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Etty is awoken not by her transformation, but by her summons, a few minutes after dark. In her sleep, she drifted to shore; she's lying in human form - arm intact - half in and half out of the water when she feels it.
It's very insistent.
She cannot bring herself to move. She tries - she does; intellectually she knows it's the smart thing to do - but - she can't. Cannot get up and go to him.
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The summons goes on for several minutes, becoming increasingly urgent as it does.
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Etty curls up in a ball and weeps. The urgency is terrible, but it doesn't actually pick up her limbs for her, walk her around the lake - it's more like someone shouting into her ear that she must jump off the tower, she must, she must, and she can't, not now that she knows the crunching sound she makes when she hits the ground.
The urgency stops.
A shadow crosses the sky.
The baron lands, transforms to his human shape, and picks her up off the ground by a hand around her throat.
A shadow crosses the sky.
The baron lands, transforms to his human shape, and picks her up off the ground by a hand around her throat.
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Etty scrunches her eyes shut and chokes and tries to pry his hand off her, not particularly effectively.
"It's not nice to keep me waiting, Odette," he says softly.
He sets her on her feet and slaps her across the face hard enough to knock her back into the lake.
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She lands with a splash - she gasps - that was a poor choice; her head's underwater -
As promised, she cannot drown.
She cannot breathe, but she cannot drown.
She cannot breathe, but she cannot drown.
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Etty coughs and gasps in more water and coughs and gasps and flails and finally, finally manages to get her head above water and expel the contents of her lungs.
The Baron stands over her and watches.
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Etty's attention is on getting water out and air in. She coughs, she gasps, she coughs, she swallows, she sucks in more air and lets it out.
He can be very patient, when necessary.
He waits.
He waits.
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Etty finally manages to get her breathing back under control. And less wet.
She suspects she's about to regret this.
She suspects she's about to regret this.
"Now," says the Baron. "You won't keep me waiting like that again, will you, my swan?"
"But you can," says the Baron. "You can. Get up."
The Baron just stands there.
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Etty gets up again, more slowly, shaking.
She lifts one hand to touch her aching throat.
She lifts one hand to touch her aching throat.
"Come up to the castle with me," says the Baron.
"You will do as I say," says the Baron.
He picks her up by one arm and the front of her dress and tosses her into the lake.