleep and carry him back to his room. Her powers even allow her to give pleasant dreams and ward off nightmares, so she'd do that for him too. Not that she can tell anyone, that would raise too many questions.
"So I'm thinking chocolate!" Mercedes says cheerfully. "Because everyone likes chocolate!"
The faintest whisper of a smile crosses Marianne's face. "I hope he likes it..."
"Me too! Do you want to help make it?"
"I-I don't know baking..."
"That's fine! Petra is helping, and she doesn't know how to bake either." Mercedes giggles.
"I couldn't possibly." Marianne shakes her head. "I would only get in the way. Please, do it without me."
"Really, it would be no trouble at all. I love teaching!"
Marianne's fragile willpower crumbles. "O-Okay then..."
"Great! Come by the kitchens after dinner."
Oh no. That's going to get in the way of feeding. "Okay." She murmurs despite that. "I-I will."
###
Marianne is quietly panicking. There's no way she can bake in her current condition, and the baking is going to be exactly during the time she would be hunting down someone to feed from. She either has to put off her feeding longer, which will make baking a disaster and make it hard to find someone to feed from in the first place as most people will be asleep or at least in their rooms, or she can feed beforehand, which means the person she targets is going to be missing dinner because she can't let them wander around after she's taken her fill because they'll be blatantly charmed and people will ask questions, even if she does a controlled memory wipe.
Is there someone who usually skips dinner? Maybe she can go after them? That's still going to end up with her leaving either someone asleep or someone looking like they're drugged after she's fed though. This is why she feeds after dinner, so she can put her victim straight to bed and no one will be the wiser.
"Maybe I can find Linhardt?" She asks herself as she strides quickly around the monastery. "No one would question him being asleep."
Then again, Caspar tends to come and find Linhardt to wake him up for meals, so that wouldn't end well if the green-haired boy was obviously charmed.
After walking around the monastery a good three times, Marianne resigns herself to not feeding until later. Baking is going to be awful, but she doesn't have a choice.
###
The Goddess is punishing her. That has to be it. She's punishing her for being a horrible parasite to the rest of her beautiful children by dangling her preferred meal in front of her face without letting her have him.
"Just- if you need any help with it, I'm not an expert, but I'm sure we could study together!" Ignatz offers. He's wearing a nervous smile and clutching his plate of food. "You looked really stressed today in class, so I thought you might be having trouble. Uh, if you really need help you can ask the Professor you know, he's really nice even if he's a bit... weird. Or you could ask Claude! Claude's really good at tactics! It doesn't have to be me!"
Marianne isn't great at tactics, but she's not awful either. The problem isn't tactics at all, she's just so hungry, but she can't say that. She can't ever admit that. She'll get kicked out of the monastery or killed if she's found out, and even if she deserves it that doesn't mean she wants it.
"I'm so selfish..." She thinks miserably as she tries to smile at Ignatz, just to show she's thankful for the offer. She'd love to accept, even if she really has no need of it, just to spend time with him. He's too nice to her all the time despite her repeatedly targeting him. "I'm helping Mercedes and the others bake after dinner. Sorry."
"That's uh... I have time tomorrow, if you want!" Ignatz offers, looking even more nervous. "Only if you want..."
Something in Marianne's chest squeezes painfully. "That... would be nice."
"So yes?"
"Yes..."
"Great!" His eyes light up. "I-I'll see you tomorrow then! Is after breakfast good?"
"Sure."
Ignatz leaves, looking excited, and Marianne buries her face in her hands. She's a horrible, selfish person for taking advantage of his kindness.
###
Baking, as Marianne predicted, is a disaster. Though it's not entirely her fault. After all, Petra is the one who mixed the batter so violently it flew out of the bowl.
Mercedes has a saintly amount of patience for everyone's failures. No matter how many times Petra messes something up from being over-eager, or Marianne gets distracted and drops or burns something, or Annette accidentally sets... everything on fire, she calmly corrects their mistakes and encourages them to try again.
Somehow Mercedes is the only clean one at the end of the baking session, despite all the flour and batter that got tossed around by accident. She even got splattered a few times, but she would calmly wipe away the offending substance it would all come off cleanly, despite the fact that when it happens to anyone else it rather obviously stains their clothing.
Does Mercedes have stain-resistant clothing or something? Perhaps it's a spell? Then why doesn't Annette have it too?
That question aside, the baking session ends with one simple chocolate cake, a dozen cookies, and a single blueberry muffin that survived Annette's attempts to make a full batch. Marianne doesn't even want to consider how inefficient they were with their ingredients, and she's sure Mercedes is aware of exactly how much they wasted but isn't commenting on it out of politeness.
"Delightful!" Mercedes claps. "They all look very tasty! Good job everyone!"
"We did it!" Annette cheers.
"We have gotten the victory!" Petra agrees. "Our floury foe has been bested!"
