Fanny

We recommend experiencing the [Love and Lust] story before reading this Vassal Journal.

'Accept the pain I give you, and thus break free from your true bonds.'

As the most brutal and merciless warden in Ironfist's dark history, Fanny's temperament burns with capricious fury. A master of restraint, torment, and interrogation, she wields every conceivable method of coercion to force Heretics into Repentance.

Yet toward those prisoners who capture her favor, she has never withheld her tenderness—though such affection proves as fragile as morning frost, ready to shatter at the slightest provocation. Should a prisoner dare attempt escape or defy her will, they would be granted the privilege of witnessing the most exquisite cruelties this world has to offer.

This twisted, consuming passion could only manifest as restless Phantasms haunting the prison corridors, until that one prisoner appeared—the one who would finally bear witness to the vulnerable heart beating beneath her armor of steel.

I cannot escape the memory of Fanny's expression on that final day we departed Ironfist. Though she maintained her usual composure, betraying no trace of vulnerability, something in her bearing reminded me of a rain-soaked sparrow with no shelter to claim—while I became the heartless master who cast her aside...

This haunting image torments me, for I cannot help but fear what judgment awaits her now that she must face the Church's wrath alone.

After my connection to Fanny was severed, I made desperate attempts to reach her, each one ending in failure. In the month that followed, no letters arrived—only silence.

Her final correspondence echoes in my thoughts, and I cannot shake the dread that she may be in mortal peril. I pleaded with Aiona to send me back to Ironfist, but even she lacks the power to grant such a wish. All I can do now is pray that Fanny remains safe, that in my absence, no harm befalls the one I abandoned to darkness.

Fanny spoke of it lightly, but knowing the Church as I do, she must have endured severe punishment—all for allowing Genevieve and me to escape.

Would the same torments she once wielded be turned upon her own flesh?

Guilt engulfs me like a rising tide. I must see her again.

I've sent Fanny the wine Cain promised to share with me. Blood isn't the only liquid that brings pleasure. I pray this bottle will grant her peaceful slumber.