Shadowseer: Paris by Morgan Rice

Author:Morgan Rice [Rice, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Morgan Rice
Published: 2021-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The woman who had been Amelie de Fiaux walked through the departments of le Bon Marche, trying to make sense of the way her memories said that it was exciting to be in this grand store, with its sections for everything from clothing to luggage, patisserie to groceries. It seemed like such a strange thing to be excited by.

Yet there was a different kind of excitement to a place like this. As loathesome as it was to be forced to walk among the hordes of humanity, and to walk in the midst of bright light, it was also an experience that would have been hard to have in any other circumstances. Being joined like this brought protection from the light, and freedom to act in the human world, even as it cut back on the strength and purity of the shadows.

This woman was different than the others the shadow had inhabited. Those had been opium addicts and madmen, their wants simple things, that they were easily driven to. This one’s weakness was both less and more, less catastrophic and obvious, but easier by far to use. The need to be adored was absolute, unchanging. It did not even require a steady supply of human narcotics to maintain, although the shadow that was Amelie now had obtained some just in case.

At the same time, she was… sweeter than the ones the shadow had inhabited before, more innocent in some ways, and more broken in others. It was having to pluck at particular strands more strongly than usual to maintain control.

We can make you the most important woman in the world. You will do something no one else ever has.

That was a matter for later, though. For the moment, she was going about her life as a French woman, trying to understand this city, with its human-made beauty and its delicious patches of darkness. There were spots around the places where the guillotines stood that seemed to thrum with darkness, and other places that held more recent tremors of violence, thanks to the bombings in the city.

As always in a joining such as this, there was give and take. The shadow was not Amelie exactly, but nor was it purely what it had been. Having memories of a life, even having a particular physical form, changed the way a being reacted, and what it chose to do. It changed the very choices available, with the role of a beautiful young woman closing some doors and opening others easily. Even now, the assistants in the store smiled at Amelie as if they hoped that she might give them one iota of attention in return. Amelie apparently already knew how to use such exchanges, and the shadow filed that possibility away for future use.

Amelie learned the streets of the city, and the names of the rich and powerful, although it turned out that much of the information the shadow needed was already inside her. It seemed that the actress had kept track of such things, with the hope of becoming a mistress to someone of importance.

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