"Was that a pun Petra?" Annette giggles.
"Indeed! I have done practice on them. Was it successful?"
"It was very good Petra." Mercedes smiles. "Now, let's clean up this mess and give everything to Ashe!"
Cleaning up takes longer than Marianne cares to admit. They really made a mess of the kitchen. Getting all the flour out of the nooks and crannies takes the longest time. Mercedes, strangely enough, doesn't seem to have a problem with forgoing her cloth and just sticking her hands into small places to scrape out the flour. Somehow she never seems to injure herself, and just like with her clothes she has no problem cleaning off her fingers without leaving the smallest trace of dirt.
That's unusual, but Marianne really doesn't care to find out how that works. She's distracted by her hunger. Mercedes and the others try to convince her to come along and give the sweets to Ashe, but Marianne refuses. It's not just because of her hunger either, there's a more practical reason. Mercedes, Annette, and Petra all have a connection to the boy while she is just some random other person in the academy to him. Best to let the people who know him go and provide comfort, she was just glad to be able to help.
Now comes what has been distracting her all day. It's time to feed. Unfortunately, it's also getting a bit late, so her selection of people is limited. She moves to the cathedral first, though it's more just to see if Ashe is camped out there again (which he's not). She offers a quick prayer to the Goddess, bows to Seteth when he walks by, and leaves.
Marianne wanders around the edge of the monastery, finding all the out-of-the-way places where she's conducted feedings before and hoping to find someone alone there to grab. Unfortunately, all she finds is Claude (whom she avoids, considering what happened last week), Hanneman (whom she can't feed on because he's a ghost), and Hubert (who is just plain scary).
After that string of fantastic failures, Marianne considers putting it off for another day. She could probably manage, but she's desperate already. She doesn't want to wait a whole day before getting another chance to feed.
Marianne decides to do something she only does as a last resort: knocking on someone's door. She actively avoids things like this for the most part. There's a higher chance of being seen, or someone hearing the knock, and she has to be fairly sure her target won't get other visitors who might mess up her plan. Still, she's desperate at this point.
So she raises a trembling hand and knocks on the door. She does it quietly, praying that the person in question will hear and that no one else will. Luck is on her side for once, and the door is pulled open just a crack.
"Marianne?" Ignatz whispers, and squints at her. He turns away suddenly, and she can hear shuffling, then he returns with his glasses on so he doesn't have to squint. "You're here late... uh, are you alright? You look... bad. I mean, you look nice as always! But you look really really pale too."
Marianne is fairly sure that's a contradiction, but she's only half paying attention. "I'm fine... can I come in?"
"Uh... uh... come in? G-Give me a second!" He yelps. The surprise and panic in his voice is obvious. It will only occur to Marianne the next morning, when her mind is clearer, that he's panicking because a girl just asked to come into his room rather late at night, which has all sorts of implications.
About a minute later the door opens enough to allow her to step inside. Marianne can see that a bunch of sheets look like they've been hastily thrown over various easels and paintings to hide them, and that Ignatz looks like he's quickly put on one of his school uniforms. There's a tray of paints and brushes still out, indicating he may have been painting just a moment ago.
"He must have been about to go to bed too." Marianne realizes sheepishly, noting the pyjamas thrown into the corner of the room and out of the way. "Oops."
"S-So..." Ignatz stutters. He takes a deep breath, and speaks in a more even tone. "Are you alright Marianne? Did you need something from me?"
"Yes." Marianne nods. "I need your help with something."
"It can't wait? I-I mean I don't mind of course!" He says in a rush, desperate to not cause a misunderstanding. "It's just that... it's late you know? Is it that urgent? Should we get the guards, or maybe Manuela? Are you sick?"
She shakes her head, trying to dispel his worry. "Nothing like that, I swear. Besides, I need your help."
"Me, specifically?" Ignatz squeaks.
"Yes." Marianne nods. "You, specifically."
"I, uh, wow." He murmurs to himself. He then sits up straighter, trying to look confident (for her sake, Marianne realizes, and she instantly feels worse than she did already). "What do you need? What skills? I'm a merchant, a novice painter... it's not much, but if I can help-"
"Is that a painting of me?" Marianne interrupts, pointing behind him. It's the oldest trick in the book, but it helps that Marianne knows he does actually have a painting of her, she saw it when putting him in his bed from a prior feeding about a month ago. She's of the opinion that the painting exaggerates her beauty. After all, she wears eye shadow all the time specifically to avoid looking attractive. She's trying to look tired and ugly. Still, she's flattered that he made one of her.
Ignatz's eyes widen in horror and he instantly spins around to try and hide the painting he thinks he left visible. Marianne takes this opportunity to remove her necklace and place it on the desk. Realistically she could have done that in front of him, but she never feels comfortable doing it in plain view of someone (she can't easily distract the Professor, so she had to do it in plain view when dealing with him). It's a stupid, silly hangup considering he's not going to remember this in two hours, but she still feels the need to do it.
