They had all gone out. All of them had places to go and people to be with – except Giselle. Tori was spending every single day with Prince Hector and he was ruining her. She never wanted to spend time with her sister anymore and was ignoring her for the most part. She had also turned their friends against Giselle so they all shunned her. The only one that would talk to her was that horrible Tabitha that she hated. Even that wicked Ebony had her brother to spend time with and before that she spent her days with Christian. That was the problem, Giselle thought as she paced her room at the Gilded Leopard. She needed to get Ebony out of the way. If that fool Garen could have kept her like he was supposed to everything would be fine now, but he failed completely. Ebony had returned a mere six days after she had gone through all the trouble of getting the spell from the witch. Giselle had gotten one ball with the prince and it was perfect. She did not know why Christian had not personally invited her to the next ball. It was probably because he knew Ebony was going to be there. Even that man who she had tried flirting with preferred her ugly stepsister. Her only consolation was that Christian had seen Ebony kissing that other man and would not want anything to do with her now – but Giselle would leave nothing to chance. Ebony had ruined her entire trip to Pharyss for too long now and she had to be gotten rid of.
Ever since the witch had taken her payment, Giselle felt different. Everything was clearer. She no longer felt even the slightest remorse for how she treated people. As far as she was concerned, they all deserved it. No one knew how she had suffered and they treated her horribly because of it. That didn't matter anymore; all that mattered what getting rid of that ebony thorn in her side. Giselle was sure that with Ebony completely gone the prince would be hers. She had come to close to winning his affections but then Ebony would always show up and ruin everything. Even at the ball, Christian had asked why Ebony was there if she was supposed to be ill. That was when Giselle knew she had to do something. Interrupting Ebony's little indiscretion on the balcony was a good start, but it was only a start. This time there would be no mistakes. Giselle would do everything herself and make sure it all went according to her plan. That is why she spent an entire day planning it out and preparing for everything that could possibly go wrong. This would be the right thing to do. Ebony was getting too proud and selfish because she had her prince and her brother doting on her. Giselle would make sure that Ebony knew her place.
That is why the only possible solution would be to free the mockery and have the beast replace Ebony.
Giselle had read up on the mockery and found out that sometimes they could be negotiated with. She was sure she could control the thing once it was free. She could make it behave how she wanted while it impersonated Ebony. She was providing it with a good person to imitate for as long as it wanted, after all. The beast would require some personal possession from a person if it was to mock it for any extended period of time so Giselle had stolen Ebony's glass slippers. There was also something about blood but Giselle had stopped reading once she discovered what the mockery would need to replace Ebony. She would sneak into the menagerie as soon as the sun set and speak to the mockery. Her bag was prepared with a lock pick set she had gotten that day and the glass slippers. She knew when Victoria returned she would go straight to bed. Giselle would slip out after that. She did not know when Ebony would return, but she thought it would be easy enough to get past that halfwit.
It worked perfectly. Victoria and Ebony were asleep when Giselle slipped out that night. She wore a dark cloak with her bag of supplies slung over her shoulder. She had paid off that stable boy to leave a horse for her. She found the horse and rode in the direction of the zoo. Once the night-darkened streets would have scared her, but Giselle felt no fear. She smiled. That witch must have given her something extra when she dug her claws in because Giselle felt strong now. She sat tall and proud on her horse up until a street away from the gates. She left the horse tethered to some vacant post and went the rest of the way on foot to not draw too much attention.
It was easy enough to slip between the big gates that were chained shut. However, the clanging alerted one of the soldiers that was lazily patrolling the sleeping animals in their cages. Giselle was glad for her dark cloak when she ducked behind a sign. The soldier walked on. Giselle made her way directly to the center where the mockery was kept. Most of the animals here were asleep as well, but some still stirred in their cages. What looked like a massive birdcage covered in white housed huge black spiders that clicked and hissed at Giselle as she passed. She could not remember what had scared her so much the first time she had seen these beasts. They were all safely locked away in their cages.
The silver cage that held the mockery stood a bit apart from the other close set cages. At first it looked to be empty, and then something stirred in the shadows at the back. A perfect version of Giselle stepped from the shadows to face the real one. "It is late for guests to be visiting the menagerie." The mockery said blankly in Giselle's voice.
"I am not visiting. I have a proposition for you." Giselle replied.
"I have a proposition," The fake Giselle mocked. "No one propositions a mockery anymore."
"Well, I do."
The mockery did not reply. Instead the shape shimmered and the mock it did of Giselle was less perfect. It was waiting for Giselle to speak. It could not hold its new shape for more than a few minutes and would have to change soon.
Giselle pulled the glass slippers from her bag and laid them just outside the mockery's cage. "These belong to a woman named Ebony. I want you to wear them and mock her."
"I remember the girl," A flicker of shape and the mockery changed from Giselle to Ebony for a few moments. "What do I get in exchange?"
