Claribel

If Claribel ever told Roderick how much she has sacrificed to keep him alive, she is sure it would kill him.

She wishes the sentiment were metaphorical, that he would only feel hurt or betrayed or upset. Turbulent emotions would be nothing in comparison to the truth. But she knows that if she tells him, he will die, because his savior will pull the plug.

It's hard to say whether or not she regrets finding Karl all that time ago. She begged him to save Roderick's life when it was clear she couldn't do it herself, and the deal she made was most certainly one worthy of all Sornieth's devils. What Karl asked for, she never would have given if it wasn't her truest love lying on the edge of the grave. To keep Roderick alive, she sold her own organs to the clockwork maker, the clockwork monster, and she has been under his thumb ever since.

If she had her own heart anymore, maybe it would hammer in her chest with all the fear in the world. Day to day, there is no telling what Karl will ask for. Sometimes, it's only a few scales, easily and subtly patched. Sometimes, it's a lung, or a kidney, swapped out for copper and bronze and an eternal infernal ticking that fills her ears. But she hasn't the heart for fear any longer, because the muscle that used to be hers beats in Roderick's chest now, the only thing strong enough to keep him alive.

Karl said he was too weak for an artificial heart, that his own was giving out quickly. He needed true flesh to survive, and Claribel offered her own. She was plenty strong enough to go under the knife, to have a ticking in her chest where there should have been a humming beat. It was meant to save Roderick, and that was enough.

But she has to keep giving, constantly keep giving. She has to hide from her mate the fact she is becoming less of a dragon and more of a machine. Every one of Karl's demands has to be met, too; whatever he needs her organs for, he needs them often, and her refusal will be met with Roderick's death. Karl has promised that quite clearly, demonstrating once what a gentle turn of the dial could do. A short electric shock had knocked Roderick unconscious, easily blamed on a malfunction, easily "fixed" unless Claribel failed to meet Karl's demands. A true shock could spell Roderick's end. It could stop Claribel's surrendered heart in his chest.

She keeps allowing Karl to reap his harvest, because the only other choice is to live on with a clockwork heart while her mate meets an early end. It is not fair. It never was.

Bio by Tues.




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