"Marianne...!" Ignatz says after a few seconds. "That's mean! I-I swear I don't have a painting of you, a-and if I did at some point I can get rid of it if you're uncomfortable!" At this point he turns back around. "Why did you... uh..." The boy swallows thickly, and his hands clasp together tightly. His eyes glance frantically around the room, but are drawn, almost forcibly, back to her. "S-Sorry, what was it you n-needed again?" He stammers.
Marianne hates this sort of reaction. She doesn't hate Ignatz for it, she hates that she can prompt it. Her passive charm power is so stupidly strong it can dumbfound someone who so much as glances at her. This is why she keeps her necklace on, it's a potent inhibitor gem that makes other people capable of at least functioning when she's around. If she didn't, she might as well be a walking catastrophe. If she sat in the classroom without her gem, it's unlikely anyone would get any work done, even the teacher. Her mother's passive power wasn't this strong, though it would certainly turn heads. She suspects, as does Hanneman (one of the few people who knows about her being what she is), that her crest is amplifying her charm powers exponentially. Succubi already have the most powerful charms of any known species, so you can imagine how devastating such power is.
She's basically blasting Ignatz in the face with that power right now, and that's just the passive effect. She could make it more potent if she put in actual effort, but that would be overkill to the highest degree.
"Ignatz." She whispers softly. She hates how her voice has changed. Her regular voice is still there, but it's warped into something softer and more inviting. The boy is outright trembling, and Marianne just feels awful. "It's okay."
"Wh-Wha-?"
"Calm down." She instructs. "Sit down too."
The effect is instant. Ignatz sits down on the bed so quickly she's worried he's going to hurt himself. His eyes are locked on hers. She can't decide if he's terrified or transfixed. Probably both.
"You're going to be fine." She reassures, and she holds her hands up in a calming gesture while maintaining eye contact. "Just try to relax, okay?"
"Y-Yes..." He stammers. He takes deep, shaky breaths, clearly failing to calm down at all. Marianne reaches forward and delicately removes his glasses so they don't get damaged, and places them on the side table. "Wh-Wh-What's going... you are...?"
"I'm still Marianne." She murmurs. "This is still me. I just took off my necklace, that's all."
"Th-That's what the necklace does?" Ignatz asks in a raspy, hoarse voice.
"Yes." This isn't the first time she's had a conversation about the necklace with him. It actually happens almost every time she feeds on him. "You're going to be okay." She repeats, though at this point it's half to reassure herself. "I promise."
"Wh-Why do you keep saying that? Wh-What's going to happen?"
"I need to feed." She says. The word "feed" feels like bile in her mouth. They're finally getting to the point of this whole visit. Though at this point Marianne might call it an invasion, as Ignatz never really had a choice in the matter.
"Feed? Are you a vampire?" The boy asks.
She mutely shakes her head. Honestly, being a vampire would be preferable to this. "Succubus." Because a succubi's feeding is basically sexual assault, and that's if you're doing it the long way. The short way would be... erm... worse. You know, what you usually think of when succubi come to mind. Of course the short way is more efficient and would mean she only has to feed once a month, but it's still infinitely less preferable because of the act that would need to take place.
"Oh." Ignatz blinks. Then his eyes widen and any calm he might have obtained goes right out the window. "Oh Goddess..."
There it is. The moment someone realizes what she is, what that entails, and what a monster it makes her. Marianne doesn't know why she bothers having these conversations with her victims. She could just have grabbed him when his back was turned and started feeding, her charm power would take effect when she made physical contact and he wouldn't be able to resist. Maybe it's because she thinks she deserves it. She deserves to have the person stare at her in horror and remind herself why what she's doing and what she is is so reprehensible.
"I'm sorry." Marianne whispers. It's stupid, on some level she wants the condemnation from her victims of knowing they think she's a monster, because she deserves the hatred, but she can never stand to hear them say it and she always cuts them off. It's so much more visceral and painful to hear them call her a monster rather than see it in their eyes, or worse, to hear them not call her a monster because they're too full of charm magic to think rationally.
So, before Ignatz can say anything more, she grabs his head and pulls him into a kiss. He suddenly goes stiff, probably in some form of shock from the action itself and the effect of her charm suddenly multiplying tenfold due to actual physical contact.
After the shock (mostly) wears off, Ignatz can't seem to decide what he wants to do with his hands. One hand weakly grabs the front of her shirt while the other ineffectually pushes her shoulder. Ignatz isn't exactly weak, bows take some strength to draw, but he may as well be a kitten for all the force he can muster at this moment. He's trembling like a kitten too, which might be cute if it wasn't because she was forcing herself on him.