Now Giselle pulled the lock pick from her bag and held it up for the mockery to see. "I offer your freedom in exchange, but there are a few rules. I don't want you showing up when the real Ebony is around. You will go to the Gilded Leopard tomorrow at noon and I will have the real Ebony ready to be taken away. You will help me get her to an old prison in the lower city where we will keep her. When she is locked up there you will be her. I assume that you can accurately act like a person as well as looking like one. Once the celebration is over then you are free from our agreement."
"Now for my terms," The mockery hissed. "You will tell no one about our agreement and I will be free to visit this Ebony whenever I please."
Giselle took the lock picking tools from their case, "Agreed."
Giselle was ready the next morning. Ebony did not wake due to the sleeping drug Giselle had slipped her the night before. It gave plenty of time to have her bound and gagged for when the mockery arrived. She smiled at the terror in Ebony's eyes when she woke and became aware of her situation. The difficult part would be getting Ebony away from the inn without anyone becoming suspicious. That was where Daniel came in. He was a brute that Giselle had found in the back streets. He was slow in the head and nothing but muscle. He would do nearly anything for a few gold coins without question. Giselle had told him to bring a cart to the Gilded Leopard and wait for her outside. She would pretend that one of her friends had gotten sick and needed to be taken home.
The mockery arrived exactly on time wearing Ebony's face. The real Ebony started struggling again as soon as she saw the mockery enter. Giselle could see from her face that she was trying to scream through her bonds. The girl was terrified – good.
"There, there, everything will be fine," Giselle cooed. "We are just going to take you away somewhere so you won't be in my way anymore."
Giselle and the mockery managed to get the cloak over Ebony despite her struggles. As soon as the three of them got to the main lobby, they rushed out through the doors. To dissuade the curious stares they were receiving, Giselle loudly offered encouragement for her sick friend. "Don't worry, Jill, we will get you home as soon as possible. I did not know you would have such a reaction to that cheese. You are much too ill to stay here a moment longer."
Everyone went on about their business once they found out why the three women were rushing awkwardly through the lobby. Daniel was all ready and waiting with the cart. Ebony was dumped unceremoniously onto the hard wooden slats. The mockery stayed in the back while Giselle went to sit with Daniel and give him his money. No one paid attention to the cart as it passed through the streets. It was not the only one passing by and one was just as interesting as the next to people who saw them every day. Giselle smiled. Her plan was working perfectly. The place she had chosen for Ebony was somewhere no one would ever think to look – that was if anyone came looking. Giselle would make sure the prince would not and Victoria was too busy with Hector. Even if her stepsister did feel the need to look for Ebony, she would never think to look in the lower city. Then there was that man she had caught Ebony kissing. Surely he would not notice she was missing. Even if he did, Giselle did not care. He was a spoiled dolt who wouldn't give her any trouble. It was probably just some passing fancy the night of the ball when he kissed Ebony. After all, he was marrying Paislee. Someone who loved someone as sickeningly sweet as Paislee could not be any great hero. Tabitha had also told her about how lazy and useless he was. No, Giselle's plan was perfect and Ebony had no one to save her.
The place Ebony would be staying was ideal. It was an old abandoned prison in a rundown corner of the lower city. Green vines grew up around the holes where windows once were. The door had long ago fallen off its hinges and the dirt floor inside was littered with debris that had blown in over the years. It smelled musty and the air hung thick and oppressive. Giselle thought she was being kind to Ebony by placing her in the cell at the very lowest part of the prison. Down there the air was cold and smelled more of dirt and grime. At least she would not be left in the cells that were exposed to the elements. The prison had already come equipped with all the things needed to keep a person locked up. Rusty metal bars made up the door. The lock was too old and rusted to be of any use, but that was fine. Giselle had found chains that had not rusted much bolted to the walls in that cell. The mockery helped get the struggling Ebony's hands into each manacle until she was chained up with her arms stretched out to either side. She even had the comfort of being able to sit and didn't have to stand. Giselle had even gotten Daniel to keep an eye on the place and make sure no one came near it. He lived nearby and it had been how Giselle had found him in the first place.
Giselle left the heavy cloak around Ebony's shoulders, but she pulled the hood back and let her prisoner see her new prison. She even removed the gag from Ebony's mouth. "Now don't bother screaming; no one can hear you. Even if they did, in this part of town no one pays any attention. I want you to understand that you brought all this on yourself. If you had just let me have Christian we would have gotten along better."
"You've really have gone insane," Ebony spat angrily. She tugged against the chains, but that only earned her bruised wrists.
Giselle smiled at Ebony's futile attempt to escape. "Tell yourself whatever you need to try and remove the blame from yourself, but I know you understand the fault is yours. Christian is mine and now you won't get in the way of that anymore. You are going to stay here while I show my good friend how to be you."
"You'll never get away with this, someone will notice I'm missing and come looking for me," Ebony yelled desperately when Giselle stood to leave.
At the door, she turned to look back at her prisoner. "Who would come looking for you and how will they find you all the way down here?"
