Character Sheet: Madam Sabine aka Mrs. Rosa Maupines

Hi everyone! Sorry about not posting a short story last week or a book review. I have been swamped with everything going on with my life. I haven’t been able to write a short story for today either, but I thought I would show another character sheet from my upcoming book. Madam Sabine is one of my favorite minor characters. She was never meant to be, but somehow she sneaked into to Penny for Your Soul and I had to bring her back into my fourth book.

Before I go to the story I want to tell you what I have been doing. I have been writing my fourth book and dabbling with a sci-fi novel. Also, I’m trying to fix my first book and the mistakes I did there. As soon as I get it fixed, I will set it for free for five days so you can get it. It is funny how much one learns more one writes, but the mistakes in my first book wasn’t only about that. Back then I wasn’t courageous enough to fight for my style of writing and know it had some merit. So I changed a lot of the book, cutting out things that didn’t needed to be cut because of the valid input I received. It was just that while they knew that something wasn’t working, I was the one who should have made the decisions how to fix them. But that is part of life. One gets more confident with who one is and what one does, and sometimes one gets to fix the mistakes one did and sometimes one has to let it go. I want to offer a better start for my series, so I’m fixing what I can without changing the book too much.

But you have listened me to babble enough. So here is Madam Sabine:

Madam Sabine aka Mrs. Rosa Maupines

Role in Story: She is mentioned several times and present in the Town Hall scenes. She is more of a background force and should be brought more visible.

Occupation: The head priestess of Kraken Cult at the Cult of Kraken Cathedral. Church of Kraken.

Physical Description: Madam Sabine is a short, soft round woman with a pleasant face and long dark brown hair. She wears it as a braid around her head. She looks harmless when you come across her on the street, but when she dresses in her full priestess costume, there is something sinister and powerful about her. You can say that her harmlessness is part of her allure. It gives her the ability to command others to do as she wants. She “kills” them with kindness or, more like, guilts them to act as she wishes. She wears enormous earrings and other jewelry to make her chime as she walks.

Personality: Friendly, open, warm, manipulative, loves to be thought important and needed. Extroverted, sensing, feeling, judging. Affable, discreet, dutiful, encouraging, observant, bossy, arrogant.

Habits/Mannerisms: She smiles a lot and uses her smile as a way to guilt people into doing what she wants them to, apologize a lot, and at the same time, she asks them to do tasks. She looks straight into people’s eyes and touches them emphatically. Laughs a quiet laugh with her whole body, with tension. Has gotten more direct and commanding as her power in the city has grown stronger.

Background:

Madam Sabine didn’t have an easy start in life. She was born in a working-class home, having six siblings, all of who took up space, causing her to be pushed aside. There simply wasn’t room for her. Her youngest twin brother took all the attention away from her as he was a boy and the family’s future. As soon as she could, she left to work in a local textile factory to escape her home life. She saved enough money to move out and find herself a small apartment. And she soon fell in love with the first man to pay her any attention. The man worked as a repairman at the factory. They got married, and he moved in. But he wasn’t what she thought him to be. Not that he hit her or anything like that, but he was disinterested in their marriage, drank too much, and was always absent. Rosa sought shelter from the nearest church, the Cult of Kraken, and was welcomed with open arms. She had never felt more at home than there, more wanted and needed. She devoted her soul and mind to the church, later getting a divorce and resigning from the factory, and pledging her life to the cult. As a devotee, Rosa became a force to be reckoned with. She organized bake sales, fun fairs for the kiddies, and discussion groups for the lost and found, gaining more money for the cult than anyone else had. She changed her name to Madam Sabine and began her dominance in the church.

Currently, she has been trying to grow Church’s influence over the city and get Kraken more involved. She has secured key property for the Church and planted her followers and parishioners in significant positions in the city.

She wants to use Agatha to gain power over Petula. Agatha has refused thus far. Madam Sabine is getting more reckless with her aspirations.

Internal Conflicts: Needs to be loved, held, and said that she matters. Searches for some kind of higher approval through success. She has forgotten all that and is now focusing on playing games to gain power. She sees that the Church has potential to be a driving force in Necropolis and overseas. She has opened new cults all over the world.