Marianne closes her eyes as her initial rush of emotion washes over her. Disgust, self-loathing, disappointment... pleasure, excitement, and enjoyment.
For all Marianne hates feeding, it feels wonderful, and that makes it so much worse. She knows it's a natural reaction just the same as when someone eats food, and by that metaphor Ignatz would be her favourite food, but she feels awful about indulging in her favourite food so often.
With her initial reaction out of the way, Marianne properly takes charge. She pushes magic into Ignatz, forcing his muscles to relax until he's limp, and she dazes his mind with pleasure so he doesn't panic. Just because he won't remember this doesn't give her an excuse to be callous. It would be even more awful of her if she were to feed while he was frozen but panicked the entire time. The least she can do is calm him down, even if it's by using magic.
She cradles his head with one hand, supporting his neck, while she holds up the rest of his body with the other. She lowers him down to the bed and releases him, and he limply sprawls out over the sheets.
It's been ten seconds. Ignatz has gone from nervously chatty to little more than a drugged-up shell of a person. He might as well be a doll for how capable he is of doing anything of his own will right now.
Marianne's stomach turns unpleasantly at that thought. "I need to just get this over with."
Unfortunately, "getting this over with" takes a full hour. It's called "the long way" for a reason. The short way can take all of a minute, it's devastatingly effective, and the long way is slow and inefficient by comparison. She has to keep her mouth plastered to his for a full hour to get enough energy to function for the rest of the week. That's because the slow way isn't supposed to be used by adults at all. It's what children do to siphon energy, because they need a lot less of it from feeding.
Marianne changes her position to something more comfortable, takes a deep, steadying breath, and does what she has to do.
###
She hates how content she feels, how full she feels, and how pleasant it was. Marianne wants divine punishment, a bolt of lighting from the sky, agonizing pain, something... but nothing happens. The goddess allows her to get away with another despicable act of predation.
Ignatz looks like he's drugged to high heaven. His eyes are unfocused, loosely trying to follow her movements. He can occasionally muster a twitch of a finger or an incomprehensible noise in the back of his throat, but that's the extent of his self-agency at the moment.
Marianne mutely pulls the covers up over the boy, making sure he's properly tucked in. She presses her lips to his forehead and uses a sleep spell to do what the name implies. Then she begins the memory alteration spell. Memory alteration can be a bit of a delicate operation, and Marianne isn't all that skilled at it. That's another reason she feeds after dinner, so she can just do a blanket memory wipe on everything after they've eaten. Her victim never loses any memories of class or important assignments (and even if they spent the afternoon studying they have at least one or two more days of the weekend to gain back any knowledge she might accidentally erase).
With Ignatz asleep and tucked in, you'd never realize he spent the last hour acting as little more than a living doll for her to nibble on.
Well, more than just nibble on, but Marianne is trying to remember as little (it was so nice to have someone to cuddle...) of the experience (warm, intimate...) as possible (he was so cute, so tasty...).
"No!" She whispers harshly to herself, and smacks her own cheeks so that her face stings. "Stop!"
If only it were that simple.
###
She remembers that she's meeting Ignatz after breakfast approximately ten minutes after she should have gone to find him. She eventually locates him sitting on the stairs near her room, probably waiting for her.
His head is leaning against the wall and his glasses are crooked. He seems to be asleep. Marianne feels responsible for that, because she is responsible for it. Part of the after-effect of a feeding is exhaustion. She debates whether she should wake him up or just let him sleep, but eventually decides that it can't be comfortable to lean against a stone wall and gently shakes him awake. "Ignatz?"
"Uhh..." The boy squints and sits up. He notices her and startles to his feet. Considering he's on stairs, he almost falls over and down them, and Marianne has to catch him. "O-Oh, Marianne! Sorry, I didn't mean to doze off!"
"It's fine..."
"Thanks. I've been really tired all morning. I seem to get these sleepy spells at random." The boy smiles nervously. "I think I might have a condition... But at least I always feel great in the afternoon! I plan on taking advantage of it to really get some painting done!"
"That's nice." Marianne nods meekly. Her heart twists and burns. "I hope they turn out well."
"I do too! Oh, but first, we need to study, right? We can start by going over what Professor Eisner did last class!" Ignatz offers with surprising eagerness. "Shall we go to the library?"
"Sure..."
Marianne stares at him the entire walk there. Not because she's hungry, but because she's relieved he doesn't remember anything. She's always worried one of her victims will recall something and either hate or expose her, even if she deserves it. Ignatz thankfully doesn't seem to remember anything though, and has suffered no more ill effects than usual.
Good... now she doesn't have to worry about feeding again until Friday.
A different chapter with an entirely different POV. A bit darker than the others. Back to normal next chapter. Also, if you thought I was going to shy away from detailing how a species works just because it potentially contains some uncomfortable implications, you are dead wrong.