The mockery is quick to learn the details of Ebony's life. No one noticed that the girl was even gone. Victoria was barely around and the prince barely even paid attention. The mockery could get a sense of the flow of human emotions and it knew that both Giselle and Ebony were vastly overestimating the prince's regards. After the prince, Giselle said the hardest test would be when she met with the brother. The mockery would be going to see him alone since it would be strange if Giselle went along as well. To fool a close relative like that the mockery needed blood. It did not tell Giselle where it was going. Instead the mockery just said that she was going to meet this Andrew sooner than they had originally planned. The mockery knew that if the brother could be fooled, it could stay free. When Giselle's petty squabble with the girl was over, they would both die so the mockery could be completely free once again.
The glass slippers clicked on the stones as the mockery walked the halls to where the real Ebony was kept. She was looking worse for the wear after being chained up for over a day. The mockery almost felt sorry for the girl that she had to be the focus of someone's madness and anger. Still, she was a means to an end as well as a weak human. Since those hunters captured the mockery in Conan, it felt it would never be free again. A silver and iron cage was built and the mockery was locked inside. It would have never guessed that one of these humans would be mad enough to let it out.
"I need your thoughts," The mockery said as the rusted door closed with a terrible screech.
Ebony looked up at the beast that stood before her. "So Giselle is not doing a good job on teaching you all about me?"
The mockery walked under one of the chains to cross around behind Ebony. "No, she is doing rather well. I have met your love Prince Christian and he did not suspect anything was amiss."
When the mockery passed under the other chain, it had shifted into the appearance of Christian. The fake prince knelt before Ebony. "I love you, Ebony. Aren't those the words you have always wanted to hear from his lips? Is it as satisfying as you thought?"
The mockery of the prince ran a hand along Ebony's neck. It knew something was off. Giselle had assumed the wrong information. Ebony was not in love with this prince. There was little other than disgust and fear coming off of her when she saw this face. The mockery knew that these emotions were not directed at the man but rather at the beast that mocked him. There were no feelings for the prince from this girl. It intrigued the mockery and the tiny blade it had brought pricked the skin at the base of Ebony's neck and a few small drops of blood appeared on the skin. At the pain, Ebony tried to pull away but with the chains she could not pull away far enough. With one hand wrapped around the girl's neck to hold her still, the mockery lapped up the blood.
Human blood was a funny sort of liquid. If a creature possessed the right sort of magic it could see the innermost thoughts of a human through the blood. This mockery held that ability. Being able to know the girl's memories of her family would make it easier to deceive the brother, but that was not what the mockery tasted first. There was something else in Ebony's mind that had to do with the prince. A little bit more blood and the mockery tasted intense regret in regards to Christian. The images started appearing as more blood was consumed: a kiss on a dark balcony that was interrupted. Ebony had run away from one man towards the other and it was the source of her deep regret. Without thinking she had foolishly run after the prince only to be brushed aside because of who she was kissing. The prince did not like this Kol. Ebony had tried to find him again but Giselle would not allow it. Deep down, Ebony agonized over her rash decision and desperately wanted to talk to Kol again. Not only talk, she wanted to kiss him again, she wanted to feel his arms around her again, and never leave his side. Then her brother had arrived and she spent so much time with him that Kol was pushed to the back. Ebony had not wanted to darken any of the few days she had with her brother by telling him what a fool she had been. The feelings she had for Kol made the mockery laugh heartily. What a mess these humans had made for themselves; Giselle was jealous of some imagined affection and Ebony seemed to have realized what she felt for the prince was only imagined too late. Now the mockery knew what shape to take. It constructed his face from Ebony's memories.
"Ebb," The mockery said in his stolen voice. "That is what he calls you – his pet name for you. I wonder what Giselle would think if she knew that you were not after her prince after all. This is the face you want, is it not? Nikolaus Rydell, son of the king's captain, not a bad choice, but nothing compared to a prince."
Ebony's eyes radiated hatred for the beast before her. "Do not steal his image," She commanded. The mockery only smiled. It was Kol's face but it was not nearly his smile that turned the monster's lips. That made Ebony furious. "Kol is so much better than that pig of a prince!"
Black eyes that were not Kol's moved to stare straight into Ebony's. "Perhaps he is better, but that only means that he is too good for the likes of you. He is marrying that other girl because both families approve. Do you really think his father would approve of you? I have seen your thoughts. You are the daughter of some woman in some small town somewhere in this huge kingdom. Paislee comes from one of the foremost families in Pharyss. She is a much better choice for Kol, don't you think? You should be thanking me. This might be your last chance to see his face. I could even give you what you want and let this image kiss you and hug you."
Cold fingers trailed across Ebony's face. She leaned away until her neck ached and kicked at the mockery for her feet were not bound. The alien smile appeared again and the mockery stood up out of Ebony's limited reach. "That's a fine way to show gratitude. I offered you what you wanted. Oh well, I got what I needed. I am sure even your own precious Andrew will be fooled when I go and see him right now."
"Stay away from Andrew!" Ebony shouted.
The mockery changed its image into Ebony again. "Stay away from Andrew," It mocked before leaving through the creaky iron door.
The mockery returns! *dramatic music* The final battle of the great Pharyss celebration begins! It's going to get ugly.
But on a happier note - guess who has started planning their next story?