As the light faded, so did Maria's mood. The room slowly emptied of her servants, sent away on different tasks or due to restlessness. Tetra left for a room nearby to continue her training, Armoire joined the guards on patrol, Menagerie had crawled on top of the roof to tend to her birds and create new ones. Elaine was the last of the minor five that left, asked to guide the door by Maria.

The moon was shining through the window onto her bed, it was only her and Sin now. Both women sat in silence, with only the faint sounds of life coming from the open window, faint sounds of cars, footsteps and a faint few birds.

"I don't think I can sleep anymore, Sin." Maria was staring down at her arm, her twitching fingers that she could not stop. "Every time I close my eye I see those things, those eyes" Her muscles and veins showed clearly through her pale skin as they tensed up. "I remember them, how they blackened the very sky, and I want to scream, but I can't."

Sin leaned forward and ran her scaled fingers across her master's arm. "I understand your terror, my master. Please, allow me to ease it. May I tell you of what it is you saw?"

She wanted to say no, she wanted to say no so desperately. "Yes, please do." Her servant straightened her back and took one long, deep breath. "The Ancient's world was sealed, for how long, nobody knows. The first humans who managed to slip past the seal did so in my original lifetime, about two hundred years ago, give or take. I am sure you can imagine the mayhem, the ripples it sent through the world of magic: Another world, hidden so plainly, what secrets could it hold, what great texts, what possible spells, left behind by people of such power."

The beast shook her head. "They found nothing of the sort. Only an empty city, a hollow shell of greatness, an ocean that spanned the horizon, with a single, titanic arm reaching out into the void, and the creatures that you saw. Defying anything resembling normality, enough to make anyone lose their own sense of importance, their very sanity. People were given years of training and strict instructions to never look up, yet still most that came to study the place went mad regardless."

Maria was gripping her servant's hand, only her tight grip let her fingers calm down, gave her a feeling of safety. "So there were no people, no trace, nothing? At all?" Sin nodded at her words. "Nothing that could be used, except a warning. It was placed in the middle of the city, about a day's march in. Later measurements found that no matter from what spot one would enter the city, the distance towards this monument was the same. It had twenty engravings, each in a different language, all saying the same thing:

"People of the future, unfortunate souls that have discovered our great shame. If you come here for knowledge, you will find only this warning: Turn back, and leave this place as you found it. We have erased our records, our history and soon ourselves, the least we could do in atonement. You can refer to us as the Ancients. We ruled over magic and man for millennia, laying in chains those who we deemed inferior, and slaughtering those who resisted.

We built this city, this world, as a monument to our greatness, and turned it into one showing only our sin. In our arrogance we delved into secrets of magic that should not be wielded, by anyone, and we created our greatest sins, the creatures you can see in the night sky, who devoured all other life. We pray that you heed this warning and turn back, that you may not make the mistakes that we did. That we may have, in our last acts, contained this disaster from having the wider world share this fate."

When Sin ended, Maria's arm was almost numb, yet she still clung onto her servant for dear life. "So they, wiped themselves out, and sealed those things away for good? They can't, they can't hurt me here?"

Sin laid her other hand on Maria's, gently tracing across her fingers. "The seal is of a power that is still beyond our understanding of magic, my master. One can move into the world with the keys, but without it, nothing can leave. Nor would they harm you, my master."

"How, do you know that?" Her question had Sin's smile falter. "The first Len-Fey I knew, near a century before the birth of our great queen, was obsessed with the Ancient's and the creatures they left behind. She took along with her anything she could, scraps of stone, and water from the great ocean. But back at home in her laboratory, she found that it was not water, but blood. Black blood."

Maria pulled her arm back, her heart was racing. "You, she, made you out of, with the blood of, those things?!" Her shock turned quickly to shame when Maria saw the hurt on Sin's face. "Yes, my master. It constitutes our bodies, it lets us regenerate, harden and change shape. That is why you need not fear those creatures, my master."

