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"She is a truly brilliant woman" Alexia was properly impressed
"Yet she loves too frequently and too easily I couldn’t teach her that lesson So much like her father She loves you, I think, a little More, if you had given her the opportunity"
The discussion had gotten away frohosts--no more control over conversation than of their own forms "But I’m married!"
"All the best ones are And that son of hers"
Lady Maccon looked down at her own belly "Everyone should love their child"
"Even if he is a wild creature born to another woh "I can see why you two are friends"
It was in thinking about Genevieve’s love life (a thing, Alexia must admit, she tried desperately not to do, as it was so preposterously captivating) that Alexia put everything together Not fast enough, of course, because the wails were getting louder, and nearer Even a ghost such as Forth of character and mental fitness, could not resist her own de wrong with Genevieve?"
"Yes" It was said on a hiss The ghost was shaking, shivering in the air before her, as though riding atop an ill-balanced stea, it wasn’t a govern as she vibrated The tendrils were back, drifting away, floating into the air--puffs of selfhood carried away Her feet were alrated While Alexia watched, one of For toward her
Lady Maccon tried to dodge the hand, but it followed her "It’s the kind of contraption that could break into a house, isn’t it? Or a palace?"
"Yes So unlike her, to build soet desperate" The screaht question, soulless You aren’t asking ht question And we are almost out of time" Her other hand detached and wafted toward Alexia "Soulless? What are you? Why are you here? Where is host coe, For the queen?"
"Yessss," hissed the ghost
"But ould Genevieve want to kill the--"
Alexia was cut off midquestion as Forainst a tree The ghost exploded noiselessly Parts of her drifted off in all directions at once, a spread of white h the machinery of the contrivance cha in Alexia’s direction--eyes, eyebrows, hair, a limb or two
Alexia couldn’t help herself; she let out a screa back now Foreist It was time for Lady Maccon to fulfill her duty to queen and country and perform the required exorcism
She approached the barrel of pickled onions It lay on its side, and it was a very big barrel She checked around the back whereout, hooked into so lidded metal buckets Either Madame Lefoux was particularly interested in the quality of her pickled onions or???
Alexia kneell her friend’s style and design aesthetic, so she looked for any small protrusion or unusual sculptural addition to the barrel, soht be pressed or pulled On the end of the barrel facing the wall, she found a sainst it With a faint clunking noise, the wood of the pickle barrel slid away, like that of a rolltop desk, revealing that there were, unsurprisingly, no onions inside Instead it housed a coffin-sized fish tank filled with a bubbling yellow liquid and the preserved body of Beatrice Lefoux
The formaldehyde, for that is what the liquid must be, had done its job There was also clearly so the ghost to still for too enius of the invention It was one of the great trials of ghostly e as their bodies could be preserved, but that they could not form a tether and apparition if that body was immersed fully in a preservation liquid Mada air bubbling through the forh quantity to pered and preserved No wonder For afterlife
But even such ingeniousness as this, the height of scientific breakthrough, could not save a ghost in the end Eventually the body would decay enough so that it could no longer hold the tether; the ghost would lose cohesion and succuht mention this tank to BUR They would probably want to order a few for their as injections had so to do with the explosive nature of Foreist state In any event, the tank’s as completed Alexia had to devise a way inside
The screa For on Alexia, attaching themselves to the exposed skin of her arms, face, and neck, like body part burrs It was repulsive Alexia tried to brush them off, but they merely transferred to her wrist