The Loving Cup

will be revered. The Seventh Daughter. As much as I want to let Corbeau unwrap his present, I can't help taking a peek. Would you mind anything you say? Miss Baxter younger than I expected, and I have to agree she is not I'm attractive. I wasn't expecting the such thick dark hair. Tell me, my dear, did you have a comfortable journey? I am here? Do you know where here is a conservatory? It seems not exactly the stately

pleasure dome I would have imagined. And don't worry, when you step into the ceremonial hall tomorrow you'll have quite a different reaction. We apologize for masking your head. It's important that the location of the Blackbird's little nest remains secret and you are. You can't just look at me and divine my identity. I'm sorry, but my perceptions respond to human warmth and genuine emotion. I have a bit more difficulty reading cold fish. I am misspexter, but my

friends call me backs. I hope you will someday call me backs and be my friend. I should like that very much. I managed the house, I arranged the soirees, I've supervised the servants. Today, I will show you around the grounds, explain the operations of the estate, and prepare you for tomorrow's ceremony. How does that sound very well? For the time being, you and Carbo will sleep in separate chambers. I've never had to remove my own. They'll spend a lot of time alone while Carbo is busy

with other matters. He's up at all hours performing various workings, writing and correspondence. Not a bad little room. A wardrobe has been prepared for you. Wear what you wish. Tell us if there is anything you desire, but please understand that all your garments must suit the Master's taste. He can be very particular. For example, all your clothing will be white, all of it, all of it. Must I always wear white. You must for as long as it's appropriate.

At a certain point, you will be expected to wear a different color. And what color will that be? Oh? My dear, don't you know? Red? Superceptive? See? I knew you had warm up to me. You don't share a Corbo's belief in the spiritual significance of colors numbers. It's fine for him. I prefer to look at things a little more deeply. Yeah, can you see him? To me? Right now? I can't actually, Yeah, what do you see?

Look into my eyes? Okay, not at them through them? Here, stand closer and look through my eyes and try to see what's on the other side of them, and that will allow me to see what's on the other side of yours. Got it? Sure? Go? I need to stop. Are you okay? Sit down? No, I need to go upstre There's a pookcord in the corner. Should you need anything? But you haven't told me what I'm supposed tonight is a formal introduction to his closest friends. Look pretty, be charming,

and you'll have nothing to worry about. Okay, then the blackbird A's come. For more than fifteen years, I have sought of her, and to night, our faith and my diligence are being rewarded. Tonight I introduced to you the Seventh Daughter, my spiritual princess. She was discovered by a Negro priestess and put to work performing magic tricks on the sidewalks of Steel City. But her light could not be hidden under a bushel for long. An esteemed man

of science brought her out of the gutter. He conducted rigorous examinations and pronounced her genuine beyond doubt. In time I will share her with you. But tonight I offer you only advance. Let us welcome my Madonna, my Virgin Mary Pandora. I sense that there are some among you who are wondering who I am and how I earned the privilege of standing before you. I am eager for the opportunity to demonstrate my gifts, to dispel the merest

shadow of your doubts. I have won the confidence of the dark Lord, and I have no doubt that I shall command your faith as well. Yes, well, that does not delay to night's festivities, a bachelor's feast of sensual delights worthy of Lucifer Sun. And for the bride, prepare the loving cop let it brim to overflowing, and let everyone partake before it passes to my bride, so that she may taste the essence of your lustful yearnings. I am honored that you have come to my temple of indulgence,

so that we may worship together. My will be done on earth as it seldom is in heaven. I shall give you this day a little more than bread, and I shall forgive you your trustpasses. So long as you allow others to trespass against you. Let me lead you into temptation and deliver you some evil. For thine is the kingdom, mind, the power, and all of ours the glory. If not forever, at least for the next six hours. Amen, bring forth the five supplicants and have them kneel at

each point of the star. All right, ladies, take your positions. I won't do it anymore. You've said tonight would be different. Come on, don't be that way. Don't you see what a privilege you're being good to. Let some wrinkled promy tell you who one of the priests is under his mask. I don't really care to know, Wally Read, you're lying?