Her hands were trembling as they reached out to Maria, who did not resist when Sin took her hand into her own again. "They are weapons, just like me, only much larger and, dangerous. But they are without a wielder, without a will. One can speak their names to awaken them, but the sheer thought of that." Sin shook her head. "They were not written down, the Ancient's erased everything we could know of their culture, their magic."

"But you know them, right?" It was Sin's turn to be startled, looking at her master. "How did-"

"So I was right." Maria smiled, though all it showed was pain. "Can you help me get out of bed, please? My legs feel so restless, it is driving me crazy." Sin hurried closer to her side, and picked up her master. Not before had Sin noticed just how weak and fragile her body was. It was natural for any human to feel like a delicate vase of porcelain to her, but now the thought hit her as a grim reminder.

Placed on her feet Maria was stumbling, and waving her arm in the air only further pushed her out of balance. Sin pulled her into her chest before she could fall, and the two remained that way. "I would like to see out the window, Sin." At her wish Sin lead the way.

At the windowsill Maria was able to lean against it instead of her servant, who took a step back. "Your voice is, really, really beautiful, you know." Maria was looking out the window, though she did not truly see anything. "Do you know any songs, it has been very long since I heard one."

Maria did not receive an answer, long enough that she turned her head, finding her servant staring at the ground, with an unknowable expression. "I know, a few. But they are all very sad and very, they cut very deep."

Maria looked away again, to not lose face as well. "I do not really feel like, anything too happy. I think a sad song would be a little appropriate, right?" She reached for her other shoulder, feeling bandages where her arm had once been. "I wont force you, but if you could, it would make me, happier."

For a while it was silent. Only the light breeze of the wind flowed through Maria's hair, which was starting to lose it's blonde dye, returning to black. She had already closed her eyes, her lips forming a sigh, when Sin rose her voice.

"O mon peuple que vous ai-je donc fait ?

J'aimais la vertu, la justice ;

Votre bonheur fut mon unique objet

Et vous me traînez au supplice"

Her voice was soft and bright, though even without looking at her, Maria could hear the tears that were streaming down her face. The tension that was controlling her body, the grief and resentment that grew with every line, the restrained anger that was kept in check only by the rules and restrictions written into her Lore. Minute after minute she continued, reciting verse after verse, faltering or stumbling not once.

"O mon peuple ! recevez mes adieux,

Soyez heureux, je meurs sans peine

Puisse mon sang en coulant sous vos yeux

Dans vos coeurs éteindre la haine"

Maria gave Sin a minute after she had ended, before turning around. The beast stood at attention, her right hand upon her chest over her heart, face blackened with tears. Her master reached up and took the handkerchief in her servant's breast pocket and got on her tip-toes, wiping away her tears. "I never heard of that song before. It was from your time, right?"

It took Sin a moment to regain some modicum of composure, before she could speak without descending into sobbing. "Complainte de Louis XVI, my master. It is understandable that you would not have heard of it before."

"You lived during the revolution, didn't you?" Sin nodded, wordless. Her master folded the handkerchief neatly and laid it on the windowsill. "I don't want to pry, but, I would also like to know, if you would be willing to share."

Her gaze went up to the night sky, the common dark, empty and void of any great monsters. "Why did you become a beast?"

One step, then a second, and Sin stood behind her. She followed her master's gaze, into the dark night sky. "There was nothing left for me. I was nothing, less than nothing, in my life. I could not read, I knew nothing of the world. I would have lived a short, meaningless life in my village, utterly meaningless. When by some miracle, the queen traveled through, resting at my father's house because a storm had forced them to halt. You cannot imagine, my master, how graceful, how beautiful she was."

Maria could not help but imagine as Elizabeth as Sin spoke, she only nodded silently. "She lifted me out of the muck and filth, my master. I became a maid, I got to follow her and the king, see the great palace. Here I had lived knowing nothing but a few small wooden houses, walking halls meant for people so much grander, so much more important than me. I still meant nothing, I do not know if she even remembered my name. Who was I, after all, but a faceless, feeble maid. But I loved her, more than my family, more than god. And then they came." Sin stepped past her master, gripping onto the windowsill to calm her trembling fingers as they dug through the stone.