External Conflicts: Needs to control Otis and his machine so that belief in Kraken and the god’s ultimate power won’t wane. Also, if the Church has the machine, they control everything in the city.

Notes:

Madam Sabine cursed as she went over the reports on her desk. There seemed to be no way to get to Otis Thurston. The Council refused to give the Church access to meet as the counselor for the necromancer’s spiritual needs. The Council kept insisting that Mr. Thurston himself refused to be anointed. But it had to be a lie. Why would the necromancer refuse to see her? Of course, she didn’t think he was concerned about his spiritual wellbeing. No, what she had read of the man told her he had no concerns for the great beyond or any kind of salvation. That was not the reason. But he would have to realize that he held the city in his hands, and with the right type of help, he could rule it. The Church could be his way out. She just had to find a way to get a message to him. But the only one who was allowed to see the necromancer was his lawyer. The always pedantic Mr. Pod.

Madam Sabine hated lawyers ever since she divorced her husband. The man still occasionally sued her for alimony, but he had no hope. Not with the devoted lawyers belonging to the fold, going after his jugular ruthlessly. One of these days, the man would finally drink himself to death, and she wouldn’t even cry. Instead, she would throw a celebration.

None of that mattered here and now. Madam Sabine somehow had to access Otis to get the machine he had built for the Church. Whoever obtained it would rule the city and the seas beyond that. Kraken should have it. But the Council had made sure the necromancer was unreachable. But her sources also said that they hadn’t yet gotten the necromancer to reveal his secrets. It was a good thing. It meant Otis didn’t trust the Council. However, she wasn’t in safe waters. There was Petula and her little needlepoint group working on releasing the man and having him as theirs. It was a conflict waiting to happen with the Council. But it was also a threat to her, yet Madam Sabine saw the upcoming chaos as her way in.

The Church bells chimed for the first prayer for today to begin. Agatha would lead the invocation, securing Madam Sabine the freedom to go over the Church business, but she left her office to hear the call. She needed Kraken’s guidance on how to go on and secure the god’s power over the Necropolis’s citizens. The rise of new machines and all the trends floating into the city from the other so-called modern continents had swayed the belief. The Church had lost too many of its devotees for Madam Sabine’s liking. If she had the machine and branded it as divine, it would change everything. Otis would have to see that announcing Kraken as his lord and savior would get his freedom.

Truthfully, Madam Sabine had nothing against modernization. She liked how easy things had gotten with the fancy new washing machines and the rest powered by steam. But she couldn’t stand how people sacrificed their beliefs for them. What would be left then? Lost souls, in her opinion. While she had become a cynic as the head priestess, she never lost her devotion and love for Kraken. The god was real, and it moved the seas and the minds of men. It could do more with greater fellowship. That was why she had sent her missionaries all over the world. That was why Agatha would leave soon.

There were other reasons Agatha had to go. The woman was too sweet, loving, and caring, so much that the parishioners turned to her with their questions and spiritual needs. She had become a threat. The woman needed a challenge. That was what Madam Sabine had said to Agatha. She had been apprehensive about leaving, but when they had discussed the night away, drinking tea and listening to the quiet screams coming from the city, Agatha had seen how imperative it was for the Church to spread, and it was important it was her and her personally who delivered Kraken’s message. Her belief was their salvation. So Madam Sabine had said.

She took the first row at the altar room, under the watchful gaze of the giant statue of Kraken. The long and heavy tentacles extended to her knees, and she pressed her hands on them as she knelt down to hear Agatha’s liturgy.

The woman walked in dressed in her black robe with dark violet stole hanging over her shoulders. She had her golden tentacle headdress on, circling around her forehead. Agatha clutched their holy book. Madam Sabine saw she had her speech tugged between it.

As Agatha took her place just under the statue, heavy, solemn organ music played its first verses. Madam Sabine tuned in and let the music and Agatha’s words wash over her. She hailed in the strong, bitter smell of incenses.

Thank you for reading. Have a beautiful day ❤

© K.A. Ashcomb