Am I lying? The King of Speed just came in last night on the express direct from Hollywood, stayed in the guest room, which one is in Not at liberty to say, but look at the symbols on their robes. Smart girl like you could figure it out. What if he doesn't line up at my point of the star, You'll never know unless you play go on spen Wheal trudy between you and me. I'm putting my money on red.

In the name of the priests of the Shadows of Darkness, gathered this night, I call for the ceremony of betrothal to commence a contract of marriage this night. Shall we write inked in blood, sealed with the unholy elixir formulated by the priests and concubines, consecrated in my own name and in the name of the Unholy Father, Prince of Darkness, Lord of Chaos. Yeah right, you drink, so tell me was it everything you expected? No one could have prepared

me for this. This is nothing one of Garbo's more formal affairs. So impress this patrons' thank you, go on taking everybody drinks here cost it will help mask the taste of the loving cup. Wait until I throws a real party. So what is it? I'm supposed to do with these. My advice is to drink enough that it makes it all seem like a crazy dream. But you don't want to drink so much that you lose consciousness support. You're a clever girl. Figure it out, Backs, Wait, let

me ask you. You call me backs. We're going to be friends. You and I write nothing. I want more, but listen, at what point will I be expected to perform sittings or readings? Sittings? Come here, come here. We don't do a lot of that here. I don't understand that was the whole reason I was brought here. Well, yes, and sit down. Let back spell it all out for

the new girl. Corbou you see, goat fucker that he is, excuse me, is a very important man, got a lot of people he needs to impress, actual believers in this who do voodoo. He's peddling, and a man like that has got a line himself with a woman of absolute spiritual power, shares a wife that commands the respect of his peers. Once they're married, we'll just like any woman, say'm married, her career is over. She'll do the same

wifely chores that all women perform. Rich and Paul easy sip it, My dear, there are certain chores of a housewife that I am unwilling to perform. Anyway, I have probably said too much, so please forget everything I've said in the west five minutes. You're fine. Facts. I appreciate your candid Hey, Pandora, you stuck a booda needle into me today, did I? Yeah? Stuck it in really deep? You asked for it backs. I guess I did, didn't I? And now that the needle is in, I suppose you'd

better do everything I ask, hadn't you? You just say the word A toast to the brightest star of the firmanent Pandora and Ms Pandora. Yes, Nelly, someone to see you. It's Mr Shrink Albert surn him in. Yes, ma'am, that'll be all, Nelly. Um, I'm not allowed to leave you alone with a guest. Could you at least outside? You can leave the door open. Very good, ma'am. You were at the initiation party, but you hardly spoke to me. Your attention seemed occupied with other things, and to be honest,

I was rather ashamed to fash you. Listen, I'll keep this brief, since I brought you into the circumstance, Pandora, I feel a certain responsibility and I have you to think, and that is not exactly reassuring to me. M What is the matter? Should you be drinking fine to hour at any hour? It was searched me at the initiation. I'm a married woman, I think, am I? Anyway? I see no harm that as it may. After that's night's bucking, I have to wonder if he's appropriate for a girl

like yourself to be left here. I really wish you would stop worrying about me. This is what we all wanted, isn't it? You? Me? Rose? It's just not at all that I expected. Frankly, I found the entire spectacled, cheap, integrating and unfolding of a fullment of your sensibility. What did you think I do here? Sit on a throne and read palms every night? Rose warmed me many times of corbos appetites, And you are willing to accept this? Can you honestly say you had no idea what was

in store for me? Or did you just not bother to think about it? You're being unfair. I have only had the noblest of intentions on straight and not saying don't act so wounded. I'm the one who has to sit on that throne and preside over a bunch of drunken fools, not if I can help it. You already helped it, and now there's nothing you can do to

stop it. If it's forgiveness you seek, I cannot absolve you, I understand, but I will hold no grudge against you if you can fulfill a promise to me, how through anything, I want you to find Rose. I couldn't face her. Just find her, Pandora. Please pardon me for saying, but you don't seem quite yourself. Perhaps you should put away the vine with pleasure there now? And you were saying you're on the immense strain I cannot imagine. No, you can't, And you mustn't let your emotions get the better of

your emotions. I don't share the same emotions that ordinary beings seem to feel, lust and loss, desire and regret. I'm merely observe. Is your heart made of stone? Surely you know that love feels like I know what it looks like. I've read about it in books, but I've never touched it, nor has it touched me. I'm so sorry. No, lack of feeling is a blessing, not a curse. It's what enables me to detect the emotions of others. Is what will enable me to get through Saturday's ceremony and

the next and the next. You see, Albert, emotions cloud the mind in ways you cannot imagine. I'll show you. Don't pity me because I feel no love. I also feel no pain. Oh my God, though my flesh may bleed, I assure you my heart is as cold as clay. This I could you let me? Let me pick the glass from your palm. I'll be very gentle as you wish, wheather you wish to have my help or not. I feel do everything I can to save you. Pandora find her Ah, oh lord, Oh what's this? M hm? Yes,

my Lord called the piano tune. I have him come and fix this. This won't do at all. I'll see to it right away. Oh what is it now? Your kingdom? Come? My will be done well? The High binder himself to what do I owe the pleasure? M Oh, don't worry about Baxter. She knows all my secrets. A letter arrived in today's post for Pandora. Pandora no one knows she's here well. Baron von Shrank does ah has the love sick schoolboy written her letter? It's marked personal and confidential.

Didn't I tell you? Do you have it? I went ahead and steamed open the seal in case you want to deliver it after How considerate of you, But I have saved the pleasure of reading the note for you. Open it, Baxter. I am just boarding a liner, but wanted to pen this letter before we leave port. I completed my tour of the East and witnessed almost forty psychics and mentalists along the way. I am pleased to report that I have located Rose Rose, as you requested.

While in New York, I visited a dime museum in the Bowery Worley's Museum of Marvels. Not a fit place for a gentleman such as myself, but for your sake and in the name of science, I pressed onward. This amusement hall had none of the charm of Paradise. Pier was a dark and feted place, filled with constant noise, a place in which the most morbid of curiosities could be indulged. The mostular attraction ever presented, indeed, United I went into the booth of a medium that calls herself Minerva.

She was dressed in black, had a black veil covering her face. She took my hand, turned it palm up and asked me, what do you wish to know, my old friend. I remembered what you told me to ask. I had repeated the message to dozens of other mediums already and had never gotten a response. If it pleases the spirits, can I ask? Is it possible for an earthbound mortal to see in to the mirror of dreams? I'm sorry the noise? Would you mind repeating the question?

I couldn't detect her reaction because her face was so heavily veiled If it pleases the spirits, asks your forgiven and needs your help dreams. She seemed shaken by this. She released my hand so I wouldn't feel her strengthing. Is she in danger? For I have from shrink? Tell me what has happened? Afraid you have me at a disadvantage. And that's when she lifted the veil. That's when I knew it was ross. Is Pandora say she is safe for the moment, But to be honest, I don't know

for how long. Having spent some time in Corbo's circle, I've come to believe he is not the spiritual seeker he pretends to be. Corbo is still alive, fine, for't t be. He is alive and fellow, and he has deceived us. And you, kind hearted, ignorant man. Has your eagerness to believe really made you that blind? Do you not see how many people are deceiving you? Who is deceiving me? All of us, not Pandora, especially Pandora. Oh yes, you're wrong. You were a stepping stone that allowed her

into Corbo's nest. Your jealous. She's left you behind, and now you want to tear her down. You've want to destroy her chances of success. Says If Corbo is alive, then she has already failed. Failed in vain. Corbo tried to take my child away from me. My husband had What is it? How did I not see it? Or you either? The woman Rose? It's Divina, That's impossible. Davina was white, Roses black? Really think about it, just how black is Rose? And how white was Davina? Now it

can't be think about it. She knew exactly what I wanted. She groomed the girl in such a way that I would find her irresistible. She put her on a platter and practically waved her under my nose. Every step of her career was calculated to bring her one step closer to me. But why if she didn't want you to have her daughter, why would she turn around and drop the girl on your doorstep? The trojan horse, a poisoned apple, and anarchist's bomb tossed into my window? But what harm

can a girl do by herself? Nothing? As soon as someone exposes the truth, let her be expa to say I was a fool or a fraud. We won't give her that opportunity. We can't hurt her, can't we. It's Rosa's fault, Pandora's. She hasn't done anything to harm us. When people learned that she is a fake, and I have made her my queen, it will corone my empire from within. The newspapers have been waiting for something like this to happen so they can smear me with their filth.

All these years I looked for finally found her, only to be publicly humiliated by that pow. The woman had no right to put her here. It's obvious Pandora never belonged in our circle. Innocent school girl like that, No harm will come to her. We just need to checkmate her. Force her into a corner so she'll do as she is told and take away her privileges. The woman Rose Davina, whatever she's calling herself. Now bring her here. Hold a proverbial gun to her head. Second thoughts, let's put a

literal gun to her head. Let the hag live out her life with a muzzle press to her temple and a finger resting on the trigger. If Pandora fails to perform her duties as our queen, we will paint the walls red first with the woman's blood. And if that's not enough, then the girls begging the lord's pardon. Yes, if Pandora is a fake, and I still don't believe she is, how can she fulfill her obligations as the

High Priestess. Now that you mention it, maybe it is taking too big a risk allowing Pandora to preside over our followers. M we've encouraged this notion that the medium's power is dependent upon her virginity, have we not, Yes, it would be quite a simple matter to deprive her of her powers, gather our most influential members to witness her ceremonial deconsecration before their very eyes, before the eyes of her own mother. How poetic would that be? It's disgusting, Yes,

it is, isn't it. Thank you for the suggestion. Carry on, Baxter, put together a guest list, engrave the invitations. It will be the most decadent gesture a man could perform, to destroy something rare and beautiful for the sheer pleasure of doing so. As you wish. Come in. I was hoping it was you backs, come to have your palm red. I'm dying of boredom in this place, not for long. Listen, kid, Carbo would skin me alive if he knew I was telling you this. But you need to think of a

way to leave the compound. But I just got there, onto you, onto me. How they think you're a fake? They figured Rose sent you here to embarrass Carbo. But I'm not a fake. Come on, Pandora, I promise you backs the spirit of truth. Even if it does, it won't for much longer. What do you mean by that? Corbo's planning a new kind of ceremony, one in which your powers are take away if you get my meaning, So you and I need to start packing. I can't

do that back. You really don't know what's about to happen, Baxter, you're not listening. They're planning. To know what they're planning, and you're willing to stay here and let it happen. Since you've become something of a friend to me, I would rather you not be here to witness it. Pandora, When the time comes, will you promise me not to attend the ceremony? Neither one of us promise me. You can't be there. If I don't attend to Corbobile thinkrust me.

After the ceremony, none of that will matter anymore. Thanks, and here give us a little privacy. Will you open for business? Have a seat? What do you wish to know? My friend? I need answers, and I'm told you the woman to give him. If you would make an offering in this box, I would be happy to help you. You look a lot like a woman I used to know, damnedest thing. In fact, you look like two women I used to know. What a coincidence you see? I am

both of them, so you are. Now? How about the two of you who get up and follow me outside. We're taking a little trip. I've been waiting for you, high binder. I've had my bag packed for almost a week of predicting the future? Are you I am? Then? Tell me, sister, what's the future? Wholes bloodshed, suffering, death? My god, it is you. M. I never expected this day to come. You have no idea how long I've searched for you, how deeply I've hated you all these years.

I think I do. Every carnival, every midway, every music halls. We looked everywhere, and now I understand why we couldn't find you. Brilliant really an unimaginable mask garage. On the contrary, you were so used to seeing my mask that when I showed my real face, you didn't recognize it. The great deceiver. Indeed, tell me, how shall I address you? M Minerva ruse the Vena? Call me what you will? What is it you wish to know the truth? No fortune's,

no philosophizing, just the truth. Do that and I just might let you live. Ask what you will? Is it true? Pandora is the girl. She is the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter, Your daughter, my daughter? Why did you take her from here? I didn't take her. She was never yours. She was promised to me. I bought her for the girl's father I paid for. The girl was not his to sell. She was mine. You know, just because you carry a child in your belly, it doesn't

mean your own her. No, that is true. Now she belongs to me. If you'll forgive me for saying you should not assume that just because a girl lives under your roof, that she is your property, or that she will obey your commands. That was the mistake I made. Tell me, Rose, what sort of sabotage are you planning? You kept her heaven for years, but then, for no good reason, you put her on display. Didn't you think

we notice? This? You see, is the truth that I've come to tell Pandora is here, not because I put her here, but because it is her destiny. You deceive me once, Rose, I'd be a fool to trust you a second time. You hold all the cards, Corbea, You've won the game, You've got what you wanted. There's no reason for me to lie. Then tell me this, honestly, are her powers real? Hear me out? I will tell you everything, and if you listen, you will understand and

you will believe. Go on. For years, I kept her hidden. I planned to give her a different life, any life, but this. I shaped her and molded her, raised her to be a proper young lady, and I almost succeeded. But a few years ago she began to change. It was becoming difficult for her to become this thing I wanted her to be. She wanted to please me, but I could see the struggle inside her. Something was gnawing at her, making her unhappy. She couldn't describe it, couldn't

give it a name, but I could. Don't forget. I too, was a seventh daughter, So when I saw her struggling, I knew exactly what was happening. I took a chance. I thought, perhaps if I allow her a taste, a small taste, she will be satisfied. Allow her flame to burn, but not too brightly. Maybe I could control it. So I began to teach her. I showed her how to let the spirit flow through her, and as I hoped it would, this calmed the disturbance within her. The spirit

cannot be consumed in small doses. Each chaset only fuels the appetite, so I gave her more. Eventually I taught her everything I knew, but still it was not enough. I tried to protect her, keep her identity a secret, prolong her childhood, but it was useless. Once she spread her wings, she couldn't possibly remain in a cage. That's when she began to perform. But you knew what would

happen if I found her. Yes, I knew. And it was at that moment that I suddenly realized what it means to be a mother, that there were limits to my protection, and having endowed her with certain skills, I had no choice but to open the cage and release her. I had to let her live the life she chose, even if it resulted in certain death, because it's her life, not mine. And that is how she came to be here Corboud, not because of me, but in spite of me. She wanted this, not me. You asked me, if she

is real? Yes, she is real. She has the potential to be more powerful than either you or I, and I came here without a struggle to ask you to beg you not to crush the spirit out of her. Thank you Rose for your confession and your sincerity. It's important for me to know that she is not just a common grifter, but is a living, breathing vessel of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it has been most illuminating. You see, when I'm prepared ring to destroy something, I like to

mow its value first. It enhances the pleasure. You know. I once burned painting by Vermere for the simple satisfaction of destroying something unique, beautiful and treasured by others. And so it shall be with Pandora, you best hand, I shall deprive you of everything you are, all you have been, and anything you hope to become. My will be done. Yeah, I must now replace my blindfold. As my vision begins to fade, your own senses will gradually return, Return to

the warmth and the light of your own reality. The Seventh Daughter is a production of I Heart Radio, written and directed by Brett Wood, recorded and mixed by Rob Gow, featuring Minco Wilts as Rose, Elizabeth Hunter as Pearl, and Kevin Godley as Corbo. There, you may now open your eyes.