"They came with their weapons, their pitchforks, their vulgar cries. A horde of unwashed filthy commoners, and they dragged them away, my king, my queen, their poor children." Pieces of stone fell onto the ground under her grasp. "And I was there, among the mob, when they killed them. My king, my queen, the princes and princesses. My world, it broke on that day, my master."

Sin shook her head, though it was not enough to dispel her demons. "I wanted to fight, but what could I do. I was a single, common woman. That is when I was found again, by your family, my master. They sought those who were ready to give everything, to restore order, to end the bloodshed and put those maddened dogs to heel. And I gave everything. They rewrote my lore, they tested every theory on me, for I was the only one who volunteered, after all it was irrelevant if I lived or died. But I never did."

The moonlight was reflecting off of her scales, shining only brighter in contrast. "They took me into the Ancient's world, and at their order, I undressed and threw myself in the great ocean. It was a pain that I cannot describe, my master. And then I saw it, the body of this great beast, far beneath in the dark. I was afraid, as scared as I could be as my body was starting to turn. But when ascended those cliffs, returned to my new master, I was no longer Reines, the impotent commoner. I was the scourge that would avenge my world, born of the great sins of the ancients. I was Sin."

When she turned around, their gazes met again. "And from there I lived for the Len-Fey, and my own wish to sate my hatred. Across France, Spain, wherever my master went, I did. Until I had grown powerful enough, my master had grown ambitious enough."

Maria leaned her head to the side, her voice quiet. "Enough for what?" Sin crossed her arms, her nails scraping across her scales. "I had no love for the pretenders we fought for, and neither did my masters. They fought for their own ambitions, I fought because I could see those murderers in every insolent commoner I faced. And we were losing ground, every year, every month. We had to take drastic measures. That is when your ancestor proclaimed herself queen, above the nobles and gentry that supported the degeneracy of the revolution, as well as those we fought with. I crushed those who did not kneel. Those, were the greatest days of my life as a beast."

"And then we lost, right?" Maria's words had Sin slump forward. "Yes. Our enemies were too many, and even when I created my sisters, they were not enough to turn the tide. But now, my master." She went down on one knee, and took her hand.

"Marie, Maria, you are at the heart of the nation. My sisters are at your beck and call, the Merlayne, our old enemies, are your allies." Her hands were shaking, her expression one of clear and pure joy.

"Now you can exact your revenge, and be at peace?" Maria's hopes were dashed when her servant shook her head. "I will never cease to loathe man, for their vulgar depravity, their reckless desire to take and trample all that is beautiful and graceful in this world. But not since your great ancestor, not since my life as a common nobody, was I in the presence of one who deserved to rule, more than you."

The beast rested her forehead on her master's hand. "I will lay this world at your feet, my master. I swear. You may take it, you may rule it, trample it to dust, it is of no concern to me. I want for nothing other than for you to live the selfish, royal life that you deserve."

Maria was shaking, though even she did not know if it was from the cold, or her servant's dedication. "A half blind cripple, the ruler of the world." her chuckle was as sincere as it was pained. Her eyes both were burning, and she slowly pulled her hand back, laying it on Sin's head. "I will take the crown, Sin. No matter what it takes."

With Sin's help Maria climbed back into the bed, and her servant closed the window. Sin pulled sir Screech out of Maria's bag and laid it into her master's arm. Maria held him close to her chest, but held onto Sin's arm as she tried to pull it back. "I need you here. The monsters, the things."

For a full minute, the two stared at each other, both with a blush that only increased. Finally Sin obeyed, and laid down next to her master, who laid her arm around Sir Screen and Sin both.

The night was restless. Sin, like her sisters, needed no sleep. She laid awake while her master was shaking in fear, clinging onto her for dear life. Few short hours of peaceful sleep were interrupted when the dark shadows of her mind stirred anew to torment her. As the moon waned in the sky, Sin did not move. She held her master in a close embrace, running her fingers through her hair.

The great Sin, slayer of countless millions, the first beast, laid motionless and powerless, incapable of chasing away the monsters that tormented her beloved queen.