Chapter 103: Curse of the blood puppet
With the rubble collapsing beneath her and one of her feet missing, Valentina didn't really have time to elegantly descend to the lower floor. Instead she fell down into the collapsing rubble heap while cursing the maid in the back of her mind. Just as she was about to vocalise those complaints though, she felt something.
Just a moment ago, the Archduchess could tell that Dahlia was on her last legs, but she imagined she could hold out for a couple more minutes. Just now though, that assumption was proven incorrect.
All of a sudden, the girl went from being in bad shape, to nearly dead. The amount of damage she sustained in addition to what she already suffered was to the point that it was miraculous she was alive, even with all of the hexes planted on her. By this point, her body had fully given out and she had collapsed unconscious into the calf deep water which, although easy enough to wade through, was poorly suited for breathing in.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AngelAsphodel
AngelAsphodel I was burnt out and expected this to be a minimum word chapter. Somehow I wrote 3000 words and actually wrote 1000 extra that I didn't realise until it was too late, so I guess I premptively wrote some of tomorrow's chapter.
In the end, I'm not too happy with this one though. Despite the word count, I wasn't in a great writing mindset and I'm worried that it showed. I'm also not entirely happy with the subject matter.
In the end, I stand by Valentina being selfish and not being able to take Dahlia's life, but the themes of agency and consent are important to me and I'm not sure I can portray them well. My hope is, once Dahlia wakes up I might be able to pursue the subject with some tact, but I can't help but be worried.
Nonetheless, I hope once I take some time, I can look back at this chapter and appreciate it and that I can move the story in a direction that feels appropriate. Until then though, we'll just have to wait and see.
Regardless of all the stuff above, I hope you're having a wonderful day.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone