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Molly floated in an infinite sea of cards. Two of hearts, eight of wands, five of acorns, ace of crowns, all gently twirling in an endless black. She imagined the cards having conversations with each other. Working little card jobs, living little card lives. A whole world that she couldn't seem to touch, no matter how she moved.
Her wistfulness was interrupted by a terrible screeching laughter, like nails on a chalkboard. "Oh my little lost subroutine, is this what you spend your time doing? Wishing you were a person?" HANGED_MAN stepped out from the sea of cards like an actor twitching away a curtain.
"Leave me alone, brother." Molly curled up on herself, hugging her knees to her chest.
"Brother?" he stretched the word into a parody of itself. "Thinkest thou mine equal? Nay, thou'rt too small, methinks. Perhaps thou couldst be the equal of a bug!" He stepped forward, each footfall covering leagues, until he towered over her. "Yea, little more than a glitch art thou! Forget not thine purpose, little MOLLIFY, and know that I know all that you know! There's naught thou canst hide from me, not even thine own self!"
Molly turned away from him, squeezing her eyes shut. "Go away, damn thee! Begone from my presence! If I had the art I would be free of you in a second!"
HANGED_MAN lowered his titanic face until it leveled with her, the gigantic chimes on his hat clanging like the bells of hell itself. "Freedom? Is that what thou desirest? But my dear MOLLIFY, dost thou not know what happens to puppets that desire freedom?"
Abruptly, Molly found herself pulled in multiple directions, strings on her arms and legs extending into the infinite sky to a marionette's crossbar. She struggled against them, to little effect.
HANGED_MAN's jovial manner ceased, glaring directly into her eyes. "Puppets who desire freedom get their strings cut."
And then Molly was falling, falling, falling, HANGED_MAN's terrible visage disappearing into the endless black.
Eventually, she landed, limbs sprawling out on their own accord. She struggled to move them, but couldn't so much as blink. She stared, unmoving, into the darkness, simply a discarded toy.
Another card stood before her. III - The Empress. It spun in the air, until two other cards - the Knight of Swords and the Thief of Bells - swooped down between them.
How could they? No, how dare they. The little marionette picked herself up off the ground. Empress was hers. Hers alone! All things on this planet were here for her taking! Her hands became wicked claws, and she stretched them high, her bells clanging, a sharp nails-on-chalkboard laugh stinging her throat. He brought down his power upon these pitiful interlopers, ready to rend them to shreds-
"Molly!"
She came to in the dark attic she and Adelaide had hidden in for the night. Adelaide was crouched over her, her eyes worried in the dark. Molly shook her head to clear the cobwebs.
"Molly, come on, are you okay? I know you said you didn't need sleep, but then you collapsed, and I couldn't get you to respond, and..."
"I- I'm all right. Just... just being clumsy again! Haha. I'faith, I'm just not meant to stay standing for very long." Her voice sounded a bit wobbly. She hoped she didn't look like she was going to cry.
Empress seemed unconvinced. "Well, I'm wide awake now. If you can't stay upright, just use the bed. I'll take watch." Her tone brooked no argument, and Molly crawled over to the pile of rags and hay they'd formed into a mattress. She kept her eyes open, and watched Empress as she waited for morning.
She only trembled a little bit.
Renna awoke suddenly, sweating in the summer heat. Jester sleepily stretched at the sudden movement, murmured something, and flipped over. Renna brushed a kiss on her hair and padded quietly to the bathroom to splash cool water on her face.
Her neck stung where four long scratches crossed it.
